Letter from a Christian in Gaza

Join us for 30 Days of Prayer for Global Awakening, March 11-April 9, 2024.

As we continue to pray for the hostages held by Hamas and for the millions of displaced people in Gaza, let’s also remember the 1,000 or so Christians, most of whom are sheltering in two churches in Gaza City. This letter below is from “Hannah”:

“Good evening, I am Hannah, who spoke to you about three months ago. Since then, we have escaped death many times. All our days have become the same, one after the other, with very little difference. We wake up to the same sounds and the same four walls we are sheltering in. Although the funny thing is one of the walls is no longer the same – a hit during shelling made that wall look quite different.

“A friend asked me, ‘What would a perfect day be for you?’ and I felt I needed to share my response with my fellow believers around the world. I wish to wake up and find water coming from the tap so I can wash my face and brush my teeth. I wish to wake up in pajamas rather than the clothes I have been wearing the last 4 days. I hope to find cooking gas so I can prepare coffee for me and my husband and milk for my children and prepare lunch for them, I hope to find vegetables. I long to taste the sweetness of fruit – we lost that deliciousness months ago – and find wood to heat water for a shower, and to find my phone battery at 50 percent charged. I hope for bread enough to feed my son to his fullest. I wish there was warm water as I wash our clothes by hand.

“It has been a long time that we have been in this situation. I’ve cried. I found that hours and minutes are precious and did not know their value until they were lost. It doesn’t matter, we’re still alive, we’re still here. People talk about how they hope when they die to be buried in the church cemetery and not in the cemetery of the unknown or in the mass graves. Last night, talking with my 9-year-old daughter before bed, while hearing the sound of explosions, she was smiling and said: ‘I discovered that death is easier than traveling.’ Was she happy or sad when she said this? As a mother, what should I say to her? Thank you for taking the time to listen.”

Letter from “Hannah,” a Christian harboring in the Latin Catholic Church in Gaza City, received by Harriet Smith Lawrence, who formerly lived and taught in the Gaza Strip

These prayer requests are gathered from several Christians in Gaza, as well as their close friends:

• “We praise you God that you are a God of mercy and grace. You give us what we don’t deserve and don’t give us what we do. Be merciful and full of grace to all of those in the Land.”
• Yezin, the diabetic son of a Christian teacher harboring in Gaza City, has had little to eat and mostly starches for many months. Pray for insulin and healthy food to reach him. One Christian reported the king of Jordan coordinated a food delivery to northern Gaza at Christmas, but nothing else has reached the area since. Pray especially for vegetables, fruit and other foods high in nutrition to reach the two churches where most of the Christians shelter and all others in need.
• Several Christians lost loved ones in air strikes during the recent extraction of the two hostages at Rafah, as well as in shellings that hit central Gaza over the past few months. Pray God will comfort these families, as well as the many Israelis and Palestinians who have lost loved ones and relive daily the horrors of what they have seen and experienced.
• Pray for the one million Palestinians in Rafah who have moved many times and now must be displaced once more. Pray also for Israelis who lost their homes and were traumatized on October 7th. Ask God to bring comfort to everyone who is displaced at the moment.
• Pray for the hostages and those who keep them. Pray that they would deal well with them. Ask God that food would also reach them. Pray for their families… Pray similarly for the families of Palestinians who have been taken in recent days.
• Pray for sunshine. Winter is wet and cold, all the more without heat.
• Pray that Palestinians would be there for each other….bringing each other HOPE.
• Pray for these leaders and decision-makers by name, that God will give them useful knowledge and then wisdom to know what to do with it, that He will remind them of our common humanity and bring an end to the violence:
  • Netanyahu, President of Israel,
  • President Biden, US
  • Antony Blinken, Secretary of State, US
  • King Abdullah of Jordan
  • A Qatari official whose name isn’t being used due to security
  • Ismail Haniyeh, Chairman of Hamas
  • Mahmoud Abbas, President of Palestine (West Bank)
  • António Guterres current Secretary-General of the UN
  • Jake Sullivan, National Security Advisor, US
  • Mohammed Deif, head of the militant wing of Hamas
  • Israeli generals
  • Leaders of European and Arab nations also involved in this war
• “We praise you God that you are the God of salaam, of shalom, of peace. We praise you that you have ordered the world. We praise you that you can see the end from the beginning. What doesn’t make sense to us, is good to you. We trust you. Thank you for using what happens in the world to mold us into men and women you want us to be. Make us moldable.”

Visit our Israel-Gaza page to continue praying:

Pray for Israel and Gaza in These Trying Times

Join the army! Pray through the news for God’s purposes to prevail. To get the daily posts delivered to your inbox in time for your morning quiet times, enter your email address in the space below:

For 30 Days of Prayer for Global Awakening, a book of prayers for every heart, home and country to awaken to God’s love, and Bible studies on fighting for what matters most, visit MoreThanAConquerorBooks.com.

Mikaela Vincent and her husband are missionaries who live by faith, trusting in God to provide for their needs as they pray for and share Christ with the nations. If you would like to help their ministry through giving a donation, shopping at Mikaela’s online bookstore, praying for them or inviting them to speak at your church, retreat or other event, click the buttons below:

When you click on the above links to books I have authored, as a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, I may receive a small commission for certain purchases.

Thank you for your support! If you’d like to know more about how you can help the Vincents’ ministry, please contact Mikaela.