Yet in the Dark Streets Shining — a book to inspire every believer in Christ to trust God, pursue justice, and persevere in love

Book Review by Fred Martin

Headlines grab our attention; editorials provoke our thinking; but biographies touch our hearts.

Yet in the Dark Streets Shining is Bishara Awad’s moving story of learning how to live out his faith in Jesus as a Palestinian. Co-written by author Mercy Akien, we learn that Bishara’s father was killed by a sniper in Jerusalem during the Israeli-Palestinian war of 1948, leaving his mother with the responsibility of raising her seven children as refugees. Through the generosity of others, Bishara received an education in Jerusalem followed by college studies in the United States. After the 1967 war, he returned to his homeland and served as the principal of a boarding and vocational school for disadvantaged Palestinian boys. Later he founded Bethlehem Bible College where he served as president until his retirement in 2013.

 Woven into this narrative of Awad’s life are three recurring themes that emerge slowly but powerfully. First are the injustices that he, his family, and others endured simply because they were Palestinians. He describes his loss of citizenship, the unavailability of necessary medical care, the harassment at checkpoints, imprisonment without trial, pressure to serve as informers, torture in Israeli prisons, and attacks by Israeli settlers.

Adding to his struggle to remain true to Christ were his many encounters with Christian Zionists who rejoiced in Israel’s military victory in 1967 and saw modern Israel as a miraculous fulfillment of Biblical prophecy. He tells the shocking and painful story of being at a meeting of Christians who took up an offering to buy a tank for the Israeli Defense Forces—the same kind of tanks that he had seen terrorize his Christian neighbors.

Most moving of all is Awad’s account of his own struggle with anger and hatred. He acknowledges that he spent the first half of his life unaware of his rage. One afternoon in his office he could hide it no longer. “That’s right, God. I’m furious. And it’s true . . . I do hate the Israelis!” In that time of deep personal confession, Christ melted the weight of Awad's hatred and filled him with a love for all people. "It was compassion for the oppressed and the oppressor, the love of Christ himself for all people, including my people, the Palestinians. And yes, a deep compassion for the Jews too—love for everybody."

Bishara Awad’s memoir records the narrative of one man’s life as well as the history of the ongoing conflict in Palestine and Israel, but it does more than inform. It will inspire every believer in Christ to trust God, pursue justice, and persevere in love.

Yet in the Dark Streets Shining: A Palestinian Story of Hope & Resilience in Bethlehem, by Bishara Awad and Mercy Aiken, Cliffrose Press, 2021, paperback, 217 pp. Available for purchase through Internet booksellers.

Fred Martin graduated summa cum laude from Vanderbilt University with his B.A degree. He received both his Master of Divinity and Doctor of Divinity degrees from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. Ordained by the Evangelical Free Church of America, he served as pastor of a church in northern Minnesota for 36 years. He now resides in Eugene, Oregon. He is the author of “American Evangelicals & Modern Israel: A Plea for Tough Love.”