Memphis pastor on leaving Israel amid Hamas attack: 'It was God who kept me [safe].'

Kenneth Whalum, the pastor of New Olivet Worship Center, had always wanted to visit Israel. So, when he found out his son Kameron would be performing in the country with Bruno Mars ― Kameron is a trombonist and singer in Mars' band ― he and his wife eagerly decided to make the trip.

“When we heard that he was going to be in Israel, we made up our minds, right away, that we were going,” he said.

Though his wife ended up having to stay behind, Whalum arrived in Tel Aviv on Oct. 2 and enjoyed the country. He and Kameron stayed at a resort hotel overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. They floated in the Dead Sea. They visited Holy Land sites, worshipping, he said, in the same places Jesus had worshipped. And that Wednesday, Whalum watched his son and the other band members perform with Mars, as thousands of crowd members sang along.

“The crowd was composed of Israelis and Palestinians, and they were all singing in unison with Bruno,” he said. “It was unbelievable. It was surreal.”

It had been a fulfilling trip, and on the night of Oct. 6, Whalum dined with the band and Mars at a five-star restaurant in Tel Aviv, before preparing to fly home the next day.

He had no idea what would happen next.

'It was serious'

Around 7 a.m. on Saturday morning, just as Whalum was preparing to go downstairs to catch his ride to the airport, sirens started blaring. And they weren’t like sirens he had heard before.

“They didn't sound like the sirens you hear around Memphis, you know, the tornado warning sirens,” he said. “It had a lot more bass in it. It was much more ominous. You could feel the ground, shaking, almost, with the sound of the sirens.”

Whalum met his son in the lobby, where they saw a young hotel employee wearing a white dress shirt tucked into black slacks. He was facing the door, with a handgun sticking out of his pants.

“He had put an iron of steel bar inside the door, so that you couldn't get in and you couldn't get out,” Whalum said. “We knew, at that point, that it was serious.”

Hotel employees scurried about the lobby talking quickly, as the sirens continued to blare. Whalum’s driver arrived and approached the door, and the armed employee stepped outside to see who he was. Then he beckoned to Whalum.

“This is your ride,” he told him.

Whalum said goodbye to his son ― Mars originally had another concert scheduled that night ― and got into the car.

Staying safe

The sirens continued to blast a deafening noise as he rode to the airport, and the streets were empty. It was during this trip that Whalum learned of Hamas’ brutal surprise attack. The driver was listening to reports of it on the radio, and his wife was Facetiming him from their home.

Whalum saw her video.

“I hear his wife screaming… and she is filming a white pickup truck, pulling up in front of their home,” he said. “In the bed of the pickup truck are about eight, black-clothed, masked gunmen, each of them wielding AR-style rifles. They pulled up in front of this man’s home, they jumped out of the back of the pickup truck, jump into the street, and just began firing their weapons in a circular fashion just all around.”

But the driver, Whalum maintained, remained calm.

“He said, we have to deal with this all the time,” Whalum remembered. “He said we live under a constant threat of war and attack.”

His driver also pointed to the sky – where he saw the smoke trails of rockets that had been fired.

“It was amazing,” Whalum said. “It was God who kept me [safe].”

'Not afraid'

When Whalum arrived at the airport, he found heavy traffic, with every car forced to head to one entry point. Israeli military members were there holding assault rifles, and they inspected every car, letting one through at a time.

By the time he made it to his airport terminal, the sirens had stopped, and people kept their eyes on their phones as they received updates about the sudden war. But while Whalum waited, the sirens started again, forcing him and other travelers to take shelter. Hundreds of them, he said, packed into stairwells at the airport for around 10 minutes.

When the sound ceased, they went back to the terminal. But then the sirens returned, and security rushed everyone back to sheltered space for another 10 minutes.

Still, throughout this process, Whalum believed unceasingly that he would make it back to America safely. His prayer wasn’t, “Lord, please get us out.” It was, “Thank you, Lord, in advance, for getting us out.”

More: Memphis residents 'shocked' and frustrated at renewed Israeli-Palestinian fighting

“I just had a sense… that God was going to get me out, and that he was going to get my son out, and get Bruno and the whole band out,” he said. “I was not afraid.”

Continuing to pray

Whalum’s plane ultimately left Tel Aviv shortly after 12:30 p.m. that Saturday and arrived in Atlanta. From there, he returned to Memphis. His son, the band, and Mars left the country later that day, with their Saturday night concert in Tel Aviv canceled amid the attacks.

Now back in Memphis, Whalum has continued to pay attention to the war, watching its horrors and atrocities unfold from afar.

And he has prayed, regularly, for those involved.

“We've continued to pray for them,” Whalum said. “And we continue to worship and believe that peacemakers will be called the children of God.”

John Klyce covers education and children's issues for The Commercial Appeal. He can be reached at John.klyce@commercialappeal.com

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: TN pastor was in Israel during the Hamas attack. What he saw and heard