A DAY LIVING IN THE GALILEE

(Received via email August 12, 2006)

   It is 6am . I have just woken up and think I’ll turn over and have another hour. I have just settled myself comfortably when the unmistakable sound of the air-raid siren breaks the early morning quiet. I have 20secs to one minute to get to a safe place. I jump out of bed, scurry into the bathroom, closing the door behind me, and lay face-down on the floor by the bath with my arms over my head. My heart is pounding and as I wait I hear the boom of rockets falling nearby. After several booms I wait a few more minutes before thinking it is safe to get up. Just then the telephone rings. A friend wants to make sure I’m alright.  We chat a few minutes, discussing where we think the rockets landed. From the sound of the booms they were not too near me, probably half way down the hill towards the Sea of Galilee .  Not like the last few days. Some were really close then. One shook the house where I live. I could hear some of the neighbours shouting to each other. They had obviously gone out onto the street to see where it landed. I found out later it was only 2 blocks away.

   Of course, I am wide awake now so I don’t think there is any point going back to bed. I wash and dress and wonder if it will be safe for me to go to the supermarket this morning. The Home Front has told us we should stay at home, in or near our bomb shelters, but I really need bread and milk and some vegetables. Usually it seems safer in the morning. Other days the rocket attacks have been 2 or 3 times in the afternoons. Not like in Haifa or Nahariya where they have sometimes been 5 or 6 times, any time of the day, with several people being killed and more injured. So far, praise the Lord, nobody in Tiberias has been killed and there have only been a few light injuries. Kyrat Shemona, on the other hand, right up on the Lebanese border, have been coming under these rocket attacks for years. Even after Israel pulled out of Lebanon in 2000, the Hezbollah have continued to send Katyushas every few weeks, on to schools and private homes. I wonder how they manage to live under the tension of never knowing when the next rocket will come their way.

    I wonder if I should go to the supermarket today and if so, what time. Under normal circumstances I would go later in the day, possibly around 6pm when it is a little cooler. During the day it is usually between 36 & 38 degrees Celsius – a little warm for a 15 minute walk up a steep hill to the nearest supermarket. But circumstances are not normal and I know I must be sensible as I know that even a walk down to the supermarket can be a matter of life and death - I don’t want to be in the wrong place at the wrong time!

   8.30am I get ready to go. I can have my breakfast when I come back. There aren’t many people on the streets. I wonder how they are coping with the situation. As I walk I pray for the people, for the soldiers, for the Govt. and military leaders, and for the innocent civilians in Lebanon . I also remember the Home Front’s instructions if we are caught on the street when the sirens sound. They tell us to lie flat on the ground, or crouch by a wall. I’m hoping I don’t have to do that and I get safely to the supermarket.

   Inside there are not many people but it is still early. I can only find 2 loaves of brown bread. I wonder if they are fresh. They aren’t warm so maybe they are left over from yesterday. Well, never mind; they’ll do and they’ll keep me going for a few days. Now for the milk. Sometimes the expiry date is 8 or 10 days away. I planned to buy 2 or 3 litres but unfortunately the expiry date is only 3 days away. Obviously the fresh milk hasn’t arrived yet. Ah, well. I’ll have to make do with one litre. If I buy more than that it will go off before I’ve even started it.

   I finish my shopping, pay and start the walk home. All is quiet apart from the sound of very distant explosions, probably from our boys dropping bombs on Hezbollah hide-outs and rocket launches. I pray that they will be kept safe, and that they target accurately so less civilians are hit. It’s so difficult to avoid the civilian casualties when the terrorists hide their weapons and rocket launches in residential buildings, schools and mosques. 

   I get home safely and praise the Lord while I put my shopping away and get my breakfast. I’m just in the middle of eating when the siren goes again. I thank the Lord for getting me home in time and I go into the bathroom and repeat the usual procedure. Lying face-down on the floor is not very good for my digestion but never mind. As I hear the rockets landing I remember a friend told me she was going into the town this morning to do her shopping. I pray she got home in time. After about 10 minutes I finish the rest of my breakfast and call my friend. She tells me she had just got home and closed the door when the siren sounded. She says she was praying I got home in time too.

   I check my e-mails and thank the Lord for so many friends around the world who write and tell me they are praying for me and for Israel . Before I know it, it’s 12.30pm – time for the Israeli news in English on the radio. I listen to reports of the fighting in southern Lebanon , accounts of the Hezbollah rocket attacks into northern Israel , the prime minister and military officials’ comments, and the list of our soldiers who have been killed – and cry for their families.

   After lunch I go back to the computer and send a few messages, write some letters to friends who don’t have computers, and spend a little time studying Hebrew. I guess there won’t be any Hebrew class this week but I should still do my homework. Later in the afternoon my landlady comes down with some letters for me. She and her husband live in the top 2 floors of this 3-storey house built on the side of a steep hill. My flat is underneath, facing the Sea of Galilee – I really have a beautiful view. When I’m on my balcony enjoying the beauty of God’s creation it is hard to believe we are at war! My bathroom is at the back of the flat, partly underground and with no windows, so I reckon that is as safe as any bomb-shelter! It’s also big enough to get a bed in there if I need to!

   My landlady is obviously agitated. She tells me she is so frightened she cannot sleep and can hardly eat. She shows me how loose her trousers are because she’s lost so much weight. I try to encourage her and suggests she reads some of the Psalms. I write Psalms 27, 46, and 91 on a piece of paper for her, and inwardly pray that she will call out to the living God. Before she leaves she tells me she is going to Tel Aviv to stay with her daughter for a few days. She cannot stand living in this tension any longer and needs a break. She is not the only one who has gone further south where it is safer. At least, so far it is safer. The Hezbollah leader has threatened to use their longer range missiles which could reach Tel Aviv and even Jerusalem . They haven’t used them yet because they are bigger and when they are fired, they are more easily detected by our forces who can then bomb the launching pads. But in the meantime thousands of people have fled south. Approximately 15,000 out of the normal 45,000 residents of Tiberias have left. The percentage is higher in some other towns, and many of the children have been sent to camps, especially those from towns nearer the border where people have to live 24 hours a day in their bomb-shelters.

   After she has gone I do some exercises, have a shower and get ready to go to a prayer meeting. I realize that no sirens have sounded since about 10am and pray one doesn’t when I am waiting on the street for a friend to pick me up in her car. It doesn’t and about 10 of us gather together in a friend’s home. She has a bigger bomb-shelter we could all get into if necessary. But the evening passes quietly as we swap stories, and pray for our country’s safety.

   When I get home I watch Sky News and CNN for a while to see how the fighting is progressing and hear what the world is saying about the situation. From their comments and their focus on the plight of the Lebanese, which truly is horrendous, it seems that everyone has forgotten that it was the Hezbollah terrorists, harboured by the Lebanese and even holding several seats in their government, who started this conflict - by crossing the border into Israel, kidnapping 2 of our soldiers, wounding several others, and firing rockets onto our northern towns. After years of rocket attacks which we didn’t respond to, this was the last straw. Although they knew that Iran and Syria sponsored and supported Hezbollah, supplying them with weapons and personnel to train them to use them, our Govt. decided that enough was enough and Hezbollah have to be stopped, once and for all. Whether the fighting will go on much longer we do not know. Whether Syria and even Iran will be drawn into the conflict we do not know. But we do know that Yeshua HaMashiach is still in control and we pray that His perfect will is done and His purposes, not ours, will be fulfilled. And somehow, through it all, we pray that He will be glorified and many people from both sides will come to know Him as their Messiah. Amen!