May you have a blessed and joyful Christmas as you celebrate the birth of our Lord. Have a happy and safe holiday weekend!!

Well, it’s mid-day on Wednesday and, as promised, here is the link to the Christianity Today article about BCP.

Thank you all for your prayers and well wishes. The BCP 2008 team is back home safe and sound after an exciting and blessed time in Israel and Palestine. We were only held up for two hours by Israeli security on the way out of Tel Aviv and we are very happy to be home. Thank you again for standing with us.

Now, we have some catching up to do. We have a blog entry to write about our last delivery day and we expect to have that up by the weekend. We also have some pictures and audio files to upload. Please bear with us as we work to get everything sorted and uploaded.

We know we will be blogging tomorrow (Wednesday) so expect a blog entry hopefully by mid-day. We were told the Christianity Today article will be online by then. So, when you get the blog entry you’ll know what it’s about.

Today was a day in which I mentally kept repeating: “For God so loved the world…” because I was constantly shown examples of God’s selfless love in the people here.

Today, we delivered gifts at several locations including: a school for children suffering from post-traumatic stress, a school for children with visual impairment, and a center for special needs children.

Today was a day in which we heard a story of children whose deaf father was killed in front of them because he could not hear that a curfew was in place during the early days of the 2nd intifada. We met children with severe mental disabilities- some so severe that they could not even walk or feed themselves. We met at least one savant and we met autistic children and children suffering from Down’s syndrome.

We also met scores of people willing to give of themselves to work with children suffering from some of the most challenging mental conditions. We even met a staff so committed to the children they served that at one point they went months without being paid.

Indeed, God so loved the whole world…He loved and still loves the righteous and the unrighteous, the Arab and the Jew, the Muslim and the Christian, the child and the adult; the gifted and the disabled. His love knows no bounds.

And, when the world asks where is God? Why is there so much suffering? Tell them God is here in Bethlehem where He first entered the world. Tell them He never left. Tell them that God so loved the world, all of it, that he gave His one and only Son and his Body is still here- struck down but not destroyed. Tell them there is a church willing to give of itself for the less fortunate. Tell them today Jews and Arabs worked together because their faith in Christ.

And, tell them to come… Tell them not to be afraid. Tell them He wasn’t…

Finally, please note we may not have a blog entry tomorrow as we are heading to Nazareth and may not have internet access where we are going…Please continue to pray for us and note that the live feed will still be up and running.

It was the first time I experienced the rain in Bethlehem. I didn’t think much of it at the time, but in retrospect, there was something special about rain falling on God’s Land as we call it in our home (our children do not yet know of Israel and Palestine, they only know of God’s Land.) It is late and I know I am waxing poetic, so please forgive the romanticism.

Back to business, Tomorrow we will be delivering gifts. We initially wanted to deliver gifts on Monday and today, but most schools are closed because of a Muslim holiday. We knew this prior to coming to Bethlehem, so we modified our plans and headed off to Jerusalem during the day. In the evening went to pay for the Christmas gifts we will be delivering tomorrow.

In Jerusalem, we had the opportunity to visit the Mount of Olives, Bethany, Gethsemane and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. We’ve been recording songs we’ve sang at some of the locations we’ve visited and we’re hoping to upload some mp3 files before we return to the States- The acoustics in some of the ancient churches are just amazing, we can’t wait to share the audio.

By the way, we may be recording a radio interview tomorrow for a national show. We were contacted today, so we’ll see how it goes. That should be at 8pm Jerusalem time (1pm EST) so please pray for us at that time. Afterwards, one of our team members was invited to a bazaar to help needy local families at a nearby church. Perhaps we will head over there if we can.

I wish I could write more, but it is already 1am here and it’s been a long night. I can’t wait for tomorrow’s update!

Today was a day in which the present and past walked together. The morning and afternoon were spent familiarizing the team with Bethlehem and visiting various sites. We began by visiting the Herodium to see the ancient Roman ruins and the place where Herod the Great was buried (the discovery of the grave was only made in May of 2007). After the Herodium we visited Sheppard’s Field, the Church of the Nativity, Solomon’s Pools then finally we drove through the Dheisheh refugee camp.

While we visited the sites of the past for most of the day, the present was ever near. From the Herodium we saw Israeli settlements and settler outposts in the West Bank. We also saw a little of Dheisheh and had the opportunity to “talk politics” with local Palestinians. So, as we walked through the past during the day, the present was always at the periphery.

In the evening, we visited the home of the director from one of the centers we will be delivering gifts to. Here is when the present took over completely. You see, his wife’s sister died two days ago in Gaza and his other sister-in-law flew in from Greece to be with his wife. Both longed to visit Gaza, but neither could attend their sister’s funeral.

Even with the grief, they still took the time to cook a generous meal for our team. They opened their home to us, shared their best food, and rejoiced because of our presence. It reminded me of last year when a Christian was killed in Gaza and a Christmas concert/memorial service was held for him in Beit Jala. That is the spirit of the people here: joy and sadness together. We encouraged our hosts and they blessed us… That was our day.

Please know it is difficult to send live feed updates from the West Bank. We can only use our iPhone when we are connected to Israeli towers (i.e. Orange or Cellcom). In the Palestinian areas, using the phone would be cost-prohibitive. We’ll try to use computers to update the feed when we can in the upcoming days.

Tomorrow, we will be in Jerusalem so we’ll updating the feed as we go along. Please continue to pray for us and for the people here.

Today, we worshiped at the Alliance church with Pastor Jack Sara in East Jerusalem. I only have the opportunity to worship in Arabic when I am in the Holy Land and I very much enjoy it. I can’t say why, perhaps I feel like the “Arab” part of me becomes fully integrated with my faith or perhaps vice-versa.

During the service, we heard the Muslim call to prayer. It was a reminder of how close in proximity Arabs, Jews, and Muslims are in Jerusalem. One can never escape the reality of the situation here. It is ever-present.

After church, we spent some time walking in the Old City, visiting the temple mount, and having discussions with people we met on the streets. We had an interesting discussion with a Christian and Muslim Palestinian about politics, non-violence, Hamas and Hezbollah. I also engaged an American Jew supportive of the settler movement about land, conflict, history and politics. Our discussion got a little heated for, as you may know, the settler movement is on the far right wing of the Israeli political landscape.

In the evening we sat down with Messianic and Arab believers. It was a thought provoking evening for the team as we got to hear their criticisms of us. There was some tension at a couple of points in the conversation, but we all learned much. This is the most difficult part of the day to enunciate. But let me try.

What I tried to do during the evening was to play moderator and make sure there were no uncomfortable silences.

It was interesting to hear how Messianic and Arab believers struggle with their identities. Who are they? Is an Israeli believer less of a Jew? Their Jewish friends tell them they are no longer Jewish, that they are traitors.

At the same time, Israeli-Arab believers don’t feel fully Israeli because Israel is defined as a Jewish and they will always be on the outside. They, by definition, cannot be equals. Yet, among Arabs, they at times feel more Israeli because they have grown up among Israelis and understand their concerns and perspectives. So, they at times feel less Arab.

They asked us to remember that the conflict is not about just about issues, it is about people- real people with jobs, children, responsibilities, hopes, dreams and fears- people who are caught up between worlds and in a situation most often beyond their control. They strive for unity in Christ, but they are often torn by their cultures of whom they are a part and of whom they are often apart.

Tomorrow, we’re off to see Bethlehem and Tuesday we’ll start the first round of gift delivery. For now, I am off to bed. It is almost midnight here. The team has all turned in.

Please continue to pray for us. By thew way, if you missed yesterday’s blog entry about our first day, you can read it here. We had some trouble emailing updates yesterday but we think all has been resolved now.

Greetings from Bethlehem. What a day it’s been! We arrived in Ben Gurion at 9am and were questioned by security for 5 hours on arrival… I, Ali, was taken in twice for questioning by two different people and 20+ people were recruited to remove every item we had out of our bags (carry-ons and checked-in bags) for inspection and x-ray.

We’ve hardly slept in two days and were absolutely exhausted. Jenni’s father ended up sleeping on the floor in the holding area. We weren’t treated badly, we were just thoroughly examined.

During my second questioning period, I was told we were going to go through each and every contact name in my phone. I have an iPhone with easily 1000+ contacts. I was not looking forward to a questioning period, but God had a plan.

Before long, I began praising God for giving me an opportunity for a long discussion with an Israeli. The long conversation gave me an opportunity to encourage an Israeli security officer to consider her relationship with God and the possibility of meeting with Arabs in the future to explore reconciliation.

She asked me if I thought it was possible for Arabs and Jews to live side-by-side. My response to her was: “We have two choices: the past or the future. Our past has been filled with conflict, the future can be different; we have the choice to wage war or wage peace -both are very difficult things to do. The difference is: in waging war, you engage your enemy, in waging peace you often have to engage yourself.”

I told her I was a Christian and was committed to forgiveness and reconciliation and that Jesus encouraged us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. I winced inwardly when she reminded me that there are Christian militias who aims are not noble.

She also told me she wished more people had a stronger belief in God. She told me that she did not believe in Christ, nor could she as a Jew. She also told me that there was a time she had stronger religious convictions but that was a long time ago.

Before I was allowed to leave I told her not to give up on God because He will not give up on her. I also told her I would be praying for her. I’m just one arab and she is just one jew, but perhaps a little seed was planted today. I pray to God it was.

It was still another hour after being released before we got our bags. We were hungry, tired, stressed and frustrated but, we managed.

We ended up getting out around two and instead of going to Bethlehem to rest as was our initial plan, we ended up waiting for the Iowa team to arrive at 2:45. We then drove 45 minutes to Bethlehem.

We had dinner with our friends from the Bible college and are now settling down to sleep for the evening.

Thank you to those of you who followed us on live.bcProject.info or twitter and prayed for us.

Tomorrow, we’re off to Jerusalem to worship in the am; then we’ll have some free time exploring the city before heading to dinner with Israeli and Arab believers.

My verses for tomorrow are Colossians 2:2-3:

“My purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge”

Be blessed,
Ali

Well, it’s hard to believe, but BCP leaves early Friday morning! Before we go we have a quick update for you, our friends.

First, we want to introduce you to our live feed: live.bcProject.info. How does it work? It’s simple: in addition to our nightly blog we will be sending short updates throughout each day as we deliver gifts, meet with Israelis and Palestinians, and visit the biblical sites.

The live feed updates itself every two minutes, so once you visit the page, you can leave it open and you will get our as they happen; it’s a good way to follow the project along as if you were there.

live.bcProject.info will have our 20 most recent updates and our twitter page will have an archive of all our updates to-date (in case you want to go back and see what you missed.)

Second, we have prayer requests from our team. They are below. Please remember us, and please know you will be in our thoughts and that you have our thanks.

1. Pray for Jerusalem as the Spirit of God leads through David in Psalm 122. Shalom.
2. Pray for unity of the team and for good physical, spiritual, emotional health. Salaam.
3. Pray for safety in our travels – going and coming. Shalom.
4. Pray for effectiveness in our ministry, as God leads and directs. Salaam.
5. Pray for true reconciliation, in every sense of the word. Shalom.
6. Pray for the Bethlehem Bible College and the church with we wil be serving. Salaam.
7. Pray that we will possess God’s love for all the Palestinians and Israelis. Shalom.
8. Pray for divine appointments while in Israel. Salaam.
9. Pray that all the nations will praise Him. Shalom.
10. Pray God will be glorified! Salaam.

It took us some time to get this done, but here it is finally! Click on the player below to listen to the Truth for our Time interview with Tamara Scott on Iowa’s Praise 940am.