Kasson represented on ‘Hope and Healing’ service trip to Israel

(Editor’s Note: Deb Teske is a certified Minnesota Emergency Manager and IAEM Certified Emergency Manager (CEM). She has over 26 years of management and leadership experience as a Naval officer through national and international levels, a County Emergency Management Director, and a Mayo Clinic Emergency Management Associate. She volunteers with the local Red Cross and CERT, is a ham radio technician, and a certified FEMA Trainer. She is married, lives in Kasson, and is a founding board member of TACC (Train A Child Center Christian School) in Kasson.)
 
October 7, 2023, started a journey that has made a big impact on my life. When I saw the atrocities that were inflicted on innocent families and the brutality that occurred, I knew I had to do something; I wanted to go to Israel. For over a month this passion to go didn’t abate but as an emergency manager I knew that self-deploying can add to issues rather than help so I prayed and waited for God to open a door. Early in November I received an email that opened that door.
FIRM (Fellowship of Israel Related Ministries), who already had coordinated many projects since October 7 through its network of 73 local ministries, had received requests to provide opportunities to do more. So, they sent out an email indicating that they would be coordinating a trip to Israel to give Christians a chance to be the hands and feet of Jesus in his land. I immediately filled out the application form and booked my plane flights to Israel.
On December first, I arrived in Israel to join 73 other volunteers from 10 nations for the Hope Healing Serve Tour, aiming to serve Israeli families and communities affected by the war in the area around Gaza and in the north near Lebanon. Along with the other participants, ages 15 to 93, I traveled throughout Israel doing various service projects. We had two security personnel with us at all times and at each of these locations we received a safety briefing.
The service week started in the Golan Heights where we planted 400 hundred trees in an October 7 memorial garden in Kela Alon to help with healing the nation. Next, we went to two communities in the Galilee, Afik and Midreshet HaGolan, who are currently housing displaced families from the northern communities that had to evacuate their homes due to threats from Hezbollah, the militant terrorist organization controlling Lebanon.
In Afik, we helped prepare a school and two homes for use by painting them. While in Midreshet HaGolan, the group helped host a recreational day for 400 children and parents, who are feeling the stress of being away from their homes with no clear timeline for when they can safely return. We also met heads of communities, local government officials, and families affected by the war.
The next day we went to Tel Aviv to help pack 1,000 grocery boxes to feed families throughout Israel. There is a great need to help families as many sources of income were impacted either because they had to evacuate the area where they worked, the wage earners were called up to fight, or because the work was dependent on tourism. As we were packing the boxes, sirens sounded indicating that Hamas was firing rockets in our direction, so we all walked briskly around the corner to the appliance store and went into their bomb shelter.
We needed to stay there at least 10 minutes as shrapnel from Iron Dome (Israeli Air Defense System) interceptions, including both pieces of rockets and interceptor missiles, tend to take a few minutes to fall to the ground after the projectiles are blown up mid-air. The attack reportedly caused damage to a school in the city when a large piece of shrapnel crashed through the roof into a classroom, causing electrical wires to hang from the ceiling and covering the room with debris.
On Wednesday, the 6th, we worked alongside 200 local Israeli volunteers as part of a “National Serve Day” in Dorot and Nir Am, spearheaded by FIRM and local partners. We helped with cleaning, painting, and light renovations in communities near the Gaza border in preparation for some displaced families returning home.
The local farmers and businesses there are hurting as they lost their labor force when young people were called up to the army and foreign workers fled the country, so some of the volunteers also harvested crops such as tomatoes and citrus fruits, and assisted with other agricultural projects, such as assembling irrigation pipes. Additionally, some helped in a local factory. On the final workday we visited and fed units of soldiers stationed near the Gaza border.
After this we visited Kibbutz Be’eri, a main target in the Hamas assault where more than 80 residents of Be’eri died — almost one in 10 members of the community. As we were taken around the devastation, I found it hard to hear the stories and see the remnants of destroyed lives; it was very difficult to process what I saw and felt. I thought if that were Kasson that would be over 600 people.
After the week of serving, I spent a couple of days in Jerusalem processing the experience. The scenes I saw of the genocide in Be’eri reminded me of the holocaust. My mother grew up in Germany under Hitler. Hitler was allowed to do what he did because few people spoke up or did anything to stop him. I knew I had to do something. I was glad that I had come and wanted to spread the word about the situation when I got home. If you would like to do something yourself, there are four options I recommend!
First, get educated on what is really going on. One way to do this is to follow local Israeli news sites like I24. I am also happy to come and speak with any group about my trip or about Israel in general. My email is emd.dot@gmail.com.
Second, you can pray for peace for the region, for the Jews, Christians, and Muslims to live in harmony alongside each other.
Third, you can send monetary donations as there are great needs for shelter, food, counseling, and rebuilding. FIRM has vetted 54 local ministries that you can donate to, or you can give directly to FIRM who will give to the greatest need. You can see the list for yourself at https://firmisrael.org/local-partners/.
Lastly, if you feel called, you can go to Israel like I did and help in person. FIRM plans to host additional serve tours in both January and March of 2024. For more information on that, you can go to https://firmisrael.org/serve-tour/.
See the official video recap of FIRM’s Hope & Healing Serve Tour at https://youtu.be/fNfJh2F1JDo.