Paul Calvert tells Sami's story, a young Palestinian from Bethlehem

Sami

Sami grew up full of hate as a young Palestinian in Bethlehem. He hated Israel for what he felt they were doing to his people. There was many a time Sami would put on the Arab scarf and go out into the street and throw stones at the Israeli soldiers.

Sami grew up in a Catholic family so he knew about God but he didn't have a relationship with Him.

One day Sami was invited by a Pastor to go to church, so he grabbed his Bible and waited for the pastor to come and pick him up for the service.

The people in the church were warm and kind, he listened to the service which was a good lesson, but could God really break into a heart so full of hatred?

Once the meeting had finished the pastor had promised to take Sami home. He kept his word and dropped him off a few streets away.

As Sami walked up the narrow Bethlehem road, his thoughts were on Jesus, wondering if this was a road that Jesus had trodden on many years before. As he got to the end of the road he turned the corner and could see that there was trouble ahead. Arabs were throwing stones at Israeli soldiers. A young man had been shot and killed so the Arab community were angry and blaming Israel. This was subsequently found out to be untrue, Israel hadn't shot the man.

As Sami innocently walked by, the Israeli soldiers rounded up the men to take them into custody and Sami got caught in the confusion.

Later that day the Israeli army were processing all the men they had arrested and came to Sami. Firstly they asked him for his ID.

"I have 2 ID's" he said

"What do you mean, you have 2 ID's" replied the soldier

He explained that he had his regular ID and he had his Bible. At this point Sami wasn't a believer in Jesus. He was taken into an interrogation room and asked who the ring leaders were.

Sami replied "I don't know"

Subsequently a beating came.

"I don't know" Sami replied "I just arrived, I had been to church"