June 10, 2011 was the date of the last day of school. On this day, a lot of teenagers were celebrating by making trips to the lake or entertaining friends in front of the TV. For the youth of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, however, the beginning of summer meant the beginning of the trip of a lifetime. We were heading to Egypt and the Holy Land. The mission trip we had been preparing for was finally here.

Summer is winding down now, and as my fellow missionaries and I have had more time to relax and enjoy the summer since those 17 days, many of us have organized our thoughts into a deeper understanding of our experiences.

Egypt was the first time I’d ever been in a foreign country. Before this trip I’d never even been to Canada. It was a fabulous experience. Since I’ve been home, so many people have asked me if I felt safe while I was there. My answer has always been “yes.” The main feeling in the atmosphere of Egypt is desperation, not hostility. The Egyptians want to feel like they have jobs again, they want to have people buying things from them in their stores and taking their carriage rides again. Tourism is the lifeblood of Egypt and it has been completely taken away from them. Egypt is a beautiful country with beautiful people, and is worth visiting.

When we entered, Israel, we drove straight to Bethlehem in the West Bank where we began our tour of the many holy sites of the country. We stayed in the guest house which belongs to the Christmas Lutheran church in Bethlehem and completed all of our mission work at the Dar al-Kalima college in Bethlehem.

Dar al-Kalima means “House of the Word” in Arabic, and even though it is part of the Lutheran Church it works to create cohesiveness between both Muslim and Christian Palestinians. During our time working there we were able to sand, prime and paint three classrooms, they had only expected us to paint one.

Also during our time we were able to meet people. Our first opportunity was during a church social on Saturday night where we were able to dance to Arabic and American music, proving that even though not all of us were able to speak the same language, music is something we can all share.

The next day after church we were able to visit families in their homes. My mother, two friends and I went to the home of a woman named Ilham. She also belonged to Christmas Lutheran Church. The life she showed us was that of a somewhat average American family. Her husband owns a successful tourism company, she has three sons, and they live very well.

She told us of her experience with the Israeli occupation in Bethlehem. How she knew of women who were still afraid to go to sleep because, in past times, they only heard gunfire, never tiring through the night. She also mentioned how lucky she was that her husband had the job he did, because of his job, their family is able to enter Jerusalem more often than just Easter and Christmas, and they don’t have to wait six months for permission.

With all of these hardships the Palestinians of the West Bank face, Ilham never, not once told us she regretted living where she does. Palestine is her home. She loves her life and loves her family. She said she understood that the wall that surrounds Palestinians may never come down and that Israeli settlers may continue to illegally take Palestinian land. She accepts this for now. I thought that her acceptance was bittersweet.

Out of all of this, however, the most amazing part of the trip were the holy sites we visited throughout the West Bank and Northern Israel. I was able to experience so many places where I felt the presence of God more strongly than ever before.

I don’t know what was the most awe-inspiring: The church of the Holy Sepulcher, where Jesus died and rose again, the Nativity church, where Jesus was born, or the Shepherd’s field where the angel Gabriel appeared to the Shepherd’s before the birth of Christ. They all stick out in my mind. My faith in God was deeply affected by this trip in the best possible way.

In the future, I want to continue to make visits to the Holy Land, and I want to be able to try to make a difference in the lives of the people there. I was so lucky to be able to make this trip this summer, and I hope that more people will be inspired to experience the Holy Land in the same way.