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.