Lots of bad news comes from Gaza in the last few years. This heavily populated land where more than 1.3 Million Palestinians live under occupation is always on the news where different Palestinian militant groups are fighting the Israeli presence. According to recent polls in Israel, more than 70% of the Israeli public is ready for a complete withdrall of the Israeli forces from Gaza, even without reaching any agreement with the Palestinians.

One can say, ?Can something good come out of Gaza??. An answer to this question comes in the words of the Bible: ?Come and See?. The Gaza Baptist Church is the only evangelical Church in the whole of the Gaza Strip and is lead by Pastor Hanna Masaad, a native of Gaza and a Fuller Seminary graduate. This church seeks to reach out to the whole people of Gaza with the message of Love and salvation in Jesus Christ.

The Gaza Baptist Church owns the oldest Public Library in the Whole Gaza Strip .The name of the is ?Library of Culture and Light? and it was established in 1968. The library has around 10,000 registered members. It includes 17,000 books including Christian books and the number of people who visit and use the library is around 700 to 1200 people. This library has been a tool to serve the larger community and the church is using the library to share God's love through Jesus Christ. In addition, the presence of the library helped to strengthen the presence of the Christian community where more than 99% of the people in Gaza are Muslims.

The library is facing a serious challenge though. The owner of the building where the church is renting has requested the Baptist Church to leave the building in 100 days. He even used physical threats. The best option for the church is to build a one-floor building in a piece of land that was purchased by the church last year and move the library to that location. The church has launched an appeal for friends and supporters around the world to help in this project as the estimated amount needed for this project is 45,000 USD, the cost for building a 200 square meter one-floor building to be used for the library.

Donations and inquiries about this project can be directed to bader@baptist.org.il