Our second day here begin with worship at the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Beit Sehour. We were warmly welcomed as we entered church by the whole parish council and the rector, Imad Haddad. We recognized the tune to "Stand up, stand up for Jesus" (but learned afterward those are not the words they use) and the Creed & Lord's Prayer.Payne Loved his first Turkish coffee after church.
We enjoyed a swim in the pool at our hotel, then checked out & George Rishmawi, coordinator of Siraj, took us to meet our family.
Our home is in Beit Sehour - the Shepherd's Fields of Bethlehem. Baird took this picture from the back porch of our house!
We live with the family of Hamdi Banoura, though it's doubtful we'll meet Hamdi because he works in Jordan and can't get papers to come home often. So we are really hosted by Elham and her daughter, Aseel and sons Jamin (Jimmy) and Alla. Elham's English is excellent, as is her cooking which is almost all from scratch. Banoura means 'something in the light' -- which is something we hope our time here will be. We learned that it is perfectly safe to go out running -- there's practically no crime. We find that everybody knows everybody among the Christians of Beit Sehour -- we were told "If you get lost just ask for the home of Hamdi Banoura" and anyone can tell us where it is.
In the evening we went to a "Fakooz Festival" -- a celebration for the harvest of a local specialty - sweet fuzzy cucumbers. There were no fakooz there -- but there was a horse exhibition (Arabian horses, of course) and there were several different
debkah dance groups and lots of music. This all took place a short distance from our home at a new playground built by and for the community, with soccer fields and a climbing wall. This new park is built halfway up a hil on land that was one an Israeli military installation. After the Wall was built Israel gave the land back to Beit Sehour and this is what they are doing with it. (tomorrow there's more on this!)If every day is as busy as our first full day here, I'll need a vacation when I get home...
