Church in Gaza

The small church in Gaza passes through a difficult phase. Because of the unrest and violence against Christians in the Middle East, the youth of one of the major churches doesn’t meet since February. Another church is without pastor and according to the members is in urgent need of a new pastor.

 

The church is doing its utmost to train and disciple the youth. For example they do train the youth leaders. More remarkable is the ‘oratorio’ they are involved in. This ministry started in 2009 especially to do something for the young Christians in the church. They embraced this initiative to sing together. “Behind it is the desire to do something especially for the young people in the Church, in Gaza. Train them on the Bible, to influence the majority culture”, church leader Gadil says.

 

The age of the youth that participate is between 15 and 25 years. The leaders that will be trained are between 23 and 33 years. Problem is that due to the unrest in Gaza, the youth and young adults couldn’t meet since February this year. “The recent fights and bombing caused a lot of fear and the risks increased dramatically”, Gadil says. “Because of that some schools couldn’t take the responsibilities and decided to minimize the days at school to four days per week.”

 

Last year Open Doors could offer training to the youth leaders. “This has been well received”, the church leader says. So probably there will be more training for these leaders.

 

“We do have problems with the government. The other day some local authorities visited me for some questionning– this was not without a reason. This also means that we cannot have the training now. We are in the picture”, he explains. The violence against Christians in Egypt brought fear to the Christians in Gaza. “These events frighten the people here, in my church. The Sunday after the attack only 10 people came to the service. People are afraid!”

 

Another problem the leader mentions are the spying aero plains from Israel that are constantly in the sky above Gaza. “They use a signal that disturbs the television and radio broadcasting and receiving. Therefore every program is full of noise and television cannot be received well. This is a source of frustration and anger amongst the people. There is already little to do because of the joblessness and the poor economical situation; this is another disappointment they have to deal with.”

 

The church leader ends with a call for help: “Pray for us!”

 

We spoke with one of the leaders of another church too. This church is already some time without a pastor. “We need a pastor”, he says. “It is no problem to live in Gaza”, he adds.

 

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