Crossville's Lister in Israel when Hamas attacked

Dec. 28—Licensed marriage and family therapist Christine Lister and her friend, Deby Brown, traveled to Israel taking in the sights of the ancient Holy Lands with a touring group that was supposed to conclude Oct. 7.

After which, Lister and Brown planned to stay in Israel touring the country on their own through Oct. 17.

However, Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel on Saturday, Oct. 7, killing more than 1,400 people and taking dozens as hostages, including Americans.

"Because of the war, we had to cancel our plans to tour the country on our own," Lister said. "At one point, the airlines canceled our flights out. We scrambled to find passage out of Israel but, of course, had to wait on God for the final exit strategy."

Designated as a foreign terrorist organization, Hamas, a militant group of Sunni Muslim Palestinians and the ruling political party, attacked Israel in response to Israel's occupation, control and blockade of the Palestinian territory, Gaza Strip. Hamas is an acronym for Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiya (Islamic Resistance Movement), best known for its armed resistance to Israel.

The attack spurred another Palestinian-Israeli war.

Israeli Defense Forces estimated Hamas fired over 2,000 rockets toward southern and central Israel, targeting Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, among others.

Lister and Brown were in Jerusalem when the war broke out.

"The trip before the war was a totally different experience as you might imagine," Lister said.

Sirens sounded as IDF's Iron Dome, air defense system, intercepted the rain of short-range rockets.

"It was surreal to see rockets in the sky and the Iron Dome take them out," Lister said. "We had no idea of the danger and the locals around us didn't seem to be running for cover, so we kind of took our cues from them.

"The rockets we observed seemed to be far off but how do you truly judge this? Thankfully, no debris from the explosions came our way. I think if the rockets were directly overhead, we would've seen the explosions more pronounced. As it was, we'd see a streak in the sky and then a moment later a puff of smoke as the rockets were intercepted. Sirens were going off, but again the locals weren't running for cover so we were kind of just standing there watching the show in the sky."

The touring group had planned to visit Bethlehem, the United States embassy in Jerusalem and other sites, but when the attack ensued, the plan changed.

Israel answered Hamas by launching retaliatory airstrikes on Gaza, one of the most densely populated places on Earth with over 2 million Palestinians living in the 140-square-mile narrow strip of land sandwiched between the Mediterranean Sea, Egypt and Israel.

Awaiting transport to the airport in Tel Aviv, the touring group played cards in the hotel lobby as they watched rockets zip across the sky and listened to the searing sirens.

"At that time, no one told us to seek shelter, so we didn't," Lister said. "In hindsight, that was probably not the best idea."

Though their trip was scheduled for an additional 10 days, Lister and Brown planned to go with the tour group to Tel Aviv on Saturday evening to say their goodbyes at the airport before returning to the hotel in Jerusalem. Eventually, they were boarded on a bus to go to the airport when word reached them with about 10 minutes to spare that a military curfew had been enforced in Jerusalem for 5 p.m. Lister and Brown wouldn't make it back in time for curfew if they went to the airport with the group.

"There was a bit of an urgency," Lister said. "Deby and I actually had to be let out at a red light from the bus to go back to our hotel on foot. We didn't want to get stuck in Tel Aviv when we had our room in Jerusalem and our luggage was still at the hotel. Getting ejected from the bus was emotional for Deby and, suddenly, we found ourselves alone."

There was a family of five from South Africa, the Birrells, who had also been in their tour group; two parents and three adult children, one with special needs. The South African family planned to stay behind as Lister and Brown had to continue touring on their own. The two friends decided to stay in touch with the family.

She continued, "The vibe in the air was tense, and I wondered if we'd made the right decision to stay."

The next day, their bus driver, Elias, came to the hotel and invited Lister and Brown to join him at his home for lunch and an welcomed opportunity to leave their hotel rooms. There they visited for several hours, met the family, played with his four children and ate. They were grateful for the break, the food and the company, especially since everything in the city was closed and everyone was on lockdown and laying low until the developing fighting continued.

On Monday, one of Brown's contacts, Michael Fisch, who lives in Jerusalem picked up the friends to go to The Temple Mount Sifting Project, an archeological dig site in which over 200,000 volunteers have taken part in sifting Temple Mount soil. The Temple Mount Sifting Project was created in order to save as many ancient artifacts as possible from thousands of tons of debris, conduct archeological research and preserve as much history of Temple Mount. Volunteers can make reservations to contribute their time to the archeological project.

Lister said the site, overlooking the city, was picturesque. Besides staff, they were the only ones there since all the volunteers with reservations canceled when the warring began. Lister and Brown contributed about three hours to the sifting project, examining broken pieces of glass, pottery and bone in the dirt. Brown found an ancient coin to add to the preservation collection.

It was there that the friends were introduced to their first experience in a bomb shelter.

About two hours into sifting, the sirens alerted the city to incoming threats. Lister said, "The staff ushered us into their bomb shelter which was a few feet away down a set of stairs."

They were told that when the sirens sound, the protocol is to find shelter immediately. When the sirens stop, depending on their location, they were to wait up to 10 minutes before returning topside. They went underground and waited it out.

The friends changed their flight out of Israel from their original leaving date of Oct. 17, to Tuesday, Oct. 14, one week after the fighting began.

Fisch drove Lister and Brown to Tel Aviv on Tuesday morning. The South African family they met in the tour group was still at their hotel there.

"We decided to go find them in Tel Aviv and, when we saw them, it was like a reunion of sorts," Lister said. "It did our hearts good to see 'tour family.'"

Two of the Birrells' adult children, Frances and Eric, ended up practically adopting Lister and Brown.

The friends arrived for their flight out of Tel Aviv that evening, but their flights had been canceled.

"We were officially stuck," Lister said.

The next morning on Wednesday, the friends walked to the U.S. Embassy to request help leaving.

"We'd gone online to register with the embassy to indicated we needed assistance leaving Israel. We kept hearing conflicting reports on whether the airport was open or closed. We couldn't figure out which airlines were actually flying in or out," Lister recalled. "Well, the embassy was no help at all. The guy at the door told us the airport was operational and we should find our own flights out or sit tight. He didn't seem too concerned about the conflict. The message was clear: You're on your own."

Meanwhile, Lister and Brown asked Frances Birrell to research any places they could volunteer.

"Might as well make ourselves useful while we were there," Lister said.

They had originally thought to volunteer at a hospital, but were told they must be able to speak Hebrew. Birrell found a synagogue nearby that was packing up supplies to send to troops.

"When we got there, they had plenty of help, but they asked us to write encouraging letters to the troops," Lister said. "We left there not sure how helpful that was, but thankful we had done something besides sit in our hotel room watching the news."

As they attempted to make the most of their time and contribute in some way, they would hear sirens, go to the hotel's bomb shelter in the stairwell and wait the appropriate amount of time.

"We could hear booms outside, but they were faint so I knew they weren't directly overhead," she said. "If they were, we would've heard shrapnel hitting. At no time did we feel like we were in immediate danger. God was keeping us calm and we were trusting Him for whatever. We just did what we were supposed to do to stay safe, and then go back to something else after the all-clear."

She continued, "The whole time in Tel Aviv, we could hear booms off in the distance. Not all of those triggered the sirens since some of those were rockets entering another area."

During a lull between sirens and explosions, Lister reached out to a family friend who is a travel agent, asking her to help secure a flight out. She found a flight to Los Angeles, CA.

"I figured if I could just get on U.S. soil, I'd get back to my Tennessee from there," she said.

The friends booked the Oct. 20 flight.

Meanwhile, a friend from home texted Lister asking if he could reach out to the congressman's office on her behalf.

"Later, I got a call from a woman in my representative's office and I told her what we were up against," Lister said. "She said to keep trying to find a flight home and, in the meantime, she would see what they can do on their end."

The friends both received emails from U.S. Department of State, asking if they needed help leaving the country.

"Yes! Please!" they responded, and waited.

Later in the day, they received emails that U.S. citizens were being evacuated starting Friday, Oct. 13, with clear and concise instructions. The email confirmed that Lister and Brown were on the list of evacuees and they would be flying them to one of three locations: Frankfurt, Germany; Athens, Greece; or Cyprus. The evacuees wouldn't have a choice as to what flight or where they would land.

"They very clearly stated that they were chartering planes and that we would have to sign a promissory note to pay back the U.S. government for whatever the cost of the flights were," Lister said.

Lister immediately reached out to a contacts she had in Frankfurt and relatives in Athens. Her Frankfurt friend had a contact for her in Cyprus should they need it.

As they awaited their notification from the Department of State, on Friday morning the friends decided to go back to the synagogue to volunteer again. Walking by the beach, Lister felt inclined to bask, while Brown returned to their room.

"I decided to sit alone for a while to just be in God's presence looking at the ocean," Lister said. "I'm so glad I took that time to just sit outside looking at the water. The beach in Tel Aviv was incredibly clear, the sand was like powder and the beauty was a stark and welcome contrast to the fighting going on just miles away from us to the south."

At that time, the friends had heard reports that Hezbollah was attacking from Israel's northern border.

"The longer we stayed, the more tense it felt," she said.

Upon returning to the hotel room, she received a notification email from the Department of State telling her to get to the airport immediately.

But Brown didn't get an email.

"I was not happy about leaving her," Lister said. "I asked her, point-blank, if she wanted me to stay and she said, 'No.' I almost didn't go but, again, was trusting God for what came next."

She checked in at the Embassy table, signed the promissory note and waited. Brown texted that she was told to come to the airport as well. Lister went to the Embassy desk asked about the timeline.

"They then told me there wasn't a flight available," Lister said. "They said the charters they'd lined up fell through, so they put the word out to the airline counters to ask them if there was room for their people. They offered me a flight to Romania."

Lister declined. She didn't want to leave without Brown.

When Brown arrived, they didn't have her fill out the form. Instead, they took their email addresses and said if they could get a flight, they would email them. The friends prepared to spend the night at the airport.

Later, Lister received an email from the Embassy. There were two flights out to Athens the next morning, and she checked in to confirm them for the flight.

The Embassy representative, surprised they were still at the airport, asked if she wanted a flight out immediately to London. They rushed to get to the gate and make the flight as their information was being taken, while another official pressed, "Hurry! Hurry! We're closing the gate."

As they tried to give their information and payment, the clerk said the payment portal closed.

Another U.S. Embassy representative nearby said that there might be a flight to France available. When they came to that gate, they were rerouted to a potential flight to Athens.

"They escorted a group of about 10 of us like ducklings from one station to another," Lister recalled.

Brown jumped in and paid $1,100 for both of their one-way tickets to secure the flight, scheduled to leave at 10 p.m. They went through the security check, found their gate and waited. When their flight was delayed an hour, Lister was frustrated and went to the shop near the gate. A side glance and she spied a bottle of Tennessee whiskey on the shop shelves in the airport in Tel Aviv. It was sweet reminder that she would be heading home soon.

Returning to the gate, Lister sees a deserted airport.

"Cue the music those corny Westerns have in a desert scene when there's gonna be a shoot out and no one's around," she said. "I walk out of the store to find a completely empty gate; no people, no luggage, nothing. I'm literally stunned into immobility."

She had not been aware, but there had been a siren and everyone sought shelter.

Finally, they boarded the plane to Athens.

"Sitting on the tarmac was a little disconcerting as you feel exposed with no where to go if there was a rocket attack," she said.

Her Athens relatives, Nikos and Dimitra Patsalis, picked them up and took them to his house to stay.

The next morning, Lister and Brown booked flights from Athens for Sunday, Oct. 15; Lister to Tennessee, and Brown to California.

"Nikos was kind enough to take us around Athens to help us get our minds off of the chaos we'd just been through," Lister said. "It was surreal to be walking around the tourist areas in Greece when we'd just come from a country at war."

She hoped to visit the Patsalises under better circumstances when she and her brother travel to Greece next year.

When Sunday came, Lister and Brown said their goodbyes and parted ways. Lister was flying from Athens to Zurich to change planes, then to Chicago before flying in to Tennessee.

She said twice she became overwhelmed with emotion. The first time was the relief she found as they were received in Athens and Dimitra embraced her.

"I just started bawling," she said. "I think there was a lot of pent-up emotions that needed an outlet."

The second time was when Lister boarded her final flight in Chicago heading for Nashville, compressed under the gravity of the situation in Israel they had just managed to escape. The tension, the sleep deprivation, the stress and worry, the exhaustion and, finally, the realization hit that home was just one flight away.

"I got to my seat and I just couldn't stop crying," she said.

Flying into Nashville, Lister finally made it home at midnight on Monday, Oct. 16.

She took the next few days to reflect on her experience, the individuals whose pathways met with hers and why she would be placed there at such a time.

"I seek for God to use me wherever I am. And if that means He wants me in a country at war for a few days, then so be it," Lister said. "When I reflected back on those seven days in Israel after the war started, God showed me how He used us to bring peace, calm and encouragement to those right around us. Each person we touched in whatever small way was a big thing to God.

"The lesson is that even the little things for which God uses you to reach out to others in love are significant."