All people live, not by reason of care for themselves, but by the love for them in other people. - Leo Tolstoy
Palestinians in Gaza are in great need of our love. They will live when others will love them – bringing to an end this merciless dying of unarmed moms and dads, daughters and sons, grandmas and grandpas.
It’s time for love and transport. It’s time to do good things in a bad time–
▪ big good things like hundreds of trucks carrying tons of food into Gaza, and
▪ tiny good things like handing out a single loaf of bread. One bottle of water. A blanket.
Thirty-four thousand Gaza Palestinians have died, half of them children. Two million face death by starvation. Most homes of those two million are destroyed, unlivable. Right now, in the 21st century! Unthinkable.
There is strength for love on the ground in Gaza. We have been getting things done with some really marvelous volunteers and partners – bringing food to hungry ones, medicine to wounded ones, people to care for hurting ones. Partners to trust, that keep promises, that always show up.
“Pass the Plate” activities provided 500 hot meals at the end of every day during the month-long Ramadan fast. And then 3,000 meals a day at the end of the month to commemorate Abraham’s obedience that would have cost him his son, but for the sacrifice that ransomed him.
Just 4 days ago, one of our partner organizations brought in $120,000-worth of medical supplies and a medical team to staff ICU and Emergency Room facilities in a European Union hospital coordinated by the WHO. This is in addition to the 100 portable newborn incubators we managed to get into another hospital a month ago.
Malnutrition stalks babies, pregnant mothers, young children. Damage done for lack of nutrition will last for a lifetime if they get a lifetime. Famine-like starvation will exact a gruesome toll as long as humanitarian relief does not reach enough people in enough time.
One of our partners said last week, “Now the real work begins.” Now it is possible to bring in food, medicine, medics. Now it is possible to ransom Palestinian sons and daughters from the ravages of starvation, disease and war wounds.
Other things will stalk these Palestinian survivors of unspeakable violence. Families are gone. Homes are gone. Livelihoods are gone. Schools are gone. Who will it be possible to trust after the emotional devastation and trauma of betrayal sift and settle into minds and hearts?
Let’s get back to those beautiful smiles for a sec. Looking into the eyes of a child in Gaza, what did I see? Maybe relief that tonight no one will go to sleep hungry. Or finally someone has something good for us, instead of us running away in fear. Hard to tell. But at least the corners of the mouth are curved up a bit.
But, looking out of the eyes of a child, what did they see? Did they see a friend, brother, sister, cousin, mom or dad crushed under a building? Did they see when the bomb hit the building? Do they see funeral processions every day for the lost ones? Harder to tell.
Looking to the future, what will we all see? Violence begets violence. How will the ones who do not die in these days want to live in those days? We choose to be here, with them, these days, in these days of dying. So that we can be trustable in the days of living – days that will come.
After 40 years of living with cycles of violence spinning around the places I lived, I know one thing. To do a good thing for someone today, as small as it seems, is a single step towards a better future. And a journey of a thousand steps starts with the first one. And then a second one.
Please take another step with us, doing the good we can do, with that better future in mind. Support us for food, for medicine, for good in Gaza.
Please love Gaza. They will live because of our love.
Curt
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