Missionary Walks Where Jesus Walked, Even in Time of War

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Key points:

  • Decades after serving as a mission intern in Jerusalem, the Rev. Jane Eesley returned to the Holy Land in 2023 as a United Methodist missionary assigned to the Methodist Liaison Office.
  • Within weeks of her arrival, Hamas militants attacked Israeli communities near Gaza, killing about 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages. Israel responded with a campaign that has killed more than 40,000 Gazans to date.
  • Eesley started a weekly online chat, where people around the world could dialogue with Palestinian Christians on a regular basis.
  • She also works to identify where emergency grants from the United Methodist Committee on Relief could make a difference in the lives of people affected by the war.

When the Rev. Jane Eesley first came to Jerusalem as a United Methodist mission intern in the early 1990s, many people back in the United States thought she must be thriving in such a spiritually charged environment.

“I would get these sweet cards from people, saying things like, ‘You’re in Jerusalem walking where the saints walked.’ And God bless them for thinking that. But in reality I was in Jerusalem dodging tear gas canisters,” she said.

Eesley lived in an apartment with several archaeologists as neighbors, and she remembers that when she first arrived they could identify the kinds of munitions being used on the streets outside by the sound they made.

“I was amazed at how they could tell the difference between the sounds made by firing tear gas canisters, rubber bullets or live ammunition. After a couple of months, there was noise on the street and I turned to them and said, ‘Tear gas canisters.’ And they nodded. Who would’ve thought that this nice suburban girl from Illinois would come to know the difference between the sounds of different munitions? But they do indeed sound different,” she said.

Eesley’s mission post was in a Greek Catholic clinic in the old city’s Armenian Quarter, where she spent most of her time weighing babies. She said it was a great assignment. Unlike many foreign colleagues who worked in churches or nongovernmental organizations where English was common, Eesley had to learn Arabic to survive, and she was blessed with story after story of the hard life of her Palestinian coworkers and patients.

“When we got back to the States and talked to church groups, my friends could quote all the statistics from human rights organizations. But how do people respond to that? They fall asleep,” Eesley said. “But I could tell stories about living and working in Jerusalem, and how my colleague the lab technician who lives in Bethlehem couldn’t get to work because she couldn’t get through the Israeli checkpoint.”

Eesley believes she was experiencing the spiritual richness of the Holy Land.

“The Bible comes alive here because Jesus grew up under military occupation. He experienced leaders who were compassionate and thoughtful, as well as other leaders who were in it for themselves. Jesus grew up amid the human conditions and political brokenness that people experience today. And so the Bible came alive for me, but not in some romantic way. My experience here both strengthened my faith and broke my heart,” she said.

Encouraged by her experience in Jerusalem, Eesley went to seminary, was ordained and served churches in the Northern Illinois Conference for almost three decades. The plight of her Palestinian friends remained close to her heart, however, and she lobbied at General Conference and elsewhere for church policies that would support justice and peace in the region.

As a long tenure at Christ United Methodist Church in Rockford, Illinois, was coming to a close, some colleagues urged her to consider missionary service again. She reluctantly agreed to give it a try, and the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries eventually asked her to take a position in Jerusalem.

Church statements on peace in the Middle East

The United Methodist Church officially supports the continuing existence of the Jewish people and their covenant with God, Palestinian self-determination and Israel’s right to exist. The denomination supports a two-state solution and opposes the confiscation of Palestinian lands and water, and it calls for interfaith and ecumenical dialogue to bring about greater understanding and peace.

“Within The United Methodist Church, we struggle with our understanding of the complexity and the painfulness of the controversies in which Christians, Jews, and Muslims are involved in the Middle East,” the church states in its 2016 Book of Resolutions. “The issues include disputed political questions of sovereignty and control, and concerns over human rights and justice. We recognize the theological significance of the Holy Land as central to the worship, historical traditions, hope, and identity of the Jewish people. We are mindful of this land’s historic and contemporary importance for Christians and Muslims. We are committed to the security, safety, and well-being of Jews and Palestinians in the Middle East, to respect for the legitimacy of the state of Israel, to justice and sovereignty for the Palestinian people, and to peace for all who live in the region.”

For more information, see these statements in the Book of Resolutions:

United Methodist Guiding Principles for Christian-Jewish Relations

Opposition to Israeli Settlements in Palestinian Land

A Pathway for Peace in Palestine and Israel

Interfaith Advocacy in Support of Israel/Palestine Peace

“When I got the call asking me to come back, my stomach dropped, because I know how hard it is here, how grinding day-to-day life can be,” she said. “Palestinians have hard lives, and with all my privilege I experience just a portion of it. It’s not easy. I went home and cried. But the next morning, I was laying in bed and Arabic vocabulary words started coming back to me. Tomato. Cucumber. And I thought, ‘Oh no, God is giving me back my Arabic.’ It was a sign.”

She arrived back in the Middle East in August 2023, assigned to the Methodist Liaison Office, which coordinates a regional focus for The United Methodist Church, the Methodist Church of Great Britain and the World Methodist Council. Along with a British colleague and a Palestinian office manager, her main job is to amplify Palestinian voices within the Wesleyan community worldwide.

Whatever ambitious plans she may have had, within weeks of her arrival, Hamas militants launched a brutal attack on Israeli communities near Gaza, killing about 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages. Israel’s current government responded with a ferocious campaign that has killed more than 40,000 Gazans to date. Restrictions on movement throughout the West Bank, and at times outright repression, grew more common. Eesley was back to dodging tear gas canisters.

Because of fears the West Bank might be completely locked down, Eesley left her home near Bethlehem and moved into an Anglican guest house in Jerusalem, where she remained for five months.

With heightened tensions, tour groups canceled their trips to the Holy Land and Palestinians found their movement restricted more than ever. So Eesley launched a weekly online chat, where people around the world could dialogue with Palestinian Christians on a regular basis. Other voices are also included. The Aug. 28 call featured Eszter Koranyi, the Israeli executive director of Combatants for Peace, a nonviolent binational force working to defend the victims of occupation.

Eesley also worked to identify where emergency grants from the United Methodist Committee on Relief could make a difference in the lives of people affected by the war.

One project Eesley recommended for funding is run by the Shepherd Society, the outreach arm of Bethlehem Bible College, which delivers food to individuals — initially all Christians — in the Bethlehem area who don’t have enough to eat. It’s one meal, delivered three times a week, but Shireen Awwad, the Shepherd Society’s director of outreach, said recipients often spread each meal over two days or share it with their hungry neighbors.

Yet it’s about more than food. Some of the recipients are elders or people with disabilities whose families have fled the country since the war broke out but were unable to take everyone along. So they live alone. Others are simply devastated financially. Bethlehem’s economy has long revolved around tourism, and since last October there are no tourists.

The man who delivers the food, Ramzi Qubrosi, is from Gaza and worked in a popular Bethlehem restaurant. In the absence of tourists, it closed, so now he delivers food to lonely people. At night, he attempts to talk over the internet with his two children, who have taken refuge in a Catholic church in Gaza.

“One woman’s spirit has changed simply because Ramzi brings her food and he stays and visits for a while. She has a fig tree so she gives him figs. The visits have changed her spirit. It’s not only about providing meals for people, it’s about caring for them. We want people to know that we care,” Awwad said.

Providing the meals isn’t cheap. As unemployment in Bethlehem has soared to over 60 percent, food prices have also risen dramatically. “Strawberries and tomatoes used to come from Gaza. Increased restrictions on movement within the West Bank have made it difficult for farmers to get their crops to the city. Settlers have attacked farmers and destroyed their crops. All that chaos has meant prices have gone way up,” Awwad said.

Eesley says the initial UMCOR grant covers the program’s outreach in Beit Sahour, traditionally believed to be where the gospels say shepherds watched their flocks by night.

“It’s exciting for us as United Methodists to provide funds that feed the hungry and accompany the lonely, all in the area where the humble shepherds heard the good news of Jesus’ birth,” Eesley said.

Despite carrying a U.S. passport, Eesley says she’s never suffered for her citizenship.

“Thank God the Palestinian people are wise, so I don’t get blamed for everything my government does. I don’t feel unsafe here. People are very good to me and look out for me,” she said.

“Yet it has been a difficult time to be an American here because of the actions of the U.S. government. Our leaders talk about compassion, but they send weapons.”Eesley admits she gets frustrated by the ignorance among many U.S. Christians about what’s happening with their faith siblings in the Holy Land.

“Back when tourists still came here, many were surprised to meet a Palestinian who was Christian. And they would say, ‘You’re a Christian? Really? Who evangelized you?’ And the Palestinians would respond, ‘Peter,’” she said.

“We owe our faith to Palestinian Christians. They are the ones who kept the flame of faith burning. When my people were still painting themselves blue in Britain, Palestinian Christians were keeping our faith alive. They are our forbearers. We owe them everything in our faith. Even in the midst of occupation and repression, God has blessed them with amazing steadfastness and persistence.”

Paul Jeffrey is a photojournalist and founder of Life on Earth Pictures. He lives in Oregon.