When Iran began firing missiles at Israel three weeks ago in response to military action against its regime, some Christian tourists unexpectedly found themselves in harm’s way. They made it home safely, and one member of the group then found herself in the midst of another harrowing experience – a campus shooting.
Pastor Gabe Turner, who leads Charlottesville, Virginia’s The Point Church was preaching to nearly 60 American Christians atop the beautiful Mount of Olives. He told CBN News he’s done it many times before, as he leads a group to the Holy Land every two or three years. However, unlike previous trips, sirens began blaring, indicating a possible Iranian missile attack.
“None of us had ever been in any experience like that before,” he said, “but we could just sense the hand of God and the peace of God in such a supernatural way.”
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Their Israeli tour guide, Ofer Ashkenazi, told CBN News he’s responsible for the safety of the group and had to take quick action.
“The first thing we did, actually, was to take them into a shelter, which, sadly enough, happily enough, it’s the bathroom over there,” he said. “So we all went down underground into the bathroom.”
Shortly afterwards, they carefully made it back to their hotel bomb shelter. Lydia Wilson, a college student who was part of the Christian group from Virginia, told CBN News that despite the danger, they felt the presence of God.
“We were constantly in prayer. And then I know we had people from back home, our church family, they were all praying for us as well. And we felt that. We felt the prayers,” she said. “And I can’t speak for everyone, but I just kind of had an overwhelming sense of peace. I didn’t think that I was, obviously, we were in the middle of everything. We were in danger, but I didn’t necessarily feel like I was, if that makes sense.”
Throughout their ordeal, the group would eventually seek shelter a total of 24 times.
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