September 2024

It was two Sundays ago, I just finished the first Sunday morning service in Johannesburg, South Africa, and I was still trying to finish strong in the middle of this 3-month Tour, the longest that I’ve ever done since I started ministry.

The door for Africa has been opened in such a rapid and an unbelievable pace, and I’ve had to stay out there to raise support to do what’s needed to be done as these governments keeps asking us to bring the Sunday schools into their countries.

I knew what it would take as the years went by, but 𝗜 𝗛𝗔𝗩𝗘𝗡’𝗧 𝗖𝗢𝗠𝗘 𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗦 𝗙𝗔𝗥 𝗝𝗨𝗦𝗧 𝗧𝗢 𝗖𝗢𝗠𝗘 𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗦 𝗙𝗔𝗥……. But that’s a conversation for another time.

I had just walked to the back book table to get the kids sponsored and sign books. I had expected a call from Gaza all morning. I knew it was about time I heard from them. I knew from our Jewish friend Andrew that something happened but I didn’t have the details.

I got on the phone to call them. Sometimes in that part of the world, the reception is pretty bad. Finally, I got in touch with Andrew. He said Han’s mother was just killed by Hamas yesterday.

Han is the one that took over from Akmed that was killed by Hamas right in the beginning of the war. His mother was the one that helped set up the food for the kids that come to the Sunday school when we shouldn’t have even been there. She was the one who took care of Mary after I found her.

She said she would take care of Mary like her own child. She was the one who stayed all night holding Mary in the corner of the waiting room in the hospital while Mary was about to die from infection because I couldn’t get the medicine to her in time.

Two Saturdays ago, at a grocery store in the West Bank where I had relocated them to, Han’s mother was trying to get some baby food for him to take to the kids that came to the Sunday school in Gaza. So many of these babies had nothing to eat.

Han is still able to get in and out of the border. The IDF allows him to cross because they knew the good work he has been doing there.

As Han’s mother was at the grocery store trying to get the food, 3 of the Hamas terrorists stormed in and shot 5 of their own Palestinian people in cold blood. One of them was Han’s mother. She took 2 rounds in the back from an AK-47 and died on the floor. She was one of the Sunday school workers that made the difference, and it cost her life. And now, Han was left to take care of his little 7-year-old sister, the last member of his entire family. Andrew tried to explain it to me while I stood in the parking lot at that church where I just got done preaching and I was supposed to be preparing for the next service. I heard Han crying and Andrew was trying to interpret it. I couldn’t understand what Han was saying….

I’ve consoled thousands of people dealing with death in the past 56 years in the ministry. I heard him screaming and crying, but I had nothing to say. 𝗜 𝗙𝗘𝗟𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗣𝗔𝗜𝗡….. I FELL ON MY KNEE IN THE PARKING LOT AND ALL I COULD DO WAS CRY AND SCREAM WITH HIM. I didn’t know what else to do.

What could I do…….??? What could I do…….??????? Nothing is going to make sense anyway……

I tried to get more information from Andrew. There was nothing anybody could say to Han. WHAT NOW? I didn’t have answer for that. Nobody did. At 75 years old, I’m just so tired of not having the right answers, or any answers…....

So since then, he has been trying to figure out what to do. And of course, I still don’t have any answers...... He didn’t have any way to bury her. Andrew was trying to help. Some Palestinian boys he helped before told him to bury his mother there in the West Bank.

But he said, “she always said she doesn’t belong here. SHE NEEDS TO GO HOME. SHE NEEDS TO GO BACK TO GAZA AND THAT’S WHERE SHE BELONGS.”

That’s also where her other child who had been run over by a truck in the middle of the conflict was buried. That’s also where Mary, that little girl I picked up in the middle of the night, was also buried where we do Sunday school…..

As we have been talking in the past 2 weeks, Han just kept saying that he wanted to take her home. She loved Jesus and her family. She said so often as we all tried to take care of Mary back then, “𝗜 𝗳𝗲𝗲𝗹 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝗜 𝗮𝗺 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗚𝗼𝗱 𝗶𝘀 𝗱𝗼𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗜’𝗺 𝘀𝗼 𝗴𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗳𝘂𝗹”. ❤️

I’m telling you all this now because it’s been two weeks. We were able to get her a casket and he got her body wrapped up. In the middle of this whole mess, Han has been saying, “I just want to take her home. This was never her home.”

Han’s mother used to say, “𝗜 𝗞𝗡𝗢𝗪 𝗛𝗘𝗔𝗩𝗘𝗡 𝗜𝗦 𝗠𝗬 𝗛𝗢𝗠𝗘”, and Han knew that as well. But he said, “the last thing I can do for my mother is at least to take her home back to Gaza.”

I’m trying to help Han and I know Andrew has done everything he could to help as well. As this war is moving into year #1 on October 7th, everything is so uncertain. I will let you know more as I know, but as usual lately, again, I still don’t have any answers.

Right now, I’m sitting across from the airport in the Philippines trying to get to Taiwan. I have meetings there almost every day. I was just home in New York for a couple of days. And now, I’m going to be gone for another month trying to get more help to go through the doors that have been opened to us.

When I was in Joburg, kneeling down in that church parking lot, I knew I couldn’t do the second service after that call. The people were coming out of the first service looking at me screaming and banging my hand on a car. I didn’t have any words to say to them then, and I still don’t have any now…….

𝗔𝗹𝗹 𝗜 𝗮𝘀𝗸 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗽𝗿𝗮𝘆 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗛𝗮𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘁𝗹𝗲 𝘀𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿, 𝗽𝗿𝗮𝘆 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗔𝗻𝗱𝗿𝗲𝘄 𝘁𝗼 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝘄𝗶𝘀𝗱𝗼𝗺 𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗰𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲, 𝗽𝗿𝗮𝘆 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘀𝗲 𝗸𝗶𝗱𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘄𝗲’𝘃𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝘁𝗿𝘆𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗽 𝗶𝗻 𝗚𝗮𝘇𝗮. SHE WAS JUST TRYING TO GET BABY FOOD……

I don’t know what the right answer is at this point, but I believe that all of you that know, care. As I’ve said so many times, 𝗧𝗛𝗔𝗡𝗞 𝗬𝗢𝗨.

You have no idea how much you mean to me, Han, Andrew and our teams that are serving a generation all over the world…... 𝗧𝗛𝗔𝗡𝗞 𝗬𝗢𝗨…….

We’ll talk soon……. Maybe when I have some better answers……. It’s just not now!

Source: https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=pastor%20bill%20wilson
.