10/15/2015
Our brothers and sisters in Christ from Baraka Presbyterian Church in Bethlehem, Palestine, are asking us to pray with them on Sunday, October 18, as they stand against injustice and fraud. These Christians are fighting to restore ownership of the Beit El Baraka Bible Conference Center to the Palestinian Christians after it was fraudulently purchased and occupied by Israeli settlers.
Beit El Baraka was built by the Independent Board for Presbyterian Foreign Missions in 1946 before the establishment of the state of Israel. After first being used as a hospital, it was converted in the 1980s into a Bible Conference Center that hosted Christian camps, welcomed tourists and pilgrims, and held conferences for churches from all over the country.
Beit El Baraka flourished for many years and greatly blessed many people. However, the Intifadas (uprisings) in Palestine in the late 1980s caused attendance to diminish. There was also a split in the Bible Presbyterian Church in America that caused the mission board to lose most of its funding. A difficult decision was eventually made in 2008 to sell the property to another mission board from Sweden. The Swedish Mission Board promised to fix up the property and continue using it to serve the Lord and his people.
In May 2015, it was discovered that the Swedish Mission Board was set up solely for the purpose of handing the property over to an Israeli settler group and was never intended to be used as a continuation of the Christian mission. The group has since taken over the property and has made clear that it intends to drive out Palestinians in the area. This is an illegal settlement under Israeli law. However, the Israeli government has not intervened and is instead guarding the settlement with soldiers.
Under the original sale of the property, it is stated that it should be used solely as a mission and that it cannot be sold for other purposes. Christians, Muslims, and Jews, led by members of Baraka Presbyterian Church, have held weekly peaceful marches against the sale and have asked the Israeli government to return the property to the Arab Christian Church, to no avail.
Around 2 percent of the Palestinian population is Christian. Baraka Presbyterian Church is unique in that it is the only Reformed-affiliate church in the region, and as such, has close ties with our own denomination. Ministers from Baraka have visited the CRC in the past and consider us their close friends. Today they ask us to join with them on October 18 in prayer that Beit El Baraka may be returned to serving God.
“Come, thou Fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing thy grace; streams of mercy, never ceasing, call for songs of loudest praise.”
Lord of comfort and peace, we lift our voices in unison with our brothers and sisters in Christ in Bethlehem. We pray that they may know they are not alone, that they have not been abandoned or forgotten, and that Christians around the world stand with them in love and fellowship. We humbly ask that injustice and deception may not prevail. May Beit El Baraka, a mission built in your name to serve your people, not be used as a fortress of hatred and war but be restored to its purpose as a house of blessing and love.
O Heavenly Father, Prince of Peace, Spirit of Blessing, may your will be done. May we be lights of encouragement and strength in this broken world. May your justice and peace prevail.
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