This might be my last live mission trip update. The Calling posts were scheduled before we left, so those will continue, but we’ve managed to blow up two adaptars (mine and the friend next to me)…I don’t really want to ask to bother another one. Due to the limited time we get for sleep, that maybe the best. I’ll throw out some highlights of the last two days.
Team Hope divided into two groups for fellowship on this Shabbat. Both went to congregations which we had visited two years prior and both have seen growth in all sorts of ways since then. The first had people in from all over the world. Probably 10 countries, and 10 US states. The sermon was very good and we were really excited to see that they were sending a group of missionaries to the US! Several of the congregations now have headsets with translation (sometimes in 2 languages in addition to the spoken Hebrew). I prayed for a British woman whose husband had died four months ago and she was staying there with her daughter trying to adjust and cope with this new transition her life would become.
The other team had a great time and it was a little more dramatic. God showed up in a powerful way, touching everyone there. God dramatically healed several people from life long incapacities such as nasal passages that were not formed correctly and caused the young man (who was actually the interpreter) to be able to breath through his nose for the first time! And vocal chords being healed in another person which was apparently tremendous.
We spent Sunday in Jerusalem. This was our final “down” day. The trip has been scheduled to not get into the heavier ministry until we’ld had a few days to adjust to the time difference. I’m not exactly sure how 18 hour days are “down”, but tomorrow it heats up. We’ve been to many congregations and worshipped and shared with the different believers and it has been amazing. Today we also shopped in the Old City of Jerusalem and prayed at the Western Wall.
One member of our team saw a blank paper on the ground wanted something to write on. When she picked it up she discovered that it was actually a really nice Temple Drawing and so she waited around for a while to see if anyone would claim it. When no one did, she took it with her. At lunch, two Jewish guys started a conversation with her based on this drawing. She explained that she went to a Messianic Congregation and one in particular became fascinated. She had a Stern Jewish bible and she began showing him that all the same holy books were in there. She explained that Stern is Jewish and lives in Jerusalem and instead of using red letters for Jesus he uses all CAPS for God speaking whether in the Old or New Testament. To show him, she flipped the Bible open, and he was really excited to see so he was looking over her shoulder and it opened to the passage in Luke where Jesus proclaims that He is the one in Isaiah to set the captives free. He was amazed. Their friend came and was insisting they leave and said the Rabbi was waiting on them, so they left, but not before sharing info and the fact that he would be coming to the states soon and exchanging information. Pray that God stokes his hunger and curiosity!
Thanks so much for your prayers on this trip, I’ll update stories when I return, but it doesn’t seem I can do it from here. wes