A m m a n – “Without the true Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ, there will be no real peace in the Middle East,” reported Hanna Massad (today of Amman), former pastor of the only Baptist church in the Gaza Strip, in talking with the EBPS. In 2007 he had left his church in Gaza City, as a church member was murdered by extremists and he himself and his family were no longer sure their lives were safe. “Two thousand years ago, Jesus walked through our country doing good to people. We hope and pray that the Prince of Peace will soon return and bring us peace,” said Massad off the record at a reception given by leaders of the Jordanian Baptist Union for members of the Executive Committee of the European Baptist Federation (EBF), on March 24, in the Jordanian capital, Amman. Without this hope and their faith, life would be unbearable for the few Christians in the Gaza Strip (according to Massad’s information, there are about 350 Christian families there). The Baptists run a library, a primary school and a clinic in Gaza City. Massad has little hope for the effects of the “Arab Spring”. He hopes that through this democracy movement religious freedom will grow in those countries and people will be able to exercise their faith freely as a consequence, but concrete signs of such an improvement in the situation are so far not to be seen.

Massad goes back to the Gaza Strip about three times a year for up to 14 days each time in order to bring pastoral assistance to the people. According to him, an offshoot of Bethlehem Bible College will be opened in Gaza City at the beginning of April, in order to educate young people for Christian ministry in a Muslim-influenced environment. Hanna Massad (52 year old) earns his living as a professor at the Jordanian Evangelical Theological Seminary (JETS) in Amman and as a counselor and co-worker in an interdenominational Christian aid agency, which works among 200 refugee families from Iraq. Many are mentally ill, because they see no hope for their future, since they are not allowed to work in Jordan. Because of this, he developed a Bible school program for them. Many participants have already become Christians and then emigrated to the USA, Europe, Australian or New Zealand to work as Christian missionaries or church planters among their fellow countrymen.