'We saw the face of evil' in Israel, says Iowa pastor stuck in Tel Aviv when Hamas began attack
Pastor Glenn Goodwin was sitting on the balcony of his Airbnb in a Tel Aviv apartment building. It was around 6:20 a.m. on Oct. 7. He was sipping his coffee while looking out onto the Mediterranean beach in front of him when the sirens went off.
He looked up at the sky and saw all was clear, but soon after he started to hear explosions as rockets hurled toward the city. He didn't see explosions, but he remembered the smoke trails from where the rockets were intercepted.
Goodwin, pastor at Gospel Assembly Church in Urbandale, was there to lead a group of 29 of his church members around the Holy Land, a journey he had done about a dozen times before. When war broke out between Israel and Hamas, 18 members of his group had arrived. A flight carrying 11 more turned around midflight to return to the United States.
A matter of 5 minutes: Urbandale pastor recounts close call during Hamas bombings in Israel
The night of Oct. 7, Goodwin, his son and daughter-in-law were walking back from the hotel where other members of the group were staying and entered a 24-hour grocery store.
"My son came in and said the sirens were going off again and we needed to hurry," he said. "Then we heard the loudest explosion I've ever heard. The whole building shook and Israeli people in there were running to the back of the store because you needed to be away from the glass."
The rocket, it turns out, hit a building about a block and a half away from where they had walked through just five minutes before. They held a prayer meeting right there in the grocery store.
"That's the closest we came to any real danger. If we would've been about five minutes slower in walking, we would've been right there," Goodwin said.
The store clerk urged everyone out of the shop, not caring that the customers hadn't had the chance to check out. Goodwin said when he saw the Israeli people panicking, that's when he realized how dangerous and significant this was.
Goodwin went back the next morning and saw the destruction. Glass littered the street and a washer was hanging in the air. There were no reported deaths from that explosion, though several were wounded.
After the war broke out the city was quiet. Many were called into service. The beaches were empty and most shops and restaurants were closed. Through it all, Goodwin continued to portray an aura of calmness and confidence.
"As long as the leaders are not panicking, then others are much less likely to panic," he said. "That's something you learn as a pastor."
Canceled flights delay Urbandale church group's return from Israel
For the rest of the week, the group kept hearing explosions. They began to differentiate the sounds of Israeli fire going into the Gaza Strip, Hamas firing on Israel and Israel's Iron Dome hitting targets. One night, the group had to shelter twice during a meal because of sirens.
By Sunday, the tour group the church worked with canceled its tour. The U.S. embassy told Americans in Israel to shelter in place.
The group spent days booking flights only to see each one canceled. Local Iowa politicians like U.S. Sens. Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst and Gov. Kim Reynolds were working diligently, Goodwin said, to get them home.
By Oct. 11, four of the members were able to leave and the next day the rest were able to book tickets through an Israeli airline to Athens, Greece before continuing on to the United States.
"Living through a war situation was unique. And yet, I saw the people and their lives have to go on. They tried to make the best of a bad situation and they're determined to survive," Goodwin said. "I guess that's human nature."
On Sunday, Goodwin held his first service after returning to Des Moines where he told their story, "I would like Iowans to know that we saw the face of evil and, we need to be resisting that kind of an evil. It shouldn't happen in a modern world."
Noelle Alviz-Gransee is a breaking news reporter at the Des Moines Register. Follow her on Twitter@NoelleHannika or email her at NAlvizGransee@registermedia.com.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa pastor said his church, 'saw the face of evil' when stuck in Israel
