Last day here

Last night I went to visit my friend Katherine and her husband Adam. They have an enormous heart for Israel. They quit their jobs in Australia a year ago to move to Jerusalem. They rented an apartment here and lived off their savings while serving the Jewish people here through Bridges for Peace. Katherine is now 12 weeks preganant with their first child. Adam & Katherine are moving back to Australia in a few weeks to serve Zealous in West Australia part-time while Adam works. They hope to come back to serve in Israel again once they have the provision for that. Our visit was very timely. I pray God will provide them with a support team to partner with their ministry. Like me, they come from a small church and are facing similar circumstances. I had a chance to pray for them and bless them and their child before I left.

Today is my last day in Israel for a long time. This morning I'll be going to the Bridges for Peace Office to visit my friend Marnus. He's the current leader of Zealous 8:2. Marnus lead the Christian young adult trip to Israel I was a part of this past June. Katherine works for Marnus. Since Katherine's leaving & he also lost another staff person earlier this year, Marnus is now running 4 departments for Bridges for Peace! He's overextended. He's taking a month off to go back to South Africa with his wife to see friends & family. I was able to pray for him for the Lord to provide more workers and refreshing for him. After visiting Marnus, I walked across town to the Knessett. Got to pray there for a little while. Proclaimed Joel 3, especially verse 12. Now, I'm not really into end times prophesy, but this was a clearly the Lord's direction. Along with this, I prayed that Israel's leaders would not divide the Lord's land.

The Sherut to the airport was surprisingly inexpensive. Nesser Sherut rocks! While waiting at the New Gate, I met a young man from California who was waiting for the same Sherut to the airport. He was dressed like an Orthodox Jewish man with a big bushy beard and a black hat. He soon confessed that he believes in Yeshua HaMeshiach. (Jesus the Messiah). He had some awesome testimonies to share about how he was able to share with the Orthodox community about the greatest rabbi that ever lived. Why? Because of his appearance. Very encouraging. He challenged me to think like the Apostle Paul, who became all things to all men. Why did Paul embrace this philosophy of ministry? Cause it works!

In the Old City

Today was a free day. This morning is the day of Sukkot once a year where the chief Rabbi of Israel gives the Aaronic (priestly) blessing over all the Rabbi's in Israel at the Kotel. All the Jewish people in Jerusalem there from around the world for the pilgrim feast go to pray at the Kotel and listen to the blessing. It was so packed, there was barely room to move. I was in the crowd to experience this solomn and joyous time for the Jewish people and pray for the Lord's blessing and revelation in their lives.

This afternoon, I meet up with friends I made earlier this summer who live in Israel. I saw Tom, the tour guide from my trip this past summer, and my other friend Barry, a Jew who converted to Christianity, at Bidges for Peace's Office. God blessed our time very much. Barry even encouraged me to contact a pastor of a local church in Jerusalem who has a lot of connections here.

Tonight the Eagles' Wings group I prayed/traveled with left for the airport to fly back to the US. They were a tremendous blessing to me, not just through encouragement, but several people handed me cash on the trip to help with my expenses. A couple even said they might be interested in supporting me in the future. After saying goodbye to my friends, I headed to a hostel in the Old City called the Citadel. I'll be here for the last two days of my trip.

The Jewish Connection

I heard a man speak a couple of nights ago. His name is Dan Juster. He is a Jew who received Christ and leads a ministry in Israel. His services and community have a Jewish culture, but they have received Yeshua (Jesus) the Messiah and live within the new covenant and the grace of the Lord. Since 1992, he's planted 7 Messianic congregations in Israel and has helped to plant others in Russia, Brazil, and other nations. And guess what? His wife and some of her family are from the Syracuse area. Small world.

Sunday morning we did a prayer walk on the ramparts (walls) of the old city. This is the same path used by the soldiers who defended Jerusalem throughout it's history. We prayed in the Spirit and the Lord gave us many Words for the city.

Sunday night was the International Day of Prayer for the Peace of Jerusalem. It was a ceremony celebrating and blessing the prayers from the Body of Christ that went up to God from around the world for Israel that day. The day began with prayers from the church in Japan, Korea, and China, and ended with prayer from the Americas. Many Jewish leaders were present and addressed the crowd, including Rabbi Nekrutman and Rabbi Riskin were there. Please pray God blesses them with peace and revelation and His will will be done through them.

Beit Lehem

Saturday afternoon we crossed the Palestinian border to see our brothers in Bethlehem. Beit Lehem means "House of Bread". This town is the birthplace of King David and King Jesus. A few years ago, Israel had to build a wall between Jerusalem and Bethlehem to protect Israelis from suicide bombers and snipers. God is doing many amazing things in Bethlehem. In the midst of death threats, and church bombings an Arabic pastor there is committed to prayer and fasting. The Lord has healed and delivered many people at his church recently. God has even opened a door for him to reach a much wider Arab audience. The greatest difficulty the Church there is facing is financial. 90% of the church is unemployeed and destitute. Bethlehem has almost no industry apart from tourism and olive wood art/carvings (bought by tourists). These businesses are suffering due to terrorism and the closing of the border. The upper class in the town (teachers and government workers) make ~$700/ month and rent is ~ $500 alone. Please pray for God to provide for the Christians in Bethlehem and help them start new industries that will prosper.

After visiting the church, some of us stopped at the Church of the Nativity, built over a cave. This is the traditional site of Jesus' birth. There is a star in the basement of the church marking the area of the cave below where the local people believe Jesus was born. While we were there a couple of Eastern Orthodox Christians kneeled down to kiss the star (to pay homage).

Gush Etzion and Efrat

We set out early for the Temple Mount. Had a wonderful time there in the morning. Then we descendent through the Lions Gate? to the Tzurim Valley to visit one small part of the largest archaeologist community in the world here in Jerusalem. They are working on finding artifacts around in dirt that was transported there from near the temple mount. 2 ladies in our group found an ancient coin in one of the buckets of dirt they sifted through. Next,we drove to Rama, to the Prophet Samuel's tomb to pray. It's located under an ancient church. Many orthodox men were praying down there in the basement.
From there we went to Gush Etzion. As we came into town, I felt the incredible love of God for the people here. I believe this is one of the places the Lord will have me focus my prayers. I knew this before I found out about the history of the town. Settlers have been killed off or driven away from their farms here on three occasions. In the war in 1967, the people here held back the enemy to protect Jerusalem from being captured. All died. The bunker they fought from is now a national memorial.
We met the director of the Center for Christian Jewish Understanding here. He brought us to his nearby town of Efrat (another name in the Bible for Bethlehem) It is a modern Jewish town right next to Bethlehem. Rabbi Riskin from a the huge Times Square Synagogue left his ministry to the upper eschelons of American Jewish society in the '90's. He said God called him to leave his rich comfortable life to establish this town. He made aliyah to Israel, became a citizen, and lived out in a tent there with his wife and small children while he oversaw the building of this town.
Now, Jews in Israel are not like American Jews. They are more religious and they mistrust Christians. Many of their grandparents are holocaust survivors who warned them never to trust Christians. In Efrat, we shared life in a synagogue and had a bible study together. The leader there shared that many cutting edge Jewish religious leaders are recently beginning to support Jewish relationships with Christians. This is the first time this has happened since Israel became a country in 1948. We witnessed a new thing God is doing in Israel. This is a historic moment in time! God has opened a door that the enemy thought he could keep closed.

the Ascent to Jerusalem

On 9/30 we went to Masada in the morning. This is the old fortress of King Herod, located on the top of a mountain that has a small plateau on it. It overlooks the Dead Sea and the Judean Desert. It's the site of the last stand of the Jewish people against the Romans. For Israelis, Masada stands for freedom like the statue of Liberty for Americans. All Israeli soldiers are sworn in here, where they pledge to defend Israel to the death. It was a Roman military base at the top, and Herod's palace was at the front. We were at the front of Masada looking out over the Judean dessert when I heard a familiar voice. I looked up and saw Tom Brimmer, the guide for my tour in June/July. I had been praying since July that he would run into Robert Stearns, the leader of the group I was with. They are both leaders in the body of Christ in Israel and I believe the Lord wants them to work together. So both of them, who happend to be old friends, saw each other for the first time in years, right before my eyes! :) They also expressed their mutual desire to get together and see if they can work together. That was a very happy moment.
We took a short hike through Ein Gedi, where David hid from King Saul. I was there this past June (see my blog). Got to jump in a pool under a waterfall to cool off from the heat of the desert. Then, we drove South to pray in Jericho. We crossed the Palestinian border. Jericho is the oldest city in the world. We walked up on the Tel (old hill of the ancient city) to pray for it. Just like the Elisha Spring fountain at the base of the Tel, God is bringing life to the city. A ministry has sprung up there recently that is moving in healings, and signs. Muslim residents are coming to know Jesus.

We then ascended from the depths of the Dead Sea to the mountains to Jerusalem, the city of the King of Kings, the city Jesus is returning to! Our hotel is a 10 minute walk from Damascus Gate, the Gate of the Old City on the North side of the wall.

from the Egyptian Border to the Salt Sea

In the morning we crossed the Rabin border into Israel (the promised land). We drove through Eilat to pray on the border of Egypt and headed north. Eilat is famous for Eilat stone, a mixture of Azurite, Malachite, and Turquoise. These are only found mixed together in one stone in Israel. We rode along the Arava valley and came up to Sodom mountain next to the Dead Sea. Between the mountain and the Dead Sea is a plain where, according to local tradition, Sodom and Gomorrah once stood. All around this little green plain is desert. Not much spiritual activity, cause not many people! There's a small agricultural village that was built on the plain in recent times. Could God be lifting the curse left by the inhabitants of the cities? Nearby are large factories that harvest the salts to extract the metals and minerals. These bring Israel tremendous income from selling products like fertilizers and skin products. We spent the evening next to the Sea and overnight in a hotel. There is a very "quiet" culture on the beaches. Israelis and visitors come here for a quiet spa-like vacation. They say the water of the Salt Sea is heals the body. The night here was a welcomed rest from our nonstop 6:00AM-11:00pm schedule.

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.