I just returned from continuing education trip to Israel-Palestine.  While in Jerusalem, our group was asked to imagine the events of Holy Week as we walked in the footsteps of Jesus the route called the Via Doloroso (the way of pain and sorrow.)  We journeyed from the place of betrayal, to the place of the scourging, to the square where Jesus came before Pilate, to Golgotha.  It was an uphill journey on a street full of twists and turns. 

But that was not the only Via Doloroso our group journeyed.  We also walked a street in the West Bank town of Hebron.  It is a noisy street where "sound bombs" of Israeli propaganda blast out of loud speakers nearly twenty-four hours a day.  It is a vacant street where wire fences and concrete walls block access to Palestinian businesses.  It is a smelly street where overhead nets catch garbage thrown down by settlers who illegally live in houses above.  It is a dangerous street where anyone can be stopped and questioned by the omnipresent Israeli military and where children are regularly tear-gassed as they move through the check points on their way to school.

The street in Hebron is home to our Global Ministries partners.  It is there that they live and work and accompany their neighbors.  During this Holy Week, may we have the courage to walk with Jesus on the way of the cross and may we have the compassion to see the face of Jesus in the faces of those around the globe who walk their own Via Dolorosa each and every day.