December 18, 2025

Dear friends,

I am writing this newsletter exactly one month since our family squeezed into a rental van with 2 cats and lots of luggage for our move to Jerusalem. That feels like longer than four weeks ago, and North Carolina seems both a million miles away and right next door. Every day, we are reminded of how small and interconnected our world is while also recognizing that issues that divide are real.

In small world connections, we had dinner our second night here with Lutherans from western North Carolina—former counselors at Lutheridge and best friends with one of our kids’ favorite elementary school teachers. At the same time, back in NC at the Catawba Valley Mall, my mother met the sister-in-law of one of our co-workers here. Our sense of family has expanded and extends around the globe.

While we enjoy the freedom of movement through checkpoints and between borders, many of our colleagues in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan & the Holy Land (ELCJHL) are currently not allowed to travel from the West Bank into Jerusalem (a distance as short as 4 miles) or any other part of Israel. During the war, the government revoked many work and travel permits, and these have yet to be restored. This has meant that our church here is divided by those with restricted movement and those without.

Our family has spent the last month living in Beit Jala, a town in the West Bank next door to Bethlehem. While we love living here and appreciate the proximity to several ELCJHL churches, schools, and outreach ministries, this location has meant an hour-and-forty-five-minute drive (round trip) to take the kids 8.5 miles to school each day. (One of the things that has surprised us here has been the traffic. It is worse than Los Angeles, but both Paul and I have braved driving the streets and learned to use the horn when necessary!) While this is an inconvenience and frustration for us, it also means that pastors and parishioners who are members of ELCJHL churches in Ramallah or Beit Sahour cannot necessarily gather together with members of the congregation in Jerusalem.

This week, our family will relocate to Beit Hanina—a neighborhood in East Jerusalem that allows the children to walk to school and me to take a light rail train into the office. While we are happy to spend less time in the car, we also grieve that this move feels a bit like we are separating ourselves from neighbors in the West Bank. (Although, we will continue to travel there for events and fellowship, like Christmas Eve worship at Christmas Lutheran Church in Bethlehem.)

In the reading from Isaiah on the third Sunday in Advent, the prophet writes of a highway that is holy and reserved for God’s people. In a place where roads are not open-access, where drivers with certain license tags are not allowed on many roads, this text resonates differently. Yet, we trust that on God’s way all are welcome and no one shall go astray. God’s path leads to Zion, a place with everlasting joy and gladness.

Advent is a time when we wait eagerly for God to make a way through barren lands—through wilderness and sea, through isolation and alienation, through discord and discomfort. We trust that God will be with us on the way, offering a road to liberation and unity for all people. The good news of Emmanuel, God with us, is that all are welcome on this road; there is no restricted access. God in Christ has prepared a way for us—may we all have the courage to walk this road together.

Our family is grateful for your prayers and support in this season and always. Please also hold the ELCJHL in prayer—especially as we say thank you to our retiring bishop, Bishop Dr. Sani Ibrahim Azar, and welcome to our incoming bishop, Bishop-elect Dr. Imad Haddad, in early January.

You can learn more about our church’s work in the Holy Land and advocacy opportunities at home by following ELCA Sumud. As you finalize your holiday shopping, consider sharing an ELCA Good Gift or supporting our global service ministries.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Come visit!

The Rev. Christy Lohr Sapp, PhD
Lutheran Church of the Redeemer, Jerusalem

A highway shall be there,
and it shall be called the Holy Way;
the unclean shall not travel on it,
but it shall be for God’s people;
no traveler, not even fools, shall go astray. …
And the ransomed of the Lord shall return
and come to Zion with singing;
everlasting joy shall be upon their heads;
they shall obtain joy and gladness,
and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
—Isaiah 35: 8, 10