Olive Harvest 2011

Greetings to the faithful! I've lost count on the number of times I have sat in a computer in a local internet cafe, or hotel lobby in the wee hours of the morning, but I have just arrived in Jerusalem now about 20 hours ago. After sleeping for about three hours, I awoke feeling rested, but anxious to get on with things. I leave this morning for Bethlehem where I'll be for a few days until the IFPB delegation arrives. Much of my waking time this morning was thinking about what I will say on Wednesday when the delegation comes to the farm. Besides the usual background of history, the origins of Friends of Tent of Nations, I hope to share the
new vision that Daoud sees and shared at our Steering Committee meeting in our home
in Arlington on Thursday, the 27th.

What is really exciting is that we may be in a new phase, and Bill Mims, our Secretary and local MBA offered a new formation of our organization which would center on education. As Daoud described it,we are entering the third phase of our work. The first consisted of building an infrastructure and linkage to the broader world. That phase is done, but of course, we still need to
continue to build connections with others. But the farm is a long way nearer to
self sufficiency than it once was. The electrical and water systems are in place,
and new technology with the use of gray water is the final step. The second phase
is building an education center "without walls" as the difficulty for getting building permits is a major hurdle. In the meantime, education continues as Daoud travels, the thousands of visitors share their own stories, and fotonna continues its
outreach to churches, Congress and the State Department. The third phase is building
of the Education Center whose designs are already complete.