I was out for a little while yesterday doing some prep work for a college group that I will be teaching at the end of this month. Imagine my surprise when I saw this:

No, the olive green patch didn’t mysteriously appear over his face after I had taken the picture. I placed it there to “protect” the identify of the teacher. (You never know how certain quarters will react to something so scandalous.) This Israeli soldier – who was a good teacher, I might add – was teaching from this:

In case you don’t read Hebrew, it says “New Covenant,” which is the New Testament.

I don’t know the soldier, so it’s possible that he’s part of our New Covenant Community, but I’m guessing he’s probably not. I know a number of soldiers from our community, so it isn’t so uncommon for me to see a soldier carrying a New Testament – even teaching from one – but here is what I didn’t expect:

He’s teaching a group of “soldiers.”

Now, before anyone gets too worked up, he’s not trying to convert any of the soldiers. He’s giving a history lesson. But I was happy to see that he was actually giving that lesson from the NT and not just listing off a bunch of traditions and tour guide anecdotes.