Dear Friends
A Blessed Easter for You and Your Loved Ones
It has been some time since we have written you. We decided to wait awhile hoping that the next time we wrote you we will have something positive to tell. Unfortunately, no positive change in the Holy Land has taken place in the past several months. Rather, the situation under the Sharon Government has escalated, bringing more death and suffering to the Palestinian people. We are walking on the road of the Via Delorosa every day; a road filled with the thorns of Israeli military occupation and the vinegar of settlers’ colonialism.
At the International Center of Bethlehem, we are carrying on with our mission as much as possible as the situation gets worse and the needs grow. There is no room now for despair, neither for us nor for our friends. We believe that the Resurrection is a call for action, for every time an innocent is killed and every instance a town is shelled, Christ cries out in the agony of the crucifixion. The forces of death and destruction that we feel besieging us at this time have not caused us to drop the candles we hold as a sign of the abundant life granted through the resurrected Lord.
The helplessness and powerlessness felt by the disciples at the foot of the cross was transformed, through the resurrection, into action. Therefore, we invite all of you to reach out and overcome your feelings of powerlessness and become involved with us in our work; for it is by working together that we can break the prevailing sense of helplessness and hopelessness. To know more about our work and how you can be directly involved, we invite you to browse through our newly reconstructed web site www.annadwa.org. We welcome your feedback and comments concerning the site.
Wishing you all a blessed Easter filled with the joy, power and hope of the Resurrection
The General Director and Staff of the International Center of Bethlehem