Greetings from BT
BT writes from Jerusalem: Besides managing the dental clinic and teaching English, I am also involved in a women’s ministry of reconciliation. During a recent retreat we looked at principles of reconciliation during times of crisis when relationships are tested, and we tend to identify with one side or the other. As believers it is important to reach out to one another and make the effort to come together to pray together. Putting this principle into practice during the recent Gaza conflict, some of the women had taken the initiative, and we prayed as Israeli, Palestinian and ex-pat women...
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BT writes from Jerusalem: This has been another year of change. As I was writing my last letter I did not know what would happen at the end of August. When Dr. Mousa told me he had to close his practice in Tiberias it meant that I would have no clinic or dentist to provide a dental program for the needy. After helping many hundreds of the Lebanese with extensive dental care I expected at some time to gradually phase out the service, but not to suddenly stop with so little notice. The day I got the news I began to inform our patients, one of whom was a believer who had been referred by the...
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BT writes from Jerusalem: July 1983, twenty five years ago, I traveled to the Middle East to begin a year of volunteer service. I am amazed as I consider how the Lord has kept me here and enabled me as a dental hygienist to provide dental services for hundreds of needy people in both Lebanon and Israel. Much to my surprise, the dentist who has been working with me for the past eight years told me he can no longer continue and we are now trying to work out an alternate solution to continue to help the needy. I will write more in my next letter, but please keep this matter in prayer. In an...
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BT writes from Jerusalem: This letter is long overdue, but finally I am sitting down to write. Over the past few months little has changed in news reports from the Middle East and the conflicts seem impossible to solve. Through the years that I served in Lebanon, and now among the displaced Lebanese in Israel, I have learned first hand what it means to live in the midst of conflict and instability. I have also learned that even if the news events reported are discouraging, there are many personal stories of hope. Recently I attended a women’s conference and was challenged by the biblical...
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BT writes from Jerusalem: I returned to Israel early November and am settling back into life here. I kept in touch with my staff dentist and was able to keep the dental service going as usual in my absence. Besides our Lebanese patients, I was also contacted by a local congregation to ask if we could offer dental care to several Sudanese refugee families they were helping and of course I was happy to help them too. Since returning I’ve visited a number of Lebanese families, including family members of the Lebanese family I have been helping to resettle in Canada who were very happy to...
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BT writes from Jerusalem: Recently a new crisis has erupted as the Lebanese army has been battling an extremist militant group operating from a Palestinian refugee camp. As I write the conflict continues and details of the origins and consequences are not yet clear. There have been more bombings in various neighbourhoods that have shaken the residents. In September the government must elect a new president but unless the political impasse is resolved this will be very problematic. With these and many other problems, the reports I read about Lebanon are not very promising, but still the...
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