Ten-year-old Miriam used to see her country, Israel, as the land of freedom. She thought it was a place where Jews could be safe from those who hate and persecute them. Now Miriam doesn’t feel as safe as she once did. “I’m worried that a bomb might go off on my bus when I’m on the way to school, “ she says.
She knows she must be very careful as she walks along the streets. “My parents tell me, ‘Never go near a paper bag or a box that is just sitting on the sidewalk. It might be a bomb!’ There could even be someone with a gun or a suicide bomber in the pizza place.”
Miriam worries about her brother, too. Like all young people in Israel, he must serve in the army. Now he has been sent to The West Bank where many of the Palestinian people live. Terrorists have threatened the Israeli settlements there. “I hope he won’t get hurt,” says Miriam.
Mea She’arim is a neighborhood in Jerusalem where Orthodox Jews. live. Children in these families don’t leave their neighborhood very often except to pray at the Western Wall.
Hadassah and her parents and sisters are observant Orthodox Jews. They pray three times a day, study the Torah and listen to the rabbis. When a bomb went off at the Mehane Market, Hadassah took her sister and prayed with her. They read the Psalms together.
Silvi is 8 years old and goes to the local religious school, called a yeshiva. He says, “ When we do get to listen to the radio, we hear about bombings, people dying, sick people and wounded people.” Yossi, who is 9, agrees. “ There is little good news that we hear. We wish there were no bad things or bombings.”
— From Children of Biblical Lands: 2005 Mission Study for Children by Martha Bettis Gee. General Board of Ministries, The United Methodist Church
Pray for the children in Israel and in Palestine.
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