Storm

City wall at night

It's been raining ... quite hard ... but not in Jerusalem. All the coastal cities have been drenched and soon the Golan Heights will be covered in snow. But Jerusalem remains dry. The sky is dark though and there were a few drops of drizzle. Nothing more. Still weather forecast say tonight one of the heaviest storms will whip through the country.

I brought the gas cooker to the chinese sisters last night. Now I'll have to teach them how to use it when there is no electricity. It'll never get as cold as China but when there's no heating, it can get quite bad and one of the sisters is sick. So they took out their extra blankets. On the way home the City Walls looked awesome with spotlights shining on them ... and trees were illuminated. The air was crisp and cold, thus making the view a lot more clear and detailed. It was very nice. I sat at Damascus Gate park and watched it for a few minutes. Well actually I had to rest there because my sciatica and shoulder were hurting too much and I needed to stop for a while.

And the storm over the recent fires is still no over. While politicians were quick to accuse arabs as arsonists, the police today are saying the contrary and fire-fighters are saying it's impossible to determine the source of most fires. http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.756012

But not everything is all that bad. Today we read a piece of news regarding the Israeli Parliament trying to pass a law to stop muslim calls for prayer over loudspeakers. The muslims of the village Beat Tsafafa (south of Jerusalem) came to an agreement with their jewish neighbors in Gilo to solve this problem without govt. interference. The muslims agreed to use smaller loudspeakers and have them turned away from the jewish town. Now if only every other place could deal with problems this way. http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Jerusalem-neighborhoods-reach-Muezzin-agreement-without-politicians-474091

While Christmas is in the air for most countries, the christians in Iraq and Syria are still suffering immensely. The Custos of the Holy Land and the Minister General of the Franciscans issued a letter calling all children to pray for peace in those countries, not to forget that this Christmas many other children will die and others without food or shelter. Hope you can encourage your parish to organize a children's prayer day for this.