Monday, April 20

Happy Birthday Lukas! This will post a couple of days late but the thought is there!

Monday dawned with another beautiful day. Our weather has been perfect! Sunny but cool. Such a gift. We were seeing projects which our organization supports to support the Christian church and programs here. This was a good day for me as we saw a school. We visited four projects that have been aided by our organization. After breakfast and devotions, we headed to a Greek Orthodox school run for children in Bethlehem. Both Christian and Muslim children attend here. It runs K-12 with 550 students. It was just a lovely school with wide open spaces, cheerful colors, and generous supplies and materials. We visited some classrooms, young and older. I was in my element! The principal was an amazing gifted man – soft spoken but passionate about his work and his students. His personal story though is tragic. A number of years ago his family of 4 was stopped at a checkpoint and the car behind held some suspected terrorists. Both cars were fired upon and all of the family were shot and their 5 year old daughter killed. But he still feels called to be here and serve the Lord.
Our next stop was the School of Joy for disabled children. It is run by the Catholics and the Father led us around. The children are educated and taught skills to help them have some income generating skills. The Father told us the story about a family with a disabled son. His father regretted his birth. But after the boy came to the school and learning woodworking, he makes enough money to support the family. He is now considered a blessing.
There was also an older young man there named Peter so I enjoyed interacting with him. There is a shop at the school so we shopped! I found my Nativity set there so that felt good.
Today was shopping day as we visited so many projects that have shops. Our next stop was a women’s support group which teaches income generating skills to village women. More shopping! We met in a space that was really a cave. Very cool! Then lunch was prepared for us by another women’s group.
After lunch we went over to Bethlehem Bible College. It has been here since 1979 and trains Christians for leadership and service. The facility is lovely with beautiful and peaceful grounds. The staff are impressive and we had the opportunity to hear from one of their professors. He shared the Biblical perspective on the Holy Land. Very good but I’m sure others might take issue. He is retiring and will be moving to Eugene, OR! I would love to get him up to speak at home. Again, we hit their shop and made our contribution to the college’s bottom line.
A short ride brought us back to our hotel. We gathered for a debriefing time. There is so much to talk about and the conversation was passionate and occasionally intense. Very valuable. Some of us then took a walk back through the city to see a drawing by the artist Banksy, of a little girl patting down a soldier. It is painted on a concrete slab, just tucked away by the street. Then we continued on to the actual tall concrete wall and walked along it for a bit. Back to the hotel and dinner. Some of our group went out to dinner and hookah but I chose to stay and eat with friends at the hotel. We laughed that we were the boring group but conversation continued to be helpful and fun.
Future serving opportunities abounded from today. I am excited to see what God will have for me.