Tent of Nations, A Place to Grow

​We started our morning at 7:45 a.m, six ladies and six pick-axes, uprooting a field of oats suffocating life from olive, pine and grape trees. I kept thinking to myself, "We are letting the trees breathe," Each heavy breath taken with a swing of an axe, we are giving them life.

This whole week we have been tending to the grounds, harvesting rosemary, sage and wheat, removing dead oats, thorns and weeds, giving breathing room for small trees surrounded by winter's sweater.

I hear Daoud's dreams and visions in my head as I tend to this land. Every thorn in my hand and sunburn on my neck reminds me that I am out here working hard for a better future for this land.

Every tree matters. No matter how many thorns and weeds lie on top of them, they are worth plowing through and cutting free to grow and produce fruit. We work hard from sunrise to sundown every single day. We suffer the pains of heat exhaustion and end up with wild rashes but simultaneously we persevere because we believe that the land matters, and all the people in it matter.

One day Tent of Nations will have a school for young children here. They will learn about sustainable energy, organic farming and caring for creation.

They will learn that they have something worth persevering for. They have a reason to get up every day, no matter what life deals them, no matter who has taken what from them, they have a heart, a mind and a body that is worth cultivating every day.

Here, they will cultivate their own garden on day. And here, they will see that they have their own playground for creation, their own destiny to create. It is a place where no one can tell them that they can't, but that they can follow their own unique visions and ideas, and they can stand back, and watch their own field grow.