| Original Message |
Violet Zarou (no login)
Posted Apr 5, 2004 3:53 AM
Oh my! After a long absence we get in touch. I remember the time you came to Ramallah and I took you to visit the Friends play-center at the Amari Refugee Camp. This humble but notable service that both the FWCC and FUM plus individual Friends and Fr. Meetings are generously supporting since they have started it in 1975 is still going on. Fifty, 5-year-old refugee children come to the Friends Play Center free-of-charge, all requirements to run the Play Center are covered by the Friends (Quakers). The children are taken care of with love, care, understanding, help, and better to say with compassion. The children come to a Quaker Oasis of Peace....
I deeply believe that the most important and effective introduction to FRIENDS’ Christian Faith is surely the ethical and social Concerns.
As to the history of the earliest Friends in Ramallah, ethical & social concerns were put into practice:
1. As very young children, long ago, we used to hear of & often saw Nimeh Shahla, a native Q. lady of Ramallah mounting her donkey with loads of medicine, besides a good sense of humour and ethical stories and heading to the villages around Ramallah. She was liked and respected by both Moslems and Christians. “A thousand words will not leave so deep an impression as one single deed.”
2. If I forget; I will never forget, dear Ellen Mansour, a born Q. & a native of Ramallah, a mother of 5 Q. daughters. She spent years and years and years in caring and running the Sunday school at the Ramallah Friends Meeting House. Though she passed away about eleven years ago, she is still remembered with love and gratitude – no matter what happens, she would never miss a Sunday.
3. Then to dear Mildred White who came into my life in my childhood days. She was “an angel come to town”, she was known by this name by everybody. Mildred, an American Missionary lady, had served as principal of the Friends G. School in Ramallah for many, many years. She made many trips between her native home and Ramallah, but always came back to us.
It was through her ethical, sincere love, help and concern that I became a Quaker. I am glad that Mildred came into my life, and I am proud I got to know her. – Thanks to God who directed her steps to us, to come to Ramallah.
May I share with you the following passage?
Matthew 5:11
“You are the light of the world. A city that sits on a hill cannot be hid.”
“Lamps do not talk but they do shine. A lighthouse sounds no drums and beats no gongs, and yet for over the water its friendly spark is seen by the mariners. So let your actions and deeds shine out your religion and your Faith. Let the main sermon of your life be illustrated by all your conduct.”
May God lead us all to do what is best. We did not tell the children “We are Christian Quakers,” but we lived it.
With prayers for Peace,
Violet
Violet Zarou
I do pray that this will be of a little use to you, Friend.
V.
[NOTE from Johan: Violet responded by paper mail to the "four questions" survey. In transcribing her letter, I have deleted a couple of lines. Please contact me for the full text.]
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