Dr. Bishara Awad, the president of BBC, has spent the last three weeks tirelessly sharing information about Palestine and BBC’s ministries in California. Presentations were made in churches in Pasadena (Lake Avenue Church), Irvine (Mariners Church), Newport Beach (St Andrew’s Presbyterian), Rolling Hills (Rolling Hills Covenant), and in the Bay area (First Presbyterian of Hayward). Informal presentations were also made in several private homes hosted by BBC friends, and the Lion’s club extended an invitation which was attended by the mayor of Pasadena.
AUGUST 2001 BBC UPDATE
Academic News:
Dr. Bishara Awad, the president of BBC, has spent the last three weeks tirelessly sharing information about Palestine and BBC’s ministries in California. Presentations were made in churches in Pasadena (Lake Avenue Church), Irvine (Mariners Church), Newport Beach (St Andrew’s Presbyterian), Rolling Hills (Rolling Hills Covenant), and in the Bay area (First Presbyterian of Hayward). Informal presentations were also made in several private homes hosted by BBC friends, and the Lion’s club extended an invitation which was attended by the mayor of Pasadena.
Bishara also spent a full day in the company of John Mathews, director of the California branch of Open Doors. During the final week of August, Dr. Bishara attended the World Vision Annual Council Meeting, at which he presented a Bible study and read passages from the scriptures in tandem with WV Jerusalem director Tom Getman. He is scheduled to return to Bethlehem on 4 September. Arrangements are already underway for yet another trip to the US in October, this time to the Washington DC area, where Dr. Bishara will be in attendance at the Third International Conference of the Holy Land Ecumenical Foundation, to be held at the National Presbyterian Church on the 19th and 20th. Following the conference, Dr. Bishara hopes to spend several weeks sharing with churches and contacts in the DC area.
The new academic year is scheduled to open with the first day of classes on 10 September. Instructors are starting to appear in order to prepare lessons and materials, and students are reuniting after a long summer. A new secretary, Sanya Bandak, has been recruited for the academic office and will replace Sawsan and Nisreen, both of whom are expecting very soon. Nisreen is due to deliver in October and Sawsan in December. We look forward to having Sanya with us, and our prayers and best wishes are with Sawsan and Nisreen as they experience the gift of first-time motherhood.
Nicola Kaliliya has been recruited to serve as our on-call computer technical support person, a much-needed resource for the administration in this age when most correspondence takes place via e-mail. Nicola rescued us when we were infected by the nasty SirCam virus, and pgraded our server availability. We appreciate not only his technical expertise but also his personable manner, and look forward to having him with us for a long time to come.
German language classes have been added to the menu of community services available to the local population this fall.
A new 16-minute video of BBC’s ministries, entitled The Living Water, has been produced and is now available through our gift shop. Certain BBC friends and supporters have been selected to receive a complimentary copy, and those are already in the process of being mailed (Thanks to Pat Grom and the office staff of News Service 2000). We encourage all of our supporters to procure a copy of The Living Water and to pass its message on. This will not only promote the vital role that BBC continues to play in the Holy Land, but it will also foster increased insight and understanding about the current situation. Send for your copy today!
Many thanks to everyone who took the time to write to Vision For Israel. We received a reply from them on Sunday 2 September with the following remark:
“We have removed the paragraph in question from our website and will comment on it in our future Joseph’s Newsletter.” So it seems that the Lord opened their hearts to the urgency of our concerns and the sincerity of the testimonies which were written on our behalf. Thanks again for standing in solidarity with us.
Project News:
The Turkey pastoral retreat, which had to be postponed in June because of the difficult traveling conditions at the time, was successfully concluded on 16 August when all participants arrived back safe and sound. The group, which departed on Thursday 9 August, just hours following the fatal Sbarro bombing in Jerusalem, split in two at departure, one group leaving by way of the Allenby bridge to Amman and the other traveling to Istanbul directly via Ben Gurion airport. They then enjoyed a peaceful, reflective, and restorative week by the seashore at Kusadasi. Thanks once again to World Vision for sponsoring this much-needed trip, and special thanks to Tom Getman for his advocacy on behalf of the local grass-roots pastors and priests who were able to participate.
Franko Ghanim, our accountant who was accepted for enrollment in the two-year MBA program at Regents University in Virginia Beach, left for Amman with the Turkey group and successfully crossed into Jordan minutes before the Allenby bridge was reclosed to Palestinian traffic, due to the Sbarro bombing. He is now happily installed in his shared apartment near the Regents campus, studying hard and getting to know the surroundings. According to a recent e-mail from Franko, who has never traveled outside of the Bethlehem area, “It is a very very nice city. People are lovely. Grace is everywhere.”
Vicki Hanoush, a recent graduate of Bethlehem University’s BA accounting program, is Franko’s replacement in the accounting office. Welcome to Vicki and best wishes to Franko!
Shepherd Society News:
Shepherd Society has been awaiting word on its latest proposal for funds to continue its humanitarian relief project which has been providing local residents with money for food, bills, school fees, and medical treatments because of the catastrophic unemployment rates and shortages of income due to the current violence. On 31 August, we received word that the proposal had been turned down. BBC will continue to work with PMU to find other possible funding sources. Needless to say, with school opening and the extensive destruction which took place last week, these funds are badly needed. More than one thousand families are on the waiting list for social assistance, and no doubt many more were rendered needy after last week’s dramatic events.
Visitor/Volunteer News:
Joanne Lucas arrived at the campus on 23 August from southern California. Joanne is a TEFL instructor with a Master’s degree doing independent Arabic language study during her stay, and it has been arranged for her to teach the introductory English course for the fall semester. Joanne may also become involved in the English Bible, a weekly Bible Study session for women, and the community center English language program, so she hauled a hefty selection of teaching materials to help tackle her various objectives. The tasks confronting Joanne will require a great deal of patience, flexibility, creativity, and determination, and we are sure that she will bring all this and more to the job. Joanne was given a baptism by fire her first week in town, when Bet Jala and Aida refugee camp were reoccupied by Israeli forces over a 48-hour period and heavy fighting ensued. She emerged from the experience strengthened in her faith and full of resolve to accomplish the job for which she came. We look forward to having Joanne with us!
Alistair Saunders also arrived back in country on the 1st of September, after a brief organizational trip to the UK. Alistair will be teaching two classes this semester, teaching skills and systematic theology, as well as working with the MEATE student registration program.
Christine Bouwer of the UK is staying in the guesthouse for a three-week period while she visits the area.
Prayer Requests:
As schools open for the new academic year, parents are expressing renewed concern and fear about the deteriorating situation and the possible dangers children face as they go to and from school. We pray that children everywhere will be safe from harm, and we pray that a solution will be found soon to end the violence which continues to take so many lives and cause chaos and distress throughout the region.
Neighborhoods in Bet Jala and Aida refugee camp were reoccupied in the early morning hours of Tuesday 28 August as violence was renewed in response to the assassination of a major Palestinian political figure on Monday afternoon. As a result of the reoccupation, one person was killed and over 40 individuals were injured, some with severe injuries. Homes were destroyed; many people including orphan children were held hostage; churches and mosques were violated; and the inhabitants of the Bethlehem district lived through three days of non-stop shooting and shelling, according to a report issued by the Holy Land Trust.
BBC had only just completed repairs to the building for damage which was sustained in April after massive shelling of the area. New solar panels were installed in July, and last week three of them were damaged yet again and will require replacement. Needless to say, we are thankful that the damage was not more extensive.
