Introduction
by: Dr. Cathy Nichols
For more than ten years, I lived and served in the
Middle East with Global Ministries, the common global
witness of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
and the United Church of Christ. Any moment that I
walked into a Palestinian home, I knew one thing was
certain. The incredible hospitality would overwhelm me.
Even the most simple family – for example, the taxi
driver who persuaded me to come and have coffee with
his wife and children – would invite me to sit, put out
coffee and sweets, and take an hour or two out of their
day to engage me in real conversation. I was blessed
to live in a culture of hospitality.
And I want to repeat – this hospitality was shown
to me as a stranger. Like Abraham and Sarah, the
driver, the villager, or the refugee would see me pass,
often with my children in tow, looking hot, sweaty, and
somewhat grubby. They would stand by their door or
on their street, and it was as if I had appeared at the
oaks of Mamre. I would be welcomed in for tea, to
rest, and to connect with the stranger. These blessings
of hospitality were so abundant that I felt ashamed
that I had understood so little about the biblical
commandment for welcome before I arrived.
When I first landed, three decades ago, at four
o’clock in the morning in a dark Judean desert, I knew
very little about the Middle East other than I would
get to see some Christian history and perhaps better
understand the Bible. I quickly learned that my lack
of knowledge of the Bible was the surface issue – the
deeper learning that I needed to absorb was that of
the cultural mandate for hospitality. I quickly grew to
appreciate how our partners in the Middle East have
become living bridges as they embodied the traditions
of hospitality that reflect the Biblical imperatives of so
long ago. From the scriptures chosen for the Bible
studies in this issue of Just Women, we witness an
expression of hospitality that has never ended. The
simplified extremes of mass media today do not reflect
the reality of hospitality in the Middle East; and so we
thank God for our sisters who wrote these studies in
this issue that allow us to go deeper into the lives of
the real people today who struggle to live out God’s
commandments of kindness to strangers.
Each study gives us a different insight on
hospitality from our sisters. I am struck by these texts
in thinking of our sisters and brothers who live in the
Holy Land and how they keep these traditions alive. I
think of the scripture from Mark’s gospel – welcoming
the little children. And I am reminded of the amazing
history of our child sponsorship partner Rawdat el
Zuhur in Jerusalem – founded by a woman who could
not ignore the plight of girls on the street after the
war of 1948. Elizabeth Nasir, the original founder,
named the school the “Garden of Flowers” because
she wanted children to be like flowers radiating joy
and love the way that children should. In her living out
the welcome to children, she embodied, “Whoever
welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me,
and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the
one who sent me (Mark 9:37).” The work of Rawdat
today continues that biblical mandate.
I read the passage of Jesus feeding the multitudes
in the Gospel of Mark and I think of our partner at the
Orthodox Initiative in Jordan. Their work in serving the
millions of refugees from Syria has become a heroic
effort of caring for the stranger even as they come in
such huge numbers that it is overwhelming for their
small community. Wafa Gassous, from the Orthodox
Initiative, shared at the 2015 General Assembly a
presentation about their work. She said these words
that still stay with me: “We strongly believe that the
moral duty of the Church to provide for the most
vulnerable is a fundamental aspect of our Christian
faith.”
Finally, as the Executive of Mission Personnel for
Global Ministries, I am challenged by the scripture of
Matt 10. As we commission our missionaries to serve
with partners around the world – from the Middle
East and beyond – we do so with the conscience
that we are not able to serve unless a relationship is
created. One of our core values of Global Ministries
is that of mutuality – and we define that as walking in
hope with our partners in God’s mission. At the end of
this chapter, Jesus provides a challenge: “Whoever
welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes
me welcomes the one who sent me” (Matt 10:40). How
are we able to live out these challenges as we serve in
our complicated world today? Can we both truly accept
the welcome and can we provide it to others? I pray
for all of our missionaries serving both in the Middle
East and around the world as they, with God’s strength
and our prayers, work to live out this commandment of
welcome.
So in the name of these missionaries, our partners,
and so many others, and as we move into the 2016
Middle East Initiative with Global Ministries, I want
to welcome you to these Bible studies. I celebrate
the stories of hospitality, welcome, and hope that
radiate through these lessons. With these resources,
I hope that we as Disciples Women can both better
understand our Christian commandment for welcome
and also deepen our own commitment to provide that
hospitality and welcome in our homes and churches.
BIBLE STUDY · SPRING 2016 5