Yes, there are plenty of Christians among Palestinians: Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant. Pastor Alex Awad was the pastor of a Protestant church in Jerusalem and the head of a seminary in Bethlehem. And he is visiting Hong Kong again. Last evening, he spoke after the showing of a movie: The Stones Cry Out - a movie on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict from the Palestinian perspective. We may not agree with everything in the movie. But it is a good opportunity to better understand that perspective, and to put that in the Christian context.
According to Pastor Awad, the conflict is political, not religious. The key issue is land. The Israelis want that land, but the Palestinians already live on it. There will not be peace for the Israelis if there is no peace for the Palestinians. God loves the Jewish people. But He also loves the Chinese, the Americans, the Japanese, the Cambodians, the Vietnamese, the Burmese, the Rohingyas, the Rwandans, the Tutsis, the Hutus, the Tanzanians, the South Africans, the Germans, the Russians, the Ukranians, the Turks, the Kurds, …, and the Palestinians.
From the Christian perspective, our mission is to spread God’s good news. Not to fulfil the prophecies. The prophecies tell the world God is in charge. Our responsibility is to spread that word. Not to speed up the end of the world. Pastor Awad was born in Palestine, but turned into a refugee at the age of two. Yet he is not bitter. He dedicated his life to spread God’s good news.
Pastor Awad has written a book in English which has been translated into Chinese. Please read the book to get his amazing story.
Pastor Awad will be speaking at several more gatherings in Hong Kong in the coming few days. Details can be found here: https://ccphl.net/
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