In June of 1999 my son, daughter and I moved to Israel for all but a month of 6 years. While there we volunteered on a dairy farm, (sheep), and we lived in Yerushalim,(Jerusalem), in an apartment, for a time, In the summer of 2000, things got really interesting, YHVH said it was time to move, and He would show us where we were going, He didn't say why, which can be most annoying. :). We obeyed, and cleared up our affairs, (stuff and apartment), and taking little with us, we hit the road, literally.
Journeys end found us in a Christian Arab town called Beit Jala, in a neighborhood called Bir'una, on a street where the Christian Arabs had asked Israel to annex their street, and Israel had. About that time we discovered one of the reasons why YHVH had moved us. Some of our monthly income stopped arriving in our bank account, for 18 months. Our rent in Yerushalim was costly, while our little stone house in Bir'una was without money, The owner said he was blessed to have us. While we were in the house no one would be pestering him to live there. He didn't want unbelievers to live there. Enemies of Israel had always bugged him to live there, so they could get Israeli citizenship, and have papers that allowed them to enter Israel with-out challenge.
So we set up house in this little stone house with about one foot thick stone walls. As a side note, I have to say stone insulation beats fiberglass any time. We were cool in the heat of the day, and in short, protected from any drastic changes in our environment
A local blacksmith made an angle iron frame for a kitchen counter. A local stone merchant made the marble surface to set in it. We bought a wood burning oven used, and a neighbor got it ready for use. We only used it in the winter. Best night-light ever, as my daughter reminds me. :) In the warm weather we cooked outside over a wood fire pit. By the way, as my daughter just reminded me, never underestimate a banked pile of coals, and leave your sweet potatoes buried in them in a tin, overnight. They can easily turn to ash. :/ We used roll up beds, stuffed with sheep's wool. They become seats around the room in the day, and roll out for sleep at night. They are about six inches thick, and as my daughter remembers them, six inches of 'comfyness'. Our 'fridge' was a large terra cotta jar, laid at an angle with it's bottom in soil, and filled part way with water. It was as cool inside as a fridge and since our house was 'electricity liberated', used no electricity. Our water purification system was another large terra cotta jar, that we simply kept full of water, Cool pure water anytime we wanted it. Our water came from a well, across the valley from our house. The stone mouth of the well still had grooves in it from the days that buckets were lowered into it to draw up the water, but now it had an electric pump. We would fill plastic 'gerry cans', meant for water, and carry them home. We had no car, but for this chore we had a donkey, and a wagon he pulled. We also collected rain water when ever we could.
We did our laundry on the sand roof, by hand, and air dried it on a line, strung there.
For the most part we walked everywhere, no gym membership needed. We climbed up the mountainside to get to the Jerusalem bus stop, (our path marked on the map with red dots), or we climbed up to Beit Jala, to go to the 'machulet', (convenience store), or the open air market there. We could get fresh chickens that were Biblically Kosher slaughtered. At this point in 2000 we could still get vine ripened tomatoes, for .25/lb. You were paying about $3.00/lb at the time for the same tomatoes. Just sayin'. All in all it was a good life, with a lot of sweet memories along with the challenges. We lived amongst not only Christian Arabs, who were sweet, and very fearful, but also Muslim Arabs. The latter are practiced at being sweet to your face and very pushy and manipulative, in a 'sweet' way, you understand, to find out where you stood politically. I think they thought we were spies, for Israel. They didn't believe what we told them, that we served a yet unseen government. They didn't know what to do with the truth. It was a daily challenge to live near them. While we were there one man was hung, because he owned an Israeli made pair of shoes. A 'kangaroo' court determined, based on this information that he was an Israeli spy. Another incident was when a Western Reporter came to town, and wanted to talk to us. It was planned for the next day, we never saw her again. Another Western reporter was shot. You do not tell Muslim Arabs the truth, if it conflicts with what they want to hear, and fare well. This should give you a fresh perspective on the news you see coming out of the PA. I would not have dared to live there without being certain that we were there at the behest of YHVH, and therefore under His wing, Psalm 91 in action.
We knew we were there because YHVH kept His word, and prepared this place for us, just in time. One third of our financial support disappeared the same month, that we were moving in to the little stone house. But we had yet to discover other reasons that YHVH had for us to be there. We soon would.
Now, we are praisers, my children and I. We would dive in to the Psalms, especially in difficult times, often singing them. One of our favorites was Psalm 118. In Hebrew a song taken from it is called 'Hodu la Adonai ki tov', (Give thanks to YHVH for He is good). We declared it in song as we climbed to Yerushalim, or Beit Jala, inserting the names of the neighborhoods, and wadis(valleys). In short we inserted whatever the Holy Spirit led us too, making positive declarations as we went.
One evening, about a month after moving in to our little stone house in Nachal Gilo, we were out walking on the road in front of the house, which was lower, even than the floor of the valley. As I casually looked across the Valley, just enjoying the cool of the evening, I noticed what appeared to be red 'fireflies' flying in straight lines. It took me a few seconds to connect the dots, as I heard nothing. Those 'fireflies' were tracers from a weapon, probably a Russian made rifle. Those were the first shots fired in the Intifada of 2000. We heard, by word of mouth, the Spring before that it was coming. The reason that was used, once it did start, was that the Arabs were upset because Ariel Sharon, then Prime Minister of Israel, had dared to visit the temple mount, but that was just the reason given.
Getting back to that first evening, the 16 year old whom was doing the shooting seemed to be trying to aim at the elevated road that crossed the valley. However, he had little control of the weapon, and his shots were going wild. As I said, our road was lower than the valley floor, so we took cover against the little embankment that supported the 'Security Road', above. For the second time in my life, I was aware that we were cloaked and saturated with a super-natural faith. There was absolutely no way fear could get through to us. We just calmly followed Abba's lead to hug that embankment.
You can see both roads on the Google Satelite Map of the area. By the way, on that same map, our house is a little yellow box with a red dot inside. The road in front of our house, that we were walking on is highlighted with white dots, and the 'Security Road' is highlighted with blue dots. We hunkered down just about in front of our house, and waited him out.
We learned later, that he was not just a young hot-head, but this was an organized 'attack' on Israelis, driving to and from Gush Etzion on the elevated road. That was our last evening walk, as from then on the shooting would start, just about dusk. Usually right after the Israeli Evening News, if they did not like what they heard on the news. Sometimes they would shoot at the road, sometimes over our house, at Gilo. There were very few quiet evenings after that, and everyone was in-doors before dusk.
In the daytime everything was life as usual. The children went to school, the Moms shopped in the market, the Dad's did whatever they did, except the ones who had jobs in Israel. They couldn't go as long as Israelis were being fired upon. The people that were deciding whether to shoot or not to shoot on any given evening liked that those Men could not go to work, because they were considered to be the Arab version of 'Uncle Tom', and just tolerated anyway. None of the locals were afraid of what Israel would do because they knew that the IDF only fired, when fired upon. They are defence forces and only fire to protect Israel. That is their mandate, they protect life, even innocent Arab lives where they, (the IDF), are in control of the situation.
And because YHVH knew what was coming, He already had positioned one of His Praise Units, to go 'out' before His Soldiers. This was most definitly mechanised battle, but His word has that covered too. He also positioned us between Israel's Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo and those that were shooting at her. It was no accident, where our house was positioned, it was very strategic.
So, from that first night onward, we took up the weapons of our warfare, and prepared for our part in the spiritual battle. It is my understanding that, while we were there, at our duty station, no one was physically hurt in Gilo, though they were fired on nearly every night. There was property damage, and from time to time we would hear of miracles, like a bullet would fly over a table, where the family was enjoying the Erev Shabbat meal, touching none of them, only to smash the mirror on the wall beyond. HalleluYah ! I am in total awe of everything YHVH did for us and through us during this season. Who are we, to be given such a braka? To be used of Him in this way. None of us had any formal Bible or military training. Our only qualification was that we were willing to go where He said, and do what He said, when He said it. But please don't think for one minute that we are personally taking any credit for anything. All the glory belongs to Him, our Commander.
Israel soon installed a Tank Unit at the very edge of Gilo, (a wite mark w/blue dot on the satelite image) to observe the goings on in the valley below and to protect Gilo. It was just over our house, and the neighborhood up the mountainside from us, at the top of the mountain. We nicknamed that tank'our angel', for it was about as forbidding in appearance as the real Angel(s), that watched over us, I'm sure. And when it 'spoke' it was with a window rattling boom. Until our tour of duty was over, we were not even threatened openly, though we were well aware that we were hated by some, and if they could have positioned us just right, they would have tried to get Israel to hurt us, so they could use the incident to hurt Israeli/United States relations. That never happened because YHVH kept us, showing us how to walk out the admonition, to be wise as serpents, and gentle as doves. That does not mean that He protected us from all awareness that we were living in a war zone. It was rare, but there were times that something was up in the middle of the night, and 'our angel' would 'speak' and my son and I would wake up, already sitting up in bed. I remember once saying, "I'm awake now, are you". Turns out my son was, but my daughter slept through, every time it happened. We tease her stil. And yes she is still hard to wake up.
The reality of attacking Israel is this. They will not fire, until fired upon, but once they are, they will take out the structure or equipment that was used to do it, doing everything they can to protect the innocents. This is not easy when the enemy is using innocents to shield themselves. In Beit Jala, a historically Christian Arab town, the imported militants would choose the Christian's house that they would use to shoot from that night, and simply inform the family. If the father of the house protested, knowing that the IDF would destroy his home, he would be the first casualty of the evening. These 'militants' have no care, for even their own people. Don't think they would give any other believer's a moments thought. Our experience, or education in the West gives us no frame of reference to understand this. But please believe one who has learned from watching such things play out before me.
The IDF didn't know we were United States citizens until it was nearly time for us to leave. For this I am very grateful, because they would have been
worried about us. So we were never Israeli spies. However, we did notice something while we were there. Hugh dump trucks driven by very hostile looking men, would drive past our house on our road, near the end of our tour, loaded with hugh boulders and earth, that looked freshly dug. They would dump their load down the valley and come back for more. There were probably about five different trucks, and they ran the road all day. This troubled me because one of the Arab's ways of storing weapons, or attack, was to dig tunnels. I believe that they were digging tunnel(s). So we took this Intelligence to Our Commander, in prayer.
We were there through that winter, and in the early Spring Abba impressed on us that it was time to leave. So we did. We went to our new place, but we needed to go back one more time to get some things, but we didn't want my daughter to go back with us. By this time the IDF knew we were there and really wanted us to leave, which was one indicator to us that it was time to go. Things were really getting tense down below, in the valley, so we wanted to go at night. We knew better than to be walking on the mountainside at night, so we talked to the IDF about it. Our 'manuver' was set up for a Tuesday evening, because a good friend would have my daughter with her. We checked in with the 'our angel unit', before going down the mountain, and they simply said "no", that night would not work. That was a problem, because our friend would not be able to have my daughter with her the next night. I mentioned this to our IDF contacts, and they said, no problem, bring her here. So we did. She refers to that chapter, to this day, as the night she had seventy additional big brothers. There is no military in this world like His. They fixed her up in their command center, even offering to let her play their computer game. We finished our task below, and climbed back up the mountain at first light, picked up my daughter and went on our way, but not before her new big brothers made it clear that she was welcome, anytime. She had made a huge impression on them, who no doubt missed their real little sisters.
You may be wondering what could possibly be so important, that we would go to all that trouble. Well, stuff can be replaced, for sure, but documentation that could be used for propaganda, or worse, was another matter. We had to go back, to retrieve documentation that had been over looked, when we left.
In bringing this post to a close, I just want to say that the picture of 'our angel' makes me cry, because when I look at it I am flooded with awe at all YHVH did in that season, in us and through us. So many brakot, (blessings), to the point that if I listed even all the ones I can remember, this would no longer be a note. I can assure you, we could never be the same as before we lived in our little stone house in Nachal Gilo.
I have shared all of this with you, in the hope that as you meditate on all you are thankful for this week, you will thank YHVH in advance for all He will do in and through you in the difficult days that lie ahead for all of us. And remember in all of your preparations do not forget to prepare the weapons of your warfare, which are not carnal, but mighty to the pulling down of strongholds. They are far more important and useful than that freeze dried Turkey. Take it from someone who has lived in a war zone before, and survived to tell you about it. It is also essential to follow orders, being exactly where your commander has directed you to be. It may make the diference between life and death, for you, or other(s).
All the best,
Praise Unit Gimmel, squad alef, vav, tav :)
