Holy Land Missionaries Visit WPA
By Diane Miller
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9/23/2009
While “there is no moral defense for detonating a bomb in a crowded area, or any other act of violence perpetrated against civilians,” a United Methodist missionary serving in the Middle East told Western Pennsylvanians that there is a double standard that demonizes any Palestinian use of violence while legitimizing that employed by Israel.
The Rev. Alex Awad and his wife Brenda visited churches in Erie and the Pittsburgh area Sept. 17-18 to tell the stories of the Christian community in Palestine, Bethlehem Bible College where he teaches, and working for peace in the area.
Reports of Christian persecution by Muslims in Palestine are by and large “the result of deliberate misinformation spread by the Israeli government and some of its Christian Zionist allies,” he said.
Awad cited a 1998 report by Evangelicals for Middle East Understanding which noted: “Systematic persecution of Christians by the Palestinian Authority cannot be substantiated … What we found instead was an intense desire for harmony among both Christians and Muslims from Galilee to Gaza.”
Speaking to a group at First United Methodist Church in Erie, Awad pointed out that the state of Israel has a formal military alliance with the United States from which it receives more than $3 billion in annual military assistance. It is the world’s fourth largest nuclear power, possessing up to 500 nuclear warheads.
In contrast, he said, the Palestinians have “no state, no functioning economy, no army, not even the ability to move freely from village to village within their own areas.” Yet the Palestinians continue to fight to survive there. To explain why, Awad quoted Nelson Mandela: “No power on earth can stop an oppressed people determined to win their freedom.”
An expert on the history and impact of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, particularly its effect on the Christian population of both nations, Awad is the author of Through the Eyes of the Victims and Palestinian Memories: The Story of a Palestinian Mother and Her People.
Awad was born and raised in Jerusalem. His father was killed in 1948 during crossfire between the Israeli and Jordanian armies. The family became refugees, and his mother was faced with raising seven children between the ages of six months and 11. She enrolled her older children in local boarding schools and worked as a nurse to support the family.
Alex said his family's tragedy revived a commitment to the Christ his mother experienced as a young student in a Christian school. As a result Alex says, he was raised in the church.
“I was greatly influenced by my mother’s Christian example, as well as that of international missionaries serving in Jerusalem,” he recalled. “As a young boy, I was proud of being a Christian in a school where 95% of the boys came from Moslem families. The teachings of our Lord Jesus influenced my life early on, and I became consumed with the desire to see my fellow Palestinians share the faith and hope that brought so much comfort to my family and me in our sufferings. While attending St. George's High School in Jerusalem, I began praying for God to send missionaries to my people. God’s answer was simple: ‘Why don’t you go?’
Pursuing that calling, Alex attended a Bible college in Switzerland. Unable to return to his homeland because of the War of 1967, he came to the United States and earned a B.A. in Biblical Education from Lee University in Cleveland, TN. There he met and married Brenda. They spent seven years teaching in public schools and volunteering in various church ministries in Tennessee and Georgia. Alex became a naturalized U.S. citizen during that time. He later received a master’s degree in education from North Georgia College and a master’s in missions and evangelism from Asbury Seminary.
In 1979, the Awads responded to a call to serve at the newly formed Bethlehem Bible College in Bethlehem. After six years, they served at Hope Secondary School, a charitable boarding school near Bethlehem for youth ages 12-18. In 1987, they were forced to leave the country because the Israeli government refused to renew their tourists’ visas.
In the U.S., they served as Mission Interpreters in Residence (MIIR) in Ohio from 1989-90; peace and justice educators in upstate New York from 1990-91; and MIIRs in the South Central Jurisdiction from 1991-94. In 1994 they were allowed to return to Palestine, where they continue to serve. He is pastor of a small international church in East Jerusalem and serves as faculty member, dean of students and board member at Bethlehem Bible College.
Learn more about the Awads at www.alexawad.org.