{"id":23309,"date":"2026-03-22T14:19:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-22T14:19:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/?p=23309"},"modified":"2026-03-22T14:19:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T14:19:12","slug":"god-protected-these-christians-from-irans-missiles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/?p=23309","title":{"rendered":"God Protected These Christians from Iran’s Missiles"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Reading Time:<\/span> 3<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

(CBN) \u2013 When Iran began firing missiles at Israel three weeks ago in response to military action against its regime, some Christian tourists unexpectedly found themselves in harm\u2019s way. \u00a0They made it home safely, and one member of the group then found herself in the midst of another harrowing experience \u2013 a campus shooting.\n<\/p>\n

Connect with\u00a0<\/span>o<\/span>thers in your\u00a0<\/span>s<\/span>tate in\u00a0<\/span>p<\/span>rayer<\/span>.<\/span><\/h4>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Pastor Gabe Turner, who leads Charlottesville, Virginia\u2019s The Point Church was preaching to nearly 60 American Christians atop the beautiful Mount of Olives. \u00a0He told CBN News he\u2019s done it many times before, as he leads a group to the Holy Land every two or three years. \u00a0However, unlike previous trips, sirens began blaring, indicating a possible Iranian missile attack.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cNone of us had ever been in any experience like that before,\u201d he said, \u201cbut we could just sense the hand of God and the peace of God in such a supernatural way.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Their Israeli tour guide, Ofer Ashkenazi, told CBN News he\u2019s responsible for the safety of the group and had to take quick action.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first thing we did, actually, was to take them into a shelter, which, sadly enough, happily enough, it\u2019s the bathroom over there,\u201d he said. \u201cSo we all went down underground into the bathroom.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Shortly afterwards, they carefully made it back to their hotel bomb shelter. Lydia Wilson, a college student who was part of the Christian group from Virginia, told CBN News that despite the danger, they felt the presence of God.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were constantly in prayer. And then I know we had people from back home, our church family, they were all praying for us as well. And we felt that. We felt the prayers,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd I can\u2019t speak for everyone, but I just kind of had an overwhelming sense of peace. I didn\u2019t think that I was, obviously, we were in the middle of everything. We were in danger, but I didn\u2019t necessarily feel like I was, if that makes sense.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Throughout their ordeal, the group would eventually seek shelter a total of 24 times.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just sensed the hand of God,\u201d said Pastor Turner, \u201cthe protection of God over us. We leaned heavily into Psalm 121 that, \u2018God who watches over Jerusalem will never slumber or sleep.’\u201d\n<\/p>\n

With airports in Israel and Jordan closed, the group drove four hours to Eilat, in southern Israel, to spend the night. The next morning, they crossed into Egypt, driving another 10 hours to the Cairo airport, and flew back home.\n<\/p>\n

Israeli tourism, a major industry, is now on hold until after the war.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a tour guide, we get paid for the day we are guiding. If there is no guiding, there is no work,\u201d Ashkenazi said.\n<\/p>\n

Israelis prefer a quick end to the conflict, that also ends the current regime in Iran.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the regime is not going to be changed by the end of the war, we are going to have another war in two years, in three years, whatever it is, it\u2019s going to be again and again and again,\u201d Ashkenazi said.\n<\/p>\n

Like most members of the church group who arrived safely back home from Israel, Lydia Wilson felt grateful to God. \u00a0However, as an Old Dominion University student, she came back from her harrowing experience only to face another. \u00a0A shooting happened in the very building Lydia attends class. \u00a0At the time, however, she was in her nearby apartment.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIt kind of brought back some of those same fears, like I mentioned, from Israel,\u201d she said. \u201cJust because we had those same sirens constantly playing. And it was just like, I don\u2019t know, kind of triggered something like, \u2018Oh, I\u2019m not safe right now,\u2019 but I know my roommate and I, we did immediately pray.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

The gunman killed one and injured two others. Lydia and her roommate prayed for the victims and their families.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThere could have been more casualties. There could have been more people injured,\u201d she said. \u201cI mean, it\u2019s just this constant, \u2018What if\u2019 and I think that in that sense, God kind of had His hand over all of us.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

In this case, while facing danger in a war zone and here at home, these Christians experienced God\u2019s protection firsthand and peace, despite their circumstances.\n<\/p>\n

Share your prayers for Christians in the Middle East below.<\/h4>\n

This article was originally published in CBN.<\/em>
\n \n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reading Time: 3 minutes (CBN) \u2013 When Iran began firing missiles at Israel three weeks ago in response to military action against its regime, some Christian tourists unexpectedly found themselves in harm\u2019s way. \u00a0They made it home safely, and one member of the group then found herself in the midst of another harrowing experience \u2013<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20916,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[119,182,4707,2179,7625],"class_list":["post-23309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-prayer","tag-christians","tag-god","tag-irans","tag-missiles","tag-protected"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23309\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}