AMI UPDATE

(I, Eddie, did the yellow highlight and also removed 2 sentences, having what I deemed sensitive info.)

FEBRUARY 7, 2009
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Dear lura_eddie@hotmail.com,

Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.  John 14:27

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through  Messiah Yeshua. Philippians 4:6-8

Our God is Mighty to Save. We have had an eventful and busy week.  One highlight has been the arrival of the parents of a woman in our congregation from South Africa.  She is married to an Israeli, and is in her 40th week of pregnancy.  Her parents are saved and spirit-filled, and have been a blessing to us in their spiritual preparedness to be here.  We appreciate it when people come to visit and are spiritually in tune, prayed up, and ready with a Word in season and out of season.  In the three meetings we've had with them and with another sister from South Africa, we prayed powerfully for many things.  Among them was Ami of course, and we were praying for Ami's spirit, and his life in the spirit.  We all know that the Lord has chosen Ami for a purpose in all of this - and I want to tell you that much patience has been required to nurture him along spiritually as well as physically.  I don't share much about this part of Ami as it is extremely personal and sensitive, but he is coming along in this area of healing, and there are certain things I've noticed this week.

One is the peace that is present in Ami.  As we are coming up to the year date of the bombing, we had a meeting with the people who were first on the scene on that fateful day in March 2008.  Those with whom we have contact are; a paramedic, a neighbor, and Marina our cleaning assistant (the only way I can describe her).  As Ami, David and I sat and listened to their accounts of what happened that day, several things were revealed.

None of them remembered the other!  They were so focused on Ami and the emergency, that they didn't even notice who else was in the room, even what the other people looked like that were around his  body.

A Paramedic

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  The paramedic, a lovely young lady who is studying in the Judea and Samaria University here in Ariel, said that the very day before the incident she had moved into an apartment with a few other students, right down the street from us.  That day she didn't have any exams or classes, and so she slept in.  A little while after she awoke, she heard the explosion which was so strong; her roommates' cat was knocked out of the window where it was sitting.  Thinking it was a gas explosion, she walked down the street, looking for the location of the blast - she saw the police downstairs, and the blown out glass all over the street.  Everyone thought at first there was a gas explosion, and so they waited for the fire department, as by law they'd have to go up with masks.

When the fire department came, someone yelled down that there was a wounded victim, and she ran upstairs.  She said the sight was difficult beyond words.  She's been a paramedic for many years, but she always worked in a team and with equipment - in this case she had neither, and only from what she could scrounge from the police, was she able to stop some of the profuse bleeding. Ami couldn't breathe also, as his right lung had blown up like a balloon from the blast and then collapsed, and she said that the 20 minutes that it took for the ambulance to come were like hours to her.  However, what she was able to do were life-saving measures and we are eternally grateful to her.

She said that the interesting thing was, she didn't stay in that apartment for very long, only for 3 months, because she didn't get along with the other students, there were too many pets, etc. and so she moved out.  She said that she knows she moved into the apartment the day before the incident only to be there for Ami.  She said this is the first time in her life that she has experienced something like it. Please pray for N., that the Lord would continue to draw her to herself. 

A Neighbor

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  Our neighbor lives in the building directly next to ours, and our apartments are juxtaposed.  When the blast occurred, objects flew off of his shelves on the wall closest to our building, and he immediately came running over.  He identified our apartment from the blown out glass, and ran up the stairs.  He doesn't remember if the door was opened or closed, but when he came in the apartment, he saw Ami on the floor, and someone next to him  (probably Marina), and he began checking for a gas leak.  At this point I need to point out that Israeli's, because of their experience in the army, are all trained for emergencies.  If you have to be in an emergency, Israel is the best place to be.

When he understood it wasn't the gas, he looked around, saw the dining room table that had a big hole in it and was collapsed, and he understood that a bomb had gone off.   Even from the street downstairs he was trying to call the police and ambulance and didn't succeed. However, after a few minutes the police arrived.

Since he has no medical training - he began to talk to Ami, as he understood that he was conscious. Seeing that he was in pain, and seeing that glass was all over the floor and Ami was moving (trying to get up), he and Marina put towels under his back to help him feel more comfortable.  They were asking Ami his name, where his parents were, and what had happened. Ami was able to answer all the questions - even knowing that it was the Purim basket that had exploded.

That day our neighbor was ill, and didn't go to work!

Ami, Miracles and Peace

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  Everyone described seeing the big piece of glass in Ami's neck, and the damage that they saw that had happened to his body.  These quick thinking people were angels to Ami.  They were prepared to help, and were there beside him until the ambulance came.  The Paramedic told us that there is list of things that could have happened to Ami medically, but didn't, and it is miraculous.

As our friends were retelling their stories, Ami listened attentively, but with an inner peace and calm that can only be described as supernatural.  It was so difficult for all of us to hear, and to remember, and doubly for him, but the peace that you have all been praying for was there, deep in his spirit.

Ami revealed something that we hadn't realized before. He said that when he woke up and saw the Purim package on the table, he went upstairs, said hello to Marina who was cleaning on our second floor, and went down to open the package.  Then he saw that our dog Dusty needed to go out, and so he took the dog for a walk first, and when he came back, Marina was finished for the day, and was leaving.  She made it down the street to throw out the garbage in the dumpster when she heard the explosion.  If she had been in the apartment, we don't know what would have happened to her.  If she had just been below the apartment on the street, she could have been wounded or killed by flying glass.  But no one was on the street below, and no one but Ami was in the apartment when the package was opened.

The fact that the perpetrators didn't care who could have been in the apartment or on the street below, shows the degree of insanity of this act.  Even as I write, I am filled with pain at the remembrance of that day, but we could never have imagined the world-wide impact this incident would have on believers around the world.

I continue to thank God for each and every one of you who have prayed and are still praying us through, 11 months later.

 In Yeshua, and with much love and appreciation,

 Leah