Glenn had to have a lot of blood drawn and IV’s; each time they had a hard time finding a vein. The first time they poked him many times before we finally started praying for a good stick. Then he got a good stick. Each time after that we would pray that they would get in the vein the first try, and each time they would. One doctor told us that he was amazed he had hit the vein. Another Russian Jewish Doctor left the room and told our nurse Anki that he had no idea where the vein was and he just stuck it in, he said it was crazy luck that he had hit the vein. She told him that we had been praying for this, but he seemed to blow this off. God kept working in many small wonderful ways such as this throughout our time there.
One of the Muslim nurses began asking Glenn about Jesus, which opened a wonderful discussion. We did not have any of them tell us that they accepted Him while we were there, but there were many marvelous signs that they were taking notice of Him in us!
The Body of Messiah which came out for us was the most amazing thing. Knowing no one, word spread, and we had about 30 new friends that would visit. Some visited many, many times and really provided tremendous support. David & Kaitlin were from Arkansas and were living in Israel as he attended medical school. They visited early on and offered us an unbelievable amount of help. They brought us a laptop and cell phone so that we could connect by phone and email to our friends and family back home. Once Kara got out, they let her stay with them, and did many other things to support us. David later told us that when they first arrived they felt God’s Spirit really powerfully telling them that there was something important here for them and so they helped out in every way that they could.
Towards the end of our time there, something tragic happened. David’s father’s airplane went down with his parents in it and they were horribly hurt. It did not look like his parents would live and they both had to fly back immediately. But it’s amazing to see how God uses what seems negative in such powerful positive ways. Because David & Kaitlin had been up close witnesses to the powerful ways God miraculously healed us, they were armed with incredible faith when they returned home to their parent’s hospital. They prayed with confidence knowing God can and will heal, and miraculously, their parents made amazing recoveries!
Andre (and less frequently his wife Ruth and son Caspar) who were also Dutch, brought us snacks and books to read. A different woman named Ruth, a messianic Jew from New Jersey, who had made aliyah (moved to Israel) visited quite frequently. John (80) and Beatrice visited frequently. John’s father had been a messianic Jewish Believer, which is amazing because the Lord really only started to bring His people back in the 1880’s and there were very few until the late 1960’s. Marty and Sue who had made aliyah from Canada were very helpful particularly in bringing us back to Tel Aviv to make our flight. There were three young youth pastors who brought their guitar and we worshiped together, even discovering that one of the Hebrew worship songs we had sung in another part of the country was written by them! There were more, but these are the ones that most stand out to me right now.
Continued tomorrow….
Photo credit: wili_hybrid