palestine

Do you remember many years ago in South Africa there was a lot of racial tension and separation between “whites” and “blacks.”  The South African people had a name for that – apartheid.  This basically means people kept apart and one group usually mistreated. 

We were all horrified that such a thing happened in South Africa and when Nelson Mandela was released from Robben Island, he came out of that jail after 27 years with no bitterness and was able to be used by God to bring healing to that whole nation. 

Archbishop Reverend Abuna Elias Chacour is the head of the Melkite Church in Israel – he is a Christian Palestinian whose parish covers the areas where Jesus was born, died and rose again.  Archbishop Chacour was just a boy of 8 years of age when the armies of Israel swept into his village and forced them to flee for their lives.  His father was herded into a truck and they never saw him again.