Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee. ~ Psalm 122:6
This commandment finds all new clarity and urgency in the recent days in Israel. From somebody who was just recently there in these very locations that are being mercilessly bombed with relentless kassams, I am sad and sick of heart for those who are enduring the terror as well as for those innocent people which are being used as human shields by Hamas.
I thought I’d post my photos from my brief time in Sderot this past October. I was asked to go down with several bus loads from Jerusalem to Sderot as a ICEJ photographer to cover the dedication of a bomb shelter and to see some of the border communities that are immediately affected by the kassams.
The bomb shelter that we went down to dedicate was facilitated through the organization Operation Lifeshield which “is an emergency campaign created after the Lebanon War of 2006 to facilitate the donation of badly needed air raid shelters to residents of Israel’s northern and southern home front communities that live with the constant danger of rocket attacks.”
This particular shelter dedication was funded by the joint collaboration of an American pastor and an American rabbi and their congregations from Florida.
This gentleman below, a resident of Sderot (the hardest hit border community), was telling us of the reality of living in Sderot:
Those that are living there are usually poor and have no way to relocate or find refuge from the violence. 40% of the residents are Russian immigrant Jews, who came to this land to find solace and new beginnings, only to be met with hardship and daily terror. For some of the children living here, this is all that they have ever known. For the past 8 years, 9,400 kassam rockets and mortars have been fired at civilians from Gaza. 3,200 of those were fired in 2008 alone.
The residents have only 15 seconds to find a bomb shelter once the sirens have gone off. These attacks in the past have been strategically timed by Hamas to effect waking and school times, the goal is to have the civilians living in psychological terror. He told us of mothers who have to choose what child they will grab and run with, as they don’t have time to safely corral all their children. Or of those driving who don’t wear their seatbelts, because it may apprehend you in getting out of your car in time. Or of those who cannot live only on the bottom floor of their house, as living in any upper floors would make it impossible to get to a shelter in time.
He told us a story of a kindergarten teacher who was teaching the children one day about creatures, specifically snails. She asked the class if anyone knew why the snail has a hard shell. Without hesitation the answer from the children was to “protect it from the kassams”. That is all they’ve ever know. So sad.
Equally sad is seeing bomb shelters in playgrounds such as this one, painted up cheerily to try and disguise the grim purpose of it being there.
Just today I received an email from a prominent American Christian Broadcaster in Israel, Earl Cox, who was on my bus that day. He has been reporting from the frontlines of the border communities in recent days and has himself been the victim of terror and running for his life to the safety of a bomb shelter. He posted a video here of the bombing, catching on tape them running for shelter and several blasts, one close enough to knock them all off their feet: Bomb Video
For me, having been there to this very location in Israel, I’m saddened for all those living this terrible reality, and somewhat angered at how the mainstream international media community fails to report or make known these realities. And even though grim, the fact that these bomb shelters that have been lovingly donated from people across the world are now daily saving lives. I’m so glad I was able to go there (thanks to my husband for trusting God to let me and our unborn child journey there!) and see for myself what life is like there – I won’t ever be able to forget.
I’ll leave you with another Scripture that is proving hauntingly current….again……
“Do not keep silent, O God! Do not hold Your peace, and do not be still, O God! For behold, Your enemies make a tumult; and those who hate You have lifted up their head. They have taken crafty counsel against Your people, and consulted together against Your sheltered ones. They have said, ‘Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation, that the name of Israel may be remembered no more.’” Psalm 83:1-4
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