This year, Embrace is 170 years old! That’s 170 years of UK Christians walking alongside our sisters and brothers in the Middle East as they serve their communities. It’s an amazing story of dedicated Christian social witness across the decades, and of serving together, as the one household of God.

We asked for memories from our supporters here in the UK and our friends and partners in the Middle East. We are looking forward to sharing these stories with you throughout the year. We begin with one from supporter Helen Powell:

I first journeyed to The Holy Land as part of a group of Lay Readers from the Rochester Diocese in 2009. The trip was organised and led by Richard Jones who was a fellow Reader at my church as well as a staff member of what was then Biblelands.

What I saw and experienced touched me greatly and I was determined to do all that I could to raise awareness and work for justice and peace.

I became a regular volunteer for Biblelands/Embrace, helping at events and giving talks and presentations at local churches and other groups. I thoroughly enjoyed my time volunteering with Embrace and, whilst I haven't travelled on any more Embrace trips, I have revisited Palestine a number of times and my passion has never wained.

One of my most treasured memories is that I travelled to Bethlehem in 2016 to run the Right to Movement Half Marathon with Su (a staff member at Embrace) and her husband Craig.

The story behind this was that I had been wanting to raise a decent amount of money for Embrace so took up running and applied for a place in the London Marathon. I then got diagnosed with breast cancer - as did Su - but we both came out fighting! We both received the treatments and support that we needed but we were both very aware that women being diagnosed with breast cancer in Gaza were not so lucky.

By a divine coincidence, both Su & I had the same idea - why don't we reclaim our own bodies and fitness and use them to raise both awareness of this health injustice and also money to help those women. Su worked behind the scenes to create a workable solution with the Al Ahli Hospital in Gaza, put together an Embrace appeal and, tackling the hills together, we ran!

My personal challenge continued as I went on to run the full London Marathon 6 weeks later - just eight months after my breast cancer surgery - and I was delighted personally to raise over £5,500 for Al Ahli.

Due to a change in my personal circumstances, I no longer volunteer for Embrace, but I value the friendships that I have made and continue to support the work that they do.

More importantly, perhaps, I continue to hold the women of Gaza and the work of Al Ahli in my heart.

If you have memories of being part of the Embrace family that you’d like to share, send them to our office or email them to editor@embraceme.org