Join our 2009 Christmas Appeal

 

Dear Friends of Sabeel,
 
May the blessings of this Advent Season fill you with Hope and encourage you in your work for Peace.  The enclosed card and matching envelope is our gift to you this Christmas. Please send it to someone special, who will be inspired by the amazing story I will share with you about how these cards came to be created.
 
The story begins with two members of Friends of Sabeel from The Netherlands who participated in a Sabeel witness trip.  Marijke and Clemens Egelie were inspired by their experience and envisioned a Peace & Remembrance Tapestry for Sabeel’s 7th International Conference held last year to commemorate the Nakba of 1948.  Almost 2,000 tapestries were created by men, women and children from all around the world with images sharing the universal message of peace. Each piece measures almost one-foot square. One piece was made of the stitches of 78 different individuals.  The pieces were put together in banners of 12 squares sewn by refugee women from the Jalazoun Refugee Camp near Ramallah in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Each banner additionally holds the names of four villages destroyed or depopulated in 1948 as part of the Nakba, etched along the bottom in embroidery. These banners honor the memory and demonstrate the commitment to peace. The entire collection filled the assembly hall at the Sabeel 7th International Conference, radiating a message of peace. The tapestries have been used in processions and worship services and put on display in various locations.

The story of the Peace & Remembrance Tapestry is like a parable about our international movement for justice and peace in the Holy Land, a human tapestry made up of individuals working tirelessly through faith for the lives of others. Friends of Sabeel in the U.S., the Netherlands, Scandinavia, Canada, the U.K, Ireland, France, Germany and in Oceania, are weaving a tapestry of peace and justice for the Holy Land and around the world.  It is a big undertaking requiring much time and patience, a vision of beauty, and a faith in the God of Peace who is carrying us toward some surprise fulfillment. This work includes our program of regional conferences, such as the events in Cedar Falls, Iowa, and here in Washington DC held in October. These events are organized by dedicated and gifted volunteers and are so important because they widen and deepen the grassroots movement, moving us closer to our goal.
 
The tapestry weavings are now pictured on these beautiful greeting cards. We have just enough left over from the Nakba conference to send one to each of you in this Christmas Appeal. Please use it to send to a friend or relative for Christmas with a message about your support for Sabeel, and please make a generous tax-deductible donation to Friends of Sabeel to help carry our important work into the New Year.  A donation form and return envelope are enclosed.  Thank you, and Merry Christmas.
 
In Gratitude and in Hope,
 
 

 
Grace Saïd
Member, FOSNA Steering Committee