St Andrews

Sometimes we have to go the long way round to get to where God wants us to be.

I exchanged what's left of my sterling at the Post Office and got the best rate ever (£1 = 5.76nis). So I thought I'd pray at the Garden Tomb which turned out to have closed for Lunch as was St Anne's as was the Dominus Flevit (after a 30min walk!).

I had cunning plan to write a blog about what I read in the papers this morning - a story about Methodists in UK deciding not to buy produce that comes from (illegal) Israeli Settlements.

This pretty much boils down to certain beauty products and tasty dates. The Israeli writer berates Methodists for being anti-Semitic (its actually anti-Zionist but that's a distinction that's lost and beside the moment that you throw that sort of mud around it sort of sticks). It berates the middle class Christians for being asinine in making parallels between Apartheid (oppresion of black people) and what's going on here (oppression of Palestinians). And so I was going to end my blog with Jesus wept and weeps still. (The "no gun" photo is outside a UNWRA girls basic school, good to see they teach one thing I think is fairly basic).

Alas, my water bottle fell out of the bag and clattered 200yards down the hill. Very funny. Unless you're hot and not in the mood. So I came home and stopped at the Scottish Church of St Andrews. Its a wonderful navigation beacon - if ever you get unsure of your bearings look for the scottish flag and you'll be fine.

Its not a tourist attraction and perhaps for that reason its a great place to pray in. Their prayer for the month, starts like this: Show us good Lord, the peace we should seek, the peace we must give, the peace we can keep, the peace we must forgo and the peace you have given in Jesus.