We went to the local church in Tulkarem and helped the caretaker, Daoud to clean the garden. This town of approximately 50 000 people has only two christian families. Daoud cannot remember the last time they had a service in the church. Normally he travels to Nablus (one hour away) to attend mass. He has very little support and taking care of the church is clearly an overwhelming responsibility for one person. Palestinian christians are in the minority in the Westbank. According to a report by the Joint Advocacy Initiative (JAI) around 400 000 Palestinian christians were living in Palestine before the 1948 war when the state of Israel was created. Now this statistic has decreased from 10% to only 2%. Many of them were forced from their homes by the Israeli Military and as a result they emigrated to the diaspora. I heard Dauod say to us while cleaning the garden, "I thank God for you."
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