This half-semester I’m teaching History of Israel: New Testament. It’s an introduction to Jesus’ world: culture, history, literature and so on. We started off with a virtual tour of Palestine.

At the end of the class, the student rep asked if he could say something. This sometimes happens and concerns internal student affairs. Today was different: “Let’s have the dream of going on a class trip to Israel”, he said. Now the rep is sincere and Christ-like but poorer than a church mouse (the mouse doesn’t owe Seminary fees). So us realistic souls just smiled, packed away our books and had something amusing to tell our wives.

Two days later in a shopping centre I saw pictures of Israel, placed by a group of students who’d come back from a visit. They’d been funded by an Israeli-Colombian association.

Today I let the students know about the funding, and recharged my practice of faith.

Photo: Dreams and reality can combine: Olwen photoshopped on the Lima coastline

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