Bethlehem Bible College Newsletter

Greetings!

Happy New Year! With the dawn of the new year upon us, we pray for new beginnings, steadfast fortitude and the blessing of a fruitful year for you all. Here at Bethlehem Bible College, we welcome this new season with hope for our involvement in both our community and beyond.

January has set the tone for the following months, and we are happy to share with you what's been taking place since our last newsletter. Rounding out the Christmas season, the BBC staff visited dialysis patients in the hospital to encourage and support those undergoing treatment. Initiatives relating to this outreach are now formulating for the future as well. Not long after, our students arrived back on campus for spring semester. You'll have to check out the video of their hopes and aspirations for 2017.

In other news of fresh beginnings, our registrar, Ghadeer Khoury is featured in our "Meet One of Us" section. The journey of raising triplets with her husband is a great testament of faithfulness and endurance. Further, as BBC heads into the new year, we take note of important anniversaries that we, as Palestinians, have endured over the years. Take a look at our Holy Land Tales and the hope of Jubilee that we cling to in this new year.

We're proud to work among the people of this land, and value the responsibility given to us by God to continue Kingdom work here and abroad. Take a look at our top six take-aways from 2016 as we continue our journey into 2017.

A great many blessings to you all in this new year. May God bless you, and fortify your faith in the months to come.

Rev. Dr. Jack Sara

President

Bethlehem Bible College

lamoring bells ring from down in the valley from where I type this to you. Situated in the Greek Orthodox housing project, this home in the trees lies between the Palestinian town of Beit Sahour and the fortress of Har Homa.

Sunday morning evokes these melodic reverberations, and as the sun rises over Herodium, the start of the new week begins.
People wake and move about their home quietly as others continue on in slumber. For some, Sunday marks the first day of the week back to work. With the weekend falling on Friday and Saturday, they ready themselves for their jobs. Others, whose weekends are Saturday and Sunday, prepare for a church service or simply enjoy a day of rest in which they cherish their last day away from work for the week.

Ghadeer Khoury, a mother of triplets and a BBC staff member, is our inspiration. She is a mother of three boys, a pastor’s wife, and our committed, hard-working registrar at BBC.

I interviewed Ghadeer to find out how she takes care of triplets, while working and pastoring a church.

Kids’ Summer Camp “100 kids”

“Around the World in Seven Days!” was the name of our summer camp that took place in our new building last summer. We had one hundred Muslim and Christian children in attendance that all came to learn more about the world around us.

New Website Launching

The IT department worked alongside the Communications and Development department to launch the new website of BBC in both Arabic and English. Take a look here bethbc.edu

“I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, I was naked and you did not clothe Me, I was sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.” Mathew 25: 43

What we do for one, we do as if we are serving Jesus. This was the mentality of a group of BBC staff who visited the governmental hospital in Bethlehem last week to spend time with patients in need of dialysis during Christmas time. The staff spent time sitting, talking and laughing alongside those that were undergoing treatment.