"Look to the Lord and His strength; seek His face always." 
(Psalm 105:4)
Warm greetings from chilly Bethlehem! As the temperature drops, we are warmed by the awareness of the God's love for us as we enjoy fellowship with Him and our brothers and sisters here at the College. We are also immensely thankful for those from all around the world who partner with us in prayer and support.
The Spring Semester has just begun for the students. Please pray for each one to experience a touch from the Holy Spirit as they study here.
We praise God for the positive time a few of our staff were able to experience at a recent reconciliation conference in Cyprus. We will share more about this exciting event next month.  No matter what our beliefs and political leanings are, in Christ we can all be one, with genuine love for others.
In this newsletter, we invite you to "meet Bethlehem" through the eyes of one of our volunteers.  You will also learn about an innovative children's ministry, "Mr. Okay" and meet some of BBC's Master's students.    
Please continue to pray for the various ministries of the College, including the community ESL classes about to commence and the Shepherd's Society team, which is ministering locally and to Syrian and Iraqi refugees in Jordan.
Finally, we would like special prayer this month for the planning for the upcoming Christ at the Checkpoint Conference in March.  If you have not made plans to join us, it is not too late.  Our volunteers often remark about how safe they feel in Bethlehem.  We'd love to see you here!
 
Many blessings,
Rev. Dr. Jack Sara - President
During the past two years, I have had the honor to visit the Syrian refugees in Jordan several times. They have fled from Syria to Jordan because of the war that has been raging for the past five years. During our visits with the team, we had the opportunity to stand with our brothers and sisters and feel their pain, because we as Palestinians have experienced the same kind of pain. 
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In the midst of the escalation of what may become a Third Intifada in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Bethlehem Bible College recently launched Master's Degree in Peace Studies. The program trains Christians, Muslims and other students to achieve social justice and equality for all by learning how to build bridges instead of walls of segregation and racism.


"On one of the more tragic days here, fourteen people drowned (including seven children)... whilst I was busy welcoming two other boats during my night shift (12am-8am). It is often hard to think that I was only fifteen minutes away from the scene....The next day we had an assembly of all organizations on the island and decided to create a coordinated radio system in order to avoid such a tragedy again." - Daniel Munayer
The busiest man in the world stops everything he's doing, just to talk to a little kid. Who would put down his smart phone, simply to hold a small child? Who would drop everything to take the time to talk to a little one? Very few of us! But the Creator of the universe did that: "But Jesus called the children to him and said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these."

I am a volunteer at Bethlehem Bible College, and I still have to pinch myself sometimes that I am living in this iconic "little town." It was in Bethlehem's hills, of course, where David composed his first Psalms; it was here that he was anointed by Samuel.  It was here that Ruth gleaned in the golden fields of Boaz.  And it was here-most famously-that the infant-God's first exhaled cry pierced the air; where He was swaddled and sung to sleep in a feeding trough.
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Register now for Christ at the Checkpoint 4

Registration is underway for the coming Christ at the Checkpoint conference, to take place on March 7-10th, 2016 in Bethlehem. The conference will tackle one of the most urgent issues of the day: religious extremism. We have speakers with knowledge and experience who will address the issue of religious extremism in the global context, the Middle East, and the Palestinian-Israeli situation. To know more about the conference, visit  christatthecheckpoint.com. To register,  click here.

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