KATHERYN AND DOUG SMITH

Stockton Central UMC

Stories of GBGM visit to Israel-Palestine, February 2008

Contact Doug Smith for speakers and/or programming assistance on the topic of Israel and Palestine to reach as many churches as possible in the CNUMC Conference. 

Kathy Smith is the UMW unit president at Central in Stockton, a member of the CA/NV Council Task Force on Israel/Palestine and was part of the February '08 GBGM Study Mission team to Israel/Palestine.  Her husband, Doug, is a School of Missions Instructor and chair of the task force. In April, Kathy and her husband will join Churches for Middle East Peace  to lobby legislators in Washington D.C.

• Sema, A Palestinian Family on the Edge, by Katheryn Smith

• A Palestinian Family in a Cage, by Doug Smith

Kelvin Sauls, a United Methodist Clergy with CA/NV Conference,  one of the  2008 Mission Team participants, submitted several of the stories: "Poems-Prayers for Palestine" and "Pilgrimage into Pain & Possibility".

He is from South Africa and experienced apartheid, giving him a unique voice on the effects of occupation in Palestine.

Poems-Prayers for Palestine

          Calling A Thorn, A Thorn

          (inspired after a presentation by Archbishop Elias Chacour)

           Psalms 130

          (inspired after a concert by the Bethlehem Bible College Choir)

          Psalm 91

          (inspired after a visit with the staff from the

          Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center) 

• Pilgrimage into Pain and Possibility A South African reflects on his visit to the Palestinian village of Wadi Fukin

From Bethlehem to Hebron by  Gloria Fearn