ARADdin and the King of Bedouins

I Squad spent the second part of October in Israel. Team Smore and Team Ilumoonations worked
together in Arad. Our first week in
Israel, Team Smore was split up. The
boys went to Jerusalem and stayed with a friend there, and the girls got the
incredible opportunity to go and live in the Bedouin village of Taibeh. Our time spent in the village was INCREDIBLE. The people are amazing, and we were welcomed
in and treated like royalty. Everyone
wanted an opportunity to host us at some point. And the food! I have never eaten
so much food in such a short period of time. Our first night, we arrived sometime around 10:00pm. We were given tea and a little snack, and
then around midnight we had a barbeque with at least three different kinds of
meat and all kinds of other food. We
never got the chance to get hungry before someone was trying to give us
something more.  We spent most of our time with a man named Sahid.  Sahid and his wife, Linda, were amazing hosts.  Sahid works to raise awareness about the Bedouin people and for the Bedouin people, teaching them about their rights and trying to make life better and easier for them.

 

 

When we were back in Arad, we worked with Sudanese refugees
to teach them English. We met a lot of
really incredible people. It was heart
breaking to hear some of their stories and learn what they had been
through. One story in particular tore at
my heart. We befriended a 27 year old
man, and I’m pretty sure he came for the social aspect more than anything else,
considering his English was very good and he just sat and talked to us the
whole time. When he was 22, he saw his
parents being murdered in Sudan. When he
was 23, he fled from Sudan and went to Egypt where he stayed for three years
before going to Israel. He was shot at
by soldiers while crossing the Egypt/Israeli border, but he made it through and
has now been there for two years. That
is only one story out of many, and all of them are just as heart breaking.

 

Another opportunity we had was to go into a different
Bedouin village near Be’er Sheva and teach English. That is how I spent my last full day in
Israel. I got to work with a group of
precious 5-year-olds, and then a group of 11 and 12-year-old boys. God definitely gave me a heart for the
Bedouin people.

 

We were also given a few opportunities to tour around and
see some of the Holy Land. This was a
very interesting experience in some ways, but at the same time, it felt very
empty. This is the land that our Lord
lived in and walked on. I was in some of
the same places that Jesus was, but it did not feel like it. It has become all about tourism and making
money. People have worked so hard at
making it “holy” that it is the total opposite. People are so lost, and they have no idea.

 

 

 I also felt a sense of reverence and awe while standing at
the Wall. It is mind-boggling to think about
how long the Wall has been there, and what it represents, but I also got a new
understanding that God truly is EVERYWHERE. He is not stuck at some wall that has been standing there for
generations. I can be anywhere in the
world, among any group of people, and pray, knowing that God is right there
with me.