From Edom to the Red Sea

We drove down in the morning of 9/28 into the city of Petra. It's is in the land of Edom. This was Essau's country. In Hebrew Edom means “red”. The mountains here have a soft light red color to them. It is very beautiful. Petra is called Sela in the Bible. Amaziah King of Judah conquered it (2 Kings 14:7). The old part of the city was built by the Nabateans, descendents of Ishmael's oldest son that moved here from Egypt. They once controlled the trade routes in the area. Other civilizations also lived here, including the Romans and the Ottomans. We walked along As Siq, one of the narrow roads of the city, which has tall walls of rock on either side, to a spectacular view of Al-Khazneah (the Treasury). It is in Indiana Jones movie where he looks for the Holy Grail. We arrived just in time to see it in full sunlight. The front only gets full sun for 20 minutes/day. Spectacular. This was the tomb of Aretus, King of Damascus (2 Cor 10:32).
We moved along quickly to hit the road south. We stopped at Wadi Rum (Valley of the Moon), one of the paths of the Israelites to the promised land. It is in the Arabian Desert. Wadi Rum extends all the way to the Arabian peninsula. Lawrence of Arabia lived here among the Bedouins in WWI and later the movie was filmed here. The Bedouins drove us across the sandy desert in trucks covered with cloth “tents” to shade us from the sun. We went to visit the Bedouins out there in their tents. Some people in our group paid them to ride their camels. Many Bedouins live in towns now, but some have been living the same way for thousands of years, they are wild people of the desert who refuse to change. I thought it was amazing that we were under tents there, just like the ancient Israelites were, and it was just before Sukkot, the feast when Jewish people remember that they (their ancestors) once lived in the desert. It occurred to me that we were actually making a prophetic journey in which God was identifying us, Gentile Christians, with his people Israel.
Next, We traveled south to Aqaba. This is Jordan's only port city. Therefore, it's a commercial city with a handful of hotels on the Red Sea. It was more modern and Westernized than the rest of Jordan. Our hotel had a huge picture of The King and Queen of Jordan in it's lobby. Everywhere in Jordan, you see pictures of the King.

The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan

On Sunday, Yom Kippur (The Day of Atonement/Judgement Day every year) was beginning at Sunset. The whole country closes down for religious services so there would have been no transportation for us. So the team planned a two day trip to Jordan during this time. After a quick stop at the Jordan River, we crossed the Sheik Hussan bridge into Jordan in the morning. Jordan is the country where about 70% of the Old Testament happened. Our destination was Mt Nebo. To the mountain we came to pray and see the promised land the way God showed Moses.

I'm grateful that Jordan's now a friend of Israel, so we can easily cross the border to pray through the rest of the Holy land. After we passed through border control, we saw than Jordan was much different from Israel. Garbage was everywhere along the edge of roads and in empty yards. Many structures were older and made of concrete (with metal roofs) instead of the beautiful limestone masonry you see in the older cities in Israel. It was more impoverished and the people looked unhappy. There were many school-aged children waving at our bus as we drove by in the early afternoon. I wondered why they weren't in school. We drove around Amman, called Amon in the Bible, the “fortified city” of the Ammonites. We didn't have time to drive through the city.
We ascended the mountains of Gilead to the Moab plateau. In Moab, we came to Madaba. As we entered the town I could feel lightness and joy again. We stopped at the Madaba Handcraft Center. It was a warehouse full of artists making mosaics with a shop next to it. The area is famous for mosaics that are still made like those of the Byzantine churches.
Jordan used to be Christian from the late part of the 1st century to the 12-13th century, when the Ottoman Turks drove Christians out and the land became Muslim. Now, Jordan is only 3% Christian. We heard that recently 124 evangelical Christian families were forcefully deported from Jordan. Where was Amnesty International on that one? Now the King of Jordan has promoted religious tolerance and says to respect Christians because they were there before the Arab Muslims showed up, However, that's not what's happening to Christians who come to Jordan to plant churches. As we prayed along the way, we got this Word for the Christians in Jordan: Isaac, who remained in the land, sowed in the time of drought and reaped 100 fold.

I prayed at the top of Mt. Nebo with our tour leader Sue. Here's a picture my friend took on Nebo with Amman behind me in the distance. We drove to Petra and arrived past nightfall at Tabet Zaman. This is an 18th Century Bedouin Village with an Ottoman Turk design. People bought the old village years ago and restored it to make it into accommodations for people coming to visit Petra. This was by far the most interesting 'hotel' we stayed at. As we walked to our dwellings, we wandered through ancient squares, now decorated with raised flower beds, down winding stone streets and stairs, softly lit by lanterns. In the middle east, everyone eats breakfast and dinner at their hotel, so we had the joy of experiencing Jordanian Arab life in a more traditional setting.

That night, I got together with 6 American ladies. Funny, in Judeo-Christian belief, the number 7 represents perfection. We interceded for an hour and a half. At first we prayed for Jordan and for Israel to be set free and to know Jesus. As time passed, we began to repent for our own sins, and for the sins of the Church in America, for judging our government leaders instead of praying for them, and for our apathy regarding reaching the lost and going to the Lord in prayer. I believe it was significant that 1. We were doing this in the Holy Land and 2. It was Yom Kippur, the Day God set aside for taking an account of one's life and for repentance.

Yom Kippur War

Saturday was my second time driving through the Golan. The last time, my tour guide was a Christian man who immigrated to Israel. This time, our guide was a Jewish Israeli. He could tell us more specifics about the hardships and wars that happened in the region. He told us about how he was in his early twenties and had just finished his military service in 1973. It was Yom Kippur. All businesses were closed on that day, and no one was driving on the roads. Everyone was in the synagogues for services all day. Suddenly, from inside the synagogue, they heard the sound of a truck coming, and instantly, everyone knew something was terribly wrong. It was a military truck coming to call all men under 40 into service. A war had just started. It took the whole nation by surprise, as Israel was invaded by Syria, Lebanon, and Egypt all at once.

After going through the Golan, we went down to spend time along the Galilee. One little fact, the Galilee has the lowest elevation of any fresh water lake in the world. Due to draught, the water levels have been dropping in recent years. :( We went out on a boat to pray and worship on the water. This was an awesome time, like on my visit in June, I felt the strong presence of Jesus here along the lake. I enjoyed this sculpture of Jesus and Peter called "Feed My Sheep".
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On Sunday, Yom Kippur (The Day of Atonement/Judgement Day every year) was beginning at Sunset. The whole country closes down for religious services so there would have been no transportation for us. So the team planned a two day trip to Jordan during this time. After a quick stop at the Jordan River, we crossed the Sheik Hussan bridge into Jordan in the morning. Jordan is the country where about 70% of the Old Testament happened. Our destination was Mt Nebo. To the mountain we came to pray and see the promised land the way God showed Moses.

I'm Here & Headin North

After God’s amazing help getting me to Israel yesterday, He also helped me to get to the hotel to meet up with the rest of the team. The info booth people at the Tel Aviv airport directed me to the airport’s train station and said to get off at the first stop to take a bus to my hotel. I had no idea which bus to take or where to get on it. As soon as I got off the train I was greeted by a small, friendly Israeli man who asked me if he could help me find my way. He gave me detailed directions to the bus stop and said to take bus 16 to my hotel. I got on sherut (mini-bus) #16 that dropped me off less than 2 blocks from the hotel. As it turns out the team ended up booking me a room on the end of the hotel that faced Tel Aviv’s beautiful beach. Thanks God! Here’s a view of the beach from my room. That’s Jaffa port in the distance.
This morning, we went to Independence Hall in Tel Aviv, where the modern State of Israel was signed into being in May 1948. We prayed there, in the place modern life began in Israel. Here is a huge picture there of the 66 families who founded Tel Aviv on the sand dunes north of Jaffa. We also met with Linda Olmert, sister in law of the former prime minister of Israel, and she spoke to us in the same room where the delegates signed the documents. She told us to "Hazaak!", in the words of God to Joshua, be strong and courageous! This afternoon, we drove up to the northern border of Israel and Lebanon on the Mediterranean. The place is called Rosh Hanikra (The Grotto Head). It's a series of caves dug out by the movement of the sea against cliff made of soft limestone. The caves are connected together by tunnels you can walk through to see spectacular views of the inside of the caves, full of turquoise water, opening to the deep blue sea. Spiritually, the region of Israel feels oppressed.
After prayer at the border, drove to Nazareth. Spiritually, things are also difficult here. We met & ministered to a small church and two ladies there who have a vision to bring revival to their city. They say the church in Nazareth is facing these challenges: the Church is divided by denominations who won't work together to pray for and evangelize the city, young believers are leaving Nazareth because there is no innovation/very little opportunity there, and there seems to be a lack of true spiritual authority in the church that the young believers can look up to. On top of this, Muslims have gained the majority there in recent years from having more children than the Christians. In our generation it's the first time Nazareth has NOT had a Christian majority in 2,000 years. It went from being roughly 75% Christian and 25% Muslim 10 years ago to over 60% Muslim and barely 40% Christian this year. The people of this small church are hungering for the Holy Spirit and also trying to unify the Church in Nazareth. We got to pray for them and they received refreshing from the Holy Spirit and prophetic words to strengthen them. Please pray the presence of God would be poured out in their midst to the city.
Tomorrow, we are praying through more of the Galilee and then going up to the Golan Heights region. The Galilee has become a predominantly Muslim region whose towns are growing rapidly. The Golan heights are mountains that border Lebanon and Syria. It’s Jewish communities were a battle zone a few years ago. There are still buried land mines there!