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Greetings to you from
all of us here in the West Bank of Palestine. It's Christmas
Season - and I get to spend it in Bethlehem, the site where
it all started. Don't you wish you were here too? So I am
inviting you. Come on over for a visit. See the Church of
the Nativity and Shepherd's Fields! Want a preview of what
it is like? Open your Bible and read the Christmas story.
I'm
looking forward to spending Christmas in Bethlehem. I'm
expecting a nice celebration, but I haven't seen many traditional
signs of Christmas here. Maybe it's not celebrated. Where
is Santa Claus? Haven't seen him here. Where are the Christmas
trees? The Christmas lights? Rudolph? Haven't seen any of
them. Haven't heard Elvis singing "Blue Christmas". Doesn't
Bethlehem know about Christmas? I even popped over to the
Jerusalem Mall in Israel, and I couldn't find anything there
either. Let's hope that they have some sort of event commemorating
the day.
Well,
I shouldn't talk like I know all about the Holy Land. I've
only been here for four months now. It's been an interesting
four months, but I haven't seen a lot. It's a short five-mile
trip to Jerusalem, so I've been there a few times, but that's
about it. Maybe you've heard that there is conflict in the
Middle East? Well, this conflict curtails some of my activities.
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Work
I am busy though. I've definitely got a lot to do. I've been
assigned work with various Palestinian peace NGOs (Non-Government
Organizations). I've been spending most of my time recently
at The Palestinian Center for Rapprochement in Beit Sahour.
Sometimes I'm also at the International Center of Bethlehem.
I've worked a bit with Holy Land Trust and Katholische Messe.
I've even dropped by the Bethlehem Bible College a few times.
Since there is no Methodist church here (by design), the kind
folks from the Mennonite Central Committee agreed to sponsor
me for my work visa.
My duties
here include enabling and empowering the local community.
I serve as an information technology engineer, consultant,
teacher and trainer. I assist with technology type projects
- developing websites, creating databases, and programming.
I also try to help document life in Palestine and share
it through our websites using photographs, journals, PowerPoint
presentations, etc. I'll provide my websites at the end
of this newsletter for you to explore.
Language
Palestinians speak Arabic, but I don't. That's why I'm taking
classes. I have a private instructor who is fairly patient
with me. I've firmly established that no matter what the
country or language, I am always the worst in my class.
I figure that sooner or later I'm going to find a language
that I can master, but I've already exhausted most of the
major possibilities.
In Israel
they speak Hebrew, and I'm trying NOT to learn that. Speaking
Hebrew in Palestine could get me into a lot of trouble…and
I could do without extra trouble.
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December 2001 Newsletter
