I want to say a word about the Muslims there. About half way through they moved us from one room to a bigger one that Glenn and I shared with an older man (who had to have a body guard because he had dementia and would wander off) and with Tony, a young Muslim man. Tony must have been an Israeli citizen because he was in the room with us. In the hallway there were multiple patients brought up from Gaza. The Israelis are extremely kind toward them. Although there aren’t enough rooms, these patients usually end up in the hall. They treat these patients even though they know they will most likely never pay for the hospital services.
But Tony was with us, and he was not happy about it at the beginning. He screamed and yelled as we prayed, wanting to be taken somewhere, anywhere else. He had been in a car accident and was burned on his chest. After about a week together, he warmed up to us and we asked if we could pray for him after we had been praying for awhile. He said yes, and when we finished praying for him in Jesus’ name, he had the biggest smile on his face. He seemed absolutely touched! We didn’t share a common language with Tony, so it’s hard to know much about him, but I think we were all impacted by meeting each other.
The saddest story was a beautiful young girl who moved into the ward in our last week there. She had been badly burned when her Muslim father had not been happy with her choices and decided to do an honor killing which is believed to take away the shame of the offense. He tied her up in a barn and lit it on fire to kill his own daughter. She was able to escape and run away, but not without being badly burned. Since this is Israel and not a Muslim country, the man was put in jail, but the girl shared the hospital with us.
Early on in our stay, the possibility of having to evacuate came up due to the bombs coming in from Lebanon, but that never manifested. It would have been very interesting since we couldn’t yet walk.
Not only were we and some of those we shared the hospital with touched by God in this time, but several people back at home told us that these events stirred their souls and reignited their walk with God. And in one case, our experiences caused a man to start praying for the first time since he was a kid, and he has since found Jesus.
Photo credit: Tom Carter CHINA