So last week we went traveling around Galilee. It was a lot of fun and created many stories and memories for our team. I am sure some will be shared by other members. For me the major impact was looking at the Israel-Lebanon boarder. This boarder was the spot of war only four years ago. From where we were, Nimrod’s Fortress, it looked so peaceful. It looked like a farmland and reminded me of home. I was thinking about how even though this boarder has created war there were no troops stationed waiting for the next fight. Yes it is being watched, but I am still shocked that there are no troops directly on the boarder. This is surprising since many boarders that have experienced less war and violence have more troops and or walls/fences between them. If you did not know what you were looking at you would not know it was a disputed boarder. Here is a picture from Nimrods Fortress. The left side is Israel and the right is Lebanon.

It is hard to describe what is happening to the Massah team.  We are rounding out each other’s edges.  We are listening more closely to God, encouraged by each other to do so.  We’re sloughing it out through Hebrew (“Ani rotza cafe im halav, b’vakashah”); working in teams to organize, cook and clean up dinners; supporting each other quietly while one has an evangelistic conversation with a passerby; reading Tozer despite his somewhat archaic use of language.  Reading the Jerusalem Post in the morning instead of Fox News amuses me as the slant is from the Israeli side.  Of course.

Massah has a certain ineffable quality to it.

Things that are running through my head as we are crawling on our hands and knees through 2 by 3 ft tunnels in Israel:

I hope Al Queda isn’t hiding around the next corner….

……Why don’t we have a flashlight?….

……Am strangely comforted that someone’s butt is in my face……

….Ow! Ow! OWWW!! What is that?!

Oh. a tick. In my arm.

That’s when I started crying (a little bit) and panicking as it was pitch black, dank, and every claustrophobe’s worst nightmare. But dangit, we were doing team bondinng, and nothing seals friendship like hanging on to eachother’s ankle’s for dear life and removing ticks from arms by light of a camera flash.

Maybe I’m not making myself clear here with what exactly was going on.

We were dropped off at these caves in the foothills of southern Israel and instructed to crawl into a jet black tunnel—watch out for that 10 foot drop off—sans flashlight, and thanks to David and Abbie not being afraid of ANYTHING, we somehow made it out of the tiny tiny tiny tunnels (by way of a traumatically difficult and small hole to crawl out of. I believe that this must be what childbirth is like for the baby: what is that bright light? I’m being squashed. HELP! HELP!… no wonder we’ve repressed that memory).

And aside from the probable lyme disease that I caught from ol’ ticky-poo, wriggling through the caves was the craziest most fun thing I’ve ever done. Don’t worry, I’m not an adrenaline junkee now, but it was cool to be completely surrounded and enclosed and in a place where a million bad things could really happen (walls collapsing, water flooding in, terrorists, bats, someone in front of you farting) and to really have to take my thoughts captive. I know that I am not the only one who struggles daily to control my thoughts on topics varying from relationships to body image, fear of death and doubts of faith, but it is so important to be able to dwell on things that are true, lovely, edifying etc and in this specific instance, to remind myself that I belong to a God who put those danky little tunnels in the earth in the first place.

And if God can deliver us from the bowels of the earth, just like he did with the Messianic Jews who were hiding in those very tunnels from the Romans in the early second century, then he can most certainly deliver us from our paralyzing claustrophicizing (new word. dig it)thoughts.

I’m trying to think about a parallel I can draw with the tick and some other kind of spiritual epiphany, but I don’t want to push it. Thanks for praying.

Life is good here.

rachel

ps. i’m really going to try to get a hold of some picture to put on here, but i didn’t bring an adapter for my camera…silly me!

Enjoying a day off, we are about to enter in to week four.  We’ve been doing a great deal of traveling, Jerusalem being one of the bigger trips, but also visiting the area of Cesaria.  This past week we had a chance to visit the area of Lakish (I might be spelling it wrong) and also explored some caves.  In one of the caves, we had to rely on each other to exit the caves because there was no light save for a camera and an Ipod with a low charge, and the only way to get through the majority of the cave was to crawl.  It was truly an experience in which we had to trust in the Lord to ease our fears and grow in faith.

On the ministering front, we have toned down slightly in our approach, seeking to meet with people on a one-on-one basis.  In this way, we are able to share our stories about our own relationship with God, and truly have some self discovery in the hand that He has had in each of our lives.  The Lord has truly blessed us because He has brought the twelve of us together and that we all get along so well.  Each person has brought unique aspects and characteristics which we continue to discover along the way, and also as we have shared our testimonies with each other and the different influences we have been affected by in our past.

I’ll leave this post with another poem that I wrote on the trip.  Hope you enjoy it.

Fear

Blistering heat scorches bare skin.

Swallowed by earth, the cool, damp air

caresses flesh to peace.

Darkness gives way to a vice grip of fear.

Smooth, solid rock an icy prison.

Crawlspaces constrict around writhing bodies.

Absence of a lantern and true direction

allows trust to become a loyal guide

through concern’s unintentional ironside.

Immediate blindness lends sense to touch,

giving way to faith in the hope

of standing upright once more.

Berthed through gaping mouths,

friction gives way to contact of bodies against stone,

freedom found in a shaft of light.

After spending much time praying and thinking, we felt god had told us to go to leh. It felt like the right thing to do and everything pointed in that direction. But our hopes of an easy decision had vanished. The next morning we woke up to find out the road to leh was snnowed in. This was a blow to our moral. But soon enough we talked to Daniel and came up with the idea of doing the two famous valleys spitti and kinaur. We soon arranged a group of 10 Israelis and the next day were on our way. Soon after leaving we understood we had a great group. We all got along very well and clicked soon after meeting. The valleys were awesome! a mere spectacle of gods creation. It was hard to comprehend the power of their beauty. The vast snow covered mountains as far as the eye could see. Steap valleys covered in green pastores where flocks of wild yak and ass grazed calmly by the river side. The mountains casting a shadow thoughout the valley. The mere spectacle of this was breathtaking. While resting in gods creation we had the pleasure of sharing the gosple with the Israelis we traveled with.
They are great people and were more than happy to hear about the lord.
We returned to manaly, and have been resting here and waiting on the lord to hear what we should do next. Please pray for a renewal of our spirit and for words from him
Pray also for dani, daniel, Daniel .c., Maria, ohad, Michal, or, lilach and kiril. They are the israelis that thraveled with us.
Thank you for your prayers and support.
Josh and yossi.

I have more questions for our tour guides than they have time to answer.  I want to know who was where, what was when, how things were, what is going to be.  I love geographical history quite a bit like I love Chicago architecture.  We have been up tels and down tels; in caves and out of caves; on plains, valleys, David and Goliath territory.  And still I am looking for biblical characters to walk out of the mountains and proclaim a message or ask to share a meal with us.

Let me tell you about a few real-life encounters.  I met Anna at a bus stop and she asked, “Can you help me find peace?”  It was way too open a question to not try to answer it.  We talked about different things she had done to find peace, but none of them were working.  Though she did not want to give me her name for me to send her any literature, she said she honestly wanted to know what I had found because “nothing was working” for her.  I was taken aback by her honesty.

Yugal met me with the widest Israeli smile and told me his parents and sister were believers but he “was not there yet, but almost.”  I asked him what was keeping him from committing his life to the Lord and he said, “the world.”  At least he was honest!  He did give me his name and address so that we could send him something further about Y’shua.

Judy was a woman walking by who looked sad, sad, sad.  She told me that her husband was very sick and that the doctors had given up on him.  She allowed me to pray for him right there.  Then she said that two years ago, two women like me had come to her house and talked to her about Y’shua, but she hadn’t been ready to hear about Him at that time.  Now she was.  She asked for someone to come visit with her.  I am sure someone will, soon, from our Israel branch.

By the way, this all happened in one morning.

I have been to Israel numerous times since ‘78, but it seems that this time my vision is sharper, my hearing is more attuned and my interactions with the people and the Land are more intentional.  When I speak to an Israeli about the Gospel, I come to them with a respect for their culture and not just with my own agenda.  This is a determined people.

“But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.” 2 Cor. 4:7

Coming to Israel to share the gospel with my people is a great challenge. I am reminded constantly how difficult this work is. Sharing the gospel with another person is also very intimidating. But God has reminded me throughout this trip that God is the one who is really in charge. He’s the one who has the power to save. He has asked me to do one simple thing: to be a witness for him. Last Shabbat, we visited a Messianic congregation, and the Pastor said something simple but very profound: the plans of man can’t stand against the plan of God. That is one of the most elementary truths we learn, but for some reason that struck me more powerfully then than it ever had before. God has promised that He has a plan, and that plan includes the salvation of the Jewish people. So even though we are faced by so many challenges, we can rest in God’s sovereignty. We know that we are taking part in God’s plan, and we are acting in obedience to his will.

It is very encouraging to realize that ultimately the success of our trip does not depend on us or anything we do, it depends on God. God has chosen to work with people like me, with our weaknesses and insecurities, but he is using our weakness to draw people’s attention to Him. Through being weak but obedient we demonstrate God’s greatness. I have learned a lot about sharing the gospel, but I have learned more about faith. Real faith has caused me to put myself in uncomfortable (and slightly dangerous) situations simply because I am obeying God.

Massah 2010 is beginning to unfold.

As Hebrew lessons with Noa become more frequent, along with bible lessons taken up by Jhan, there is a sort of pattern or routine that is beginning to form. unfortunately as patterns form, for me at least, interest wanes and my mind begins to dull from repetition. Fortunately for me I’m in Israel and I have the almighty God on my side. though it has been hard to focus constantly, consistent prayer is amazingly helpful. All the guys are beginning to get to know each other, different characteristics are making themselves known in an amazing way. We had a “guy night” the other night, which consisted of grabbing a bight to eat at a falafal joint, renting a movie, and watching it on our 13 inch computer screen, while the girls went shopping.

I am eager to see how God will Grow us and mature us as a group, using us to ultimately show God’s glory, and share the gospel.