Again Dorcas and her work lives in Christmas 2005, thanks to a church in the very shadow of the house of Simon the tanner and the sun-dazzled stone mazes of Jaffa. Most tourists will not find this church by themselves. Tucked in a winding alleyway and built on landlocked ancient foundations, this spectacularly beautiful Eastern Orthodox church was scorched by fire 15 years before. Restored, its murals gleam today with pristine beauty. But like all functioning churches, the real story is not in the beauty of its windows and furnishings but in the spiritual life of its congregation. And this little church shines with a rare beauty beyond antiquities and treasures.

The church’s congregation is admittedly poor in gold and earthly treasures and is largely comprised of the faithful swept in during the Russian immigration or low-paid foreign domestics and caretakers of the elderly working in Israel on work visas. But, says their shepherd, a joyful, dark-eyed man, they are eager for the Word and the three services weekly in Russian, Romanian, and Serb-Croatian are standing room only.

“We consider Dorcas the mother of our church,” he said.

In the spirit of helping the poor, they remember Dorcas at Christmas by collecting good used clothing, washing and repairing them, and distributing them to the needy. It is a matter of the poor helping the poorer.

Although Israel boasts of a rising middleclass and a good standard of living, there are still those who need help for one reason or another. One doesn’t have to go far to see who the needy are. On the street corner amid traffic stood an elderly skinny Anglo, cup-in-hand, gravely asking for help. Many of the needy are elderly who also came to Israel during the Russian immigration and don’t speak Hebrew. They are finding it hard to make a living in a young country where charities are few.

But at Christmas this year, when the cold winter rains blow in off the sea, the church in Jaffa led by the spirit of Dorcas will still be being built one stitch at a time. And like the faithful woman who lived so long ago, they will do what they can to clothe the naked as if they were clothing the Christ Child Himself.

Rebekah Montgomery is the editor of Right to the Heart of Women e-zine, a publisher at Jubilant Press, and the author of numerous books on spiritual growth. She can be contacted for comments or speaking engagements at  rebekahmontgomery.com