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

For more than three years Mar Elias College at Ibillin has jointly with Indianapolis University been constructing University program and an infrastructure towards the inauguration of the first Arab University in Israel.
Bryson Arthur, Head of the Department of Divinity & Holy Land Studies, describes the program they will have.

Special for Come and See, May 22, 2002

Eleven persons will travel to Bethlehem, Palestine, on May 23 to lend support and encouragement to people seriously affected by the recent Israeli army occupation of the West Bank town.
"We pray for strength and perseverence and for vision on the part of all of us as Christian brothers and sisters to be effective ministers of reconciliation in these difficult times".

Special for Come and See, May 19, 2002

Christian Arabs in the Bethlehem area are getting back to normal life - which includes plans to emigrate.
"We have no political agenda except survival".
"Even 20 years ago France and Italy defended the Catholics, and the British protected the Protestants, and the Russians the Orthodox, and now they have stopped looking eastward".


Jerusalem Post, Matthew Gutman May. 16, 2002

The wife of the Baptist Minister in Gaza went to visit her family in Jordan eight months ago. She cannot get back home because the Israeli authorities will not issue her a visa.

Special for Come and See, May 15, 2002