(NewsNation) — Faith-based groups from across the United States are stuck in Israel, leaning on their faith in God to keep them safe and get them home.
Some are looking at flights that cost as much as $4,000 per person. Expensive or not, they keep getting canceled, leaving those like an Arizona pastor, Kane Adkins, vulnerable to the ongoing fighting triggered by Saturday’s Hamas attacks.
He’s set up a GoFundMe to pay for his trip back home.
Amid the rockets falling and dust settling, Adkins says his children learned something they could never have been taught without this experience.
“The bombs were shaking our hotel room,” Adkins said. “I mean, literally, the rockets … they’re shaking our hotel rooms, and the sirens are going off.”
Stranded in Israel, they’re trying to turn their focus from fear to faith.
“They’re seeing that there is a hatred that exists out there for the people of Israel,” Adkins said.
It’s an impossible lesson under unfathomable circumstances. The Mesa pastor and his family made the journey to Israel on September 28 to honor a Jewish holiday.
“We go to Israel and kind of represent Arizona and worship the Lord,” Adkins said. “And the feast is the feast of Sukkot, which is the Feast of Tabernacles in Scripture.”
Adkins says they were set to leave Sunday, but their flights keep getting canceled. Meanwhile, the prices of flights going out are astronomical. As of Tuesday, he said it would cost him about $16,000 to get home.
“We stand with Israel,” Adkins said. “We love Israel, and we stand with her, and you know what? We’ll suffer right alongside her if we if we must.”
Adkins is one of many faith-based leaders, hailing from Arizona to Alabama to Oklahoma, stranded in Israel.
“We just finished celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles,” said Daniel Navejas, who is currently in Jerusalem with several church members out of Oklahoma. “We actually got to have dinner with the Israeli family here that welcomed us into their home and shared the tradition and what it means to them. And the next day, we came into Jerusalem. We’re on the Mount of Olives. Their sirens begin going off, and I’m looking into the sky.”
Navejas said they’re safe under the Iron Dome for the moment and have faith that God will protect his people.
“What God is doing right now in Israel has to do with Christians who are standing up, who are believing the word of God, who are fighting for the rights of these people,” he said. “And, God, I’m telling you, God is moving in a powerful way.”
Anyone struggling to leave the area should reach out to the nearest embassy, which Nevajas says has been “extremely helpful.” He also offered to help connect others in need if they contact him directly on social media.
Back in Arizona, local police are enhancing patrols around synagogues and other locations to keep people safe.