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drinks and breads. The local elementary school rents out its huge gymnasium for parties but offered it at no cost for the kids and staff to use for the whole weekend. The local bus company, when told what the bus was needed for, gave a discount on the price, glad to be part of the deed.

The weekend arrived and at 5 P.M. on Friday the bus arrived with the close to 50 counselors and 28 campers, and everyone was carefully and lovingly unloaded, carried, and helped into the gymnasium. Drinks and snacks were waiting and it was only when the host families started arriving to pick up their charges that I realized that this was not just Ahuva's Shabbat. This Shabbat was Karnei Shomron's too. Apart from the communal part of the weekend there were 28 families who were going to experience something very special in their homes. Twenty eight separate worlds which would be affected by the next 30 hours. I saw whole families arriving, squeezed excitedly into the family cars, wanting to be part of greeting their guests. Ahuva was checking lists and telling each host which child and counselorsometimes two counselors if necessarywould be joining them. It was a beautiful sight. I saw no discomfort or distaste with the strange noises or distorted bodies of the children. The looks, the exchanges of touches, the smiles that passed between them, were full of compassion and openness.

Friday night's prayer services to welcome in the Sabbath were held in the gymnasium and Ahuva had invited the local Bnei Akiva chapter to join them. My husband and I went to participate and to soak in the incredible atmosphere. One teenage boy with severe cerebral palsy led the services, his body tilted awkwardly over his prayer book, but his words proud and strong. Every paragraph evolved into song and the mood was one of rejoicing. It was spiritually moving. "Friends" staff and the local Karnei Shomron crowd started dancing, joining hands with the children, putting aside their walkers and holding on to their arms so they could join the circle. Mini circles were made around the children strapped into their wheelchairs and one boy stomped clumsily in a private dance of his own to his God, his almost useless legs not preventing him from singing "Let us rejoice to the Lord, we will trumpet to the Rock of our Salvation", his face alight with devotion.

That night the group ate together on its own, and then went to their hosts to sleep. The next day people ate lunch at their hosts' homes. My neighbors stopped

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