Another guest blogger :-)

Pictures to follow !

This week we had a very busy schedule. I will try to give you a short overview.

On Saturday we went with the Lebanese youth to Deir el Salib, all dressed up and our faces covered, the boys in Deir el Salib were also dressed up, they really looked cute. Elias Raad (talking Elias), since he is always talking about the Abouna (priest), was dressed up as Abouna Yaacoub. He was so proud.

Afterwards some of us went to Sourat with Dr. Issa. It was the first time that the team was split. Amelie, Mafalda, Johanna and Maxi, Caroline stayed in the apartment. It felt so empty! Nevertheless, we had an amazing weekend and it was really good. Especially Sunday when we had a three hour breakfast from 12 until 3. Sunday our new team member arrived, Matthieu. He was supposed to arrive in the middle of the day but because of the bad weather in Germany he arrived in the middle of the night. The others decided to stay at Dr. Issa’s place one day longer. We collected Matthieu from the airport and we are all glad that he is finally here now.

Monday we went to Deir el Amar, did a make-up season with the girls and they all loved it! In the evening we had dinner with Sheikh Walid. Many thanks to him for his generosity to the Caravan. The food was really good so we ate a lot. :-)

On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday we had University again which was very interesting, the topic was the history of the Jewish.

The weather this week was really good so we used it to go out with boys of DES. We had our usual picnic with them: chips, chocolate and lemonade.

The service in Antelias was mostly about Christmas this week. We sang a lot of Christmas songs and surprisingly many of them knew even the English songs and blasted along with us.

On Tuesday we had dinner with Leila, the day after we had a concert rehearsal, on Thursday we had a talk from a Druze which is an honor because they don’t speak often about their religion. Unfortunately there was a miscommunication among us so that we missed half of the talk. It was a pity! But, as Caravan usually do, we asked a lot of questions in the aftermath and Ghassan Bou Diab was willing to agree to come to one of our spiritual meetings to tell us more about his faith. We are very excited to hear him once more in January!  

On Friday we had a nice Welcome dinner to welcome Matthieu in our midst. Maxi gave the meal a special touch by making swiss Rösti.

In the Netherlands it is a ritual that you give gifts and write a poem for Saint Nicolas, so the father of Caroline wrote a poem for the Caravan:  

The cedars of the Lebanon

Wave and wave,

Wave to our beloved Caroline,

Too Mafalda,Johanna, Amelie

Leticia, Moritz, Lucas, Daniel,

Maximilian, Matthieu, Suzanne

   -  Rise and shine -

and they enjoy the time they have

praying and working which each other

entertaining their guests in Deir al Salib

and we, proud parents and siblings,

look amazed to you there, sometimes sick,

nevertheless learning Arabic

and many other things

you all are strong and

orientated on your neighbour

we wish you an magnificent time

The mountains of the Lebanon

And the sheikhs and the heads of the tribes

Exult and exult

Exult at our beloved Caroline

 at Mafalda,Johanna, Amelie

Leticia, Moritz, Lucas, Daniel,

Maximilian, Matthieu, Suzanne

 God bless you!