| February 23, 2004
Dear Friends,
Allow me to share with you this Lenten prayer by the Reverend
Alex Awad, a Palestinian Christian who was born in Jerusalem.
Today he is pastor of a Baptist congregation in Jerusalem and
serves as a missionary for the General Board of Global Ministries
of the United Methodist Church.
Doug
But be glad and rejoice forever
in what I will create,
for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight
and its people a joy.
I will rejoice over Jerusalem
and take delight in my people;
the sound of weeping and of crying
will be heard in it no more.
Isaiah 65:18-19 (NIV)
A Palestinian Prayer for Lent
Come, O God, rescue us and deliver us from our troubles, for
our adversaries are many times stronger than we are and their
friends are far more powerful than our friends. Our great grandparents
endured under the yoke of the Ottoman Turks; our grandparents
suffered from the cruelties of British colonialism; now we, our
children and grandchildren are repressed under the tyranny of
the mother of all occupations.
Look down from your holy place, O God, and see what the enemy
has done. They came from far and near. They have stolen our land
and now they are eating her produce. They have taken our homes
after driving almost a million of us away.
They continue to rape our land and demolish our homes while building
their mansions where we once used to play, grow our orchards and
tend our sheep.
Hear our cry, O God! Because you see how they took our water
to irrigate their fields, drench their trimmed gardens and fill
up their swimming pools while we are left dry and our water supply
is rationed.
O holy and just God, step down from your holy place and take
a look at our towns and cities and see how they are turning all
of them into detention camps encircled and cut off by gigantic
walls, razor-wire fences, and army posts. They have destroyed
our means of making a living and turned us into a nation dependent
for its existence on the benevolence of other nations.
Dear Lord, comfort our mothers, fathers and children, for no
sooner do their eyes dry from mourning a number of slaughtered
victims than another group is slain. Visit our sons and daughters
who are stranded in the enemy’s mass detention centers.
Rescue them from their tormentors and torturers and liberate them
that they may reunite with their loved ones. You know Lord that
many of them are incarcerated without trial and are being used
as bargaining chips to compel us to make additional concessions—concessions
that the weak are forced to surrender to the strong.
O Lord, we present our case before you because all other parties
to whom we appealed to bring us justice have failed us. For over
half a century we watched as diplomats at the United Nations spent
countless hours discussing our misfortune. We have on record stacks
of resolutions that they passed which brought us only false hopes
but never affected real justice. You know, Lord, that all the
good intentions of many nations have been blocked and frustrated
by the United States, a country that was once the champion of
human rights, freedom, and justice but now is rallying much of
her political and economic weight in defending and supporting
our oppressors.
We looked, O Lord, to the Arab world and the Muslim nations for
help but all their efforts, put together, were no match for the
political prowess and military arsenal of our tormentors.
Have mercy on us, Oh God, and forgive us our transgressions for
in our utter frustration and inability to cope with the great
wrongs heaped upon us, we reasoned that we could respond to violence
with violence; we have killed and maimed the guilty and the innocent,
both friend and foe among our antagonists. Pardon us, O merciful
Redeemer, and pardon them; forgive us as we forgive them.
We look to you, the creator of us all, to empower those who,
against all odds, continue to courageously pursue fairness and
stand with the truth. Bless their efforts and hear their prayers
by ending the anguish of our people that we may live in dignity
and take our place among the nations of the free world, daring
to dream, daring to hope, daring to wake up to a new world free
from tyranny and injustice.
More biographical information on Alex Awad
Reverend Alex Awad was born and raised in Jerusalem. His formative
years were marked by the death of his father, who was killed in
1948 during crossfire between the Israeli and Jordanian armies.
After the family became refugees, his mother was faced with the
task of raising seven children between the ages of six months
and eleven years. Alex eventually attended St. George's School
in Jerusalem, where he finished his high school education. By
this time, he felt led to prepare for Christian ministry.
Pursuing that call, he attended a two-year international Bible
college in Switzerland. From there, he traveled to the United
States and enrolled at Lee University in Tennessee, where he received
a B.A. in biblical education and a B.S. in secondary education.
He later earned a master's in education from North Georgia University
and a master's in mission and evangelism from Asbury Theological
Seminary in Kentucky.
His experiences include pastoral and teaching ministries in Palestine/Israel
and the United States. He has served as a board member, Dean of
Students, and faculty member at Bethlehem Bible College in Bethlehem,
and as principal of Hope Secondary School in Beit Jala, a Christian
town near Bethlehem.
Reverend Awad and his wife Brenda were commissioned as United
Methodist missionaries in 1989. Since 1994, they have been serving
with the General Board of Global Ministries (UMC) in Israel/Palestine.
Reverend Alex Awad is the author of Through the Eyes of the
Victims: The Story of the Arab Israeli Conflict.
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