In 2001, I lived with several friends and we all decided that we should live without TV for awhile. It was too much of a distraction and the news was too depressing. So when 9/11 occurred, I didn’t find out because my favorite TV show was interrupted rather it was from a phone call. A phone call from a frantic mother who found out that the first plane had hit one of the twin towers. I had just dropped her daughter off in NYC the day prior and she wanted to make sure I saw her board the plane and take off. She wanted to be assured that her daughter’s flight wasn’t rescheduled. She wanted to make sure that her daughter was not on that plane she just witnessed blowing up. So began a crazy turn of events that most of us remember well. Meanwhile, I had a ticket to Israel already booked for the end of September. I wasn’t going to be staying in Israel per say, I was going to Palestine to help in the English-speaking office for an Arab-Christian Bible college.
Needless to say, the Arabs were not well-liked by most of the world at this time, unfortunately. There was already turmoil between the Jews and Arabs before I went but when I arrived, the Jews had amped up their game due to the recent 9/11 attacks. The first month I was there was relatively peaceful. I enjoyed long strolls through the markets of Bethlehem, picking up freshly made pita bread daily. The second month was a different story. Curfews started to be established and the Arabs’ water supply was only turned on every other day. While walking to the local market to pick up a freshly cooked rotisserie chicken, I was forced to cover my eyes due to the tear gas being sprayed from over the border wall. Not pleasant. Because I was an American, as was the other woman I was with, a desperate family came running up to us and showed us their daughter’s eyes. They shined a flashlight in her eyes showing that she was blind. She had become blind from the teargas a few days prior. They were begging us to share this news with the world. To encourage the madness to stop.
One day, I woke up with the intention of going to the staff Bible study, eating a tasty breakfast, and working a half-day in the office. While I was still trying to decide what I was going to do that afternoon I noticed a thick black smoke across the street. The apartment building across the street was on fire. The other volunteers in the compound (the other American, a British man, and a Swedish woman), all come out into the living room frantically. So began our ten days in isolation. Ten days (though we didn’t know at the time how long it would last) of not being able to leave the building, for any reason whatsoever.
I Learned to Trust God
Between the four of us, we had a limited supply of food. We shared a kitchen where we made our own meals so we had some breakfast items such as eggs and bread. For lunch and dinner we would often pick up cheap meals from local street vendors. The food was already prepared and was extremely affordable. But these vendors were obviously closed now. We had some meat and rice in the kitchen, but not much. After the first few days of sharing each other’s bread, eggs, and chicken, the food left was scarce. We were in a separate building from the rest of the college and if we left the building we would risk being shot at. Nobody was shooting at us directly but our building was in the crossfire of the two sides.
One day, the woman from Sweden noticed something odd hanging on the front gate out by the road. When we looked closely it looked like it was a bag of food, but we weren’t sure. We then received a phone call from the president of the college saying that the local Red Cross drove by (unharmed) and dropped off a generous supply of food for us in the midst of the craziness. God had provided.
I Learned to Worship
The room that the other American was staying in was shot at, the bullet holes are there to prove it. She was in the living room at the time. Had she been in her room, well, we won’t go there. The stairs leading down to the college’s library were surrounded by beautiful windows. Several of which were shattered into a million pieces by the end of the ten days due to the crossfire. I would lie in bed watching the red lights of the tracer bullets from my window knowing and trusting that God was with us. He was. When I would sneak away to another room of the compound to pray and worship, it was not the popular worship songs on the radio that would come from my heart but Scripture-based songs, “As the Deer,” or “Seek Ye First,” “Thy Word,” to name a few. I learned then that it is the Word of God, Scripture, that holds power.
I Learned to be Thankful
I didn’t know these other volunteers well before these ten days but I sure did afterwards. I learned to be thankful for the people I was with, regardless of the circumstances and we did everything we could to make the most of our time together.
As we spend the next few weeks, maybe months stuck in our homes due to the COVID-19, let us look at the good that can come from it rather than focusing on what we are missing out on. How can we trust God to provide for our needs right now? The Red Cross might not be dropping food off at your door but keep your eyes open for his provision! It may come in an unexpected way!
