By Sallie Bryant
Birmingham, Alabama
Dear friends and family,
In April of 2015, Barbara Wiggins and I from Lakeside Baptist Church traveled to Israel with a group of folks from Birmingham to Israel and Jordan. Half the folks were Jews and the other half were Christians. Most were from Birmingham.
Traveling with us were a Christian pastor and a Jewish rabbi. Our tour was called The Friendship Journey. The group traveled around Israel, including the settlements beside the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights — another area where another terrorist group Hezbollah attacks Israel regularly.
This past weekend, Hamas broke through the wall at the border in the Gaza Strip and attacked the local towns. The picture that is attached is of the wall between the Gaza Strip and the town of Nefiv Ha’asarah — a moshav right on the border just a the top of the Gaza Strip. It is about 1 mile from the Zikim Beach on the Sea of Galilee but right on the border of the Gaza Strip.
If you have been looking at the news, you have seen these are areas where Hamas terrorized the people of Israel. Right before we went to this community, we were in Sderat and before that Moshav Talei Yosel. The music festival where Hamas massacred several hundred people attending the music festival were right between Sderat and Talei Yosel. All are less than 2 miles from the border.
Friends in danger
We know that many of the towns have been evacuated, but as you also know, many people have been killed and kidnapped. A lady we visited in Talei Yosel, whose name is Margaret Kartas, is from Birmingham and has lived in that town for over 40 years. She and all in her town were evacuated along with people in at least 20 towns in the area. We know that she survived but her husband died of an apparent heart attack during the evacuation.
One of the places where the Hamas militants broke through the wall was right at Nefiv Ha’asarah, which is where this picture was taken. Our friends from the trip believe all in that area were killed or kidnapped. You will note that there are lots of decorations on the wall. They are decorated clay flowers and images that people such as Barbara and I and other visitors to their town put on the wall in the spirit of friendship and love.
‘Please pray’
Please pray for Tzameret, the artist who created these decorations, and her family and everyone else in their town. We pray that they survived this horrific attack. If they did, it will be a miracle. Also pray for all the others in the Israel.
My heart is broken for Israel and especially for these people in the area around the Gaza Strip.
Thanks to God for all His many blessings. May He bless these precious people and give them strength.
EDITOR’S NOTE — Sallie Bryant is a member of Lakeside Baptist Church in Birmingham and a member of the TAB board of directors. This letter is published with permission.
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