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