When the brutal American Civil War irrupted between the North and South in 1861, the YMCA showed up to serve in non-combatant ways.
Men and women volunteered to provide relief services to Union soldiers, particularly to those sick, wounded and dying. The Y wrote letters, prayed, and stayed with them in danger until the end.
Lest this sound like just a nice thing to do by Y volunteers, the carnage and scale of death among Union and Confederate men was almost beyond imagination.
YMCA members chose to go to the frontline to love, care and serve, putting their lives at risk. Eventually they would even minister to prisoners of war to captured Union and Confederate soldiers, with clothing, food, medical supplies, Bibles and other literature along with writing over 90,000 letters.
Again in 1898 for the Spanish-American War, the YMCA sent volunteers to serve soldiers. And then in the Great War the Y provided care on a scale never before attempted, which included John R. Mott raising over 250 million dollars for war-relief work, including for enemy POWs.
It was repeated in World War Two, with an even more extensive ministry to prisoners of war. Mott worked diligently to care for soldiers on both sides of the line, inspired by Saint Paul and the call to a “ministry of reconciliation.”
Many YMCA volunteers have died over the years because of their proximity to war, caring for the men sent to the frontlines.
But what the YMCA is facing in Gaza is like from a different world. Assaulted from below and from above; dispirited by the deaths of over 10,000 neighbors. It’s too much chaos. Too much destruction. For all.
For the Palestinian Christian leaders of the YMCA in Gaza, they have certainly been like salt in the community, embodying the spirit of Christ Jesus through their courageous presence of love and service for all.
While the YMCA has always been about more than a building, about the programs they run, it’s really about the people and their purpose. Especially in times of war. But when the salty Christians get assaulted, when the neighbors they are trying to protect in their building get threatened with assault, it gets dispiriting.
Especially when it’s not clear how to stop the war, the carnage, the revenge, the fear, the indiscriminate violence.
Jews, Christians and Muslims, along with people of good will from all faith traditions are invited to join the YMCA in solidarity, to see them there in the rubble, trying to provide shelter for neighbors fleeing rockets and gunmen. When one Y is assaulted, all Ys are assaulted; when one YMCA mourns, we all can mourn.
What can we do? Pray for truth to prevail, work for justice to be honored, insist on real peace to be built, not through bombs but through diplomacy, friendships, and a ministry of reconciliation.
How can YMCA leaders be salty and spirited when being assaulted amidst dispirited destruction? I don’t know. The darkness and chaos that swirls around them is almost too much for my own comprehension. I have no advice for them.
I only know that throughout our YMCA history there are leaders who find themselves in the most broken places because of the call of Christ Jesus upon their life.
If that were to happen to me, I would want to know that there are other Christians around the world that cared and were with me in spirit, that YMCA leaders across the global movement would know what this Y was going through and doing what they could to share the story and work towards and end to the violence.
What would you want others to do if you were a Y leader in Gaza?
Throughout our YMCA Movement, when we reflect on the teachings and life of Jesus Christ and his influence on our work, the instructions which seem to have been the most powerful on us has been Golden Rule, The Great Commandment, The Great Commission, and the Great Prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane.
Putting these principles into practice, especially in adversity, is the source of strength for whatever salty spirit we still have stirring within us.
Christ himself enables us to do what he called us to do, which is to be in the world, taking part in his ministry of reconciliation. Which means we must be in the broken places.
And that is where our brothers and sisters are right now, in Gaza. So pray for them. Honor them. Join them in fulfilling the ministry of reconciliation where you lead and serve. Everyday.
from the worldymca instagram account on 11.13.23
We understand that over 200 people have taken refuge in the YMCA building in Gaza City, and that the building is under siege.
While we are working to verify all the information, we reinforce our previous messages deploring all violence. If the information is accurate, we condemn the fact that the work of a youth empowerment organization - whose task is to serve its community - is being affected.
This outrage must stop.
Immediate safe passage should be ensured for all civilians seeking shelter. Our team is striving to get in contact with the Gaza YMCA; however, this is made difficult by the cuts to Internet access and other utilities. 🙏
Click here to participate in the Urgent Appeal from the East Jerusalem YMCA and their support of the YMCA in Gaza and their neighbors.