Quartermasters at Work

In comparison with exactly one year ago a total transformation has taken place on the hill and surrounding area.
A year ago there was only the famous “bus”. Now one can already find the first beginnings of a small village consisting of six barracks harbouring 25 people.

Although in miniature, it really is a beginning: an ongoing mechanism.

The barracks aren’t really very small, primitive and ugly like the word would suggest. They are twelve meters to four, with a broad veranda shut off from the sun. They are rather nice rooms inside (4x4 m²). A generator generates electricity for the machinery and for light. At the foot of the hill are the “industries”:

The small area with carnation plants and flower-shed of our cultivator Jan Baars and Bob Hoover and the pheasant cages of Gé Dorland. Also the connection with the outside world is there, a five meter broad hardened road – no asphalt yet, but “kurkar”. When the three little bridges (“divers”) are finished, the road is ready for use – also in winter, and the signpost with the name “Nes Ammim” can be placed at the road between Acco and Nahariya.

Bevor Nes Ammim kam, lag das Land brach. Jetzt wird daraus Ackerland.

On the hill there are a lot of activities going on. Early in the morning before sunrise the caterpillar is started with a bump and Henri Clot – who is the earliest in the morning – rattles to the fields for ploughing and “bulldozering” stones away. A water pit has been dug in order to collect the water from the test pump. The Kibbutz Co-operative of the Ga'aton district is busy placing a pipe leading to the village (the pump is situated 300 meters from the flower shed). Everyone has his or her own task. Some more workers have come to work in the village, young men and women, Swiss, Dutch and Americans. The work is being done in the fields, the carpentry, the household, visitors are being received, and the meals are on time. Maybe it is precisely these guests, who make us keep everything in order and clean looking. Everything runs smoothly. It is important that everyone sees that Nes Ammim is in good order.

But in fact: not everything runs so smoothly and reality is not so beautiful as it seems. For think of it, for a smooth-running society it is still very primitive. All sorts of things are lacking.

1964: Johan Pilon und andere Nes Ammimer bauen die ersten Häuser.

In the first place: working power for the serious building activities of the village. Because we want to construct stone buildings. The two carpenters have neither working place nor machinery yet. They are already quite happy with their handsaw. Other machinery will be needed when in future we will build houses ourselves, with woodwork and furniture. A smithy has to be built, and storage for the machinery during the winter.

The barracks are crammed: two or three people per room. There is a lack of space. Water is only running in the shower place and the kitchen. It runs in a thin plastic tube from our neighbouring moshav Regba. The stream is very thin, too, and sometimes stops altogether. The generator (after the oil lamp period) is really a fantastic improvement. But sometimes it stops and the current is not strong enough to use the electric welding machine.

But this is how the “quartermasters” have now started and have laid the basis of the village. There are lots of plans for next year. We would like building teams to come from Europe for the implementation of these plans. But the Home Boards have to study and eventually approve these plans first. [Remark: plans included a flower industry as an investment by the Stichting Nes Ammim Holland, a Village Centre as an investment project by the Swiss Nes Ammim Association, an industry by the German Nes Ammim Verein, and a guesthouse by the American Nes Ammim Association.]

Now that the big work comes into perspective, the financial limitations lay more and more heavily on our shoulders. It becomes ever more evident that Nes Ammim will only be able to become a reality if it will be supported in our home countries by very many. These have to be the Christians from all the churches who in their heart feel drawn to Israel and who see God’s hand in what happens to Israel and the Jewish people. Up to now, this has been the work of rather few. And you are one of them. (We issue about 3000 Information Sheets.)

Big loans have been made for the purchase of the land and the first investments in agricultural machines and the barracks. But so much more has to be done. One of the businessmen sponsoring us made a remark recently that with loans alone we would not succeed. It’s people who have to donate.

Really building an entire village with all that this involves, is a huge task. When we think of everything that is needed for it, it seems that we are looking into a bottomless pit. Besides, the idea of Nes Ammim is new, which makes it difficult to engage our Christian people. Here you discover how deep the abyss is between Jews and Christians. But also: how rich the possibilities and occasions to come together. So the building up of Nes Ammim is not only for here but has to be done in our Christian countries as well. We are as Christians working together for a communal task which is contributing in the building of a bridge between Jews and Christians.

And we discover at the same time that first we’ll have to learn to understand one another if we really want to work together on this ideal!

1964: Gottesdienst vor dem Schweizer Bus.