December 15, 2002

John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness.

Today, the third Sunday of Advent, was Fr. Firas' first Mass. Since the Melkite church is still in great need of repair, he served in the Latin church, and hence in the Roman Catholic style. Fr. Aktham preached on the text of John the Baptist, Ein Kerem's native son, crying in the wilderness. This is our call, he told the congregation, our evangelism, to be the Christian voice in this land.

We returned home to the bracing cold of our home. We have never been colder than the time that we've been here. That includes Chicago. Temperature-wise, Zababdeh is much warmer (it doesn't even freeze here). But there are two important things missing here which make us so cold: insulation and central heating. Our apartment building in Zababdeh is made of cement blocks, plaster and paint. Cold air seeps through. We have space heaters, which we hover around like moths at the campfire. After church, we put a space heater in the bedroom, closed the door, and crawled back under the covers.

Marthame ventured outside in the evening, finding outside no colder than inside, to get to rehearsal for the Christmas party. The church is just as cold as home - there's no escape!