Odai Al-Kafarna (Photo: Matthew Bell)
Odai Al-Kafarna, a seven-month-old Palestinian boy, was born with a hole in his heart, causing it to work inefficiently and start to wear out. His grandmother, Haniya, took him to Israel, where doctors performed a surgery to fix Odai’s heart and save his life. This is the kind of compassionate, life-saving work Israeli doctors do on a regular basis in the Holy Land:
“In this case we caught it early,” said Godwin Jeffrey, a Tanzanian doctor on a three-year training stint with the Israeli non-profit organization, Save a Child’s Heart. “The patient will improve like any other person and he will have a very normal lifespan.”
Save a Child’s Heart is an Israeli-based group of pediatric heart surgeons who have saved more than 2,600 children with congenital heart defects from 36 countries including Iraq, Jordan, Sudan, and the Palestinian Authority. As well, Israel itself issues permits to more than 10,000 Palestinians from the Gaza Strip every year to enable them to seek medical attention at Israeli hospitals.
What do you think?
8:14 pm
he Word of God tells us to pray for the peace of jerusalem.And I add from Bonhoeffer, as in the above comment,He is obedient who believes and practises this command. He who diesn’t will forfeit God’s special blessing.
8:35 pm
Love those great Jewish doctors!
6:54 am
The Lord God is compassionate to the helpless and weak. He is full of mercy when all else around him fails.Thank you Jesus for touching our hearts with the story of this little guy.
6:28 am
Our Father who is in Heaven, You are Holy, and Holy is your Name, King of Israel, King of the Universe. YOUR Kingdom come! YOUR Will be done! Here on earth…as in Heaven. Give to us Your Daily Bread, and Help us Receive Your Truth. Forgive US for our Transgressions. Deliver us all from evil. For You alone HAVE the Glory, Power, and the Honor!
1:35 am
That is beautiful and a great example of what will be in the future: harmony.
9:55 pm
It makes me proud to read such about such compassion and yet I have to be honest and say that the very little boy whose heart they are saving, may very well be the heart of the next future terrorist, that without a second thought, will shoot or suicide bomb in 10 years…and to think that those in need have no problem asking for (and receiving) help from a sworn enemy…Im quite torn about the sensibility of it all…
4:38 pm
Palestinians show their appreciation of Israel by terrorizing them, shows you who is doing the right thing & who isn’t
3:55 pm
The book of James is in effect a call for the Church to return to a Hebrew mindset, as opposed to the Hellenistic schools of thought which were polluting the assemblies at that time (and which persist today). To the Hebrews, we are here to serve Adonai in the present, and future physical world. Salvation has always been by faith, through grace. But “salvation without works is dead.” James 2:12-14 (Complete Jewish Bible translation) says “Keep speaking and acting like people who will be judged by a Torah which gives freedom. For judgment will be without mercy toward one who doesn’t show mercy; but mercy wins out over judgment. What good is it, my brothers, if someone claims to have faith but has no actions to prove it? Is such “faith” able to save him?”
While the doctors may not be born again (yet!), this is a clear contrast in faith in action. These Jewish doctors show the true love of God in saving children from Muslim countries. What actions are the people of Islam called to? Why do we get so many front page stories and pictures all but extolling the actions of a suicide bomber, yet we seldom hear of Jews helping Muslims in our news media? I guess “love your enemy” isn’t as big a story as another “Big Bang”.
Shalom.
9:14 am
Your comment is very enlightening-I have someone close to me who insists we cannot be saved by works, only faith. It appears from your comment that faith without works is not the answer.
11:05 pm
Wendy, I think James is saying we are saved by faith, not works; but a true, saving faith produces works. I (just like the demons in 2:19) believed all my life. But there was this little issue of repentance that seemed to get in the way of a saving faith- one that witnesses in both thought and action. Saving faith turns our will over to God and follows where He leads.
I wrote a quote from Chuck Colson in my Bible at the end of James. “Do we view our faith as a magnificant philosophy or a living truth: as an abstract, sometimes academic theory or a living person for whom we are prepaired to lay down our lives?”
Dietrich Banhoeffer said it like this, “Only he who believes is obedient, only he who is obedient believes.”
Shalom