As the time of my departure for England is approaching I am typing this to thank those who prayed me through 3 months of work in a food bank here, a kind of supermarket where people from all over the world prepare food parcels for needy people, mostly immigrants from Russia and nearby countries. Over 20000 people are helped and over 60 tons of foodstuffs are given out monthly. This time I was not working on preparing the parcels but had my own office and computer, and was given admin. jobs to do i.e. answering all incoming calls and transferring them..never done this before…plus writing donor cards to go with gifts, preparing small baskets of foodstuffs for childrens birthdays, etc. plus other paperwork. I prefer this kind of work and the only thing I miss is the deliveries, where we would travel to distribute the parcels in and around Jerusalem. Just for your information these are the things I have noticed and shall remember from my time here.

1. There are children everywhere, especially in the ultra orthodox Jewish areas. 7 child families are quite common. The Arab-Israelis also have big families and over half the schoolchildren come from these 2 groups. Most other families have very few children and abortion is common. One group advertises in the newspapers that although 1.5 million children were killed in the holocaust..1942 to 45..over 2 million have been aborted since Israel was set up in 1948.
2. Jerusalem is a scruffy place with lots of rubbish. According to one Jewish pastor the more religious the area the more rubbish there is.
3. There is plenty of security with young men and women soldiers with machine guns on the streets and buses.
4. The bus system is wonderful but the Israeli drivers are not…quite aggressive in fact. I went on the Arab buses in east Jerusalem too and they were better and would stop anywhere to pick up and drop people off. but you stand out in buses where all passengers are Muslims. The Israeli buses have all sorts of people including many visitors. I noticed quite a few passengers reading the Jewish scriptures.. i.e. the old testament.. on the buses.
5. Salvation is coming to increasing numbers of Jews and Arabs and there is a desire for unity between these 2 groups. Some churches are mixed Arab and Jewish Christians. I have heard anything from 10000 to 23000 for the number of Jewish Christians..known as messianic Jews..or unorthodox Jews.
6. In a part of the world with so much hatred it is realized by many churches that love is the only answer. Some churches in Jerusalem arrange to clean the streets in Arab areas..which usually get less government sweeping and cleaning than Jewish ones.. as an act of reconciliation. The Arabs are amazed when they see this.
7. Most churches sing in Hebrew but also have English on the overhead projector. Many new worship songs are being composed.
8. Almost everything is expensive except fruit and veg. plus buses if you are over 60 and can get a monthly pass as I did.
9. Messianic Jews i.e. Christian ones..face discrimination from the ultra-orthodox Jews in particular, i.e. some are wrongly refused kosher certificates for restaurants and bakeries so cannot operate. 
10. The ultra orthodox community is very powerful as their rabbis control all Jewish religious life and can refuse marriage to Jewish couples if they think one of them is not a real Jew. There are about 300000 Russian Jews in limbo for this reason but the government accepts civil partnerships without the rabbis blessing and will give social benefits to them. 
11. There are a lot of Africans here i.e. Somalis and Ethiopians, some of Jewish origin and some refugees. There are many Filipinos who work as caregivers and maids. Many of these are Christians. I met one young Indian girl working like this too.
12. There are large numbers of Christian visitors from all over the world and all churches I visited were full, mostly due to visitors. They could comprise over 80% of the congregation.
13. I recall the Korean choir singing in the main street of the city, in Korean. If they had sung songs in English or Hebrew they would probably be banned.
14. There are many opportunities for personal witness here. Personal testimony is best with Jews but I met others who were willing to receive tracts and to pray i.e. one young Japanese lady I met in an Anglican church.
15. One American friend working in the food bank had a friend come over from US a to visit him who told him..no religion!..but after touring round the various sites including the wailing wall ended up being baptised in the river Jordan!
16. One highlight was the day of prayer thanksgiving and talks at a special service on the mount of olives. I particularly enjoyed the back to Jerusalem leader Peter Xu..Pron. Shoo..who spoke about this movement from China.
17. There is much corruption here. The previous prime minister is in court on charges of bribery, and the present foreign minister is under investigation too.
18. Last night I went to the Knesset or parliament with a friend and we were allowed in to listen to the debate. Very few members were there at 8 pm. We chatted with the guards and were even given a cup of tea and had our photo taken with one of them!
19. The ultra orthodox community do not accept modern Israel and would tear up or burn the Israeli flag if it was taken into their part of the city. They did not celebrate Jerusalem day recently..neither did the Arab-Israelis. They do not believe Israel should exist until the messiah comes. However they do receive substantial benefit from the govt. as over half the adults are unemployed. This is due to the fact that they are only educated in the Torah i.e. the first 5 books of the bible, and receive no education which could fit them for work in a modern society.
20 Despite all this ultra orthodox people including rabbis are finding Christ.

It is now finishing time at the food bank so I will close. Please excuse any typos and thank you again for praying. I fly out on 10 June and pray the ash will not get in the way..blessings to you all…Bill Yates

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