Holy Land Christian Solidarity Cooperative
Dear Christian Brothers and Sisters,
Greetings from Bethlehem,
We welcome you to the Holy Land Christian Solidarity Cooperative website, we are a group of volunteers from Bethlehem who live among the Holy Land Christians and are daily aware of the economic and social challenges they face as a result of a charged political, religious and economical climate. This unstable situation and lack of tourism is causing many Christian families to loose their source of income and to leave the country. Last century the Christian population of the Holy Land was 30%, today it is less than 2% . With every Christian family leaving, the pressure becomes heavier on those who choose to stay.
We are visiting the churches in the US , providing information about the Christians of the Holy Land and selling olivewood hand carved items and other handcraft products, which are made by skilled workers in Bethlehem and Jerusalem. We do this to help sustain the livelihood of the local workers and artisans who lost their income and have been pressured by the political turmoil in Israel and Palestine. This work is a tradition that has been a legacy of the residents of Bethlehem through many generations.
As part of the suffering church, the Christians in Bethlehem and the Holy Land need your help and support at this time. We ask you to stand in solidarity with those who are willing to stay in the land and be witnesses for Jesus Christ. We are not asking for donations, you can help by either purchasing pieces of those beautiful religious crafts through this website or, even better, by inviting us to your church to set up a display of these carvings for the whole congregation.