Change of Plans

I arrived in Israel yesterday afternoon around 3pm. I have stamps from several middle eastern countries on my passport so I had to wait in the Tel Aviv airport for a couple of hours of intense "questioning" and a baggage search. (apparently my toothpaste was alarming?) The guy next to me, who was on a 3 day business trip, had the ill luck of being named "Omar." He had been waiting 3 hours and was still waiting when I left. 3 Muslim women and their children were being held because of their names and dress, and the guy on the other side of me had no idea why he was being held. I left relatively quickly- after 2 1/2 hours. Getting past the border was a small source of anxiety for me. So I'm glad that's over!!

I stayed in Jerusalem last night, but will not be heading to Amman anytime soon. Plans have changed- The Iraq team had a long and intense debriefing session this weekend. As many of you know, 4 CPTers were kidnapped last November. On March 10, Tom Fox's body was found in a Baghdad neighborhood. Two weeks later the other 3 CPTers were released. The 4 months that our coworkers were missing and the time following Tom's death have been very challenging times in the life of CPT. After a lot of consideration, most of the Iraq team feels like there is more discernment to be done about our work in Iraq. CPT has learned a lot over these past 6 months and we plan on continuing work in Iraq. But at this time the team decided to spend some time in discernment before sending more people into Iraq. So, for the time being (at least a month but maybe longer), I'll be working with CPT in the West Bank. I'm leaving to go join the team in Hebron in a few minutes. That's all I know for now...