I will investigate and examine the question of Christian hope amidst conflict via interview and theological action/reflection models while living an extended period in Israel and Palestine to gain insight from a distance.  I will reside in the familial context of the land and people that are direct ancestors of our North American church families.  In order to study conflict, I will go to a place and center that is synonymous with conflict.  This is an experiential study that is incarnational, relational and open to the people who live conflict each and every day.  Conflict is a given, but many of us in North America have the privilege of more often than not avoiding conflict.  However, this avoidance has not resulted in reduction of conflict, but has simply made us weak and impotent to engage in the natural occurrence of conflict in daily lives.  This inability to engage in healthy conflict, to transform conflict and to maintain a sense of hope and wholeness amidst conflict means that we often fight about the wrong things.  We also point fingers at so many other people and regions that engage in conflict and try to instruct them on how to resolve their conflict while totally ignoring our own.  I go as a learner to ask the question of as many different kinds of people as I can encounter, "How do you maintain hope amidst conflict?"  "What is the source of your hope?"  "How do you define hope in concrete terms?"  "Does your expression of faith influence your sense of hope and how you engage in conflict?”