Courageous Christians in Northern Israel

Last week CBN News reported on an extraordinary example of courage in northern Israel.

Chuck Holton visited the area to see how communities are coping with the threat of a major attack by Hezbollah and Iran.

In the Maronite Christian community of Jish, just two miles from the Lebanon border, he found a large group of residents who choose to stay, despite the fact that more than 60,000 other Israelis have been evacuated from the border area.

The Saint Maroun Church in Jish usually holds a summer camp with up to 400 people, but this year the Israeli government has put limits on the number of people who can gather together. The importance of that was highlighted by the tragic loss of life in a Hezbollah rocket attack upon the Druze village of Majdal Shams on 27th July.

So, this year the camp leaders divided the 2-week period so that two different groups of 100 children could each enjoy a 5-day camp. They have also had to hold all the camp activities indoors, rather than outside as normal.

Father Sandy Habib told Holton,

"A sense of community is important because we cannot turn to God and tell him
‘We love you.’ If we don’t really love people who are around us.
And when we love people around us, we do have a sense of community."

"Everyone is welcome. We have Muslims among us. They learn how to respect each other
irrespective of gender, religion, because we do have non-Christians with us."

This Jerusalem Dateline report from CBN includes a segment on this community in Jish, starting 6 minutes and 35 seconds in: