Marthame's family is here!

As people lament about the vanishing Christian population (which is true), there remain these signs that people are planning for a future.

While Marthame watched the mechanic at work, two Palestinian soldiers pulled up and asked the mechanic questions about him: "Is he Jewish? A settler? An Israeli?"

Marthame's route took him down the Jordan Valley, which is where the brakes went out on the Citroen.

Even though it's only half an hour's drive from Zababdeh, no one here can make the trip these days because of the closures (many can't even get to Ramallah), so several times we have found ourselves couriers for various things, including medicine and birthday presents.

Now is peak beauty time in Palestine, and beautiful it is.

The event was not without its sobering moment, though, as moments were taken to remember the mothers who had lost children during the Intifada.

This morning we met the head of the Bible Society of Jordan, snugly located in one of Amman's beautiful neighborhoods.

Amman is an interesting mix between East and West. Clearly Arab and clearly a monarchy (King Abdallah's pictures are everywhere), nonetheless almost every street sign and storefront is bilingual - the years of British influence have clearly left their mark.

We have been hoping since we arrived that we would be able to visit some of the other Arab countries around us. One of the obstacles is the Israeli stamp in our passport. With the exception of Jordan and Egypt, no Arab country will accept a passport (or the person attached to it) that contains the Israeli stamp.

The seventh grade teachers decided to take them on a walk through the mountains for a nice picnic. We tagged along.

The World Vision group came to the school assembly that morning, to share words of encouragement and to get a further tour of the school and the new hall (where the old hall once was) now under construction.

"I'm not allowed to tell you this," he said, "but the problem there is the Israeli settlers - not the Palestinians."