Joshua, a Palestinian Bible Society member reports: “This is really a special time, it is great to see 95 Christian Youth all in the same place, it breaks the feeling of being a minority, it develops their self esteem and makes them feel special.”
Operation Child of Bethlehem is a program that is part of the Palestinian Bible Society, reaching out to Christian Palestinian children and young people's communities (churches, villages, schools). This program started in Bethlehem and then expanded to all of the West Bank. The program aims at uplifting children from their fears, sadness and hatred. Change and hope will be implemented through a Bible-based program dealing with feelings. To reach this goal, the program uses fun days, trips, clowns, conferences, puppet shows and Christmas and Easter special programs. Meaningful gifts and Scripture materials will be offered to all. Joshua continues: “One of the participants was a young girl. This girl comes from the only Christian family living in this town. For her, it was an indescribable joy to be united with Christians from both genders.”
Project Summary
This project addresses some of the needs of children living in the West Bank. The project emphasis is on Christian children and Youth. PBS serves them with activities as well as scriptures and lectures for the youth, to help them develop a stronger faith. Through creative performances, children are being taught about themes like recognizing their own feelings and being thankful for what they have. The demand on this program increased each month.
Goals
1. Sharing the love of Christ to develop a secure, loving and positive character of thousand of Palestinian children
2. Standing face to face against fundamentalism and violence to give the children a taste of Jesus in a non-traditional way.
3. Christians are encouraged and supported, especially as their fears increased with the coming of the Hamas government and the internal fighting.
4. Supporting the local churches by helping them in their children's and youth activities.
The outcome in the life of the children will be a deeper knowledge of the Word of God, a stronger faith in the person of Jesus Christ, a more positive and secure character and happier Palestinian Children.
Open Doors Support to PBS
OD has supported a number of summer camps, both financially and with scriptures and Bibles. OD also supported different local churches with Bibles and Christmas gifts, especially those living in isolated villages and are considered a small minority among a majority of Muslims.
The total number was around 7500 items (Bibles, Children Coloring Books, Audio and Video’s etc.) that have been distributed throughout this project. This is one of the largest distribution activities to take place in PBS during a season.
We also participated in sharing the joy of seeing Christian youth come together from all over the West bank. This was a unique time to meet these active youth who many times are a minority in their village.
Recent Update
The message of the PBS team continues to be that of hope and love. The amount of children exposed remains to be very high, and the demand on the program increases each month. The team has been able to train two different Christian teams and support them with puppets and a stage, this will enable the learning teams to host their own shows and develop their own stories based on Christian teachings.
Bible Society’s Children and Youth Department team joined a number of leaders to entertain, teach and support these youth. This was done through Biblical games and songs. The emphasis was to strengthen the role of the Christian youth in their society.
The ‘Child of Bethlehem project’ will continue during 2010, as PBS will emphasis on the role of the Bible in the lives of Young boys and girls.