David is Back!

After a little over a week in prison (and soon after we posted our prayer request for him), our brother David has returned safely to the Bible college, missing only his eyeglasses – which were taken at the checkpoint where he was arrested, blindfolded, and taken to prison after hours of waiting in a holding cell there. A short time after that, he was in a vehicle headed for Gaza without trial, but when he was almost at the Erez checkpoint the Israeli soldiers were stopped and told to bring him back to the prison near Hebron. David described this as a miracle. David’s legal advocate made the case for him to stay in Bethlehem and have privilege to move between Bethlehem and Ramallah. Yet, even after the court decided for him to be released, he was held in prison for a few more days.

When we saw him, he was in surprisingly good spirits. It was a happy reunion, and almost all of the Bible college went out to meet him to express our joy for his return. Misty and I asked him about his experience there, and he was excited to tell us how he had witnessed to both the Muslim prisoners and the Israeli guards. While in prison, he sang praise songs, prayed, shared about Christ, and read his Bible. During this trying time, David considered it a blessing and an opportunity for ministry. Pray for the seeds of the gospel that were planted in the hearts of the soldiers and prisoners. Pray for the Palestinians from Gaza who are still in the West Bank illegally. They are hoping that David's case can be used by the attorney to help them obtain this needed permission. And continue to pray for David, his education at BBC, and that God would continue to form him into His image.

Our Friend David

Our friend David from Gaza, who is a student at the Bible College and getting a degree in Christian theology, left Bethlehem to visit his mom and little brother in Ramallah (his dad is still in Gaza). While on his way back he was caught at a checkpoint with expired permission to be in the West Bank and has been in prison for over a week now. Although he was traveling from one Palestinian area to another (both within the West Bank) he was arrested and is now being held in a jail cell in near Hebron awaiting a decision from the court to see if he will be allowed to return to Bethlehem to continue his studies or if he will be returned to Gaza, blacklisted, and never able to leave from Gaza again. If he returns to Gaza, his life may be in danger there.

David is a passionate Christian who will tell anyone and everyone about the Lord Jesus Christ. This was not acceptable to some Muslims before he left and it won’t be welcome if he returns. Nevertheless, David will share the love of Christ, even if it means death - just as it has for others. David represents many people of Gaza who have left, their permission expired, and have not been able to make it back to Gaza. The frustrating part of all of this is that these are all Palestinian areas that we are speaking of here (Gaza & the West Bank). Yet, the Israelis have set up internal checkpoints within the West Bank to restrict travel between Palestinian autonomously controlled areas such as Jericho, Bethlehem, Nablus, and Ramallah.

We are not allowed to visit David, but we have sent a care package to him that his attorney (a Palestinian Christian who serves on the college’s board) was hopefully able to deliver. We included a small Arabic New Testament with the Psalms (thank you Gideons), letters of encouragement, and, of course, some snacks. We hoped that all of these items were allowed in, but we weren't sure if the Bible would be. We had told the attorney that if these items are not able to be given to David then to please give them to the soldiers and to the other prisoners if possible because we are sure that David would have shared with them anyway.

We also sent a separate small care package for the soldiers there at the prison. We know from talking to many of them and from reading some of their testimonies (found in "Breaking the Silence") that many of them would rather be somewhere else and many times would rather not be in the army at all. There is universal conscription (all men and women must serve in the IDF as soon as they are 17 or 18 years old - whenever they graduate from high school). Even if they do want to be there, that is not necessarily a bad thing and they also need to be loved regardless.

Our friend David is physically imprisoned but many of those imprisoning them are also imprisoned themselves - imprisoned in the army, imprisoned by hate, imprisoned by fear, and imprisoned by the wrong they have done (as we all once were before Christ). By showing the love of Christ to them, hopefully they will find the freedom found only in Jesus Christ – freedom from the wrong that they have done, freedom from hate, and freedom from fear. With Christ, soldiers will have a new purpose in the army to not only serve their country, but to first and foremost serve their God. The soldier will have the freedom in Christ to be a compassionate soldier who makes a lasting difference in the lives of many.

Please pray that David will be able to return to Bethlehem to finish his semester studying Christian theology. Pray for the others from Gaza that are in the West Bank "illegally" who live in constant fear of being caught – fear that restricts their daily lives. Also, pray for a more just peace between Israelis and Palestinians that will allow basic rights of travel within the Palestinian territories.

David (in the baseball cap) along with our other friend Joseph (also from Gaza) teaching us arabic during our first few weeks here. They also showed us around the town, helped us find out much needed information, welcomed us, and were wonderful friends to us when we had none.

Hebron Photos & Video

One of the many baracades blocking access to simply cross the street forcing many to walk all the way around just to end up right on the other side of the street. Many times they walk all the way to the checkpoint to cross the street only to find out that it is not open for some reason. This side of the fence is Palestinian territory and just behind the concrete wall is the Israeli-only street. The trees in the not so far distance are on the other side of the street - Palestinian territory again.


Aaron coming out of the checkpoint just before the entrance to the Abraham Mosque.


Aaron is the figure on the right. As you can see, no shops were open here. You can also notice the protective netting that was put up as well as some trash that someone had attempted to throw down into the Palestinian market place.

Misty and a Palestinian girl coming down from the roof of local's home where we saw the complicated divisions of the city.

For the largest city in all of the West Bank, it was very empty and quiet especially compared to the smaller cities that we have been in. No shops were open and this was the main street. We could hear the woman walking and even the tarp above Aaron's head flapping in the wind. It was if we had just walked into an abandoned town out of a western movie.

You can see how daily life is horribly affected in Hebron - no economy, poverty, forced shop closures (thousands and thousands actually), restricted movement (or inconvenient and long detours), curfews (otherwise house arrest/imprisonment because they sometimes last for days with no relief to get even food - only shot at if you step foot out your door), etc. Imagine trying to raise a family or simply live in these types of circumstances. It sheds new light on the term "open-air prison" which many have used to describe many areas in Palestine (the West Bank and Gaza). We don't know how we would react living in such conditions - knowing that there is little that we can do to change it.

On the front lines in Hebron

Another example of the church that is "caught between" the Muslim world and the Israeli government, involves an interesting encounter we had with the Christian community in Hebron. We visited some Palestinian and American friends in Hebron, (we cannot give any details of their location, names, ministry, etc. because of the blogs publication on the internet). They are the ONLY Christian presence in an entirely Muslim community - and have spent fifty years earning the respect of the community for that privilege. World Vision was even run out of town just for having a little one-man office in Hebron. These Christians have been physically attacked. They have been legally attacked. They have been attacked spiritually. They have been shunned from the community. They have been persecuted unlike anything most Americans have ever dreamed.

Yet, they have a steadfastness from the Holy Spirit that provides them with the resolve to not give up on the work that they have been give to do “on their watch.” If they went then the ministry would go as well and it would never be able to be revived due to the situation there. Many times I heard them say “Not on my watch” when I asked about their tenacity. God has blessed them richly for their perseverance, but please pray for their ministry. Their greatest needs are for the ending of legal battles and for more personnel. They need workers for the ministry in Hebron and for the headquarters back in the states.

Hebron is not a city without problems. Under the newest regulations for the city, the town is divided between H1 and H2 and is a special condition area. This Palestinian town in the West Bank is also now home to about 500 or so Jewish settlers. There have been deadly attacks on both Jews and Arabs by Arabs and Jews, and there is a tension in the air there. The city of Hebron is the location of the Tomb of the Patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, etc.) and is sacred to both Jews and Muslims. At one point it was all a mosque, but throughout the years, part of it has been made into a synagogue. The Israeli settlers (so called because they are settling inside the West Bank occupied territory) live above the Palestinian's market place in the center of the town. The settlers believe that the Arabs should leave Hebron completely as God has given them the land by divine ordinance. However, the resilience of the Palestinian people there is amazing, especially since they have put up protective netting above the city market place to protect themselves from the constant rock and dirt throwing, water pouring (even urine pouring) of the some settlers above them. A few of our friends from various western countries have had dirt dumped on them while they were walking through the Hebron market.

There are many soldiers in Hebron to protect the settlers that live there, and they are victims as well – by their own words. In testimonies recorded by ICAHD called “Breaking the Silence” (Israeli Committee Against Housing Demolitions http://www.icahd.org/eng/), many soldiers have told about the constant abuse towards Palestinians in Hebron. The soldiers are then forced to deal with the mental instability produced from reflection on their actions on duty. It is common for many soldiers to take a year off from their army service and go to India or somewhere in the east and become involved in the drug culture there. There is also a high rate of suicide among the soldiers. We should remember these Israeli soldiers, as well as all others involved (settlers, Palestinians, and the children of both sides), as we pray for peace in Palestine and Israel.

From the rooftop of one Arab home, a person can get a small glimpse of the complications of the city. While on this rooftop there was an Israeli soldier in a bunker on the roof of a settler house about 20 feet away. The street below us was to be used only for the settlers, although both sides of the street, blocked by high fences are owned by Palestinians. The only way to get from one side of the small road to the other (for a Palestinian) involved a 3km walk. The market center was virtually a ghost town as many of the people there were unable to keep their shops open enough to make any income. Furthermore, the curfew for Palestinians there was almost always in effect and the Palestinians might be told to close the shops at anytime of the day for any length of time. There was an eerie feeling of aloneness and desperation among the people there.

Despite this terrible situation, God is not absent. He has allowed the church to continue in Hebron. We have come to encourage these Christians and remind them that they are not alone. We pray for them, and we will tell others about their work.

Back to our roots.

This past month, we went to a Messianic Jewish congregation on the north coast of Israel. There we met many believers in the Messiah. The elder that spoke to us after the Hebrew service was a Russian Jew, and provided an interesting translation experience: he, a Russian speaking Jew, spoke not Hebrew, but English to a Swiss interpreter for French listeners. His story was one of finding his Jewish roots in the Old Testament when he first began to read the Bible – having come from a completely atheistic background – and then furthering his identity in the New Testament as a follower of Jesus the Messiah. He came to know Jesus through a conference in the Ukraine that he reluctantly attended after convincing himself that he would just go to protect his wife (she invited him to the conference) from religious people and ideas.

This elder spoke to us about the challenge for Christians living in the nation of Israel today. He said the pressure and persecution from the ultra-orthodox Jewish society that is around him and his congregation is heavy on him and his family. Certain sects of the religious Jewish people in Israel equate Yeshua as dangerous and a means of undermining their society. He and his family have received hate mail from these Jewish groups, and those in his neighborhood have put postcards in all of the mailboxes warning his friends and neighbors to separate from him and his family because they are “dangerous mission people.” He later stated that these fundamentalist Jews seem to have a mission against the Christian faith, and many of the Israelis in society and government listen to them because they are considered the spiritual leaders of Israel.

For “mission people,” the ramifications of speaking about Jesus go even deeper. He stated that Messianic Jews are discriminated against and have even been fired from their jobs for believing in Jesus. With all of these injustices, the elder pointed out that the Israeli government either does nothing and turns a blind eye or does very little and 'goes easy' on those who are committing these sometimes violent acts against the Messianic Jews - as in the case of the bomb disguised as a gift that was left on a Messianic Jewish family's doorstep during Purim on March 20th, 2008 nearly killing a 15 year old boy - for which the Israeli police have made no charges or arrests over a year later. The Israeli government seems to have no problem with Christians from other countries that send millions of dollars in financial suport to Israel every year. Yet, they appear to take issue with Jewish Christians within their own country. Why is this?

Jewish Christians are not considered Jewish anymore by the Israeli government. In fact, many believers that were in the congregation are awaiting the results of their citizenship status in Israel, and for that reason, we were not allowed to photograph them. If the Israeli government found out that they were Christians they could be denied citizenship in Israel or given problems with the government. It appears that the Israeli government would like to keep the nation away from Messianic believers. One believer from Germany had his citizenship taken away and was sent back to Germany because of that reason. He and his family (wife and kids) have been separated for a while now.

There are also laws against evangelizing Jewish people. For instance, it is illegal - with possible imprisonment - to openly tell a person under the age of 18 years about Jesus. Why 18? Our guess is because the statistics of people coming to faith in Jesus after age 18 is substantially lower than before age 18. Israel was created for Jewish people, but if these Jewish people are Christians then it seems that they are no longer welcome.

Sadly, many people from various religions - including Christianity - discriminate based on what someone believes or doesn't believe. Without slipping into an "all religions are one" universalism, we can still affirm that religious differences are never a justification for persecution or violence. We as Christians, in particular, should consider how we have condoned others to act on certain beliefs, and/or how we simply keep quiet about unequal treatment of other human beings of any religion. We also need to re-evaluate how we, ourselves, carry out - in word and deed - some of our beliefs.

The scriptures of Romans 11 speak of how Gentiles have been grafted into the kingdom of God as wild olive branches, and we have our roots in the faith of our fathers from long ago. We delighted to join in worship of Jesus, the Messiah, with our fellow Jewish brothers and sisters in Christ. This is yet another example of the church that is "caught between" the Muslim world and the Israeli government, and we will not soon forget these wonderful believers.

Sick and Tired

Well, quite a lot has happened that we have not had the chance to write about. A few weeks ago, Misty was sick with a nasty cold while Aaron was physically tired since he was busy taking care of a group of 20 in the guesthouse by himself. After that, we were both a little homesick. Misty was especially worried about her mom and disappointed about missing her younger brother’s graduation as a soldier from the Army. While we both like being here and really love the people that we have met, we were a little anxious to go home. Misty wants to be there to help her family and spend time with her mom whose cancer, we’ve just recently found out, has spread. This has troubled Misty making her feel helpless and far away.

The Lord has been faithful to us though and has brought us both comfort. The packages, letters, and emails that we have received from family, friends, and our Church (GracePoint Community) have been so uplifting to us. It is encouraging to know that we have many who care for us and remember us in prayer. We are sure that is has also been your prayers that have helped us through these more difficult times. We have also been attending a Bible study with other ex-patriots (foreigners) and have been studying Psalms. It has been great to be part of a small group like this. We are both more at peace now with the situation and where God has us, but for a while there, we had a song stuck in our heads while we were missing home. This song might be familiar to you especially if you have ever watched “Jaws.” The first few words to the song are “Show me the way to go home. I’m tired and I want to go to bed.” That is all we knew of this song but it seemed to sum up exactly what we were feeling.

We are not as homesick anymore but our time at Bethlehem Bible College will be coming to an end shortly and we will be back in Texas with our families by April 9th. While we are saddened at the reality of leaving our new friends here who we have grown to love, we are eager to see our old friends and family back home. We aren’t sure what God has in mind for us when we return, but we are diligently seeking His direction for our lives.

During the past few weeks, we have had many experiences, despite being ill, tired, and homesick. A couple big instances come to mind…we have visited a Messianic Jewish congregation, the city of Hebron, and a friend of ours has been arrested and is the face of a legal battle for many Palestinians. We will do our best to catch you up in our next few blogs.

Photos of Mom, Dad, & Family

Please pray for my mom, my dad, and our family as my mom battles against cancer.



Mom & Dad


Mom, Dad, & Children


Mom, Dad, & Grandchildren


The Whole Family - Mom, Dad, Children, Grandchildren, & Son-in-laws


The Entire Family Again


Please visit http://carepages.com/carepage/PaulaBellow for more up-to-date information about my mom's cancer.

Dad and mom are still trying to work out finances so she is not in a treatment center right now. Please pray that she will begin quality treatment soon before it spreads further.

Also, please help my mom receive the treatments that she needs by donating money to help pay for her medical expenses (see the posts right before this one for more information).

Thank you so much for your interest and concern. Please faithfully pray for my mom and our family.

About My Mom and Our Family

Paula Bellow has always been a faithful mom - faithful to God, her family, her husband, and her children. As her child, I have always admired and respected my mom for her great faith. She is the strongest woman of faith that I know. My mom has taught me the importance of loving God with all your heart, always standing up for what you believe even if you suffer or are persecuted for it, and the importance of family - being there for each other no matter what.

My mom and dad, Mike, were married when then were 18, had their 1st child at 19 and just had their 10th child in 2002. They are now both only 51 years old and have celebrated over 32 years of being together.

Three children (ages: 6, 12, and 17) still live at home. Two live in Colorado, one lives out of country, one in Houston, one in our hometown, and 2 are in the army national guard. My mom and dad have 3 grandsons, 1 granddaughter, and 1 on the way.

My mom was diagnosed with breast cancer about 5 years ago. My mother's family has a history of breast cancer. Two of her sisters have already passed away from cancer and another has been in remission now for nearly 10 years now. My mom had targeted radiation and a lumpectomy and she was cancer free for about 4 years. In the past 1 or 2 years her cancer has come back. She has received many treatments since then but it has still spread to at least 6 places in her breast that we know of (including the chest wall and cavity), to the fluid in her lungs (which is always there and sometimes has to be drained because it nearly drowns her), to both her ovaries, and to her bladder and/or abdomen (1 report says bladder and the other says abdomen).

My mom's convictions will not allow her to seek traditional treatments that destroy healthy cells and harm her body. First, do no harm is what she adheres to especially since she believes that her body is the temple of God and that she was given a responsibility to not damage it but to care for it. Many also suffer a great deal or even die from the traditional treatments themselves rather than from the cancer. If they do not die during treatment then numerous are at risk of dying a few years later due to a weakened body, organs, and immune system from radiation, chemotherapy or radical surgery (removing mass amounts of healthy cells or complete organs with the bad). The survival rate from these traditional treatments is surprisingly not that high.
Despite her convictions, my mom also has a few other medical conditions as well as some family history that already makes traditional treatments more dangerous for her.

My mother will tell you that she is not afraid to die. Of course she would love to live to watch her children and grandchildren grow but if the Lord calls her home to heaven with Him then she wants to go. If it is God’s plan for her to live then she will live no matter what she does. Although she says that doesn’t mean that she should do nothing to try to live. God gave us spiritual ways such as prayer which is more powerful than any human effort. He also gave us human ways to fight human illnesses that we should be diligent to seek out but all the mean while knowing that our hope doesn’t lie with them but with the Lord. She knows that God can heal her right now, but she believes that even if he doesn’t choose to then he is still God.

The problem my mom is finding with the human methods is the lack of doctors that will treat her through other means, being accepted for treatment, and trying to pay for them. Like traditional treatments, some are partially paid for by insurance and some are not covered at all. My mom has received more stress from doctors than from the cancer itself. These doctors have literally tried to force her to accept their plan for her life (through not treating her anymore and telling other doctors not to treat her). She will never do something to violate her convictions from God to benefit herself or even her family. If they have the know-how and the ability, the doctors should help her regardless of her personal and religious convictions to not receive traditional therapy. At the least, they should refer her to someone who can help and they should still treat her in the areas that they can. She is the one facing the cancer and death; it should be her decision how she wants to go about living out the rest of her life.

When it is all said and done, she needs to have peace of mind that she treated her cancer in the way that was best for her. She would have more regrets if she died while trying to treat the cancer through methods that she never wanted to try in the first place – methods that gave her unrest in her heart, mind, and spirit. We as her family, love and care for her with all of our heart and have differing views of how she should go about treatment, we express our concerns and facts from research that we have done but we all do our best to support her decisions and to be there for her through it all in any way that we are able.

Our prayer is that our mother will have peace of mind with the alternative treatments that she feels is right for her and for her faith. There are many other medical breakthroughs that doctors are using to treat cancer with much success.

We, her family, have helped as much as we can and will continue to do whatever we are able to for our mother’s life.

My dad has been a hard-working man all of his life on an offshore platform. He has done a wonderful job providing for his family. We are so appreciative of all that he has sacrificed for us. He is also the smartest man I know. But no matter how smart and how hard working, nothing can ease the worry that he has for the health and well-being of his wife – the mother of his children, for his family, for his children – who are facing the loss of their mom. Being the only provider for the family, he also can't help but be concerned for the already mounting medical bills and for the expenses to come. My dad’s health is poor as well. Although he is not a big man, he has high triglycerides and cholesterol. When doctors see how high, they are surprised that he is still alive. This entire situation frequently makes him physically ill.

The whole family is concerned about the issue of finance. This is our mom and my dad’s wife, who is worth more to us than all the money of the world. None of us want her to die because she didn’t have enough money for treatment. Sadly though, this is the situation that we currently face. We have given all that we could, my dad works as much as he can, but it still isn’t enough.

We ask that you first and foremost keep our mom and our family in your prayers. This is the most important and powerful aspect of your support in this battle.

We also ask that you please donate any amount that you are able to help pay for medical treatments to fight her cancer. Please read the post right before this one for more information about giving to my mom's cause.

You won’t receive a tax-deductible receipt but please know that your generosity will touch the lives of our family. You will make one woman's struggle against cancer a little easier. Through your giving, she can be confident that she is not alone – that many care for her.

Please don't forget to check out http://www.carepages.com/carepages/PaulaBellow for regular updates on my mom's condition and our family's sitation.

Thank you so much for your prayers and support.

Raising funds to fight my mom's cancer.

My mom has breast cancer and it has spread but my family does not have the resources to pay for all of the necessary treatments. Despite my mom's cancer and therapies that have taken her far from home, she still self-sacraficially cares for her family, is a mom to her children, and a wife to her husband. My dad has his own significant health problems but he is still a hard worker who puts in much overtime on offshore rigs while trying to take care of his wife, provide ways for her to receive treatment, and be there for his small children. My mom and dad have 10 children with the youngest of the kids only 6, 12 and 17 years old.

The entire family has come together to do what ever we can from researching anything and everything about the cancer, treatments, and clinics; to being with her during therapies; to paying for any expenses that we can; to watching our little brothers who still need someone to look after them, take the older ones to school, and homeschool the youngest one when our mom and dad are away. We are there for her and for each other and help as much as we are able. Even with all of our efforts though, my family already has mounting medical bills from previous treatments as my mom has been fighting cancer for for over 5 years with her condition significantly worsening over the past 1 or 2 years.

Therefore, I am requesting funds on behalf of my mom. But first and most importantly, we (my mom, my dad, and us children) need your prayers. Please pray for our family as my mom battles against cancer for her life. We just can't do this alone. We need a community of prayers and support. Also, please help my mom receive the treatments that she needs by donating money to assist my family in payng for her medical expenses.

Please send checks to: 230 Beech Dr, Lumberton, TX 77657

Make them payable to: Mike or Paula Bellow

Any amount you are able to give will enable my mom to begin the much needed cancer treatments. The sooner she can start treatment before it spreads even further than the higher her chances for recovery and survival will be. It will also provide a little relief for her husband and children so that we might be able to worry a little less.

Please go to http://carepages.com/carepages/PaulaBellow and take the time to learn more about my mom's situation by viewing the photos and by reading more about her, my dad, and our family in the "About Paula" section and from the updates posted.

If you could send this request on to your friends and family so that they might know about our needs and be praying for us, our family would be greatly appreciative.

We are very grateful for your prayers and support.

Thank you,

Misty Bellow Laenger

At-Tuwani (Stories & Photos)

At-Tuwani is a little village in the hills just south of Hebron. A Christian peacemaker team (CPT) lives there in the village to accompany the shepherds as they graze sheep on their land as well as the children as they walk from neighboring villages to go to school in At-Tuwani. CPT is there to deter any violence that might be committed upon the shepherds or children from some settlers in the surrounding Israeli outposts and settlements.

Children, shepherds, livestock, and CPT workers have been physically attacked on several occasions throughout the years. CPT's goal is to prevent violence - not physically but by their presence, connections, and cameras. If acts of aggression do happen then they are immediately reported to the Israeli authorities who may or may not do anything about it. Several media sources are also notified. Most occurrences are caught on video tape to be used to create awareness of certain unfair situations in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Long before the CPTers were invited by the locals, 12 small Muslim peace keeping villages in the area formed a council and committed to non-violent resistance. Resistance to the wrongful taking of their land and to the unnecessary demolition of their homes by the Israeli government. The Israeli Committee Against Housing Demolition (ICAHD) is an organization that peacefully protests and fights against the illegal destruction of over 18,000 Palestinian homes throughout Palestine and Israel - including this area. In At-Tuwani, the presence of the foreigners with video cameras has only been recently added as a tool to further insure peace in the process. The people of At-Tuwani have a wonderful story of creative resistance and resilience that does not include violence.

One example is when they were building their school. During the construction, they received demolition orders from the Israeli military. The villagers managed to keep the school from being destroyed during the building process through resourceful means. The same day the school was finished, the children of the town quickly filled the classrooms and the teachers began teaching. Soon after on that day, the Israeli soldiers came with bulldozers but when they arrived they were surprised to find that the school was in session. Knowing that it would not look good to destroy a school while the children were attending and while foreigners were there with cameras, the Israeli government did not bulldoze it. The school still has demolition orders on it for unknown reasons but so far the villagers have found ways to keep the building from being destroyed.

As we spent our day there, hearing the stories of the village from the CPT workers, talking with the people of At-Tuwani, and meeting the children, we were prayerful that these small villages would one day find the peace that they have sought after for many years.

Below are a few photos of our time in At-Tuwani:


Some homes in the village of At-Tuwani.


Children who were so anxious and happy to meet us. As we walked up the hill toward their house, we saw them waving at us in the distance and holding up papers. We found out when we greeted them that the papers they were waving were pictures that they had drawn for our group.


Misty meeting the children who gave us such a warm and inviting welcome.


Brothers who live in At-Tuwani and are sons of the women who took the time to speak with our group about life for the women in this Muslim village.

Aaron looking into the well where these young girls and the rest of the village draw their water. The village is not allowed a water, sewer, or electric infrastructure. Although the outposts (which are illegal under Israeli law) and the settlements that you can see on the hill right next to At-Tuwani are granted these basic needs. The peace seeking village was resourceful and resilient though. They dug a well and obtained a generator. Each family takes turns running it daily.

These are the inspiring stories of At-Tuwani that instill hope in those who hear them and meet the people of this village.

Booma and the Gazan Family

This is a photo of Booma greeting the Muslim family after they had just come through the Erez Crossing out of Gaza. The 4 year old boy has leukemia and Booma fought for permission for the young boy, his mother, and his older bother to come to Israel for a bone marrow transplant since the brother was a match. We weren't fast enough with our camera but we are thankful for this photo from our friend, John, so we can remember Booma along with this Gazan family in our prayers. It is also a wonderful reminder of the love that we should have for others that crosses ethnic, political, and religious lines.