How am I doing? The update from Israel is grim. Many are living a nightmare, having watched loved ones be murdered or carted away, kidnapped themselves and brought to Gaza, or received news that a loved one has fallen in battle or injured or captured. What has happened is unfathomable, a worst-case scenario.
Almost everybody I know has a child or spouse or grandchild or they themselves have been called up to serve. Already one young man from our community here in Ra’anana has fallen in battle.
My son serves in an intelligence unit in the army. He is currently home because he works in a different part of intelligence.
Right now everyone everywhere is buying and delivering supplies for displaced families, giving blood, and housing families. Our friend and neighbor started a makeshift school in her home as kids are not in school. The fractured country from the last years is nowhere to be seen. Right now everyone is united.
I feel shaken to the core. We’ve all read accounts of what happens when humans lose all humanity. It’s repeated itself over and over in our own history and in so many societies. There is unbelievable cruelty in the world. To be in a country where people just experienced that barbarism on a massive scale terrifies me.
Thank God my family is OK and together but, the longer I live here, the more I realize that it’s not just about my family being OK. Someone’s child is going to die – as many already have – defending this country.
One last thing. Something I love about Israel is how everyone here for the most part, regardless of income, does the same things. We shop in the same stores, eat the same food, go to the same restaurants. Our kids go the same schools and are friends with each other.
Only now am I seeing the full picture. Everyone here serves in the army. You can be poor, working class, or a billionaire. It doesn’t matter – everybody serves and nobody gets special treatment. We are all in this together.
Please pray for us.
Love,
Julie
Denver’s Julie Geller of Setting The Stage Sends News From Israel
