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My friends Danny and Tara volunteer at Nazareth Village, and we spent some time together in Bethlehem over Christmas. They have been doing a good job of bringing the Christmas experiences to life on video. Each clip shows a different part of the few days we spent together in Bethlehem, from the sincere message on Christmas Eve to the parties in Manger Square to the celebration on Christmas morning. The reality of the separation wall surrounding the city was known to the record number of Christmas visitors in the last ten years.

IHT: Crowds begin returning to Bethlehem to celebrate Christmas
CNN: Priests brawl at Jesus’ birthplace

If these videos are not visible in the email, you can click here to view them on my website.

Christmas Eve Service Message - from Beit Sahour YMCA

Christmas Eve in Manger Square

The Wall in Bethlehem

Christmas Day at the Church of the Nativity

View Danny and Tara’s Blog at http://kreideryoder.com/
View more of their YouTube videos at http://www.youtube.com/pdyoder

photos: Jerusalem with the Dintamans

photos: Hebron (Al Khalil)

Click to view photos

The tomb of Abraham’s family or the Patriarchs, is located in Hebron, making it a contentious site for Muslims and Jews. Within the mosque/synagogue, the building is divided along religious lines, with a panel of bulletproof glass adjacent to Abraham’s tomb to prevent cross-fire between sides.

Some of the most intense Israeli Settlements in the West Bank are located here, including Kiryat Arbaa, where a shooting just happened on Friday, two days after we visited the area. I heard about this shooting on the bus back from Jerusalem to Nazareth right after it occured. There hasn’t been a lot of incidents like this in the West Bank recently, so this one is quite unfortunate.

You can read more about the incident on the BBC article here:
West Bank clash leaves three dead - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7162878.stm

photos: Christmas in Bethlehem

Many evenings during the advent season, Nazareth Village puts on an evening live nativity show reenacting the Christmas story. Here are some of the photos from the presentation last night.

View Photos

Ya Laytani Video

Watch a Christmas music video shot at Nazareth Village that is about the first Christmas, sung by a local Arab Christian woman named Rabab. Most of the cast are friends of mine who work and volunteer at the village, both from Nazareth and the states.

To watch, click on the video icon under the first song on this page (http://www.theholylandsounds.com/projects.html), titled “Yalaytanee”

On Christmas Eve, I will make the trek from Nazareth to Bethlehem, retracing the familiar route of Mary and Joseph on the first Christmas. In Bethlehem a service of celebration is held in the Church of the Nativity, the traditional site of the birth of Jesus. Beneath the church lies a small grotto with a 14-point star on the ground surrounded by candles and pilgrims waiting for their turn to bow down and kiss the sacred spot. Christians from all over the world travel to Bethlehem on Christmas Eve for the celebration, joined by a community of Palestinian Christians from Bethlehem.

When I was in Bethlehem last week visiting the Church of the Nativity, I ran into Samer, an old friend that I have known since I studied in the Middle East with EMU in 2002. He and his daughters were visiting the grotto to light candles and prepare to celebrate Christ’s birth. Samer had invited me to his house for dinner three years ago, and we spent an evening squeezing lemons and making fried spinach pirogies. When we met last week, he remembered our meal years ago and invited me back again. We had a wonderful evening catching up on the past years and talking about the upcoming Christmas celebration in Bethlehem.

Samer’s family’s optimistic presence has been an ongoing reminder to me of the hope of the Palestinian Christians. They experience daily the irony of living in a place where the purpose of Jesus’ birth was to bring ‘peace on earth and goodwill to men.’ Their ability to share this peace through hospitality has helped many find hope while waiting for Christ’s coming peace in the midst of despair and conflict.

Thank you for your continued prayer as I serve in the Middle East. I am currently living in Nazareth and volunteering at a guest house, providing many opportunities to interact and share with travelers from all over the world. The last two months have been full of diverse experiences and learning opportunities, and I feel blessed to be able to be here with your support. Much of my time has been spent getting to know my neighborhood as well as the Mennonites working in the region. I am enjoying studying Arabic, and I will continue lessons with increased discipline throughout the winter months.

This fall I have spent a lot of time working on the Jesus Trail, a hiking route connecting the places of Jesus’ ministry in the Galilee. I have been exploring the best walking paths using Hebrew hiking maps and Google Earth and compiling them on http://jesustrail.com. I believe this will be a creative
and authentic way for travelers to experience the adventure of Jesus’ life and ministry.

This Christmas, remember to pray for:
- All the people living here who have been affected by the ongoing Palestinian-Israeli conflict
- Energy and strength as I work with a variety of internet development projects and spend much of the cold and rainy winter months inside on the computer
- Continued progress learning Arabic and Hebrew
- The Eastern Mennonite University cross cultural group studying here this spring semester
- The various Mennonites serving in the region including Nazareth Village and MCC work in Bethlehem and Jerusalem

Thank you for the Christmas cards and emails you have sent. It’s always wonderful to receive kind
words of encouragement from friends at home. I will think of you all on Christmas Eve in Bethlehem.

The following links are posted on my website, http://dplandis.com

View photos from December 2007

The United States Dollar (USD) has been falling greatly on the international market throughout the last five years. This has had a huge affect on Americans working, living and serving overseas. For example, an American living in Europe on a $20,000/year budget from the United States now only has $13,666/year to spend locally compared to five years ago.

This is becoming a crisis for many Americans living abroad and humanitarian aid work that receives funds in USD, as 20-35% decreases in what was once considered the most stable international currency is definitely something to be concerned about.

I think this will require more Americans serving with US-based church organizations in developed countries with strong currencies to find creative ways to work/earn support in-country with local currency. This will require major shift in the way Americans think of their own wealth internationally and financially support their own that then send out. Keep this in mind as you support people living abroad, as their financial needs are increasing because of the failing United States economy.

The video below is from LinkTV and shows a good summary of this change. The two graphs are from Yahoo Finance, indicating the 5-year trend of the USD vs. the EURO and Israeli Shekel.

The USD vs. the EURO

USD vs. the Israeli Shekel

Two new positions with Mennonite Central Committee’s SALT program have opened, one in Bethlehem and one in Jerusalem. SALT assignments are 1 year long and require participants to raise $4300.

- Bethlehem: School Volunteer in Hope Flowers School
- Jerusalem: Archival and Research Office Assistant in Sabeel

For a complete listing of SALT positions, visit the website here.

The December 2007 issue of Franconia Conference’s Intersections magazines has a variety of stories related to peacemaking in the Middle East and Christian/Muslim interactions.

View the entire issue online at http://franconiaconference.org/blog/category/publications/intersections.

Read the articles online:

• A sunset in Bethlehem: Discovering hope in the midst of rubble- Ben Davies
• An advent of peace: Continuing the witness and waiting for God- Stephen Kriss
• Since God is great: Opportunities for peace in the Holy Land- David Landis
• An unpredictable journey: Following the call to bilingual pastoring by Marta Castillo- Marta Castillo
• Living out our committment to peace: Three congregations offer love and hospitality to refugee families- Jessica Walter
• Calling all volunteers: Peaceful Living collaborates with Salford Mennonite Church to meet a growing need- Joe Landis
• Getting out of our comfort zones: This is my story, this is my song- Nate Clemmer
• Telling my story: Sharing hope and a reason to live- Wanda Lindsay
• Philadelphia Praise Center hosts Ramadan feast- Lora Steiner

On Sunday, Eric Kennel and I were invited to drive around the Golan Heights and explore for a day by Benjamin, an Italian/German guest staying at the Fauzi. It felt like we were in another country with a definite eerie post-civilized feeling.

The photos speak for themselves, view them here.

Until 1967, a population of diverse religious followings: Sunni Muslim or Druze, Circassian, Christian Greek Orthodox (whether Syriac or Armenian) peopled the Golan, an excellent, fertile territory thanks to ancient volcanic activity, cultivated by peasants on their small-holdings. Today, piles of stones and dilapidated huts dot the countryside; these ruins are unique testimony to the tragic expulsion of the population by Israeli military forces. In all, 133 villages, encampments or hamlets were partially or completely demolished.

At the end of Road 98 are the ruins of the demolished village of Qushniyeh. It is easy to identify, for it was not completely destroyed, but converted for some time into an Israeli military training center. The mosque and some buildings, riddled with bullet-holes, remain standing. Before its destruction, Qushniyeh had nearly 3,000 inhabitants, a majority of whom were Circassian; the villagers were generally farmers, craftsmen or office workers.

— from Palestine and Palestinians, ATG