Dodging Military Checkpoints and Restoring Dignity

As Fall approached the Christian families in the Holy Land faced a stark reality.

With tourism dead and local unemployment hovering above 85% because of the ongoing wars, the start of the school year in September created difficult choices.

Parents who were already struggling to put food on the table suddenly faced demands for school supplies, books, and children’s transportation. When every single dollar is critically needed, hunger is often what follows.

Military checkpoints and blockades also brought a reality to our ministry workers and volunteers working to help those families in the most need. Just a dozen boxes of food for families could take an entire day to deliver because of military checkpoints.

The “flying” checkpoint problem: In Bethlehem, Beit Jala and Beit Sahour where we work most often, there are eight permanent checkpoints that include cement barriers and gates. Daily there are also “flying checkpoints” set up by the Israeli military to catch suspected individuals often at the Aqabat Hasna Bridge in Western Bethlehem, the Beit Ta’mar Bridge in East Jerusalem and at the al-Nashash southern area. Passage past checkpoints can take hours.

Delivery of the prepackaged boxes by our Heart for the Persecuted Church food program has become nearly an impossible daily task because of the roadblocks. We had to take a different approach beginning in September to help relieve food delivery problems while working to restore dignity to families in need.

Rather than continuing with pre-packed food boxes, we partnered with a centrally located Christian food store to establish a voucher system.

Participating Christian families are now given vouchers with a set value to select staples their individual households needed.

Our ministry coordinator negotiated with the shop owner to provide these families with wholesale prices. We also arranged special distribution days offering deep discounts.

The store is not a sprawling American supermarket but a modest local neighborhood shop. Handing parents a voucher allowed them to walk into a Christian-owned food store as regular paying customers rather than waiting all day for our volunteers to pass various military checkpoints that open and close randomly.

The vouchers allow some variance for a mother with growing children with different needs than a disabled elderly couple.

The vouchers are good for a large list of staples negotiated with the owner and cannot be used for non-discounted items.

For the homebound, the disabled, and families who could not reach the store or afford transportation, our team continues to deliver food parcels directly to their doors.

While monthly food needs are handled through store vouchers, our special family Christmas meals will be delivered directly to the homes of the Christian families in greatest need. The Christmas meals are mostly furnished to the elderly and families with special needs.