Dear Ramadan,

I know you go to the mosque on friday. You know I go to church on sunday. I remember you told me you where in a church once and they did a lot of singing. This is true, many of our prayers are sung, for me it is easier to remember the words, I remember them when I hear the melody. I always think I can’t sing, but on sunday I can.

This service was not an easy one. This service was about the state the world is in and this is not good news.

This is what we sang, the song is called ’this world’:
‘Our city that has become a desert, our dead unburried, Your beloved people chased and shot at like animals – this is what we have become, this world.’
(Whenever we address God the You in the text is written with a capital letter)

And then to remember that we were promised something once, the Word of God. With this song I started to think about Gaza.

‘Don’t forget the Old Word
that once the robbers will be robbed
the dictators expelled
but the people who were trampled to death
they will live,
the poor man will rise and take back the land that belongs to him

Don’t forget the Old Word
that once the murderers will be murdered
the tyrants will be kicked out
but the one who was beaten to death
he will live,
the children will rise and take the rights that belong to them.’

People in the service can write a prayer in the book, and it is read during the service. They can pray for people who are ill, or just died, or to remember someone. They can say a prayer of thanks. Some time ago I wrote down a prayer of thanks for your and Dalia’s sons Mohammed and Machmoud, because they survived their illness, and I wrote down a prayer of consolation for all those parents who lost a child because I think this is the saddest thing that can happen to people. Also a few weeks ago I wrote down a prayer for the girl Raghda from Khan Younis who died after she was shot in school. It is good to say the names of people, so she is not some nameless girl who disappeared, she was a person with a name, a real person. Today Kees Kok, who is one of our priests, imams, prayed for the people in Iraq, in Gaza, in Darfur. The people in my church know about Gaza, we collect money for Gaza once a year. They know when I’m not in church on sunday most often it is because I’m in Gaza.

We share a little bread and wine in the service. It has a meaning. Everytime we take bread and wine, we promise ouselves and each other something, that we will see every little human deed of kindness as a proof that a better world is possible, a world with bread and justice and love, enough for everybody.

Than there was the last prayer/song:

‘Yours is this world, this time.
You have made Your voice heard until this day.
Your name is Passion for Justice,
Your word is the well we will drink from.
You who have been our future until now –
please let us not sink into despair. ‘

So you can imagine why today I thought of Gaza, and all my friends, Khaled, Fatma, all the Mohammeds, the children, everybody. Like we were singing this sunday especially for you guys.