While political tensions continue to escalate in the Middle East, the Community Evangelical Free Church of Mahomet and Great News Radio have teamed up to show support for Ha’Emek Medical Center in northern Israel with a concert on August 31.
The free event will feature Christian Recording Artists James Mark Maxey and Harold Greene for an acoustic night of worship. A love offering will be taken during the event.
“What’s interesting about Ha’Emek is it serves children who are Jewish, Muslim, Arab and Palestinian,” Community Free Pastor Jason Schifo said. “It’s a real picture of unity that could happen in that region if people would just get outside of some of the ideologies they believe in.”
Schifo, who has been to Israel three times with Great News Radio General Manager Mark Burns, said “This is something the Lord laid on my heart in terms of being able to support Ha’Emek, but also to raise awareness to what is happening in that area.”
During his visits, Schifo has seen people of many nations and cultures live their lives in the same way Americans do.
“When you meet the people, they’re just like us,” he said. “Kids are kicking balls. Wives have their bags of stuff. Families are buying food. They desire nothing different than what we have or desire, which is to live in peace.”
Schifo has witnessed the way American media spins the region based on the news’ organizations own political beliefs. On a Great News Radio sponsored trip, Schifo watched an American man come to the realization that many people in the region share similar values to Americans.
“We went to (an after school vacation Bible school),” he said. “At dinner that night (a man in our group) sat down at the table with tears in his eyes. He said, ‘I have always looked at Arabs how the news shows them to me. Now I’ve seen (the man who runs the VBS), and he loves Jesus how I love Jesus. He loves kids the way I love kids. He’s the real deal. He could be my neighbor.’”
But through the robust conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians, Ha’Emek is seeing a greater influx of children with wounds from the fighting come through their doors.
“They live in a place where rockets come down daily,” he said. “That is not something we deal with. We have no idea what that looks or feels like.”
Schifo hopes this concert will take away all the media spin, to focus on the children at Ha’Emek. The love offering collected during the concert will go directly to Ha’Emek, and then in November Schifo and Burns will make their annual trip to Israel. They plan to purchase teddy bears in Israel to give to the children in the hospital.
“These are kids, and we can sew into the next generation a sense of unity through this hospital,” Schifo said.
Great News Radio has a long standing relationship with Ha’Emek Medical Center. Burns became friends with Ha’Emek Medical Center Director of Development Larry Rich, and has had a soft spot in his heart for the children’s wing of the hospital for many years. Burns has been to Israel 27 times.
Rich, an American businessman, left everything he knew in the 1970’s to travel through Europe on a motorcycle. After the 1972 massacre of Israeli athletes, Rich traveled to Israel. He continued to help the people of Israel until 1997 when he suffered a major heart attack.
When Rich woke up in Ha’Emek hospital, he was overwhelmed by the diversity of doctors who saved his life.
“When I woke up in cardiac intensive care at Ha’emek Medical Center, I saw Arab and Jewish physicians working together to save me. I had been in the country 25 years, but I still had stereotypes in my mind about Arabs,” Rich told The Jerusalem Post.
Within two years, Rich left the business world, determined to put the Ha’Emek Medical Center on the map globally. Rich will also talk to guests at the Community Free Church via satellite on Sunday.
Schifo said while the group will serve the hospital in November, they will also help on farms in the region. Many Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) are serving right now, leaving a shortage of farm help in the area.
On previous trips, the group has served at a Soup Kitchen for at-risk youth and painted road crosswalks for mental health patients.
Through the hands-on service they provide during trips, Schifo said cultural walls and stereotypes continue to be broken.
“(On trips to Israel) the world get smaller,” he said. “You see things and you realize that there are worse places to live than here. The things we complain about are trivial on some levels. And the other thing you realize is that the world becomes a lot smaller.”
The benefit concert will run from 6 to 8 p.m. on Sunday at the Community Free Church on South IL 47. The evening will begin with Community Free Worship Pastor Jake Barrett introducing guests.He will be followed by Mark Burns, James Mark Maxey, Larry Rich, Harold Greene and Jason Schifo.
The Olive Garden will provide some food and Israel Ministry of Tourism and Christians United for Israel have provided materials for goody bags, which will be available for guests.
To listen to some pre-recorded music by Maxey and Greene, click here.
