The Story behind the Free Online Zoom teachings

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My name is Andre Moubarak, and I am from Jerusalem. My ancestors are Aramaic speaking Christians, indigenous to Southern Lebanon, northern Israel, and Western Syria. Our community says the same prayers as Saint James, the head of the Jerusalem Church in the Book of Acts. James was the brother of Jesus and their common language was Aramaic.

 

My frame of reference is the Bible – specifically the Gospels and the Book of Acts. In modern terms, I grew up in the Christian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem, and I am a citizen of the state of Israel. I speak 5 languages – Aramaic, Arabic, Hebrew, English, and French. This is typical for the Christians because we usually work in an international setting. My job is a tour guide and I regularly travel throughout the whole country of Israel, and also to Europe, UK, the United States of America, Canada, South Africa, Philippines, and Singapore. Everywhere that I have visited in the world has a more stable peaceful society than my hometown of Jerusalem. My family and community have witnessed many conflicts in Jerusalem over the centuries. The Christians are a minority group, caught in the crossfire in the ongoing rivalry between our Muslim and Jewish neighbors. The Christian culture here is very peaceful and we avoid conflict. In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” (Gospel of Matthew, chapter 5, verse 9, NIV).

 

Tourism in Israel was at its peak in the year 2019, and we expected even more tourists in the Spring season of 2020. It was going to be overfull capacity at all the hotels, tour sites, and all of the tour guides were fully booked for the whole season. When COVID-19 first hit Israel in early March 2020, we were surprised by how fast the virus pandemic spread around the globe, and the government of Israel shut down all tourism and closed the borders indefinitely.

 

Personally, I was grateful for the break from tour groups because I was really drained physically and needed an extended rest to restore my health. The COVID-19 shutdown was the perfect time to take a sabbatical in the USA. I left Israel on May 31, 2020. My wife’s family lives in Maryland and Texas, and we ended up spending 1 whole year in the USA based in those two states. We also traveled to a few other states, to speak in churches about making a journey to Israel in the future. It was a fun experience to rest in the USA, and take my time getting to know people in a relaxed setting. People were curious about my background and I was able to teach them some Aramaic phrases, the language of Jesus and His Disciples. I had so much time to develop my educational projects – write my 3rd book, record two seasons of my podcast, build a website, and develop virtual tours and Bible Study lessons on zoom meetings. It was a wonderful time of personal growth and I felt so calm in the USA.

But each season must come to an end, and my time of sabbatical ended in early May 2021. The vaccination program in Israel was very successful and the COVID-19 cases were very few in Israel by April 2021. The country was open again for local tourism and the Israeli government announced that foreign tour groups would be welcome to enter Israel in late May, June, and July on a provisional basis. We were hopeful for the tourism industry to heal and flourish, after 15 months of complete shutdown. I was excited to return to Israel and be with my team, and my family and friends, in Jerusalem. The Lord’s hands were on me during my long journey flying from Texas, to Newark, to Tel Aviv. I arrived on the afternoon of Saturday May 08, 2021. My brother picked me up from the airport, and as we drove to Jerusalem, we saw a checkpoint on the main road. Just a couple minutes after we passed through the checkpoint, a huge protest demonstration took place, and the police closed the roads to Jerusalem. I had just barely made it home safely! Outside the tension was escalating around the city of Jerusalem, and there were angry protests through the next couple days.

 

On Monday May 10, getting over jet lag I went to sit on my balcony to drink my coffee, and I was surprised to hear a loud war siren! The emergency alert also came on my phone. I immediately knew that Jerusalem was attacked and after like 15 seconds I heard a sound of 5 explosions! This confirmed to me that what I was thinking was true -- in my mind I said war will start soon. I experienced a severe culture shock, moving from a peaceful easy quality of life to a warzone and a lot of bloodshed in the region.

The war intensified the next day, with most of the rocket attacks from Hamas in Gaza targeting the city of Tel Aviv. I was stuck at home inside for COVID-19 quarantine for 2 weeks. (Quarantine is mandatory for all unvaccinated Israelis traveling home.) And outside my house a war zone was spreading all over Israel! My first thought was to use my access to social media to update my friends and followers and ask everyone to start praying. With my team in Jerusalem, I was able to host 3 virtual prayer meetings about the bad situation in Israel. People joined these prayer meetings on Zoom from all over the world and we prayed together for the Lord to have mercy and bring peace and healing to the people of both Israel and Gaza. Many of my former tour participants sent their prayers by messenger and email, and this was very encouraging to read to the team in Jerusalem. We were all in shock and grief.

 

I was very safe in Jerusalem in my apartment building, and I felt secure because there is a bomb shelter in my apartment.  But outside in the streets of Jerusalem there was like a civil war between Arab Muslims and Jews.  Many fights broke out in the streets and it was wildly violent. Throughout the whole country of Israel, neighbors turned against each other and the ethnic hatred erupted in cities that were usually models of coexistence between the Jewish and Muslim residents. Almost all of the Christian community decided to stay inside their homes, and not get involved.

The war lasted 11 days, thousands of missiles landed in Israel and vice versa in Gaza. While there were many casualties on both sides, there are always higher numbers of casualties in Gaza. At least 243 people, including more than 100 women and children, were killed in Gaza, according to its health ministry. In Israel 12 people, including two children, were killed, its medical service says. Both sides claimed victory in the conflict. Now images are emerging of the damage done by Hamas rocket fire and Israeli strikes. After they agreed to a ceasefire treaty, the problems decreased.

 

Our role as Aramean indigenous Christians believers is to pray for peace between the Muslims and the Jews. In the USA the atmosphere is so peaceful, like heaven on earth, and people live a very secure, prosperous, and peaceful life. In Jerusalem, it’s the opposite – tension, stress, a war zone, people are in a survival mode. There is no steady income. Peace is fleeting. People feel no hope. They are stuck in negative thinking. There are no jobs. There still remains some tension in the streets, but much less than during the war. In all my life living in Jerusalem , I never saw such tension in the streets, with fear between the two neighbors.

We need Christians to pray for the body of Christ here to continue in their efforts of reconciliation between Arabs and Jews. Hopefully tourism will come back soon and people will get busy again and return to work. The war came at a hard time, as people had been out of work for a long time and they were bored and frustrated.

People are planning to resume their group tours to Israel in the Fall 2021 and Spring 2022. We are doing extra training and preparation for the coming seasons. I will leave with you 5 prayer requests which are so badly needed today.

1. Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem, including all its inhabitants and all surrounding areas – for both Israelis and Palestinians.

 

2. Pray for leaders and all those in authority that they may pursue peace so we may live peaceful and have a quiet normal life.
3. Pray for healing of relationships between Jews and Arabs, especially for our young people who are exposed to this kind of hatred for the first time.
4. Pray for protection for our churches, communities and for our families. Some churches had to cancel their services or hold them online because of fear. Pray especially for Haifa, Acre, Lod, Ramle, Jaffa, Cana of Galilee and Jerusalem.
5. Pray for us to remember to turn our eyes to God, our refuge and strength, and to Jesus, the prince of peace.

 

I’m still continuing my teaching on Zoom and we are reaching a lot of people from all over the world. To see the virtual tours to Israel you can join us for free. This is the website: you need to RSVP to receive the Zoom ID and Password www.walkingtheholyland.com