When moving to Israel many people from all aspects of my life told me how brave I was to be moving overseas for school. They marveled at the fact that a girl fresh out of high school was moving to the Middle East for the next three years. For myself it really was the next step to walking out the Lord’s plan for my life. All in all I thought of myself as more adventurous than truly brave.
Now can say that I have met those who are truly brave. They are the Lone Soldiers. These soldiers, which are mainly men, are leaving everything they know and moving to Israel to fight for a country that they believe in even though it is not their native home. Many of them are doing this without any previous knowledge of hebrew. In my time at school some of the closest and dearest friends that I have made have been these lone soldiers. As someone who isn’t Jewish the details of the lone soldier group were lost on me. Not until I moved here and really came in contact with these soldiers did I realize the sheer number of them or the massive impact that they are having. These are men that are going into the most elite of the Israeli combat units and fighting on the front lines for the security of the state. They are heroes and nothing less.
However with as many lone soldier organizations as there are in Israel, there is still a lot left to be done. These boys come off base for leave only to find bare rooms and bare fridges. No mom to welcome them home with good food and a familiar bed like all their Israeli comrades. Many of these men fall into familiar habits of drinking their break away to ignore the fact that they are alone.
This should not be! These men are sacrificing their lives to protect the nation of Israel and moreover God’s plan for his people. These boys are American! They are our own! If we are Christians that say that we support Israel, shouldn’t we be looking after our boys on the frontline? I have decided to put my weight behind educating the Christian community on the matter. Because these lone soldiers are predominantly Jewish, we don’t have much exposure to them in our circles. Therefore I want to bring the faces of these brave men to the forefront of Christian Israel advocacy. I haven’t come up with a concrete plan of action yet, but all I know is that I can’t ignore the great amount of good that I can do for these boys. My friends that are lone soldiers are the finest men that I have ever met, with more conviction than most people gain in a lifetime. I want to do everything in my power to honor them and their commitment to the Apple of God’s Eye Israel.
Lily
