PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES — Ghada is a teacher at a girls’ school near Bethlehem in the Palestinian Territories. Christians make up less than one per cent of the population, but Ghada is passionate that believers should stay in the land where Jesus walked. She wants to encourage girls to trust in Jesus so that they can be strong women of the faith.

Ghada:

“I was raised in the church and the priest always encouraged us to study Christianity more deeply so that the next generations would have more knowledge of Christianity.”

Ghada grew up among the Christian minority living in the Palestinian territories. After studying at university, she became a teacher of religion at a Christian girls’ school near Bethlehem.

Ghada:

“We focus on the teachings of the Bible – which are Jesus’ teaching and how to solve their problems according to their age – based on the values of the Bible. Many girls have asked about women’s issues – how Christianity is fair to women and gives women their dignity. So we always explain it through Jesus’ treatment of women in many stories from the Bible.

“As girls they will likely become mothers in the future, so we encourage each of them to love herself as a woman, to be proud that she was born in this land and to pass on this pride to her children in the future.”

As well as teaching girls at the school Ghada has her own two daughters at home. And she is eager to bring them up in the Christian faith too.

Ghada:

“There are many distractions from church, so I try to keep encouraging them more and more towards the church. I let them participate in all the activities that the church runs, so that they stay close to the church, just as I was raised. Also when it comes to the problems they face at school or the problems they face in life I give them solutions to these problems based on the Bible.”

Christians make up less that one per cent of the population in the Palestinian territories but Ghada is passionate that Christians should stay in the land where Jesus walked.

Ghada:

“We are the descendants of the early church. So that strong faith has to remain and be passed down from generation to generation so that we do not lose our presence as Christians in the Holy Land. I encourage families to stay in Palestine because it’s the land of Jesus Christ the land where Jesus walked. Every area of it has a sweet memory of Jesus. He was in this land. It was where He lived. And He performed many miracles in it.”

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