This is from the book Light Force by Brother Andrew:<\/p>\n
What he saw among the boys at Hope School disturbed him deeply.\u00a0 The conflict between Israelis and Palestinians was leaving scars on these children.\u00a0 Many had lost one or both parents.\u00a0 Others had been separated from their parents during the confusion of the ’67 war and didn’t even know if they were dead or alive.\u00a0 Many of the teenagers wet their beds at night.\u00a0 Both the boarders and day students displayed anger and violent behaviour.<\/p>\n
As principal, Bishara tried to impart to these troubled kids the messages his mother had often preached \u2013 to love God, love your neighbours, and love your enemies.\u00a0 These boys weren’t responding.\u00a0 They would sit in chapel sessions and listen to Bishara’s messages, but none had turned their own hearts to God.\u00a0 He could see their hatred on the playground as they role-played revenge against Jewish soldiers.<\/p>\n
‘Why, Lord?’\u00a0 Bishara prayed out loud.\u00a0 ‘Why are there no results?\u00a0\u00a0 Why would You bring me back to my homeland and not use me?’<\/p>\n
The silence seemed to accuse him.<\/p>\n
He walked the halls, past the room where the boys slept.\u00a0 Many of them tossed and turned fitfully, groaning or talking in their sleep.\u00a0 He wondered about their dreams, which no doubt reflected their private pains.\u00a0 Each of them had experienced harassment from Israeli soldiers.\u00a0 It wasn’t unusual for the kids to be ordered to empty their schoolbags, have their books thrown on the ground, and then be ordered to pick them up.\u00a0 Feeling humiliated and powerless to do anything effectively, many students had thrown stones at the soldiers and carried their defiance of authority over to the teachers at the school.<\/p>\n
Bishara walked out the back door of the school building and stood under the night sky.\u00a0 A near-full moon illuminated Elah Valley below.\u00a0 This was the location where, according to many Bible experts, David fought and defeated Goliath.\u00a0 In his mind Bishara could almost see the armies \u2013 the Philistines camped on the western hill, the Israelites on the east \u2013 and the nine foot giant advancing to taunt the troops under King Saul’s command.\u00a0 An he could see little David boldly confronting him.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, Bishara realised he was on the wrong side.\u00a0 As he ‘heard’ the taunts of the giant, he recognised his own voice.\u00a0 The Philistine verbalised the emotions he repressed for so long.\u00a0 Hatred welled up in him as Goliath cursed the Jews.\u00a0 Bishara blamed the Israelis for the death of his father and the loss of his home in 1948.\u00a0 He blamed them for the twelve years he’d lived in an orphanage, separated from his mother.\u00a0 He blamed them for the years of exile in the United States.\u00a0 For so long the hatred had festered, mostly his consciousness.\u00a0 Now he recognised that same hatred in the boys under his care.\u00a0 It was destroying them, and he was powerless to help them unless he their principal, conquered his own anger and bitterness.<\/p>\n
Tears welled up in his eyes.\u00a0 How could he, a man who had given his life to Jesus Christ a dozen years before, who was committed to be an instrument of God in the Holy Land, help these angry young boys?\u00a0 There was only one answer.\u00a0 His voice broke the silence of the night: ‘Lord, I beg You.\u00a0 Forgive me for hating the Jews and for allowing that hatred to control my life.’<\/p>\n
With every ounce of his being, Bishara meant that prayer.\u00a0 Looking again over the valley, he could imagine the brave shepherd David charging Goliath, swinging the slingshot, and toppling the giant with a single, well-aimed stone.\u00a0 It almost seemed too easy as he felt the giant of hatred fall before him.\u00a0 He sensed God’s presence enveloping him, and the frustration, hopelessness, and hatred were washed away, replaced with love.<\/p>\n
When Brother Andrew met Bishara, Bishara presented him with the idea of creating Bethlehem Bible College \u2013 a place to train the future leaders of the Christian church.\u00a0 With the help of Open Doors, the Bethlehem Bible College became a reality.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This is from the book Light Force by Brother Andrew: What he saw among the boys at Hope School disturbed him deeply.\u00a0 The conflict between Israelis and Palestinians was leaving scars on these children.\u00a0 Many had lost one or both parents.\u00a0 Others had been separated from their parents during the confusion of the ’67 war … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[17,15,10,18],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/edmonton-adventist.org.au\/wpcontent\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/edmonton-adventist.org.au\/wpcontent\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/edmonton-adventist.org.au\/wpcontent\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/edmonton-adventist.org.au\/wpcontent\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/edmonton-adventist.org.au\/wpcontent\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=184"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/edmonton-adventist.org.au\/wpcontent\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":185,"href":"http:\/\/edmonton-adventist.org.au\/wpcontent\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184\/revisions\/185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/edmonton-adventist.org.au\/wpcontent\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/edmonton-adventist.org.au\/wpcontent\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/edmonton-adventist.org.au\/wpcontent\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}