It is great to report that the first level of Trauma Counselling Training is completed with 9 people in Gaza, among them some of the former Palestinian Bible Society staff. The group really benefited from the four day training and debriefing, especially since it was only 7 months after the war and almost two years after the death of Rami Ayyad. They are still processing this and other pressures against the Christian community there.

Two of the students were Catholic and 7 evangelical with some ties to the Catholic Church. Most of the students were university age 19 - 23. It is a very small Christian community in Gaza with Catholic, evangelical and Orthodox friendship inter-connections on the grass-roots level and stricter divisions on the hierarchical level. There appears to be a leadership vacuum in some churches and ministries that have been affected by the war and the killing of Rami which marks a change in the level and type of persecution – also after the start of the government of Hamas in Gaza (2006).

Our trainer in trauma counselling said: “The group functioned very well. There was room for the participants to share and express feelings and this was especially helpful for them to talk about issues of war and persecution. The younger adults did not have any previous training or background in counselling. They are still going through the grief process or are feeling depressed about a situation. It was very difficult to talk about the traumatic incident in the last two years, but now they were more open to talk about it. There is no doubt that expression of feelings about the war and persecution was valuable. The participants mentioned the following issues they are dealing with.”

Post-war issues of Christians in Gaza as defined by the students:

- Water / food / bread shortage scares after the war

- Lack of medicine and treatment for chronic and other patients

- Unemployment (especially young adults)

- Church closed for one month

- Possible new, more restrictive Islamic laws

- Damaged buildings, houses, apartments and government offices

- Criminal activity against Christians and lack of civil protection.

Prayer Points:

- Pray for the peace in Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Gaza city… pray that there will come an end to the destructive cycle of murders and violence

- Please pray for wisdom for the Christians involved in ministries in Gaza. Pray that the right decisions will be made, in how to reach out or how to move on

- Pray for openness among the leaders of the different Islamic factions. Pray that they will get to know Jesus, through a dream, through a testimony of a Christian raising his voice or through any other way. Pray that the Bible presented to the leader of Islamic Jihad will be read by him (and many others)

- Pray for the small Christian community, whether they are Catholic, Baptist or whatever background. Pray that Christian presence in the Gaza strip will not fade