People of Hope:
I listen to the news while I drive back and forth from Esperanza to my home near downtown Phoenix. Lately, I listen to the news, and I cry. I cry listening to the death toll in Israel and Palestine rise. I cry hearing that civilians are largely the ones dying and being injured. I cried listening to an interview with a doctor who described having to make horrendous decisions about who gets care and what kind of care—care limited by severe shortages of medical supplies, personnel, and time. I cry thinking about the impact of having no access to food, water, electricity, and medical care on families. I cry wondering how parents talk with their children about what they are experiencing. I cry thinking about how the recent internet and cellular blackout has led to even more anxiety because families can’t communicate with their loved ones.
The unprecedented and cruel attack by Hamas on October 7 has devastated the nation of Israel. In response, the slow willingness to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza has devastated the Palestinian people.
There is no way to justify the violence Hamas visited and continues to visit upon Israel.
Some people, including my friends from seminary who live in Jerusalem as ELCA pastors, Gabi and Meghan Aelabouni, are not surprised by the violence—for they see the oppression of the Palestinian people first-hand.
We may want to assign blame. We may want to scream and shout that one side or the other is in the right. But friends, I do not see a side that is innocent in this bloodshed. When I consider the parents who have to comfort their children and the people suffering with the pain of unmitigated injuries and everyone grieving the death of loved ones and those traumatized by watching others being hurt, blame is not helpful. We just want the violence to stop.
Please pray for an end to this violence. Please pray that God guide each of us and the leaders of nations as we respond to what is going on in Israel and Palestine. Please pray for those who have not known a moment’s peace in the last three weeks.
Praying with and for you,
Pastor Sarah