Dear Friends,
Over the past years helping our injured IDF soldiers heal we realized that the immediate family of our soldiers also need healing, especially the children. Children feel real stress as they watch a parent with PTSD withdraw or struggle to overcome recurring emotional trauma. Healing the family has become our priority and the Sea-to-Sea project that took place last week is an example of the BFL magic in full effect.
29 participants, thirteen injured brothers and sixteen of their Bar/Bat Mitzvah-aged kids participated in a supervised, cross-country trek that ran from the Mediterranean all the way to the Sea of Galilee , a distance of 50 miles (80 km). Itzik Berger, a wounded Navy Seal from Shayetet 13, led the group.
Itzik was seriously injured in a covert operation during the Second Lebanon War. Under cover of night, and landing silently from the sea, Itzik led a team deep into a Hizbollah stronghold. They were a handful of soldiers in the heart of Hizbollah and as just as they finished their mission, they were discovered. Chaos ensued as terrorists fired at them from multiple buildings. Miraculously the entire team survived and made it back to Israel, but not before Itzik was hit in by two bullets, one crushing his face and taking one of his eyes, the other hitting two vertebrae in his upper back. Years later, Itzik is still in rehabilitation for his back.
Last week Itzik once again led a special mission, only this time it included his beautiful children Noam and Maya, who joined on the trek.
For three days our soldiers and their precious children trekked together across Israel, overcoming challenges and spending days and nights sharing deeply and honestly with one another. The kids also got to connect with peers who understood what it was like to live with a parent who is a wounded soldier. A counselor accompanied the families and provided relationship-building tools and coaching.
While our group was moved by the natural beauty and history of the land they crossed, the most profound experiences happened on the inside, as our soldiers and their children bonded in ways they never had before. The magic of BFL from dor l’dor.
Shabbat shalom,
Yaniv