Friday November 15, 2019
Organized and written by Mohamad Jamous – Director of the Abrahamic Reunion Palestine
On November 15th I woke up and my mind was already busy.
I have been waiting anxiously for this day!
Why? Because today is the Abrahamic Reunion’s Youth Event in Palestine.
I traveled to the center of Jericho to wait for the participants to come.
Soon youth from Jericho, Bethlehem and Nablus arrived.
We were over 90 people between the ages of sixteen and thirty! Half were Muslims and half were Christians.
I welcomed them and said, “Let’s go to the Jordan River for a baptism. And I will introduce the program there”.
According to Christian beliefs this is where Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist.
Here, I introduced myself as the director of the Abrahamic Reunion in Palestine and described our monthly programs:
“Usually we host older men and women in our programs, but today is different, because today our program is focused on you!
Your minds are full of love and peace, and today we will work to bring these ideas out of you minds and unite them into one goal under the name of Abrahamic Reunion.”
After I spoke, I distributed T-shirts. Each T-shirt was inscribed with a single letter from the English phrase “Abrahamic Reunion Youth – Palestine”.
When I gathered the participants to take a picture, I felt the ideals of the Abrahamic Reunion entering their minds, I wish you could experience what I felt! When you see these peacemakers from different religions standing together you can see they have one heart! Everyone could experience hope by looking into their eyes.
Then we went to Gerasimos Monastery to meet monk, Christo Tomos who said:
“I want to thank the Abrahamic Reunion for these programs.
“You are our youth, and you are our future. You will make the love, and you will make the change.”
We took another photo, then proceeded to the monastery of St. George in Wadi al-Qalt.
Wadi Qalt has an amazing hiking trail that runs from the outskirts of Jerusalem through Jericho, to Jordan. Our group of Christian and Muslim youth began walking. During our march we sang and danced.
The Abrahamic Reunion painted a smile on the faces of these youth.
Our next destination was St. Zacchaeus Coptic Orthodox church and monastery in Jericho.
Who was waiting for us? Father Pachomius Al-Urshlami, a monk from the Coptic Church, and Sheikh Ghaleb Awatleh, the imam of Al-Dyouk Mosque.
Father Pachomius welcomed us and said:
“I was born to a Christian family, and you were born to a Muslim family, and the Jew was born to his family, so, we all have different beliefs, ideas and religions.
“But it is obligatory for all of us to respect one another and treat each other as human beings.”
Then Sheikh Ghaleb Awatla welcomed us and said:
“I consider this church as my home, ‘So, welcome to my home’!
“Two years ago, I participated in an interfaith Iftar held by the Abrahamic Reunion in Jericho.
“At that Iftar most of the people were older, but now I see young people are taking the future into their hands.
“Thank you, Mohamed, for involving these young people in your programs, the Holy Land needs them.”
I thanked our presenters and we headed to a café for the final part of the day.
While the participants drank lemonade and watched a play, I went to buy a cake.
Oh! I forgot to tell you!
Today is my birthday, I became 29!
I celebrated my birthday at an Abrahamic Reunion event! And I chose a birthday cake with the Abrahamic Reunion logo on it, because the Abrahamic Reunion is such an important part of my life!
This has been the most wonderful day! It is the day of my birth, and also the day of an Abrahamic Reunion event!
As I bid you farewell, I hope that in the future we will reach thousands of youth with Abrahamic Reunion Events!
Click here to support Abrahamic Reunion events like this one.
