When the Rev. Jane Eesley (Advance #3022718) 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.
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.
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.
Eesley believes she was experiencing the spiritual richness of the Holy Land.
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.
“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.
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.
“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.
“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.”
excerpt from a story by Tim Tanton or Julie Dwyer, News media contact and Paul Jeffrey, photojournalist and founder of Life on Earth Pictures. He lives in Oregon.
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