Cease-fire?

UPDATE FROM Christine – Cease-fire?

A tense calm has hit Israel. Hard to believe that the missiles have stopped falling and even harder to believe the cease fire that has been declared will hold for any length of time. Israel still has thousands of soldiers in Southern Lebanon and no one here will feel a sense of relief until all of them a safely within the borders of Israel. 157 lost their lives in this war, 118 were soldiers and 39 civilians. The miracle is that there could have been so many more killed and injured. Of the 3,970 missiles fired on Northern Israel, only 901 of them hit the Northern communities.12,000 homes were damaged by missiles, yet only 39 civilians were killed. This is a miracle !The unofficial name for this war of 34 days was "the war of no choice". Israeli's felt they were fighting a proxy army, called Hizbullah, but the truth of the matter is it was a war against Syria and Iran.Their leaders now sit victorious because they fought a war against Israel with no cost to themselves. These two regimes armed and trained Hizbullah fighters. Few people living outside of the Middle East can really understand what this war was all about. In a nut shell, it was about testing Israelis boundaries and its military might. This war is far from over, the enemies of Israel still plot its destruction and will continue to test Israel's patience. Another war is inevitable!

In the midst of all the misery this war brought to Israel. There were many positive things going on day after day. I was deeply touched by the unity of the nation, their constant ability to give money, their homes, and their time.

Two young men from Tel-Aviv felt they could no longer sit back in the comfort of their homes and drove North to Qiryat Shmona to see how they could help. They went from bomb shelter to bomb shelter distributing food. One of the last bomb shelters they entered they found an old man, early 80's sitting all alone. He had not eaten for 3 days. He told them that every one left to move South, but he had no family and no money. He thought for sure the Syrian army had taken the Northern part of Israel and he was the only one left alive.They took him into their care and moved him to a safer city and paid for him to be taken care of until he could return to his home.

Two people turned up in Qiryat Shimona one day and walked into the local corner store. They asked the owner if people who had left , had paid their grocery bills. Here in Israel, you can run up a bill at your local store, and pay it off on pay day every month. The store owner said, "no I have been stuck with hundreds of unpaid bills and I don't know how I am going to survive myself". "Add up the bills,"they said, it came to $15,000 . They took out a bag , opened it up and paid him the whole amount in cash. They said it was a gift from people who care in AMERICA.

An Israeli dad received a call from his son on the front lines saying they lacked food. He tossed and turned all night and in the morning told his wife, he had to do something. He got out his Bar-B-Que equipment and drove north to the border. On the way he stopped at all kinds of supermarkets telling people he needed food for the soldiers. He has been there for now for over a week, grilling meat and feeding tired and weary soldiers as they return from battle in Lebanon.

I kept getting calls from Narhayia for help. Food had run out, basic things like toilet paper, and bread had become luxuries. I talked one ministry into taking a van load of supplies, but it was not enough and they had run out within 5 days. I could no longer sit back, so I decided to take action. Last week I was able to fill 3 cars full of supplies, and together with my husband, 2 daughters, my chain smoking neighbour, and a Jewish believer, we set off at 4.30am in the morning and drove North. It took us 3 hours, when we arrived in Narhayia, the streets were devoid of cars and people. We walked into a bomb shelter, and found 15 people, of all ages sleeping on thin mattresses on the floor. They could not believe their eyes when they saw us. My husband Bara, went immediately to put paper in the toilets, he was shocked to see they had taken books and begun to tear out the pages to use as toilet paper. They were overwhelmed by the amount of supplies we delivered to them , including freshly baked bread we had picked up on the way. But the thing they needed most, was a hug, a word of encouragement and our smiles. They were stunned to hear that this motley crew had driven through the wee hours of the morning to bring them supplies. We went on to other bomb shelters and each time the reaction was the same, total surprise and appreciation, more for our coming than for what we brought them. Our two daughters took cakes and drinks into the local police station, and the young men there were stunned to see these two Asian beauties coming to show they appreciated their tireless work. Twenty minutes after we left Narhayia, the air raid sirens began to sound. We ended up having to spend a couple of hours in the shelters ourselves. Later when we returned home, we heard that 43 missiles had been fired on Narhayia that day. Were we scared? Yes! Scared enough to turn back from our mission ?, NO!.

So what does it take to be called a hero in Israel these days ? Only one thing - . LOVE.!