Paul Calvert spoke with Bassam

A lot of them live in Eilat because it is a tourist city. They get jobs here. Some of them even have a car. All of them have houses, all those who work hard. They come here and have a life here. Their life is still vague as they don't know what is going to happen to them tomorrow, because they are refugee status. It's not easy for them. Many of them are praying that there will be peace in Sudan so that they can go back and keep building their country.

When they came here and our congregation saw this, I remember I talked to my pastor and to others and we said 'This is the pure work of God, to help the widows and the orphans'. That is the pure work of God. An orphan in the Bible times was someone who couldn't help themselves and now we are looking and saying these are the widows and orphans. They cannot help themselves. We saw it as an obligation to our congregation to open up our doors.

Since then the shelter has became a centre for the Sudanese. They all came here in the beginning to get supplies of food, medical aid and spiritual hunger. In a way we have a Sudanese congregation in our congregation. It's amazing. My youth, one time I missed a meeting with them, I came late. I was told that they had all gone to the desert without me. They took a guitar and some Bibles and Hebrew songbooks and they were singing songs around the fire in the desert, reading the Bible in Hebrew. I'm talking about Sudanese that never went to school in their life. They came to faith here and it's a great testimony of God, but there are a lot of challenges here that need to be prayed over.

Paul: How many are here in the city of Eilat?

Bassam: I know registered there are about 1000 - 1500 but there are of course those who are here illegally here too.

Israel has given them permission to work in different places because they didn't want this number to shock one city. I think there are about 3000 - 4000 maybe.

Paul: Are they still coming in today?

Bassam: Yes I know a believer friend of mine, he's a soldier and he says every week there are a few families coming, jumping over the border. They come to his base and get medical treatment, so he sees them and he talks to them.

Paul: What sort of stories do they have when they come here?

Bassam: Many times they come here because they get shot on the way or lost. A husband comes here with a child and he lost his wife on the way, or they come telling you that they ran from the torture. We've had a wife who came and five months later her husband came and found her here in the shelter because he heard from the Sudanese community that she is here.

The Sudanese will tell you that the best time that they ever had in their life was in an Israeli prison. That's a testimony that broke my heart. They give them food. They give them water and a Bible or Quran if they were Muslim. They know that they won't die.

That's a big challenge to the country; they come here and work so they call their friends and relatives and say that Israel is paradise. They say, you get a job here; you walk on the street and no-one throws rocks at you because you are black. You can work here, you have television, you can rent a house and you can buy a car. For many of them it's a big blessing being here, but it causes problems because now their friends want to come to Israel too.

I'm glad as an Israeli that we are still humane and we are still opening our doors and not sending them back by force, that we're giving them rights here. We have a few Sudanese here where we have helped them to join University. At the moment I'm helping my kids to get higher education so that they can prepare to join a university in Israel.

Paul: What's your prayer for the work here in Eilat and for the Sudanese and Druze people?

Bassam: My prayer for the Druze people is that God will pour on the heart of more people to share the Gospel with them, because I feel they don't get enough people sharing the Gospel with them. My prayer for the Sudanese is that they will come to faith, that's what my first prayer is. Also that they will learn to walk with God and go back more equipped to go back to their own land and country. My prayer for my own congregation and for any congregation in Israel is that we will keep being a light.