Rogers City pastor escapes Israel retaliatory nightmare

by Peter Jakey–Managing Editor

A Grayling pastor with strong ties to Rogers City, fled Israel amid escalating tensions following the joint United States-Israeli attack on Iran that started Feb. 28.

The Rev. David Longstaff conducts a Sunday evening service at Grace Baptist Church (GBC) just south of the U.S.-23/County 451 intersection, as well as a Tuesday night Bible study. He is the senior pastor of Grayling Baptist Church and was gifted tickets to Israel at a national conference in Dallas, Texas.

Along with 40 other pastors, “We were awarded an all-expense paid trip to Israel. It’s one of many dreams for most pastors. It was something I always wanted to do. I wanted to see the Bible come alive and I wanted to walk where Jesus walked.”

His wife, Jenny, could have gone, but with five children she decided to stay behind and take care of the family. He left a week before the onset of Operation Epic Fury on the country of Iran. 

Following the attacks, that resulted in the death of the country’s supreme leader, Iran retaliated on Israel and Longstaff was on the front line to see some of the first bomb strikes.

“I still remember the first explosion that I experienced, we were driving on our bus from Bethlehem to Jerusalem,” said Longstaff.  “You’re able to see the interceptors still take off, and you can kind of hear the rockets explode over your heads. I found myself looking at the sky a lot, wondering when the next one would be and where it would land, and if it would land.

“We were told not to panic and that we were going back to our hotel to be close to the bomb shelter. We loaded our tour bus, and on the way, is when the first rocket exploded overhead.”

Back at the hotel, everyone waited in the bomb shelter for four hours.

“After that, we were given a choice to leave the shelter or not,” he said. 

Longstaff said that notices of incoming missiles come across on cell phones, similar to an Amber Alert, but when they are heading to a specific area, sirens go off  and there is only four to seven minutes to take shelter.

“There was a series of that through the night,” said Longstaff.

With no more commercial flights out of Israel, his tour company made arrangements for the group to stay at a resort in Egypt.

“We were able to kind of walk across the Egyptian border, and that was a mess in itself, because you can imagine all the Americans and other people just trying to escape,” Longstaff said.

From Egypt, Longstaff said they caught one of the last flights to Turkey before finally returning to the U.S.

“You go from having an amazing vacation to wondering, what did I get myself into?” he said. “But we are reminded that God still has a plan for us, and even though the feels like it is falling apart, He is the one holding it all together.”

Regarding future plans for GBC, “we are in a gathering phase right now. We have done some things in the community such as a coat and backpack giveaways. We have done some block parties to help people out and we have brought in mission teams up to meet and gather and seeing if anyone wants to be part of the new church plan.”

The Sunday church service and Tuesday Bible study at GBC are both at 6 p.m.