Paul Calvert spoke with Nashat Filmon from the Palestinian Bible Society

Paul: One of the areas threatened is Beit Hanina. The Palestinian Bible Society is in Beit Hanina. How do you feel about the threat and are you doing anything in response to the threat?

Nashat: First of all we are trusting in God. We have learned from past experience that threats are not to be taken lightly. As I mentioned to you we have one martyr in our staff. Secondly we will do every possible measure, yet at the same time we are not panicking. We are not stopping our work. We are not stopping our ministry. We are not stopping putting an emphasis on who we are because we live here. We have been living here and we will continue living here, so this is not going to paralyse us. We are going to be wise as serpents though in all things we are going to do. I believe this is the strategy for all the Christian organisations in this area. This morning we had a prayer meeting and we prayed that the Lord's protection and hand would be over us and over all of the Christian presence here and over the Christian organisations and churches. Mind you, just a few weeks ago there was a church up in the Sea of Galilee that was set on fire in Tabgha, the Church of Loaves and Fishes. That was done by fundamentalist Jews. Now fundamentalist Muslims are threatening us too and threatening our presence here. We are between the rock and a hard place and we have only God to preserve us and protect us and to keep us.

Paul: How has the church been responding? Have there been calls for prayer?

Nashat: Yes I believe so. There have been calls for prayer. There have been calls to stand against these threats and to fight back by every peaceful means. The church is also addressing the issue by encouraging its people to stay strong in the faith and of course to be thankful and to praise God. Just around us people have been killed, people have been displaced not far away from us, just an hour's drive, or two hours' drive, people have been and continue to be killed. So we are in a much better position, for we need to remember God's grace and God's protection and not to take anything for granted, but to trust the Lord will keep us safe in these difficult moments. This is also a call for the international community and church all over the world to remember the important things and to focus on the important things and to remember to pray for the church in Jerusalem. This church that has been again carrying the torch and being the salt and light for thousands of years and to also remember to advocate on our behalf and to support our presence by every possible means and to pray for us.

Paul: How is the church in the Gaza Strip? We know that ISIS are trying to take over the Gaza Strip at the moment. Is there a lot of fear there in Gaza as well?

Nashat: I think this ISIS ideology is spreading all over and we are not immune to it. In Gaza it's the same, but we know that Hamas is against this ideology, although Hamas has certain beliefs and a certain way of doing things. ISIS is a threat to Hamas, so Hamas is fighting it. We know that ISIS have caused so many problems and killed so many people and attacked so many institutions in the Gaza Strip, but again this is causing fear not just for the Christian community, but also for the Muslim community, the peaceful majority Muslim community, who feel the rug is taken from under their feet. This is a serious risk that we need to be aware of and to be praying, praying and praying.

Paul: What is your prayer for the Christian community in the Holy Land?

Nashat: I pray that we would not diminish. I pray that the living stones will continue being a testimony all over the world. Everything happened here. Bethlehem witnessed the birth of Jesus Christ; Jerusalem witnessed the death, the Via Dolorosa and the resurrection; the stories started here. We are the spiritual centre of the world and therefore it is crucial to have the testimony of Christ continue coming from Jerusalem. We need to continue shining and to testify that the tomb is empty and our Lord is resurrected. Therefore this torch that I have been talking about, this testimony and witness needs to continue and continue strong. I believe these threats are going to only make us stronger in faith, stronger in our belief and stronger in our testimony and we are not going to allow the enemy to inject fear into our spirits, but we are going to fight back with full love that casts out fear. We love our people, we love our nation and we continue serving them. We will continue being the salt and light and we will continue working in the Land until Jesus comes back.

A translation of the ISIS leaflet:

Our people Muslims. We salute your resistance and your jihad and we ask you to report on the locations for Christians living among you and who are working clients for the Zionists and the West and their traitorous associations that work to spread debauchery and secularism and keep Muslims away from their religion. Islamic State know where they live, most of these Christians and they have been spotted, but not all of them and strike forces - swords also arm group - will work to cleanse the Islamic neighbourhoods of these Christians during the holy month of Ramadan, to Eid al-Fitr comes to become completely clean. And we will begin with neighbourhoods of Beit Hanina, then Shu'fat, then move to the rest of the neighbourhoods in order to get to the Old City and Resurrection Church to purify it from who betrayed the age era and tell the Christian heathens you must leave immediately or you will get murdered like sheep with the pre-eminence of Eid al-Fitr, one month more than enough to leave.