Andy Borgmann's Blog

In amidst of all the biblical sites visited on my October 2003 journey through the Galilee, we stopped at a bunker location in the Northern border shared between Lebanon and Israel. Everyone on the bus flung themselves off as fast as we could to go play “army” in the bunkers (even the girls, which was kind of surprising). We roamed around in the tight (I mean tight) passageways of the bunker, pretending to shoot enemies and ducking like we were being shot at. I didn’t realize it then, but with the increasing focus on the looming battle between Israel & Lebanon, I think those bunkers must have been heaven.

I will say the one thing I did leave there thinking was, "man it would suck to be in those bunkers during a war." All I remember was how tight they were, with nails sticking out, and thinking to myself, “if I had these nails sticking out and bombs coming towards me I think I would definitely puncture something forgetting nails were there.” But I digress.

Back to heaven. You see...those bunkers meant nothing to us. We were just having a good time. There was no fighting going on. I honestly don’t even remember what was said during the pseudo-attempt of our professor to give us a historical lesson. It wasn’t until I looked up in my journals this week if we were even at the Lebanon border (or was it Syria).

But that’s my point...do you get it? Probably not because I haven’t done a good job explaining it. I often reflect (as I have shared on this blog) when I land in Frankfurt, Germany, the first thing that always comes to my mind is how 50 years ago it was a war torn area. Now look at it. Amazing what time fixes. So as I look at the picture of myself, Keleigh, Rachel, and Sarah, I hope that one day Lebanon and Israel can be like Germany and France.

But then my thoughts go further and say, man, wouldn’t it be awesome if one day everywhere was like Germany and France, or the US and England. But then reality sits in and I realize that day will never come. It isn’t that we shouldn’t strive for it – as it is quite noble to be peacemakers. But we just know it will never come...until heaven. On that day, all the bunker’s of the world will be used to “play” army just like I did at the Israel/Lebanon border.