CMJ USA director gives first-person update about wartime Israel
In mid-May, I flew to Israel to join one of Shoresh Study Tours’ Tours with Purpose, a program that allows Christians in the nations to spend a week in Israel doing service projects.
Everything seems normal when you land at Ben Gurion Airport. Israelis are quite resilient and, during 76 years of violently contested nationhood, have mastered calmly carrying on. As you approach passport control, though, you are reminded of October 7 by the hostage posters lining the hallway.
Having been an on-site staff at Christ Church Jerusalem from 2014 to 2016, I was eager to see how my colleagues and friends are. They are all physically well but tired and overstretched. All of CMJ staff is doing two, three, four jobs. All three CMJ guest houses are short of volunteers. The Heritage Centre Museum is closed because there are almost no tourists (I did see some tours groups from Brazil and India.)
I spoke to three local Christian vendors. They all spoke of struggles and grief over the war. All also spoke of their hope in Jesus to get them through, which in turn encouraged me. They all pray the war will end and the tourists will return.
I stopped in one shop to get an ordination gift for a friend. John was not letting me out of his shop until I bought something. John, an Arab Catholic, is very grieved by the war. First his family is suffering financially because the shop is their source of income. Second, he said most of the vendors are behind on their taxes because there is hardly any business. They don’t expect grace from the government like over the pandemic because, of course, there’s a war to pay for.
Joseph in the Armenian Quarter affirmed that the vendors are behind on the their taxes, but he expressed joy and hope in Jesus. He is grateful that he and his family are healthy and well.
Zak is grateful that his family is well. His shop is doing decently with online sales. He reports that the number of Christians in Gaza has dwindled to 600 hundreds as many have left and some have died. News reports say that there were about
1,000 Christians in Gaza before the war, so Zak’s report rings true.[i]
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Hostages Square in Tel Aviv
Art pieces displayed in Hostages Square in Tel Aviv
One of the most striking conversations was with Orna, an Israeli Jew at Hostages Square in front of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. When she learned I was traveling with a group doing service projects, she asked, “Does anyone want to volunteer in Gaza. They need help too.” However, very quickly, her expression of compassion for her Gazan neighbors turned became an explanation of the betrayal she and many Israelis feel as a result of the October 7 invasion by Hamas. She said that many in the communities that were attack had been helping Gazans by giving them rides to Israeli hospitals or hiring them as gardeners and maintenance workers on the kibbutzim. These Israelis had been practically working towards peace and reconciliation but they were killed anyway. Orna spoke of how the first wave of invaders with Hamas commandos, followed by Hamas soldiers.
Then came the Gazan civilians who looted and vandalized, and
stole dead corpses.
Here was an Israeli Jew whose first question to me was one revealing her compassion but she was at the same time wrestling with the treachery of October 7.
One Israeli mother in Tel Aviv expressed relief that their daughter hadn’t gone to the Super Nova concert like she wanted and worried that her son would soon be drafted into the army.
The
night of the Iran attack, when the Islamic republic launched more than 300 drones and missiles, was different for so many. Some obediently waited in bomb shelters. Others in Galilee mentioned sitting on the deck and watching Iron Dome intercept projectiles over the Sea of Galilee. Two friends mentioned how frightened they were that night, especially when thought they heard drones outside their windows. One friend slept through the whole thing.
Back on our Tour with Purpose, the group from Fremantle, Australia, sorted produce for distribution, handed out food bundles to the Domari people in Jerusalem, and helped tidy the grounds and gardens around Beit Bracha. While there, we met two soldiers taking advantage of a weekend break. They were believers in Jesus who were newly wed and assigned to different military units. They were grateful for the respite offered by CMJ Israel.
Listen to testimonials from two Australians who participated on a Tour with Purpose:
Jeremy and
Ethan.
Members of New Life Church from Fremantle, Australia, at Beit Bracha in Migdal, Israel
The nightmare of the Israel-Hamas War will end. When it does, there will be even more work to do. There will still be needy people to provide for. There will be tourists to house and teach about the Jewish context of the New Testament. There will be many broken souls who will need a listening ear, a warm embrace, and the hope that Jesus offers.
The followers of Jesus in the Land also need our prayers. One Jewish believer told me that the pain of October 7 is too raw to begin to contemplating loving their enemies and praying “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.” While they wrestle that out with Jesus, we in the nations need to stand in the gap and intercede for all the peoples of the Land.
Footnotes
[i] “The Christian population in the Gaza Strip was around 5,000 in 2005 when Israel unilaterally withdrew from 21 [then] Israeli communities. Since then, it has rapidly declined, while the Muslim population has grown. A report by the University of Notre Dame cited 3,000 Christians living in Gaza in 2007 and only 1,300 in 2021 – mostly Greek Orthodox.” “Since Start of Israel-Hamas War, 3% of Gaza’s Christians Dead.” The Jerusalem Post - Christian World, 17 February 2024.
