02/11/2026
Join us this Sunday for worship at 10am where we will welcome Marina and Hanna Alshomali as special guests among us. They will be sharing with us briefly the plight of Bethlehem Christian, and after the service we will be hosting, in the Narthex, a display of handmade olive wood religious articles from Bethlehem available for purchase. These carvings include olivewood Nativity sets, crosses, Christmas ornaments, candle holders, angels and many other religious crafts.
The carvings are handmade by Christian families from Bethlehem who rely on it for their daily bread. More than 70% of the Christian Community in the Holy Land depend upon tourism as their only source of income. For decades those Christians have been enduring many hardships as tourism in Bethlehem has plummeted and access to other sources of income has been sharply restricted due to the ongoing conflict, the wars , the 12 yard wall built around Bethlehem, the COVID-19 pandemic, and recently the catastrophic war in Gaza that has already lasted more than two years.
Because of these circumstances tourists are afraid or unable to visit the Holy Land. This makes it very difficult for the Christian families to find their daily bread and has forced many to immigrate and flee their homeland since they lost their source of income. The Christian population of the Holy Land was 30% in the last century, today it is less than 1%. If it continues like this, in few years we will find no Christians in the land of Christ.
