Attacked

Just ten minutes before lunch, I went out to the small back garden with our janitor Jadallah to clean out the place when a glass bottle was flung from the 4th floor of our neighbouring building which smashed into the wall to my left, leaving splinters of glass on my face. Luckily I was wearing a woollen hat pulled low and thick winter clothing so the glass did not cut the rest of my body; just scratching my face. I will definitely say here that it was from the muslim house next to our garden - and Jadalleh was beside me as witness. The exploding glass as loud enough for our workers in the kitchen to hear and came out to see what happened. Our 4 arab workers, Jadalleh, Edward, Majed and Khalil rushed out to the back door to catch the culprit but no one was around and the house was closed shut. As you can see, the violence has reached our own doorsteps.

And just a few minutes ago, our doorman Majed informed me that Isareli soldiers have closed our gates; hence pilgrims cannot come into our church and we cannot go out. I don't know what's happening but it sounds like the army is conducting a search or attack in our quarter of the Old City and doesn't want any escape routes to be open. Believe me, it doesn't sound like fun living here right now.

Earlier this morning I was out in the car with our Dean to do some errands, and we saw empty streets in East Jerusalem, streets with burnt tires and garbage in the middle as protest to stop traffic, dumpsters on fire, and soldiers just about every 10 metres, soldiers everywhere.

Where are we all heading?