ISRAEL - Chapter 2: Arad, Desert, Masada

After some semi-stressful figuring out of schedules for Israeli Buslines, we headed down to Arad by way of Beersheva. It was dark by the time we got to Beersheva, and Jacob and I hungry and tired desperately tried to find our next bus even though all we could find were Hebrew signs. So I dug deep to remember some of my Hebrew from highschool, and I found the sign for Arad, which came just before we found all the the corresponding English on the back of the signs. Duh.



Being on the bus from Beersheva to Arad did make me a little leary as there wasn't really any security (as compared to Jerusalem), and only a week or two prior there had been a bus bombing in Dimona, not too far away from where we were. But in saying that, we used the buses for the remainder of our trip all over Israel, and never really felt threatened.

The next day we went to the "shuk", the outdoor marketplace.







Here we met up with our friends that have a ministry in Arad, and on that particular morning they were giving out clothes to the Bedouins. The Bedouins are nomadic desert-dwelling Arabs, which instead of really being "nomadic" anymore they reside in "shantytown"-like settlements in the desert.




A dear little Bedouin boy.




Now, here begins the very sad part of the story of the severe persecution in Arad to those that believe that Yeshua (Jesus) is the Messiah. There is an extreme sect of Orthodox Jews called the Haredim, that try to make life miserable for those with that belief. Here is one of the ringleaders that came to begin some verbal harrassment while they were still handing out clothes.




Eddie (head of the ministry with wife Lura) and friend keep watch at the door. These harrassers are not just harmless hecklers but have already done such deeds as successbul fire-bombing of their ministry and the one guy pictured above stated point blank to my face that he would kill them if he had the chance. And what worse is that they are essentially "outside the law" so they are never punished.




Their ministry is one that is multifaceted, but one of it's main avenues is to provide a place for older men to come and play chess or dominoes. These men, many of them immigrants and many holocause survivors, don't always speak the same language, but they can play chess. :o)




a glimpse down the street, while the man continues to harass with a barage of negative tauntings and vulgar language behind me.




He even taunted this Bedouin women as she left the building...





A YWAM (Youth With a Mission) team was currently visiting and helping Eddie and Lura, so after the clothes were cleaned back up, we sat down and had some amazing impromtu worship time with them, in several different languages. ;o) We opted to stay inside, as sitting outside and singing might have brought fines and even worse upon our heads.




A cheerful Bedouin friend came to visit with those inside the little building.




Some of the men starting showing up and started some dominoes...




The disappeared for a little while, but then showed up again with a large paper and more fellow hecklers becoming louder with taunting his "evidence" that Eddie and Lura were criminals, and that they should leave Israel. The group of them, with several more added, followed us to our cars, heckling and pointing fingers and taunting like group of 6 year old naughty schoolboys. It was so ridiculous. Their behavior seemed to warrant spankings and timout in a corner.




We left in our cars and journeyed a small way down to a small gas station where we were going to have some drinks and talk. The group of them followed on foot, and upon arriving some of them came inside and sat beside us to just talk disruptive gibberous while others pressed up against the glass. I heard something like these guys were getting pd 40 shekels an hour to go and do this. Their aggression is directed not only on Messianic Jews (although it seems to be most vehement to them) but anyone that sees different than they do, which can include other Jews and Arabs.

Eddie and Lura have had such amazing attitudes throught the whole thing. They continue to bless others without charge as they are persecuted. And it's even worsened. Since we've returned home Eddie has been arrested on false charges that the Haredim have pressed. So please pray that both Eddie and Lura find renewed strength in this time of persecution, and that the Lord would change the hardened bitter hearts in Arad that cause so much damage.





I don't honestly know if I could handle it as good as they have. I was just there for a couple hours and I nearly had enough to want to grab these guys by their collars and tell them a thing or two. And they live this everyday. If you live in Arad, believing in Yeshua might mean you get fired from your job (happened to a friend of ours) or mercilessly taunted at school. The messianic community is pretty much underground there, in fact, I can't even reveal our amazing host family that we stayed with for their own protection.

We get so used to our cushy-cushy America where we can believe like we want to, pray when we want to, and we don't usually receive any fierce opposition in the way of hate crimes. It made me very grateful for all that I take for granted.


Well, I've run outa time, I'll post more on our adventures in Arad later, but I must run off to our Championship Coed League Volleyball Games! Woo Hoo should be fun!!! ;o)