Our hearts were heavy. The Tel Aviv train platform was filled to overflowing with soldiers, men and women going to war; going to places from which they might not return. It was 8:00 A.M. Sunday morning, July 23rd, 2006, 11 days after Israel began fighting Hezbollah on it’s northern border. Ruti said she thought the Lord had led us to go to Jerusalem an hour earlier than normal, to see this spectacle. It reminded me of train stations in movies about World War Two. Soldiers milling around, many just sitting on the platform because there wasn’t any room to sit elsewhere, and waiting for their trains.

Our train was 25 minutes late. I asked a soldier why. He told me, ‘Because of the situation’ a phrase used by Israelis to describe the never ending war with the Arabs. I noticed more trains than usual going north, all filled with soldiers, and a few civilians. Our train to Jerusalem came, and we left to go east.

One of our stops in Jerusalem was at a music store. Danny, a 21 year old Jew born in Estonia and raised in Israel, helped us. I told him that my grandfather was born in Lithuania. Those two countries, and Latvia, form three small countries on the Baltic Sea, to the northeast of Poland. They were taken over by the Soviets in 1940 but gained their independence after the collapse of the U.S.S.R. in the 90’s. That’s how Danny and his parents were able to emigrate to Israel.

After Danny helped us with our music needs, he began to share with us about the Israeli school system and how poor it was in Hebrew literature, compared with European nations. He said you don’t really learn anything in literature and math in the first eight grades. But for the next two grades, they try and cram what you should have learned in those first eight grades, into the next two, along with what those two grades have for you. It was brutal and many couldn’t take it.

One thing led to another and for about forty minutes, I spoke of Messiah Yeshua from Isaiah, Zechariah and Daniel with Danny. It started with Daniel. I said I had found the Messiah that Daniel prophesied about. He was Yeshua. ‘Jesus?’ ‘Yes.’

I told him that Daniel was the only place in the Tanach where God tells us when the Messiah would come. I related the passage to him, of how Messiah would put an ‘end’ to sin, etc., and then showed him it in a Bible that Ruti carries with her. I said that in the Talmud, Sanhedrin 99a and Nazir 32b, the ancient Sages declared the Messiah had to come during the Second Temple period, basing their view on Dan. 9:24-26. Danny had never seen that before. There were two other workers there who also overheard what I was saying.

I spoke of the Life that I had found in Messiah Yeshua, and why He came as a sacrifice, spoken of by Isaiah (53), and confirmed by Zechariah (12:10; 13:1); so that we could be forgiven of our sins and made like Him. The Lord was with us and Danny was open. We gave him my card, a single sheet of Acts 2 in Hebrew that I’ve recently made on my computer for handouts, and a pamphlet of John in Hebrew. He said he was going to read them. Next time we go to Jerusalem we’ll stop in and see Danny, Lord willing, and find out where he’s at with Yeshua.

After that we had a salad and some sweet potatoes for lunch, and then it was time to return home. We got to the Jerusalem train station just in time to see our train pulling out : ) We missed it by a minute, and now we had to wait an hour for the next one. I know the Lord uses these things ‘for good’ but my feelings struggle with it sometimes. This was one of those times.

We sat down and I began to go over some paperwork I had brought with me. Before long we were speaking with David, his sisters and his mother about Messiah. They are a family from Haifa, one of the most heavily rocketed cities in northern Israel, about 20 miles from the border, and 45 miles from Tel Aviv. Its home for 270,000 Israelis. This family had left their home because of the Katyushas, and stayed with some family in Jerusalem, and now they were returning. It wasn’t safe but they were going back anyway.

David was the most interested in Messiah. At three months short of joining the Israeli Army (almost 18 years old), he told us of some friends of his in high school that also believed in Yeshua. But he could see that their belief wasn’t ‘strong’ or with all their heart. Oh how we witness to those around us, without even realizing it. We gave David my card.

The train came and we sat in one car and they sat in another. Across the aisle from us was Shoshana, an older Israeli woman. She’s lived in Beit Shemesh for more than 20 years, having lost her husband seven years ago. We began to speak of Messiah to her for the whole ride to Beit Shemesh, about 40 minutes. When she left, we gave her Acts 2 and my card. She gave us her phone number and invited us to come visit her.

The next day, Ruti and I were walking on Allenby Street in Tel Aviv. It’s named for the British general who liberated Palestine from the Ottoman Empire during World War One. The Ottoman’s controlled this land for exactly four hundred years, from 1517 to 1917.

We passed by an open air market and a man by the name of Ishai (Jesse), came up to us. He wanted to extol all the virtues of Greenpeace (an occult organization that uses the environment as a front for its hideous agenda). I told him we didn’t have much time, but I’d give him three minutes to share with me what he wanted to say. He accepted that and launched into what Greenpeace had accomplished in Israel; the cleaning up of the Yarkon River, and the stopping of raw waste being dumped into the Mediterranean Sea, both of which were very good. He ended by saying that we could be ‘silent members’ which meant that we didn’t have to demonstrate or sign anyone up for membership, but just donate some money each year. Or, we could be like him, actively recruiting people and funds into the organization.

I asked him what he wanted to be doing five years from now. Ishai is in college and wants to become a journalist and work for an Israeli (liberal) newspaper. I thanked him for sharing with us and told him that I wasn’t able to become a silent member as all my time was given to God. I told him that I had met God through the Messiah and I wanted him, Ishai, to follow me, as I followed the Messiah. For the next 20 minutes, I told Ishai that God wanted to love him with a love that was so divine, that once he felt it and knew God, he would want to give up everything and follow Messiah Yeshua. I loved Ishai, the Lord loving him through me. I told him of my search for God thirty years ago, to know if He was real, and how the Lord Yeshua has proven Himself to me over and over and over again. We parted, with me giving him Acts 2 and my card.

Would you pray for Danny, David (and his family), Shoshana, and Ishai? They are all candles that need to be lit by the Holy Spirit.

Turning to this current ‘situation,’ as of Aug. 2nd, 2006, we’re just finished the third full week of this war (having begun on July 12th). More than one hundred Katyushas a day have fallen on the northern part of Israel. By 7:10 P.M. today, more than 200 Katyushas fell. One fifth of the Israeli population lives in that area. Many Israelis have fled from their homes to go south to be with family, like David and his family. And fifty four Israelis have died since the fighting began three weeks ago.

Hezbollah has threatened to extend it further south, to Tel Aviv. Between Tel Aviv and Haifa lives 60% of Israel’s population. Just a few minutes ago I read that some more advanced rockets fell on Beit Sha’an, which is the furthest that rockets have hit into Israel. Its 42 miles from the Lebanon border. Beit Sha’an is an Israeli city along the Jordan river, Israel’s eastern border. Israel is a very small country. Its 280 miles long by about 50 miles wide. Its home to more than six million Jews, more than one million Arabs, about three hundred thousand Druse and one hundred and fifty thousand Christians of various persuasions (Catholic, Baptist, Pentecostal, Messianic, etc.).

There are minute to minute updates on what the Israeli Defense Forces are doing with Hezbollah in the north, and Hamas in Gaza. I find myself ‘planning’ and ‘telling’ the IDF and the government of Israel what they should do with Hezbollah (in Lebanon), Damascus ( Syria) and Teheran ( Iran). I also find that I lose my peace when I dwell on these things. Praying and lifting this up, that God would deal with the enemies of Israel, helps a lot to restore that peace, and that helps me to get my eyes back on Yeshua. And then I realize anew what Paul writes:

“We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.” (Rom. 8:28, NRSV)

In the midst of this war there are opportunities to witness for my Master. When people are brought to the point of basic reality, facing possible death, many of the illusions of life are swept aside. God is able to enter into their picture then.

One of Satan’s chief weapons is fear. If we are afraid, or ‘live in fear,’ we are actually worshipping Satan, giving way to him, instead of trusting, resting and being at peace with God. When we live in fear, we are ‘honoring’ Satan. Messiah Yeshua tells us,

‘But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore! You are of more value than many sparrows’ (Lk. 12:7).

And it seems that this is appropriate for ‘the situation’ today also:

‘And say unto him, Take heed, and be quiet; fear not, neither be fainthearted for the two tails of these smoking firebrands, for the fierce anger of Rezin with Syria, and of the son of Remaliah.’ Because they have ‘planned evil against you, saying, “Let us go up against Judah and terrorize it, and make for ourselves a breach in its walls...” ‘Thus says the Lord Yahveh, “It shall not stand nor shall it come to pass”’(Is. 7:4-7 with some phrases taken out for today’s situation).

Israel , those of the Jewish people who are His lambs, will find Him and be with Him forever. No one, not even Satan, can stop this. But the point is this: even as Ruti and I missed ‘our’ train that day by a minute, with all it’s accompanying emotional struggles, the Lord used it to further His Agenda. And that’s exactly what He’s doing with this ‘situation’ with Hezbollah and Hamas. So, let’s praise God, and take our eyes off ‘the situation’ for He is still in control of the universe, despite circumstances that seem to the contrary. And as Paul wrote:

“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God” (Phil. 4:6, NRSV).

Let’s pray for Israel, and rejoice in our Messiah!,
‘for these Egyptians that you see today, you’ll never see again, forever! (Ex. 14:13b)

Don’t you just love the Word of God?!

Now, we’re living in Ramat Gan, right next to Tel Aviv. We’ve been here since November 2004, about one year and ten months, for a total of nine and a half years in Israel.

We’ve lived in the North (Tiberias), the south (Eilat), the east ( Jerusalem), and the west ( Ramat Gan). It’ll be interesting to see where the Lord moves us next : )