VAN NUYS : Pastor Returns From Fact-Finding Tour

The Rev. Darrel Meyers, pastor at the First Presbyterian Church in Van Nuys, recently returned from a visit to the Middle East.

But this was no see-the-religious-monuments sightseeing tour. Meyers was among 23 U.S. citizens--including journalists, former statespersons, health officials and educators--chosen by the Washington-based human rights group, Council for the National Interest--to go on a “Political Pilgrimage” to Jericho and the Gaza strip for the purpose of seeing first-hand the political and social problems there.

While there, they met with ministers, religious leaders, political acitivists and families.

At the conclusion of their friendship tour, the envoys debriefed members of the Administration and Congress on their findings.

The delegation, Meyers said, was especially struck by the plight of the Iraqi people suffering from starvation and lack of medical care as a result of the sanctions on Iraq, according to what they were told by the Catholic Bishop of Amman on their stop in Jordan.

“In the last three years, 400,000 civilians have died due to lack of food and medicine,” said Meyers. “The sanctions aren’t hurting Saddam Hussein, they’re killing the people.”

Meyers discussed with Palestinian and Israeli leaders the problems over the water supply.

“The average Israeli settler drinks 27 times the amount of water that Palestians drink,” he said.

Yet, when an Israeli foreign minister met with the group, Meyers said he told them that the Palestinians waste half their water.

Among one of Meyers’ personal goals for his visit was to establish a sister church in East Jerusalem to his Van Nuys congregation.

Meyers discovered that the task was not so simple as he had thought.

“The leading Christian leaders were interested,” said Meyers. “But they’re very suspicious of we in the West who want to give a little money and advice.”

Meyers said he will explore ways to create a more cooperative, and less paternalistic, approach to set up the sister relationship between the churches.