The Peace team from the Mennonite Churches is back from Bethlehem, where they helped in rebuilding the Christmas Lutheran Church.
One of the members of the team writes his impressions.

David Kreider, Special for Come and See, Harrisonburg, VA, June 16, 2002

The Presbyterian Church which includes 2.5 Million Members in the USA elected Fahd Abu-Akel for the its highest position. He had spoken movingly to the Presbyterian Assembly of his memory of the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, when he was a 4-year-old child living in the Galilean village of Kuffer-Yassif, when Israeli troops drove his family from their home.


Presbyterian News Service, by Bill Lancaster, June 15, 2002

B'nai Brith Canada, a pro Israel Jewish Group, and Christians for Israel, an international pro-Israel evangalical group, have formed a "historic alliance" aimed at improving inter-faith relations and boosting support for Israel within the Canadian government

By NOAH SARNA, The Jerusalem Post, June 13

Interior Minister Eli Yishai reasserted his statements made Thursday at Bar Ilan University, according to which the willingness of non-Jewish soldiers in the IDF to "fight everywhere" is questionable.

The Jerusalem Post, June 14, 2002

Rev. Alex Awad, United Methodist Missionary and the Pastor of the East Jerusalem Baptist Church writes an open letter to president George Bush on the eve of his meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon

Special for Come and See, June 7, 2002

"People are in need, and we want to share God's love in a concrete way," said Paul Lawrence, a Southern Baptist worker among Palestinian Arabs who is coordinating the project. "There is a real feeling of hopelessness among the Palestinians. They don't see their lives going anywhere. There's no future in their dreams."

Baptist Presss,May 29, 2002, By Erich Bridges

For the last eight years the Jerusalem Friendship Fund collected donations from the evangelical community in aid of immigration and welfare projects in Israel. To date, the fund has distributed around $60 million.

By Yair Sheleg, Haaretz, May 29, 2002

"I was in Ramallah hours after the Israeli troops left and the day they were expected to return following a suicide bombing south of Tel Aviv".
"I was in Bethlehem during the siege and the standoff at the Church of the Nativity. I was in Palestinian East Jerusalem".
"Now, I know Israel and Palestine more fully. Do I no longer love Israel? God forbid. But I love it more realistically and responsibly.".

By Ron Brackin, ASSIST News Service, May 27, 2002

Denton Lotz, General Secretary of the Baptist World Alliance writes a letter to the Israeli Ambassador to the US: "We are very concerned about the state of our minority Baptist groups in all of the Middle East and Israel".
The wife of Gaza Baptist minister has not been allowed to return home after a visit to her family in Jordan.

Special for Come and See, May 23, 2002