Lisa McQuery, Linga Reporter
This past weekend, the new year started with a miraculous gift from God when He allowed His followers an opportunity to praise and worship Him in a country known for its controversy when it comes to Christianity. Palestine is not a place one thinks of when the subject of Christianity and the freedom to worship comes up. However, through His grace, those who joined the conference were fearless and confident in the Lord’s presence over the weekend, laboring away in diligence, prayer and helpful hands and ears to other members in need.
The Bethlehem conference, The Crossing (Al Obhor), began with hired coaches rolling out of the Rama church parking lot at nine AM on Friday, January 2nd, 2015. Along the way stopping off in Bi'ina to pick up a fellow group of church goers also on their way to Bethlehem for an exciting and rewarding weekend in the Palestinian controlled zone. The pastors who graciously devoted their time and spiritual guidance to the conference included, Pastor Bishara Khazen from the church in Bi’ina; Ziad Farraj the Pastor of Rama Baptist Church; Pastor Majdi Anwar from Jerusalem; and native Jordanian, Pastor Andraus Abu Ghazaleh.
At one o’clock the eager group arrived in the town of Beit Sahour, famous solely due to it being the location in which the gospels recount the story of the three wise men having seen the star while tending to their flock by night, which ultimately led them to witness the birth of Christ.
There, some paired off and wandered around, eventually finding themselves at the well-known “Shepherd’s Field”, while others instead had a delicious lunch at the “Shepherd’s” restaurant just down the road a piece.
After lunch and a little walk, the coaches drove the large group of one hundred and eleven people to their hotel in Bethlehem, “The Shepherd Hotel”. There, everyone had the opportunity to unpack, unwind or take a little time to sight-see after check-in. At six o’clock dinner was served in the hotel’s restaurant. A smorgasbord of food was served buffet-style, catering to everyone’s Middle-Eastern pallets. A dozen different dishes could be found, including but not limited to humus, Turkish salad, and Baba Ganoush.
Once everyone’s stomachs were full from satisfaction, but before sleep took effect, the group was encouraged to head into the King’s Hall where a church service was to start at seven-thirty PM. Salim Hanna, the pastor from the affiliated church in Turan, spoke a few words first reading from the book of Joshua, chapter three. He explained that the crossing over into the land of Jordan was more than just something literal, but also something metaphorical which can be applied to our spiritual lives. Meaning, that we can cross over in the spiritual sense with God and our relationship with Him. Following his opening Bible message, a long worship service was conducted by the worship team members. Following the band, came Pastor Andraus Abu Ghazaleh, who gave a sermon on relying on God‘s caring and having confidence in Him, which would lead him into his next several sermons the following day. That evening, after the sermon and more worship, the group in attendance had a long evening of fellowship, meet and greet and finally topping off the night with a walk to the church of the Nativity - the place of which Jesus was supposedly born.
The following morning, Saturday, January 3rd, 2015, the members of the conference began their day with breakfast at seven-thirty AM, once again met by delicious cuisine, including, Labane. After the scrumptious meal, a church service at nine-fifteen began, first with a long worship service, and eventually segued into the continuation of the Pastor’s message from the night before, on which he preached the importance of letting go of worry and fear in our lives. He reminded those present, that God is in control and that by worrying we are feeding into Satan’s plan of controlling us rather than the Lord. Worry begets more worry and if we are worried, it is essentially saying that the problems we have in our lives are too big for God and He can’t take care of us. We have to suffer through the struggles in our lives in order to reach the Lord’s will. Referencing the story of Hezekiah in 2 Kings Chapter 20, he compared the life the king was living before the miracle God granted him, to what it became after the miracle occurred. His walk with the Lord actually grew weaker, because he was focused too much on the miracle and not on the fact that the Lord had done this for him. The pastor asked the congregation, “What do you do with the years God gives you?” which is most assuredly an important query for us all to ponder and on which we should reflect.
Following the first of three services, the congregation was parted with prayer, and then given a half hour break to go for a walk or have a bite to eat. When the members of the church returned to the King’s Hall conference room, they were led with some more worship, followed by prayer and yet another message from Pastor Asod, who began the sermon with a passage from Matthew, chapter 6 verses 24-34. He spoke about wanting and asking God for godly wisdom, and how we can attain this. Going into detail about the seven pillars of one’s spiritual life with the Lord, he listed and went through each individual part to highlight just how significant each one is to our walk with Christ. If one of these parts is not met sufficiently, then each other pillar will crumble.
The group then broke for four hours of free time, and were welcomed back for dinner at the hotel at 6 PM. Once again greeted with savory Israeli food, including Lubee and an array of salads. After dinner, they proceeded to the last service of the day, in which the pastor spoke about the work of God, being good and faithful believers in Him, and that the work in the life of a believer can not be separated from God. Philippines 1:6 and 2:16 were his references to this message.
Following the service, there was more time of fellowship and at eleven PM the congregation all decided to go out for late night ice cream, walking a bit of a distance to a little hole-in-the-wall gelataria/restaurant called, “Little Italy”. There, “Happy Birthday” was sung to more than a few people who had birthdays either coming up or recently passed. The mood was light-hearted and fun, and the closeness of the group was evident in the warmth and love for one another.
The last day of the conference, Sunday, January 4th, the group started off the day in typical fashion as in days past with traditional food at breakfast, and then later spent their last morning in the conference hall, listening to the last sermon of the weekend, given by Pastor Magdy Anwar, who talked about living a real life of faith in Jesus, who has given us so much more than what we can visualize for ourselves in our day-to-day lives.
After the service, which included prayer and more fellowship amongst the members, the group packed up and checked out of the hotel, dropping off their bags with the bus and were free to roam around Bethlehem for a couple of hours before the coach departed from Israel’s neighboring country.
The conference was met with great reception and praise, and was an encouraging force in the lives of many who were in attendance. The outcome was just what had been prayed for: that the lives of those present would be touched somehow by the Lord and the Holy Spirit, and by the grace of God, that is exactly what happened.
