March 31, 2002

Happy Easter

[West Bank, Palestine] Easter in the Holy Land! Fantastic, right? No way!!

I knew there was no chance of me leaving safely this morning before daylight, so I stayed in Bethlehem. Christmas Lutheran Church in Bethlehem was packed though. A handful of internationals who normally worship in Jerusalem were present. They were unable to leave the area, so they decided to join our service. Dr. Mitri Raheb gave a good sermon and nice communion.

I was surprised that the church was so full, because many of the congregation is from Beit Jala, and that place is full of tanks. Later in the day my good neighbor Ed arrived from Jerusalem. The checkpoint was closed, so he had to walk through a field to get here. Several people told me that about 35 tanks are sitting at the Bethlehem checkpoint. Say a prayer for Bethlehem.

At 1:00pm the mayor of Bethlehem announced that Israeli tanks were expected to massively invade the area by 2:00. Helicopters were flying overhead, and I saw a lot of men carrying guns in the street.

Sometime around then I heard of a suicide bombing in Haifa which killed at least a dozen people. And later in the day there was another one at an Israeli settlement near Bethlehem. Five suicide bombings in the last five days.

My Israeli visa expires this week, so I need to get out of here for a while. I'm packing things now to leave, and I will leave as soon as I can. I may stay in Jerusalem for several days before leaving the country. I am not certain if I will be able to update my website or not, but I'm sure I will have access to email. If you're interested in the continuing events around Bethlehem, please subscribe to my mailing list. I'll try to send out stories and photos through it. You can subscribe to my mailing list near the bottom of my homepage. (Enter your email address and click 'join.' You will receive an email asking if you really want to join. Please reply to the email, and you'll be on my list. Thanks.)

Happy Easter!
Bob