homes where they lived under virtual house arrest for more than a month, BosNewsLife learned Friday May 3. The news came as European Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana suggested in an interview that elsewhere in Bethlehem the stand-off between Palestinian gunmen and Israeli soldiers around the Church of the Nativity may be over in "the next few hours"
"I am well, though I am finding the last month of house arrest to be somewhat tiresome by now," said Alistair Sanders, a teacher at the Bethlehem Bible College in an e-mail message obtained by BosNewsLife.
Nearby, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat also enjoyed another day in relative freedom Friday, May 3, after having been confined to his headquarters in Ramallah for more than a month with Israeli tanks and snipers posting outside.
Sanders stressed that although the situation "continues to be volatile" and "the endless cycle of violence shows no sign of slowing or stopping," there are some hopeful signs. "At first we were completely confined under curfew, but in recent weeks the curfew has been lifted more and more frequently, usually for four hours every three days or so," Sanders said.
He reported that during those hours "the centre of Old Bethlehem is packed with people frantically shopping and selling." Sanders noted that "at first there was no fresh food" but that gradually an increasing number of fresh produce, fruit and vegetables are available.
CHICKENS
"The other day I saw chickens for sale, literally, off the back of a lorry. Dead and plucked chickens, that is -I also saw a man taking a whole live goat into his car. Needless to say I am still living on chocolate," he added.
The teacher, who along with his colleagues and students lived through gunfire, death and destruction, stressed he has not given up hope that Christ will heal the wounds of both Jews, Arabs and Palestinians, as "this coming Sunday is Eastern Easter."
Sanders said he was confirmed in that opinion by an evangelist in Bethlehem who had walked over 14,000 miles (about 22,000 kilometres) with a huge wooden cross. "He told me he had been walking around the world carrying this cross for seventeen years, talking to people about Jesus and the Cross."
SUFFERING
Sanders: "This man had suffered for his witness to Jesus, including imprisonments and beatings so severe that they left his skull exposed, requiring over one hundred stitches and a skin- graft."
He explained that the evangelist stuck in his mind "for several days…I felt impressed and humbled and ashamed, because I had been thinking how great I was for giving up all the comforts of home to come to Bethlehem (from the UK) to serve God and His people here. In truth what I am doing is nothing compared to what this man had given up…"
SPIRITUAL LESSON
Sanders, who tries to return to the UK later this month, said he also learned a spiritual lesson during his first year as a missionary worker. "While there is so much pain, hatred, suffering and killing in this unholy land, while Rachel still weeps for her children who are no more, God must look upon this world and its people with tears in His eyes. And look for people who will embrace all this hurt with His love," he said.
However in an opinion story for BosNewsLife, Israel expert Israel Rafalovich suggested Friday, May 3, that Christians are continuing to leave Israel amid concern about violence. "Since the creation of Israel in 1948, the exodus has reduced numbers of Christians Bethlehem from 95 percent to 45 percent of the population in December 2001. Always a minority within Palestine, they are now a minority within their Christian heartland," he said.
