Julia Fisher reports

Julia Fisher

Yes, something awful happened in Jerusalem last week when eight Jewish students were shot dead in their Yeshiva by a Palestinian gunman who lived close by in East Jerusalem. And as for Gaza, what can I say? How much worse can things get? And so it's tempting to believe that no good news can possibly come out of Israel. After all, isn't the region sinking deeper into the abyss of hatred and distrust? Aren't all attempts by the Americans at keeping peace talks alive being overtaken by events such as what happened at the Mercaz Harav Yeshiva last week?

However, last week I heard a great deal of good news from Israel. And I believe there is one question that begs to be asked. Why has God spared the Jewish people and brought them back to Israel again? In other words, what is God doing?

Let me tell you about some other things that happened in the region last week.

A group of Iraqi (Muslim) children travelled to Jordan to await visas to enter Israel for life saving heart surgery; heart surgery performed by Israeli doctors. This is not a new initiative. Jonathan Miles and his team at Shevet Achim have been facilitating such operations for Palestinian children from Gaza for years; to date hundreds of desperately sick children have been brought for surgery at a hospital in Tel Aviv and returned to Gaza fit and well. Last week Jonathan wrote from Jordan:

Last night we went with six of the mothers and their children to an Arabic-speaking congregation. There was lively worship and a strong message about preparing for life after death. Afterward several of the mothers came forward and received with tears prayer and anointing for their children. There is something powerful about watching barriers fall as these head-covered Muslim women-from Kurdistan, Baghdad, even the Shiite holy city of Karbala-open up like sunflowers to God's grace in the Messiah.

The same story is taking place with the seven families staying with another congregation here in Amman; and we have heard these same reports from families which have gone on to Haifa, Tel Aviv, and Jerusalem, where both our staff and the larger body of believers share with the mothers and children in the transforming experience of heart surgery. Several mothers have recently confessed their faith in Jesus as Saviour.

Last week two Sudanese refugees and two orphaned Eritraen girls were offered a home with Messianic Jewish believers in Haifa. Over the past months several thousand people have fled Sudan and travelled through Egypt to seek refuge in Israel. Their journey has been dangerous in the extreme and many have lost their lives travelling through Egypt. But in Israel they have been offered shelter even though Israel considers Sudan an enemy country.

Last week I heard from George Kazoura; he is a Christian Arab pastor living in northern Israel who, as well as running a church, runs an orphanage for Palestinian children. He emailed to say:

Our work is going even better than before. We have at the present time 24 children and we have on the way another 10 children; they will come to us through the month of March.

I should tell you that these children come from Palestinian Muslim families. George and his wife have cared for such children for years, as well as running a church. They are unsung heroes, and their story is one of trusting God to provide all their considerable needs - and their testimony is that He has!

Last week I had an email from an African friend living in Israel. He told how he had met to pray with an Arab Christian in Jerusalem for the Jewish families who had lost loved ones in the shooting at the Yeshiva. No sign of taking sides there.

Christians helping Muslims. Jewish doctors saving the lives of Muslim children. Sudanese refugees (mainly Muslim) finding a safe haven with Messianic Jewish believers in Israel. A Christian Arab pastor caring for homeless Palestinian Muslim children. An African and an Arab praying for Jewish people. All of this appears to buck the trend, so is there a deeper underlying reason for all the social, religious and political unrest that we hear about daily in the news? Perhaps what is going on in Israel has spiritual roots; roots that stretch back centuries into history. Perhaps God is unfolding His plan and using ordinary people to show His way is the only real way to achieve peace. So where will it all end? The Bible makes it clear that Israel will never be destroyed again. The Jewish people will continue to return to their own land and there will be a spiritual restoration of Israel before the Messiah returns. The evidence is there if you look for it.