Letters from Jerusalem
May 7-9, 2022
“When my father and my mother forsake me, Then the Lord [will take care of me].” (the Hebrew actually gives the tone of [He will gather me to Himself]) PSALM 27:10
“The Lord liveth, that brought the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands whither He had driven them: and I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto their fathers…the Gentiles shall come unto thee from the ends of the earth and shall say, surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit. Shall a man make gods unto himself and they are no gods? Therefore, behold, I will cause them to know mine hand and my might; and they shall know that my name is The Lord.” JEREMIAH 16:15, 19-21 KJV
Dear Brothers and Sisters who have stood with us and prayed for us – His body for His glory- Greetings in Him Who is Eternal, Sovereign, Righteous, Glorious, Good and Merciful. Blessed be The glorious Judge Whose judgments are for His true glory…and always right. May He be blessed.
The above scriptures (in Hebrew) are what we THINK will be on the stone that will cover my husband’s piece of property in Jerusalem…where his earthly body rests. The first, from Psalms, describes his life. The second, from Jeremiah, came alive to his heart some 30+ years ago…which he obeyed and fulfilled!
Our lives took a dramatic turn on the 29th of March. Since then, I have been in places that I never expected to be…but He has led all the way and I trust Him to continue to lead.
I have been so touched by all of the emails that I have received and I would like to share with you about this intense journey, but I suspect that I will break it up into 2 or even 3 emails. Recently I have had a lot of trouble with people not receiving my emails, so now I only put something like ‘update’ in the subject line… nevertheless many do not get through. I am trying to shorten the letters; perhaps that will help. I am still in a dream and so I do hope that I make sense, but mostly that I will glorify God in all things. I have missed describing the uniqueness of Passover, Holocaust Memorial Day, Soldier Memorial Day and Independence Day in Jerusalem, but this year I do have other things to share...this too, is part of the journey.
E bought me an orchid several years ago. I was surprised. Orchids are pretty…but I am not an orchid fan in that I tend to kill plants…so over the years I am a fan of…hum…daises, pansies, petunias… things that are hard to kill and that bloom for a long time while tolerating neglect. Our orchid has produced about 5 blooms at a time each year, despite my abuse…actually, Eric took over the care and feeding of it and last winter he cut it down to toothpick size: ‘You killed it!’ I said. ‘I pruned it.’ He replied. The day before his accident it had 25 buds and one flower. Each year it has been covered with buds that eventually fall off after some flowers come and go…no more than 5 at a time.
We entered Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital via ambulance on the 29th of March and I left with my son in law, quietly, in the early morning hours of the 27th of April. I told you about the believing Doctor who prayed in the emergency room that the cerebral bleed would stop, and it did. I did not see this doctor again until the night of April 26th when he appeared with a group of doctors in the intensive care unit which he told me that he was not scheduled to be in. He was surprised to see me and I explained our journey. As I left the hospital with Yitzhak the following dawn, there he was again…and I told him ‘Now I know that you are an angel. Why are you here now?’ He said ‘No, I am not an angel, I am flesh and blood but I am here to pray for you. We KNOW where E is.’ This believer was at both the entrance and the exit for me in what I can only describe as a ‘Holy time.’ After 51 years I walked my husband home…and he is safe.
Another believing doctor, who was also a client of my husbands, called me and explained to me clearly what to expect as E took his last breaths. What a gift to have him so clearly guide me…and he guided me through the process that followed as well. Another doctor friend was E's client since she was in medical school. He prayed for her regularly. (She is not yet a believer and E prayed for her daily. Her name is ---- if you would pray for her salvation) She was SURE that they were making mistakes and so she drove up to Jerusalem between shifts to speak to the doctors. They showed her all that they had; the cat scans, the test results and she came to me and said ‘What happened to him?! I have never seen lungs like this except in extreme covid cases and he had no covid.’ And she wept.
One day I went downstairs to get a cup of coffee. Hadassah Ein Kerem is HUGE…actually it could be a small city situated outside of Jerusalem on its own mountain, it has more than one helicopter pad. The people who move patients back and forth to different tests and imaging use GPS to get around the hospital…yes…it’s THAT big! The newest main entrance to the hospital is a huge glassed area that has trees and a piano. As I moved in my ‘cocoon’ (for that is what I felt as if I were encased in; a ‘holy cocoon’ that kept me somehow separate from anything that could touch me that shouldn’t) toward a coffee shop, I heard a very old song playing. I was a child when I first heard “You’ll Never Walk Alone” and I never forgot it. (It was first recorded in 1945) I haven’t heard it really since I was a child, but there at the piano was an elderly man playing it and singing it in English. I quickly went over and he looked up at me and put his hand out…it was one of many holy moments in the midst of a holy time. What makes a time ‘holy’? Only one thing: GOD is Present! His Presence characterized this month for me. It was NOT easy…but it WAS holy.
Perhaps I will walk backwards. I just got home from a bizarre scene. E has rented his shop for 23 years and the landlord’s agent was not a nice man. As I was struggling to know what to do and how, people who had been his clients kept coming up and reading the traditional black and white sign announcing the death along with the funeral time and place and the shiva information. They were each in shock and grief and I watched them as the landlord proceeded with ridiculous demands…Lord have mercy…it was a bizarre scene. But I am home now and will not think about that. Here, funerals are to take place generally within 24 hours of the death. It used to be before the sun went down on the same day. Now, with people living overseas, sometimes they are postponed for loved ones to arrive. Funerals here are free for citizens. The bodies are wrapped in a shroud or a prayer shawl. (no coffin) E was wrapped in blue and white. So many people came to the funeral (although I could not discern faces) Our Pastor was greatly anointed. Some were shocked to hear The Name of Yeshua…may The Lord reap a fruitful harvest through the boldness of our Pastor! The burial places in Jerusalem are now in walls…there just is no more ground to be buried in. E was given a most beautiful spot overlooking the Jerusalem Forest. Bags of the earth of Jerusalem were placed around him…but ofcourse…he is not there! None the less, he would be blessed to know that he has been given tax free land overlooking the forest in a peaceful spot with birds singing…a foolish thought perhaps, but a comforting one to me.
We came home from the funeral and the shiva (the 7 days of shared mourning when ‘the widow’ does not leave the house nor bathe nor change her clothes) began. I remember years ago, having been to a shiva that I described and sharing with you the verses from Ecclesiastes 7:2 and 4 “Better to go to the house of mourning Than to go to the house of feasting, For that is the end of all men; And the living will take it to heart… The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, But the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.”
Our Pastor wisely explained to me the beauty and deeper meaning of the tradition of the shiva. Shiva means 7 and the mourners sit for 7 days while they are cared for by everyone else and visited by acquaintances, neighbors and friends. The door is opened and times of resting are noted on the black and white sign mentioned above. The people began coming; neighbors, clients of E’s, patients from my work, believers from around the country, people who simply knew us from the street…The mixture of people and the sincere outpouring of love was a tidal wave… and an immersion into this new world for which I need His instruction. Everyone brought memories…wonderful stories…they brought food abundant…they brought tears and laughter. They sat side by side; religious and secular, believers and those who would be offended by believers, people from all walks of life. It was exhausting and emotional and that is exactly what it is supposed to be, our Pastor explained to me. He said that it is a very wise way to provide a framework; NOW you grieve…extravagantly…even if your nature is quiet and private, the door is open and a pattern is provided for you for THIS is the time to grieve. Seven days…and then you ‘get up’. You go back to the grave…and come home and bathe and change your clothes and eat a meal. You return to the grave 30 days later and place a stone marker. (This is called the ‘shloshim’) Then you do not return for a year. It is a time to grieve and a time to move on…to continue… to live… it is our marked ‘duty’ before God. And it is a gift. I heard more wonderful stories about my husband than I could have dreamed I would hear…of the little things that he did and the big as well. Perhaps you remember that he had been an archer, representing Israel in the Madrid world cup games back in 2005, he carried the Israeli flag as the team presented itself. Or the book that was written ‘Eskimos of Israel and other Fascinating Israelis’…His life was truly extraordinary.
One thing struck me: Our upstairs neighbors (there are two apartments) were ‘with me’ through the entire ordeal. They would text me asking me what was happening and so unlike western culture their response would be ‘Oy, NO! This is awful! I’m so sad! I am crying for you both! My heart is breaking! I will do anything that I can to help!’ and they did. They brought down meal after meal, full homemade meals. They sat down with no self-consciousness…seemingly never concerned about ‘saying the wrong thing’ or ‘looking foolish’ they just were there and would quietly leave. I haven’t fully understood yet what made it so ‘different’. Perhaps it was the complete lack of SELF consciousness…it wasn’t ‘about them’ and that is something that I deeply desire in my heart of hearts; to be so free of ‘self’ that I can honesty minister to others needs. Perhaps it comes from growing up in a sort of ‘communal’ society where each one is taught to care deeply for the other rather than an independent society. I don’t know, but it touched me.
And in the midst of this all, ‘E's story’ went forth:
One cold winter night in a small village in Alaska, E was reading the prophet Jeremiah in English and there he read that the Jews were to return to their own land from the North and from the ends of the earth…and that the gentiles would bring them. He simply said to me ‘You are Jewish. My family is Jewish…we need to move to Israel.’ I remember saying to him ‘I know that you love my family…but a whole country of us? No way…have some more coffee.’ But he had HEARD the call deep in his heart and he sacrificed everything of his own heritage…the natural beauty and quiet of all that he had known and mastered…he laid it down to obey The Lord and fulfill His Word. This story resounded through out the hospital…through doctors and nurses and other patients as well as ringing loud and clear to all who came to the shiva (hundreds of people).
In the hospital, the intensive care unit that he was in had 9 ‘rooms’…each looked like a space ship filled with the specific machines needed to keep each patient alive. I can only describe the staff there as medical ‘Golani’ soldiers in the midst of critical war. They had two ‘mottos’. One was that these patients were alive and their mission was to do everything that they could while they still had the holy gift of life in them. The second was that they were only ‘shlachim’ (messengers) and that only God could heal. Their passion and compassion, combined with the best skills were humbling to watch as they fought valiantly for these lives. Part of what they do is to learn EVERYTHING that they can about their patient, not only the medical issues that has brought the patient there, but their family, their background, their character. They want to know will this patient fight for life? And will they fight to recover following a catastrophic illness? The ‘human being’ is always at the center of their fight…not just the body. And BECAUSE of that, E became beloved in the ICU. Everyone was telling and re-telling the story about how an orphaned ‘Eskimo’ (he’s Aleut, but found the concept too hard to explain to most Israelis) from such a beautiful part of the world read the ‘command’ in Jeremiah and obeyed! Not only THAT…but the fact that we have been together for 51 years brought many to our ‘room’ in the middle of the night asking ‘HOW? What is the SECRET?’ The fascination grew and there was total freedom to sing and pray and read the scriptures…yes…it was a HOLY time and yes HIS PRESENCE was with us and my prayer is that the seeds planted will grow and produce fruit for His kingdom.
At 3:am on the 27th I jumped up…something in the room had changed. I had fallen asleep in the chair next to E and was still holding his hand. I looked up and saw that the numbers on the monitor were erratic. I held his hand for the two hour walk to the gate…The room was so still, but His Presence … His Presence… His Peace.
The orchid was in full bloom the day of the funeral…ALL 26 BUDS WERE IN FULL FLOWER TOGETHER! Such a symbol this was to me of impossible ‘completion’…HE indeed does ALL things well!
People have asked how I am. I don’t know. I am still in a dream. For the first two days I remained in the holy cocoon…but I knew that I wouldn’t be able to live there…that I would have to walk on…and I will… but I feel emotional and vulnerable and don’t really want to talk about it. I miss him. I’m assailed by feelings of failure which I know are the challenges of the enemy but I think all of this is normal and I do know that HE has been with me and WILL BE with me…HE leads all the way. I miss my husband terribly. I want to tell him all about this…I must keep walking.
Tomorrow I return to work…so I will send this tonight. I thank you so very very much for all of the prayer support that I have been receiving. I feel it. HE IS ALIVE AND LEADS US ALL THE WAY.
I will not re-read this very long letter so I am asking you to forgive me for mistakes and perhaps repetition. I have left out so many miracles…there is just so much more.
I close this letter with love. May we glorify God and finish the work that He has for each of us.
“When my father and my mother forsake me, Then the Lord [will take care of me].” (the Hebrew actually gives the tone of [He will gather me to Himself]) PSALM 27:10
“The Lord liveth, that brought the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands whither He had driven them: and I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto their fathers…the Gentiles shall come unto thee from the ends of the earth and shall say, surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit. Shall a man make gods unto himself and they are no gods? Therefore, behold, I will cause them to know mine hand and my might; and they shall know that my name is The Lord.” JEREMIAH 16:15, 19-21 KJV
Dear Brothers and Sisters who have stood with us and prayed for us – His body for His glory- Greetings in Him Who is Eternal, Sovereign, Righteous, Glorious, Good and Merciful. Blessed be The glorious Judge Whose judgments are for His true glory…and always right. May He be blessed.
The above scriptures (in Hebrew) are what we THINK will be on the stone that will cover my husband’s piece of property in Jerusalem…where his earthly body rests. The first, from Psalms, describes his life. The second, from Jeremiah, came alive to his heart some 30+ years ago…which he obeyed and fulfilled!
Our lives took a dramatic turn on the 29th of March. Since then, I have been in places that I never expected to be…but He has led all the way and I trust Him to continue to lead.
I have been so touched by all of the emails that I have received and I would like to share with you about this intense journey, but I suspect that I will break it up into 2 or even 3 emails. Recently I have had a lot of trouble with people not receiving my emails, so now I only put something like ‘update’ in the subject line… nevertheless many do not get through. I am trying to shorten the letters; perhaps that will help. I am still in a dream and so I do hope that I make sense, but mostly that I will glorify God in all things. I have missed describing the uniqueness of Passover, Holocaust Memorial Day, Soldier Memorial Day and Independence Day in Jerusalem, but this year I do have other things to share...this too, is part of the journey.
E bought me an orchid several years ago. I was surprised. Orchids are pretty…but I am not an orchid fan in that I tend to kill plants…so over the years I am a fan of…hum…daises, pansies, petunias… things that are hard to kill and that bloom for a long time while tolerating neglect. Our orchid has produced about 5 blooms at a time each year, despite my abuse…actually, Eric took over the care and feeding of it and last winter he cut it down to toothpick size: ‘You killed it!’ I said. ‘I pruned it.’ He replied. The day before his accident it had 25 buds and one flower. Each year it has been covered with buds that eventually fall off after some flowers come and go…no more than 5 at a time.
We entered Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital via ambulance on the 29th of March and I left with my son in law, quietly, in the early morning hours of the 27th of April. I told you about the believing Doctor who prayed in the emergency room that the cerebral bleed would stop, and it did. I did not see this doctor again until the night of April 26th when he appeared with a group of doctors in the intensive care unit which he told me that he was not scheduled to be in. He was surprised to see me and I explained our journey. As I left the hospital with Yitzhak the following dawn, there he was again…and I told him ‘Now I know that you are an angel. Why are you here now?’ He said ‘No, I am not an angel, I am flesh and blood but I am here to pray for you. We KNOW where E is.’ This believer was at both the entrance and the exit for me in what I can only describe as a ‘Holy time.’ After 51 years I walked my husband home…and he is safe.
Another believing doctor, who was also a client of my husbands, called me and explained to me clearly what to expect as E took his last breaths. What a gift to have him so clearly guide me…and he guided me through the process that followed as well. Another doctor friend was E's client since she was in medical school. He prayed for her regularly. (She is not yet a believer and E prayed for her daily. Her name is ---- if you would pray for her salvation) She was SURE that they were making mistakes and so she drove up to Jerusalem between shifts to speak to the doctors. They showed her all that they had; the cat scans, the test results and she came to me and said ‘What happened to him?! I have never seen lungs like this except in extreme covid cases and he had no covid.’ And she wept.
One day I went downstairs to get a cup of coffee. Hadassah Ein Kerem is HUGE…actually it could be a small city situated outside of Jerusalem on its own mountain, it has more than one helicopter pad. The people who move patients back and forth to different tests and imaging use GPS to get around the hospital…yes…it’s THAT big! The newest main entrance to the hospital is a huge glassed area that has trees and a piano. As I moved in my ‘cocoon’ (for that is what I felt as if I were encased in; a ‘holy cocoon’ that kept me somehow separate from anything that could touch me that shouldn’t) toward a coffee shop, I heard a very old song playing. I was a child when I first heard “You’ll Never Walk Alone” and I never forgot it. (It was first recorded in 1945) I haven’t heard it really since I was a child, but there at the piano was an elderly man playing it and singing it in English. I quickly went over and he looked up at me and put his hand out…it was one of many holy moments in the midst of a holy time. What makes a time ‘holy’? Only one thing: GOD is Present! His Presence characterized this month for me. It was NOT easy…but it WAS holy.
Perhaps I will walk backwards. I just got home from a bizarre scene. E has rented his shop for 23 years and the landlord’s agent was not a nice man. As I was struggling to know what to do and how, people who had been his clients kept coming up and reading the traditional black and white sign announcing the death along with the funeral time and place and the shiva information. They were each in shock and grief and I watched them as the landlord proceeded with ridiculous demands…Lord have mercy…it was a bizarre scene. But I am home now and will not think about that. Here, funerals are to take place generally within 24 hours of the death. It used to be before the sun went down on the same day. Now, with people living overseas, sometimes they are postponed for loved ones to arrive. Funerals here are free for citizens. The bodies are wrapped in a shroud or a prayer shawl. (no coffin) E was wrapped in blue and white. So many people came to the funeral (although I could not discern faces) Our Pastor was greatly anointed. Some were shocked to hear The Name of Yeshua…may The Lord reap a fruitful harvest through the boldness of our Pastor! The burial places in Jerusalem are now in walls…there just is no more ground to be buried in. E was given a most beautiful spot overlooking the Jerusalem Forest. Bags of the earth of Jerusalem were placed around him…but ofcourse…he is not there! None the less, he would be blessed to know that he has been given tax free land overlooking the forest in a peaceful spot with birds singing…a foolish thought perhaps, but a comforting one to me.
We came home from the funeral and the shiva (the 7 days of shared mourning when ‘the widow’ does not leave the house nor bathe nor change her clothes) began. I remember years ago, having been to a shiva that I described and sharing with you the verses from Ecclesiastes 7:2 and 4 “Better to go to the house of mourning Than to go to the house of feasting, For that is the end of all men; And the living will take it to heart… The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, But the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.”
Our Pastor wisely explained to me the beauty and deeper meaning of the tradition of the shiva. Shiva means 7 and the mourners sit for 7 days while they are cared for by everyone else and visited by acquaintances, neighbors and friends. The door is opened and times of resting are noted on the black and white sign mentioned above. The people began coming; neighbors, clients of E’s, patients from my work, believers from around the country, people who simply knew us from the street…The mixture of people and the sincere outpouring of love was a tidal wave… and an immersion into this new world for which I need His instruction. Everyone brought memories…wonderful stories…they brought food abundant…they brought tears and laughter. They sat side by side; religious and secular, believers and those who would be offended by believers, people from all walks of life. It was exhausting and emotional and that is exactly what it is supposed to be, our Pastor explained to me. He said that it is a very wise way to provide a framework; NOW you grieve…extravagantly…even if your nature is quiet and private, the door is open and a pattern is provided for you for THIS is the time to grieve. Seven days…and then you ‘get up’. You go back to the grave…and come home and bathe and change your clothes and eat a meal. You return to the grave 30 days later and place a stone marker. (This is called the ‘shloshim’) Then you do not return for a year. It is a time to grieve and a time to move on…to continue… to live… it is our marked ‘duty’ before God. And it is a gift. I heard more wonderful stories about my husband than I could have dreamed I would hear…of the little things that he did and the big as well. Perhaps you remember that he had been an archer, representing Israel in the Madrid world cup games back in 2005, he carried the Israeli flag as the team presented itself. Or the book that was written ‘Eskimos of Israel and other Fascinating Israelis’…His life was truly extraordinary.
One thing struck me: Our upstairs neighbors (there are two apartments) were ‘with me’ through the entire ordeal. They would text me asking me what was happening and so unlike western culture their response would be ‘Oy, NO! This is awful! I’m so sad! I am crying for you both! My heart is breaking! I will do anything that I can to help!’ and they did. They brought down meal after meal, full homemade meals. They sat down with no self-consciousness…seemingly never concerned about ‘saying the wrong thing’ or ‘looking foolish’ they just were there and would quietly leave. I haven’t fully understood yet what made it so ‘different’. Perhaps it was the complete lack of SELF consciousness…it wasn’t ‘about them’ and that is something that I deeply desire in my heart of hearts; to be so free of ‘self’ that I can honesty minister to others needs. Perhaps it comes from growing up in a sort of ‘communal’ society where each one is taught to care deeply for the other rather than an independent society. I don’t know, but it touched me.
And in the midst of this all, ‘E's story’ went forth:
One cold winter night in a small village in Alaska, E was reading the prophet Jeremiah in English and there he read that the Jews were to return to their own land from the North and from the ends of the earth…and that the gentiles would bring them. He simply said to me ‘You are Jewish. My family is Jewish…we need to move to Israel.’ I remember saying to him ‘I know that you love my family…but a whole country of us? No way…have some more coffee.’ But he had HEARD the call deep in his heart and he sacrificed everything of his own heritage…the natural beauty and quiet of all that he had known and mastered…he laid it down to obey The Lord and fulfill His Word. This story resounded through out the hospital…through doctors and nurses and other patients as well as ringing loud and clear to all who came to the shiva (hundreds of people).
In the hospital, the intensive care unit that he was in had 9 ‘rooms’…each looked like a space ship filled with the specific machines needed to keep each patient alive. I can only describe the staff there as medical ‘Golani’ soldiers in the midst of critical war. They had two ‘mottos’. One was that these patients were alive and their mission was to do everything that they could while they still had the holy gift of life in them. The second was that they were only ‘shlachim’ (messengers) and that only God could heal. Their passion and compassion, combined with the best skills were humbling to watch as they fought valiantly for these lives. Part of what they do is to learn EVERYTHING that they can about their patient, not only the medical issues that has brought the patient there, but their family, their background, their character. They want to know will this patient fight for life? And will they fight to recover following a catastrophic illness? The ‘human being’ is always at the center of their fight…not just the body. And BECAUSE of that, E became beloved in the ICU. Everyone was telling and re-telling the story about how an orphaned ‘Eskimo’ (he’s Aleut, but found the concept too hard to explain to most Israelis) from such a beautiful part of the world read the ‘command’ in Jeremiah and obeyed! Not only THAT…but the fact that we have been together for 51 years brought many to our ‘room’ in the middle of the night asking ‘HOW? What is the SECRET?’ The fascination grew and there was total freedom to sing and pray and read the scriptures…yes…it was a HOLY time and yes HIS PRESENCE was with us and my prayer is that the seeds planted will grow and produce fruit for His kingdom.
At 3:am on the 27th I jumped up…something in the room had changed. I had fallen asleep in the chair next to E and was still holding his hand. I looked up and saw that the numbers on the monitor were erratic. I held his hand for the two hour walk to the gate…The room was so still, but His Presence … His Presence… His Peace.
The orchid was in full bloom the day of the funeral…ALL 26 BUDS WERE IN FULL FLOWER TOGETHER! Such a symbol this was to me of impossible ‘completion’…HE indeed does ALL things well!
People have asked how I am. I don’t know. I am still in a dream. For the first two days I remained in the holy cocoon…but I knew that I wouldn’t be able to live there…that I would have to walk on…and I will… but I feel emotional and vulnerable and don’t really want to talk about it. I miss him. I’m assailed by feelings of failure which I know are the challenges of the enemy but I think all of this is normal and I do know that HE has been with me and WILL BE with me…HE leads all the way. I miss my husband terribly. I want to tell him all about this…I must keep walking.
Tomorrow I return to work…so I will send this tonight. I thank you so very very much for all of the prayer support that I have been receiving. I feel it. HE IS ALIVE AND LEADS US ALL THE WAY.
I will not re-read this very long letter so I am asking you to forgive me for mistakes and perhaps repetition. I have left out so many miracles…there is just so much more.
I close this letter with love. May we glorify God and finish the work that He has for each of us.
April 20, 2022
“I will hand them over to trouble, to all kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, for what he did in Jerusalem.”
JEREMIAH 15:4
Greetings Dear Brothers and Sisters in Yeshua, Who has risen and lives forever, Who has conquered and wins, Who reigns glorious and eternal, Whom we are privileged to serve as a body together…therefore we love one another.
It is almost the end of Pesach here in Israel. The world and events whirl around me but I am walking a solitary road right now. Yesterday was 3 weeks since my husband’s accident and he remains in an induced coma, hanging between life and death and not making moves in either direction that we can see.
I was ‘sent home’ from the hospital yesterday by the doctors, nurses, social worker and our Pastor, and told to rest. It was so very hard to leave him but now I see that it was necessary and yes, I was exhausted. I slept yesterday since I got home and just saw how many of you are praying and have sent comforting notes and I want to thank you and update you.
The devastation that has taken place in E’s lungs remains a mystery, as does the fact that he makes no movement in either direction. I think that he has been tested for everything possible. I have been sitting by his bed, reading, praying, singing, watching. He is suffering now. I was thinking about all of those around the world who are crying out for his healing…I know on Sunday morning, yes, I waited. I kept ‘peeking’, expecting him to ‘just wake up’ and walk. But The Lord began speaking to my heart about Hezekiah. He cried out for his life after Isaiah had told him that his time was done here…he turned his face to the wall and wept bitterly…and The Lord granted him 15 more years…in answer to the prayer. (Isaiah 38) But we see a wise and godly King make devastatingly foolish decisions (Isaiah 39…also see 2 Kings and 2 Chron) during the time that his life was extended. He opened the door to Babylon…AND…he fathered Manasseh…the most wicked King of Judah!
I have often prayed about the boundaries that God has set; they fascinate me. The scriptures are full of descriptions concerning God’s boundaries in nature as well as nations. He has also set the boundaries of our lives…a time when we enter in and a time when we leave. I do NOT want my husband to leave. I DO want my husband to be in HIS PERFECT WILL! We have experienced God’s miraculous deliverance more times in our lives than most, I dare say. E was in a plane crash into the icy waters of the remote Bering Sea with a DEAR friend and there was no way that they should have survived…BUT GOD IN HIS MERCY AND FOR HIS GLORY RESCUED THEM! And according to His will and for His glory their lives were extended! We have been miraculously healed by God’s Hand through answered prayer (it is written that way in UC Davis Medical Journal as a miracle!) having been poisoned by the destroying angel mushroom in 1975. We have experienced more than our share of healings and miracles which we firmly believe in. But above all God’s Will is perfect and in His perfect will He is glorified! I do NOT have a specific Word concerning my husband and I am thankful for those who have…but as I thought about the evil that happened through Hezekiah through the extension that GOD GRANTED HIM IN ANSWER TO HIS PRAYER…I have released Eric to The perfect will of God.
I would like to ask that you continue in prayer for E into God’s perfect will.
I am NOT ‘giving up’.
I am NOT lacking in faith.
I am agreeing with Yeshua…not my will, but Yours, for Your glory!
Thank you so very much for all who are praying and loving and encouraging. Thank you for praying according to His direction. He hears and He answers. Thank you for praying for strength and wisdom as well for the family. May we each be led forth in His Peace. Lovingly, your sister
(again, I do not know when I will be near email next)
“I will hand them over to trouble, to all kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, for what he did in Jerusalem.”
JEREMIAH 15:4
Greetings Dear Brothers and Sisters in Yeshua, Who has risen and lives forever, Who has conquered and wins, Who reigns glorious and eternal, Whom we are privileged to serve as a body together…therefore we love one another.
It is almost the end of Pesach here in Israel. The world and events whirl around me but I am walking a solitary road right now. Yesterday was 3 weeks since my husband’s accident and he remains in an induced coma, hanging between life and death and not making moves in either direction that we can see.
I was ‘sent home’ from the hospital yesterday by the doctors, nurses, social worker and our Pastor, and told to rest. It was so very hard to leave him but now I see that it was necessary and yes, I was exhausted. I slept yesterday since I got home and just saw how many of you are praying and have sent comforting notes and I want to thank you and update you.
The devastation that has taken place in E’s lungs remains a mystery, as does the fact that he makes no movement in either direction. I think that he has been tested for everything possible. I have been sitting by his bed, reading, praying, singing, watching. He is suffering now. I was thinking about all of those around the world who are crying out for his healing…I know on Sunday morning, yes, I waited. I kept ‘peeking’, expecting him to ‘just wake up’ and walk. But The Lord began speaking to my heart about Hezekiah. He cried out for his life after Isaiah had told him that his time was done here…he turned his face to the wall and wept bitterly…and The Lord granted him 15 more years…in answer to the prayer. (Isaiah 38) But we see a wise and godly King make devastatingly foolish decisions (Isaiah 39…also see 2 Kings and 2 Chron) during the time that his life was extended. He opened the door to Babylon…AND…he fathered Manasseh…the most wicked King of Judah!
I have often prayed about the boundaries that God has set; they fascinate me. The scriptures are full of descriptions concerning God’s boundaries in nature as well as nations. He has also set the boundaries of our lives…a time when we enter in and a time when we leave. I do NOT want my husband to leave. I DO want my husband to be in HIS PERFECT WILL! We have experienced God’s miraculous deliverance more times in our lives than most, I dare say. E was in a plane crash into the icy waters of the remote Bering Sea with a DEAR friend and there was no way that they should have survived…BUT GOD IN HIS MERCY AND FOR HIS GLORY RESCUED THEM! And according to His will and for His glory their lives were extended! We have been miraculously healed by God’s Hand through answered prayer (it is written that way in UC Davis Medical Journal as a miracle!) having been poisoned by the destroying angel mushroom in 1975. We have experienced more than our share of healings and miracles which we firmly believe in. But above all God’s Will is perfect and in His perfect will He is glorified! I do NOT have a specific Word concerning my husband and I am thankful for those who have…but as I thought about the evil that happened through Hezekiah through the extension that GOD GRANTED HIM IN ANSWER TO HIS PRAYER…I have released Eric to The perfect will of God.
I would like to ask that you continue in prayer for E into God’s perfect will.
I am NOT ‘giving up’.
I am NOT lacking in faith.
I am agreeing with Yeshua…not my will, but Yours, for Your glory!
Thank you so very much for all who are praying and loving and encouraging. Thank you for praying according to His direction. He hears and He answers. Thank you for praying for strength and wisdom as well for the family. May we each be led forth in His Peace. Lovingly, your sister
(again, I do not know when I will be near email next)
Assunto: quick update - 13.April 2022
On the same day, when evening had come, He said to them, “Let us cross over to the other side.” Now when they had left the multitude, they took Him along in the boat as He was. And other little boats were also with Him. And a great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that it was already filling. But He was in the stern, asleep on a pillow. And they awoke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?”
Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace be still!” And the wind ceased and there was a great calm. But He said to them, “Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?” And they feared exceedingly, and said to one another, “Who can this be, that even the wind and the sea obey Him!” Mark 4:35-41
I WILL CLING TO THE LOVER OF MY SOUL…LETTING GO OF THE RUDDER IN THE STORM (song: Song in the Night)
Dear brothers and sisters, I DO greet you in the Love and Power and Mercy and Beauty and Sovereignty of The LORD, Yeshua h’Meshiach…Jesus Christ.
I never though, as Pesach approaches on Friday night and Resurrection Day is celebrated that I would write a short note like this, but I do know that I need to communicate.
Pesach…Passover…the first… remarkable and significant dividing line in the Tanach…oh how I LOVE writing about it…living it…sharing it.
But God has chosen a different path for us at the moment. I have no email (not able to receive or write) where I am spending most of my time since 29th of March. My husband is in intensive care (tipool nimratz) in Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital on a respirator following a fall from a ladder. He suffered a brain hemorrhage that was controlled…a believing Doctor in the emergency room prayed a prayer with His Presence and the bleeding soon stopped. He also suffered a fracture in his skull near his eye, 5 fractured ribs and shoulder. What wasn’t seen at the beginning was that the fall damaged his lungs and they began both to bleed and to be attacked by inflammation. He was in critical before any of us understood what was happening. It’s his lungs that are now in great need of His Breath. They are not working on their own.
Our older Daughter from London has come to be with us and I am with him in intensive care most of the time. I have just begun coming home to sleep. The Lord’s Presence is remarkable…He is FAITHFUL and I have His Peace. I feel as if He has me tucked away in a very safe place. Psalm 29 is beautiful as David proclaims that ‘HIS VOICE IS OVER THE WATERS…HIS VOICE BREAKS THE CEDERS OF LEBANON AND CAUSES THE DEER TO CALF’…His VOICE can and I believe is piercing through the induced coma that Eric is in.
GOD knows our times…they are in His hands…and I stand before Him in the gap for my husband…gazing at HIS Face, trusting HIM to Whom we are committed.
This is why I haven’t written and I do appreciate your prayers. I am surrounded by the loving body here and testify to His faithfulness in this moment too. I promise that I will write when I can. If you send me an email I am not sure when I will receive it so please don’t let lack of an answer concern you. I do not have (or want) email on my phone.
Because HE lives, we can face tomorrow. Meanwhile, may we all glorify Him in THIS moment.
May The Lord be magnified!
Lovingly, your sister here.
On the same day, when evening had come, He said to them, “Let us cross over to the other side.” Now when they had left the multitude, they took Him along in the boat as He was. And other little boats were also with Him. And a great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that it was already filling. But He was in the stern, asleep on a pillow. And they awoke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?”
Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace be still!” And the wind ceased and there was a great calm. But He said to them, “Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?” And they feared exceedingly, and said to one another, “Who can this be, that even the wind and the sea obey Him!” Mark 4:35-41
I WILL CLING TO THE LOVER OF MY SOUL…LETTING GO OF THE RUDDER IN THE STORM (song: Song in the Night)
Dear brothers and sisters, I DO greet you in the Love and Power and Mercy and Beauty and Sovereignty of The LORD, Yeshua h’Meshiach…Jesus Christ.
I never though, as Pesach approaches on Friday night and Resurrection Day is celebrated that I would write a short note like this, but I do know that I need to communicate.
Pesach…Passover…the first… remarkable and significant dividing line in the Tanach…oh how I LOVE writing about it…living it…sharing it.
But God has chosen a different path for us at the moment. I have no email (not able to receive or write) where I am spending most of my time since 29th of March. My husband is in intensive care (tipool nimratz) in Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital on a respirator following a fall from a ladder. He suffered a brain hemorrhage that was controlled…a believing Doctor in the emergency room prayed a prayer with His Presence and the bleeding soon stopped. He also suffered a fracture in his skull near his eye, 5 fractured ribs and shoulder. What wasn’t seen at the beginning was that the fall damaged his lungs and they began both to bleed and to be attacked by inflammation. He was in critical before any of us understood what was happening. It’s his lungs that are now in great need of His Breath. They are not working on their own.
Our older Daughter from London has come to be with us and I am with him in intensive care most of the time. I have just begun coming home to sleep. The Lord’s Presence is remarkable…He is FAITHFUL and I have His Peace. I feel as if He has me tucked away in a very safe place. Psalm 29 is beautiful as David proclaims that ‘HIS VOICE IS OVER THE WATERS…HIS VOICE BREAKS THE CEDERS OF LEBANON AND CAUSES THE DEER TO CALF’…His VOICE can and I believe is piercing through the induced coma that Eric is in.
GOD knows our times…they are in His hands…and I stand before Him in the gap for my husband…gazing at HIS Face, trusting HIM to Whom we are committed.
This is why I haven’t written and I do appreciate your prayers. I am surrounded by the loving body here and testify to His faithfulness in this moment too. I promise that I will write when I can. If you send me an email I am not sure when I will receive it so please don’t let lack of an answer concern you. I do not have (or want) email on my phone.
Because HE lives, we can face tomorrow. Meanwhile, may we all glorify Him in THIS moment.
May The Lord be magnified!
Lovingly, your sister here.
March 9, 2022
- “… but, ‘The Lord lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north and from all the lands where He had driven them.’ For I will bring them back into their land which I gave to their fathers. “Behold, I will send for many fishermen,” says the Lord, “and they shall fish them; and afterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain and every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks. For My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from My face, nor is their iniquity hidden from My eyes.” Jeremiah 16:15-17
May this letter find you in His Peace, drawing near to Him, filled with a hunger to know Him, and may His Word be growing you and me up in Him, producing fruit for this starving world. May we be of the broken and contrite spirit which He will not despise.
More and more I find that I dare not write unless He presses me to. I believe that we are living to see His days of judgment upon this earth and we are still flesh and blood…so we are on this earth. I’ve had far too many of my own words and my own opinions and desires over the years, but I sense in my heart that He is no longer tolerating this, so I am praying that you know that if there is anything shared that is worthwhile, ALL glory to Him and God forbid that I should waste your time!
It is almost Purim here; the days when the book of Esther (in Hebrew it is ‘magilat Esther’ or the scroll of Esther) is called to mind and celebrated somewhat elaborately. The secular population celebrates it like a huge halloween party…but to those who honor the scripture it is a time to remember what God did. Being in Jerusalem gives us the opportunity to participate in Purim from the ‘walled city’ context. You might recall that it is written in Esther 9:18, 19 “But the Jews who were at Shushan (a walled city) assembled together on the thirteenth day (of the Hebrew month of Adar), as well as on the fourteenth; and on the fifteenth of the month they rested, and made it a day of feasting and gladness. Therefore the Jews of the villages who dwelt in the unwalled towns celebrated the fourteenth day of the month of Adar with gladness and feasting, as a holiday, and for sending presents to one another.” (and those in the WALLED cities – ie: Jerusalem – celebrate on the 15th day of the month of Adar. The fast of Esther is on the night of the 16th of March this year, and the celebrations in Jerusalem (called ‘Shushan Purim’) are on the 18thof March this year. In Jerusalem people will gather to read the book of Esther together on the night of the 17th.
Having said all of that, Israel is greatly impacted by the war between Ukraine and Russia. I get a sense that most of the world is touched one way or another, especially those for whom WW2 is history lesson memory rather than much of a personal experience. I have heard from different European countries and the US about efforts under way to help the refugees etc. and I understand how the economies are affected.
Here…we are seeing the beginnings of another wave of Aliyah unlike any since the Russians came more than a million strong when the gates opened up for them. We arrived toward the end of the Russian Aliyah. I have witnessed parts of the Aliyah from Ethiopia where people came with nothing. We have watched waves come from South America and heard the poignant stories of those who walked by night from Iran, Iraq, and the Yemenite rescue before we came. Israel has absorbed refugees from Africa and the Kosovo war into this little country since we have been here…But this isn’t ‘refugees’ for Israel…this is Aliyah!
What IS ‘Aliyah’?
The word literally means ‘going UP’. The implications for a Jew are spiritual: that to return to Israel is a rising up (from the ashes?) of the diaspora…or the dispersion…the judgment when God spewed the people out of His mouth and shut the door to the land that He had given us…the land that He had promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob…the promise that the people never forgot…nor did The Lord Who PROMISED that He would judge the disobedience (although He is SO longsuffering and merciful!) AND that He would bring us back in HIS faithfulness! You can read Jeremiah 31 (for example) in the MIDST of His burning judgments… He remembers His promises…just as in the book of Revelation. The promises…both of His judgments and His redemptions side by side, are the context for the entire Scriptures…and here we are seeing it with our own eyes!
I was born before modern Israel was reborn. After I came to HIM, I listened to MANY who spoke of the wonder from the standpoint of Christians who had been taught replacement theology, the WONDER of seeing Israel reborn and the Jews gathering back in after 2,000 years! For some, it took some adjusting and re-study of the scriptures that they had not had Light on before. For others, their faith had embraced the promises, but they had not expected to see with their eyes the unfolding in their own life time, and they were overcome by the wonder of it all.
But ofcourse, the story is not over yet and we are STILL witnessing His plan unfolding into life; bone coming to bone and muscle to muscle and we are waiting with anticipation to SEE THE BREATH OF THE SPIRIT!
As we watched what is taking place just north of us, we were deeply moved, seeing the faces of our bus mates speaking about relatives still in Russia or Ukraine. How MANY had tried to persuade family members to make Aliyah, but they were comfortable at home in a culture that they knew on a land that they were raised on. I worked with L for a time. She would often go back to Ukraine to visit her Grandmother and tell me of trying to get her to come to Israel…but she had a nice little farm and was happy there.
Now they are coming.
Just before the war broke out, Israelis poured in trying to persuade the Jews to leave, providing services and flights, but they did not think that it would be too bad…certainly the ‘hunters’ (Jer. 16:16) were not coming…not for them.
Now the flights continue bringing new Olim (immigrants) both from Ukraine and also from Russia. They are coming with nothing but they are coming. I can not get an accurate number…I have heard of several thousand already as the kibbutzim open their doors, homes are opened, the way is made clear and plain. Isaiah 62:10-11 says “Go through, Go through the gates! Prepare the way for the people; Build up, Build up the highway! Take out the stones, Lift up a banner for the peoples! Indeed the Lord has proclaimed To the end of the world: “Say to the daughter of Zion,‘Surely your salvation is coming; Behold, His reward is with Him, And His work before Him.’”
There was a Jewish orphanage in Ukraine that had 100 Jewish orphans who are now safely here… new Israeli citizens. I was looking at pictures of them with calm, serene faces, wondering…plucked out of the fire…what does God have in store for them? I watched as a 90 year old Ukrainian Grandmother was lifted off of the plane embraced by her Grandchildren who were already here. She was a Holocaust survivor but had never come home after surviving the first hunters…and ignoring the fishers, thinking that she would never see the hunters again. It was with wonder that she looked around her.
I was downtown earlier in the week and there was a very large crowd of young people singing strongly about Elohim (God) and redemption. It seemed to be a Purim event but they were also collecting money and had big signs. There were young people speaking in Hebrew, Russian, Spanish, French and English encouraging to give generously, for we are all one people and we must open our hearts wide to provide for those newly arriving from Ukraine…that they are our brothers and sisters and mothers and fathers and we must receive them with great joy. They spoke of this as being another Purim miracle and my heart wondered again, bringing this people before Him…’How LONG LORD…until our eyes are open and our Messiah, The TRUE Messiah is SEEN in our midst!’.
Probably you have also heard this, but I have heard a call for Bibles from Ukraine. What a blessing that hungry people EAT! When darkness pours in, some embrace it, but SOME cry out for LIGHT! I want to include notes here both from Chuck Cohen (IFI prayer notes) and from my Pastor’s prayer notes concerning how they are praying into these events as I found them both excellent and perhaps they would bless you as well.
I have a personal prayer request. Our 5 month old Granddaughter had fairly asymptomatic covid and seemed to have recovered well. Three weeks later she was hospitalized for a week, dehydrated from vomiting, fever and oxygen levels low. Thankfully she went home when vital signs stabilized but she is still not well and I am asking for prayer for her please. I am also asking for prayer for our son in law (her Dad – a locksmith) who is finding making ends meet a challenge. May his heart be prepared for The Light to meet The True Provider. Thank you.
God BLESS and encourage you in His perfect will. May He perfect those things that concern us that we might be a sweet smelling savor unto Him and bear nourishing fruit abundantly in this starving world. I send my love!
February 9, 2022
“‘Ah, Lord God! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm. There is nothing too hard for You.” JEREMIAH 32:17
“For with God nothing will be impossible.” LUKE 1:37
Greetings dear sisters and brothers, from beautiful Jerusalem… the place that HE chose to put His Name; for HIS purposes and for HIS glory.
May The Lord, The One True Master, The Creator of all, The ONLY Truth, be blessed and glorified. May you, His children, be encouraged and blessed…for we live in challenging, narrow times. Times when the path is so narrow and the way often so dark and muddy that oh how we MUST encourage and pray for one another.
HE is The Truth and the way…may we not become distracted.
Most of you know that I am still working in a family doctor’s office across town. What I would have NEVER chosen for myself in a million years, has turned out to be such a blessing and an education. I don’t want to belabor the point, but I constantly stand, filled with amazement at the path of The Lord! Over the 23 years that I have worked there, I have encountered extraordinary people from every walk of life and every background here in Israel and it has filled me with wonder and stories that I do try to share.
I’ve told you before about K, a 99 year old Holocaust survivor with such an amazing, sweet nature and miraculous story of survival. My boss called me a couple of weeks ago: ‘K has covid!’ he said. I wanted to cry! After all that she had been through, is this how she was to leave? Two weeks later the phone rang. ‘It’s K!’ she laughed. ‘I survived the Shoar (Holocaust) and now I have survived covid! God is so good!’ After hearing her story…seeing her character and watching her faith in God, I once asked her if she knew Yeshua. ‘Who is Rabbi Yeshua?’ she asked me. I said ‘He is also called Jesus’. She looked puzzled and I felt the nudge of The Holy Spirit to be quiet. When I had told her about another patient who was also in the Shoar and who had awful things to say about ‘any God Who would allow the shoar’, K looked at me with such pity and said words that I will always remember; ‘But if HE weren’t with me in the midst of it, how could I have survived?’
I was remembering today how when I first began to work in the doctor’s office, I was totally unprepared for such work. Having passed the initial interview, my boss was in for quite a shock once he realized how little prepared I honestly was. I could butcher a caribou, sharpen any knife, live off of the frozen land and feed and clothe my family…but…speaking on 4 phones in Hebrew about medications and medical tests, and using a Hebrew medical computer program, having never worked with a computer? AND my Hebrew was still ground floor basic…NAAAHHHHH! IT WAS A CHALLENGE…truly humbling.
One day my boss told me to get ahold of the rabies (cal-evit) section of the health department for him; I tried. And I tried some more. No one would answer. Simply…no one. I finally told him that I could not get ahold of anyone there and he said to me: “There is NOTHING that can not be accomplished! NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE!” He meant it and I was stunned. (I was EQUALLY stunned when the other doctor told me [I had crashed under the extreme stress of the work] that ‘stress is GOOD for you!’ I had spent my entire life trying to escape stress and had NEVER imagined such a philosophy!)
And surely this HAS been part of the Israeli way of life. Having faced enormous…impossible difficulties, Israel has earned herself the rightful reputation as a nation that has accomplished extraordinary things. We have. Most of you can list more things than I can. This nation has been an overcomer…raised up after 2,000 years in the grave…a resurrected ancient, holy language…A Book that continues with us in our midst…the armies that failed to conquer when they were abundantly better equipped and manned…the desert blooming…the fruits and flowers and innovation...
IT SHOULD ONLY POINT TO THE ONE TRUE GOD, ON THE THRONE AND REIGNING!
IT SHOULD ONLY POINT TO HIM WITH WHOM NOTHING SHALL BE IMPOSSIBLE.
“…Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ Says the Lord of hosts.” we read in Zech. 4:6
How do we so easily slip over from the fact that it is not the Israelis, but THE GOD of the Israelis?
And where are we without Him? I fear to ask…but I dare ask it.
I love to speak with people on the bus and on the train. Now that I have the look of ‘an aged one’ (cane and all-although I have to giggle and feel that it is all a masquerade) I have a different group of people that speak with me. It is generally the religious women (who begin by offering me a seat) or the other older people, who look at me with a ‘knowing look’ [‘ah…you hurt…we hurt…we were all young once’ look] and soon we find ourselves talking. It is these, the simpler people…the ones who ride the train to the shuk ever day…that I have my most passionate discussions with, and I am thankful for how many fear that we have taken God’s glory; that they see His finger of judgment, and they fear Him and pray for mercy. I listen to the older men and women speaking and saying that we need to remember the old days when we gave thanks to GOD and obeyed Him and recognized His Hand. They tell me that they tremble to see the pride and the sin and the hardness all over the world…but, they add sadly…’and even here…where we should know better.’
I do enjoy the dynamics of the Israeli culture on the Jerusalem train! When I enter with my cane, I have to brace myself…for there WILL be ‘a director’! The ‘director’ looks at me and says in a loud voice ‘Give her a seat! You, yelid (boy), over there, get up and give her a seat’! People begin to scatter and insist that I sit down. Now…the truth be told…I have a bad knee. I fell out of a pickup truck years ago and it never healed well and became an increasing problem. I begin by saying ‘No no. Thank you. I’m fine’…but there is no way that the ‘director’ will take that, and everyone begins to try to usher me to a seat…by force! Eventually I announce, in an equally loud voice, that ‘it’s my KNEE that has a problem and it is harder for me to sit and then stand, but easier for me to stay standing.’ At that point a number of heads bob in agreement. They understand now. ‘Leave her alone’ (they stop pushing and pulling on me and NOW we can strike up a conversation!)
The woman who ended up next to me yesterday was an older religious woman. Her parents had had a very hard life and lost everyone. They met when they were older and succeeded in having only one child together, making her not only an only child, but the only child of grieving parents. She told me that she has 5 children and 17 Grandchildren and that she still works as a gannenet. (pre school and kindergarten teacher) ‘How we must thank Him and always give Him praise!’ she said. I, ofcourse, whole heartedly agreed. “The LORD has done great things for us, where of we are glad”!
“But as morning dawned the next day God prepared a worm, and it so damaged the plant that it withered.” Jonah 4:7 “…the wrath of the Lord was aroused against the people, and the Lord struck the people with a very great plague.” Numbers 11:33
It has impressed me of late that THE PROMISES OF THE LORD ARE BOTH THE BLESSINGS AND THE CURSES…His mercy AND His judgments ARE HIS PROMISES.
I keep watching people scurry around trying to ‘fix things’ and I thought of my boss, who himself has finally had to admit that sometimes we can’t.
“Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.” Hebrews 10:23-25
I think of the time that Daniel lived in…the wickedness and oppression and he was a captive as well…yet Daniel 6:10 says“Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went home. And in his upper room, with his windows open toward Jerusalem, he knelt down on his knees three times that day, and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as was his custom since early days.” Yeshua Himself lived under political wickedness and religious hypocrisy but He told us“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness…”
As I walk the streets of Jerusalem today, I find myself thinking of Daniel, looking in this direction from his residence in the land of expulsion, and I pray for MERCY! Oh Lord! For the glory of Your Great Name’s sake, Mercy! It is a struggle to keep my eyes on HIM ALONE and not to look around and enter the fray: Not to become another judge of this or that one as man seems to be trying every door and loosing. As I walk, I sing “The Lord liveth, and blessed be my Rock, and let The God of my salvation be exalted”. The Lord tells us to “Look to the Rock from which we were hewn” and that we are to be living stones in His temple.
Yesterday I felt as if I had been run over by a Mac truck and the thought came to me ‘When I am pressed…what will come out of me? Will it be fine oil? Or will it be the fruit of this world…the rotten figs?’ The choice is mine; where I submit my thoughts and time and on Whom I place my eyes.
In today’s world…I don’t feel as if I have much more of a choice beside this. But isn’t this WONDERFUL? I CAN choose Whom I serve…Who is my Master and on Whom I put my eyes…and ultimately how I will respond. Though nothing else may be in control…this is! After walking with Him for 47 years, I don’t think that this is a ‘cop-out’…I think that it is the straight and narrow path through the times that we live in. The battle IS The Lord’s. May we keep our eyes steadily fixed as Stephen did when he was being stoned; he did not look at those stoning him but he kept his eyes fixed and HE SAW THE LORD!
May The God of peace…of SHALOM…fill you with all joy and peace in believing that you may ABOUND in hope, by The power of The Holy Spirit! God bless you and sustain you in His Presence.
Lovingly, your sister sheep.
“For with God nothing will be impossible.” LUKE 1:37
Greetings dear sisters and brothers, from beautiful Jerusalem… the place that HE chose to put His Name; for HIS purposes and for HIS glory.
May The Lord, The One True Master, The Creator of all, The ONLY Truth, be blessed and glorified. May you, His children, be encouraged and blessed…for we live in challenging, narrow times. Times when the path is so narrow and the way often so dark and muddy that oh how we MUST encourage and pray for one another.
HE is The Truth and the way…may we not become distracted.
Most of you know that I am still working in a family doctor’s office across town. What I would have NEVER chosen for myself in a million years, has turned out to be such a blessing and an education. I don’t want to belabor the point, but I constantly stand, filled with amazement at the path of The Lord! Over the 23 years that I have worked there, I have encountered extraordinary people from every walk of life and every background here in Israel and it has filled me with wonder and stories that I do try to share.
I’ve told you before about K, a 99 year old Holocaust survivor with such an amazing, sweet nature and miraculous story of survival. My boss called me a couple of weeks ago: ‘K has covid!’ he said. I wanted to cry! After all that she had been through, is this how she was to leave? Two weeks later the phone rang. ‘It’s K!’ she laughed. ‘I survived the Shoar (Holocaust) and now I have survived covid! God is so good!’ After hearing her story…seeing her character and watching her faith in God, I once asked her if she knew Yeshua. ‘Who is Rabbi Yeshua?’ she asked me. I said ‘He is also called Jesus’. She looked puzzled and I felt the nudge of The Holy Spirit to be quiet. When I had told her about another patient who was also in the Shoar and who had awful things to say about ‘any God Who would allow the shoar’, K looked at me with such pity and said words that I will always remember; ‘But if HE weren’t with me in the midst of it, how could I have survived?’
I was remembering today how when I first began to work in the doctor’s office, I was totally unprepared for such work. Having passed the initial interview, my boss was in for quite a shock once he realized how little prepared I honestly was. I could butcher a caribou, sharpen any knife, live off of the frozen land and feed and clothe my family…but…speaking on 4 phones in Hebrew about medications and medical tests, and using a Hebrew medical computer program, having never worked with a computer? AND my Hebrew was still ground floor basic…NAAAHHHHH! IT WAS A CHALLENGE…truly humbling.
One day my boss told me to get ahold of the rabies (cal-evit) section of the health department for him; I tried. And I tried some more. No one would answer. Simply…no one. I finally told him that I could not get ahold of anyone there and he said to me: “There is NOTHING that can not be accomplished! NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE!” He meant it and I was stunned. (I was EQUALLY stunned when the other doctor told me [I had crashed under the extreme stress of the work] that ‘stress is GOOD for you!’ I had spent my entire life trying to escape stress and had NEVER imagined such a philosophy!)
And surely this HAS been part of the Israeli way of life. Having faced enormous…impossible difficulties, Israel has earned herself the rightful reputation as a nation that has accomplished extraordinary things. We have. Most of you can list more things than I can. This nation has been an overcomer…raised up after 2,000 years in the grave…a resurrected ancient, holy language…A Book that continues with us in our midst…the armies that failed to conquer when they were abundantly better equipped and manned…the desert blooming…the fruits and flowers and innovation...
IT SHOULD ONLY POINT TO THE ONE TRUE GOD, ON THE THRONE AND REIGNING!
IT SHOULD ONLY POINT TO HIM WITH WHOM NOTHING SHALL BE IMPOSSIBLE.
“…Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ Says the Lord of hosts.” we read in Zech. 4:6
How do we so easily slip over from the fact that it is not the Israelis, but THE GOD of the Israelis?
And where are we without Him? I fear to ask…but I dare ask it.
I love to speak with people on the bus and on the train. Now that I have the look of ‘an aged one’ (cane and all-although I have to giggle and feel that it is all a masquerade) I have a different group of people that speak with me. It is generally the religious women (who begin by offering me a seat) or the other older people, who look at me with a ‘knowing look’ [‘ah…you hurt…we hurt…we were all young once’ look] and soon we find ourselves talking. It is these, the simpler people…the ones who ride the train to the shuk ever day…that I have my most passionate discussions with, and I am thankful for how many fear that we have taken God’s glory; that they see His finger of judgment, and they fear Him and pray for mercy. I listen to the older men and women speaking and saying that we need to remember the old days when we gave thanks to GOD and obeyed Him and recognized His Hand. They tell me that they tremble to see the pride and the sin and the hardness all over the world…but, they add sadly…’and even here…where we should know better.’
I do enjoy the dynamics of the Israeli culture on the Jerusalem train! When I enter with my cane, I have to brace myself…for there WILL be ‘a director’! The ‘director’ looks at me and says in a loud voice ‘Give her a seat! You, yelid (boy), over there, get up and give her a seat’! People begin to scatter and insist that I sit down. Now…the truth be told…I have a bad knee. I fell out of a pickup truck years ago and it never healed well and became an increasing problem. I begin by saying ‘No no. Thank you. I’m fine’…but there is no way that the ‘director’ will take that, and everyone begins to try to usher me to a seat…by force! Eventually I announce, in an equally loud voice, that ‘it’s my KNEE that has a problem and it is harder for me to sit and then stand, but easier for me to stay standing.’ At that point a number of heads bob in agreement. They understand now. ‘Leave her alone’ (they stop pushing and pulling on me and NOW we can strike up a conversation!)
The woman who ended up next to me yesterday was an older religious woman. Her parents had had a very hard life and lost everyone. They met when they were older and succeeded in having only one child together, making her not only an only child, but the only child of grieving parents. She told me that she has 5 children and 17 Grandchildren and that she still works as a gannenet. (pre school and kindergarten teacher) ‘How we must thank Him and always give Him praise!’ she said. I, ofcourse, whole heartedly agreed. “The LORD has done great things for us, where of we are glad”!
“But as morning dawned the next day God prepared a worm, and it so damaged the plant that it withered.” Jonah 4:7 “…the wrath of the Lord was aroused against the people, and the Lord struck the people with a very great plague.” Numbers 11:33
It has impressed me of late that THE PROMISES OF THE LORD ARE BOTH THE BLESSINGS AND THE CURSES…His mercy AND His judgments ARE HIS PROMISES.
I keep watching people scurry around trying to ‘fix things’ and I thought of my boss, who himself has finally had to admit that sometimes we can’t.
“Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.” Hebrews 10:23-25
I think of the time that Daniel lived in…the wickedness and oppression and he was a captive as well…yet Daniel 6:10 says“Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went home. And in his upper room, with his windows open toward Jerusalem, he knelt down on his knees three times that day, and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as was his custom since early days.” Yeshua Himself lived under political wickedness and religious hypocrisy but He told us“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness…”
As I walk the streets of Jerusalem today, I find myself thinking of Daniel, looking in this direction from his residence in the land of expulsion, and I pray for MERCY! Oh Lord! For the glory of Your Great Name’s sake, Mercy! It is a struggle to keep my eyes on HIM ALONE and not to look around and enter the fray: Not to become another judge of this or that one as man seems to be trying every door and loosing. As I walk, I sing “The Lord liveth, and blessed be my Rock, and let The God of my salvation be exalted”. The Lord tells us to “Look to the Rock from which we were hewn” and that we are to be living stones in His temple.
Yesterday I felt as if I had been run over by a Mac truck and the thought came to me ‘When I am pressed…what will come out of me? Will it be fine oil? Or will it be the fruit of this world…the rotten figs?’ The choice is mine; where I submit my thoughts and time and on Whom I place my eyes.
In today’s world…I don’t feel as if I have much more of a choice beside this. But isn’t this WONDERFUL? I CAN choose Whom I serve…Who is my Master and on Whom I put my eyes…and ultimately how I will respond. Though nothing else may be in control…this is! After walking with Him for 47 years, I don’t think that this is a ‘cop-out’…I think that it is the straight and narrow path through the times that we live in. The battle IS The Lord’s. May we keep our eyes steadily fixed as Stephen did when he was being stoned; he did not look at those stoning him but he kept his eyes fixed and HE SAW THE LORD!
May The God of peace…of SHALOM…fill you with all joy and peace in believing that you may ABOUND in hope, by The power of The Holy Spirit! God bless you and sustain you in His Presence.
Lovingly, your sister sheep.
January 12, 2022
“If you have run with the footmen and they have wearied you, then how can you contend with horses? And if in the land of peace, in which you trusted, they wearied you, then how will you do in the floodplain of the Jordan?” Jerimiah 12:5
Greetings dear brothers and sisters.
May The Lord be glorified in your life and in mine.
May this new year bring an increased fear of Him Who is to be feared, and a restored first-love for Him Who is to be loved, and a broken obedience that comes out of KNOWING HIM WHO CREATED THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH…and can and will, in His time, roll them up as a scroll.
You know, I dare not write one of these letters unless He presses me to…and I have been feeling to write for a week or better now, but ‘what do You want me to write Lord?’ I still don’t know! His overall direction to me has been ‘What you see, write…what you hear, that write.’; so, I sit here wondering as much as you do, what will be written.
‘What was that?’ My heart jumped yesterday morning. Five am and there it was, loud and clear, out of place in the center of the city, which is exactly why it is so precious to me: The song of the morning bird! I could say that I didn’t realize that it had been gone as the winter set in with its muffled sounds; but oh, yesterday morning as I was having devotions the clear sweet song pierced the air and my heart with hope soaring!
I have told you about the blessing that we have received through Bituach Leumi, (our form of ‘social security’) of a ‘helper’ for 10 hours a week. I chose to find one myself and have been deeply touched by our first two…L, who is now in the army so can no longer help, and O is the helper whom we have until he goes into the army in March. Both, young (18 year old) believers…such hearts! It has been a blessing to have them in our home and a joy to share with them and pray for our youth. We have had some deep discussions and some good times of prayer together but the generation gap was magnified for me by way of a more mundane conversation that took place last week. Being 18, and a boy, it is necessary for me to teach him HOW to help me and HOW I need things to be done. Having never been a mother of boys, I thought about our older daughter (2 boys and 1 girl) often, for example, trying to explain that broccoli should not look like a floppy dead flower and a ‘small carrot’ should likely be less than a foot long. However, the following story took me by surprise and made me laugh:
We made Aliyah 27 years ago, arriving at the end of a 7 year drought. That first winter, I experienced monsoon rains that defied my imagination. I sat in ulpan (intense language class) soaking wet (freezing, because there was no heat and the Russian students insisted upon keeping the windows open, even as the rain flooded the floor) and learning how to say in Hebrew ‘We bless you for the blessing of the rain’…because…well…we live in a desert and we must ALWAYS thank God for the rain and for the water that we must never take for granted. I learned that lesson well and truly it was all around me. We prayed for rain, as a nation, at Sukkot. We watched every drop of water and gave thanks for it. There was no air-conditioning here back then, and huge black fans churned the hot summer air into a boiling, churning breeze. There were small water faucets at intervals along the streets and it was not unusual to see someone bend down and run the water over their head to cool off. No water was EVER wasted! Letting water run was unheard of. Every drop was precious and we knew that, and we thanked God for it. Showers were ‘dry showers’…a bit of water to wet down…then a soap down…then another bit of water to rinse off. It worked…enough anyway. And, I had a lesson from the best as to how to wash the floor! I was shown a cup. That’s right…a CUP. Into it went hot water and a bit of floor soap. Half of the cup of water was thrown on the floor and with a large squeegee on a long handle (no floor mops, buckets or sponges here) I learned to pull the water toward me, cleaning the floor. The second half of the cup was used to rinse. Each apartment has several plugged holes in the floor through which people used to drain the dirty water (now we are too crowded and it usually lands on someone’s head so they are not used much anymore). Once the floor was clean, we would take two ‘smartoot’ (a special absorbent cleaning rag) and put one over each foot and get excellent exercise by drying the floor doing the ‘smartoot dance’ (I called it).
Well…you all know how Israel started desalinating and reclaiming water etc. etc. I did not realize how that effected the next generation. It is true that I myself have become more ‘water wasteful’ these days, yes. I do take a full shower and sometimes let the water run. I do flush (excuse me). BUT…I continue to do the smartoot dance and so I was surprised when O asked me how I wash the floor. I handed him my small pitcher (no longer a measured cup) and the squeegee (called, affectionately ‘sponga’ in Hebrew) and he asked me to demonstrate. I was puzzled. He IS an 18 year old boy, but surely he’d seen his mother wash the floor? I first explained the procedure and he said ‘How can you wash all of the floors with a cup of water??’ I don’t know if I can explain it, but for me this was a dramatic moment. I, an immigrant, was explaining to a pre-army Tsabra (native born) a practical part of the cultural history of Israel. It was an indescribable moment of humility and joy.
It’s difficult to explain what it is like to be an immigrant.
Or even a transplant.
Many of you are, I know. Particularly when we are young in today’s world, we wander and there we are…’elsewhere’.
It seems to me that I was ALWAYS ‘out of place’. I grew up in NYC but in a ‘mixed’ neighborhood, not a ‘Jewish neighborhood’. Our neighborhood was mostly Italian and Spanish and people were always asking me where I was from (‘That street over there’ I would say and they would answer’…no…where are you FROM!’) Everywhere that I lived there were natives of that area with a history, with roots, with ties that I could not claim. When I met The Lord, I KNEW that I WAS HOME. I KNEW that I am His and He is mine…and that I belong in His kingdom, and someday I shall feel that longed for feeling of not being somehow strange or different. You might think that returning to our ancient homeland would make it natural, but believe me, it doesn’t. We are immigrants with accents and ‘strange ways and habits’ even here. SO…perhaps that can explain the great flush of joy that I felt explaining to this young Tsabra brother how the older generation here in Israel washed the floor! He looked at me with amazed admiration. This is a young man who is about to put down the mop and pick up an Uzi. He will be learning the history, near and ancient, of this land into which he was born, which he will walk with his fellow recruits. He will visit memorials, generals, survivors, Arab villages and Jewish villages and listen and see in our ancient language of Hebrew, more than I could ever dream of understanding. I get to pray that he walks faithfully as a disciple of Yeshua before his fellows…in a place that I’ve never walked.
And I got to teach him how to mop an apartment with a cup of water as his Grandparents did.
It’s my ‘place’…the ‘place’ that God has given me to stand. It’s small, but I’m expected not to bury my 1 talent…to use it and be faithful.
He HASN’T given me the place of a tsabra, nor the place of any other- and undoubtedly He knew my wild nature and that if I were to ever become rooted and grounded in Him, I would not be able to become attached to some earthly home:
“Tell me, O you, whom I love, where you feed your flock and where you make it rest at noon…Follow in the footsteps of the flock and feed your little goats BESIDE THE SHEPHERDS TENT” Song of Songs 1:7, 8
But most of you do not want to take your time right now reading a letter with stories about young boys mopping floors. The questions in the world are big; What is happening with Israel? you might ask. What it is going on there with the virus? What about your rights? The government? Iran? Gaza?
“Looking unto Jesus, The Author and Finisher of our faith, Who, for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross…For consider Him Who endured….” Heb.12:2,3 I have no answers…BUT THE LORD! What do I see here? Confusion, rebellion, anger. What do I see? GOD’s Hand…yes…not very popular, but I see God’s judgment EXACTLY as described from Genesis through Revelation settling upon the earth. Madness, rage, confusion, deception, violence, division, lawlessness, panic…this is what I see…BUT “Looking unto Jesus!...The Author….The Finisher of our faith…considering Him Who ENDURED!” That we might yet produce the fruit of His Spirit.
In other words, I have NO answers but to seek to please Him with my response to what I encounter minute by minute. I have NO answers but to find that one small place that HE wants me to stand on…to gain victory in that spot…to influence…and to be faithful to that one small thing! I have NO answer but to seek to be as close to Him as I can for the purpose of being a lamp so that His Light might somehow shine into this world that is catapulting itself toward darkness. I want NO OPINIONS and ESPECIALLY not my own…because really, what do I know??? BUT I CAN KNOW HIM! And so can you…and indeed we MUST because He is the ONLY ONE Who can lead the way.
It is time to close. We are blessed and God is faithful. Our older daughter has a ticket to come and visit with us for some 4 days at the end of this month LORD WILLING! It has been 2 years since we have seen her and we are beside ourselves with joy (having JUST found out!) and in prayer concerning it. Our younger daughter and the three Littles are doing well. Our sons in laws are beloved. We are both still working…apparently for as long as we are able. Thank you SO MUCH for your prayers…both for our family and for this people who is called by His Name. May HE BE GLORIFIED!
Lovingly, your sister here.
(ps. I have found that I have to title these letters simply or they are knocked out as spam)
Greetings dear brothers and sisters.
May The Lord be glorified in your life and in mine.
May this new year bring an increased fear of Him Who is to be feared, and a restored first-love for Him Who is to be loved, and a broken obedience that comes out of KNOWING HIM WHO CREATED THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH…and can and will, in His time, roll them up as a scroll.
You know, I dare not write one of these letters unless He presses me to…and I have been feeling to write for a week or better now, but ‘what do You want me to write Lord?’ I still don’t know! His overall direction to me has been ‘What you see, write…what you hear, that write.’; so, I sit here wondering as much as you do, what will be written.
‘What was that?’ My heart jumped yesterday morning. Five am and there it was, loud and clear, out of place in the center of the city, which is exactly why it is so precious to me: The song of the morning bird! I could say that I didn’t realize that it had been gone as the winter set in with its muffled sounds; but oh, yesterday morning as I was having devotions the clear sweet song pierced the air and my heart with hope soaring!
I have told you about the blessing that we have received through Bituach Leumi, (our form of ‘social security’) of a ‘helper’ for 10 hours a week. I chose to find one myself and have been deeply touched by our first two…L, who is now in the army so can no longer help, and O is the helper whom we have until he goes into the army in March. Both, young (18 year old) believers…such hearts! It has been a blessing to have them in our home and a joy to share with them and pray for our youth. We have had some deep discussions and some good times of prayer together but the generation gap was magnified for me by way of a more mundane conversation that took place last week. Being 18, and a boy, it is necessary for me to teach him HOW to help me and HOW I need things to be done. Having never been a mother of boys, I thought about our older daughter (2 boys and 1 girl) often, for example, trying to explain that broccoli should not look like a floppy dead flower and a ‘small carrot’ should likely be less than a foot long. However, the following story took me by surprise and made me laugh:
We made Aliyah 27 years ago, arriving at the end of a 7 year drought. That first winter, I experienced monsoon rains that defied my imagination. I sat in ulpan (intense language class) soaking wet (freezing, because there was no heat and the Russian students insisted upon keeping the windows open, even as the rain flooded the floor) and learning how to say in Hebrew ‘We bless you for the blessing of the rain’…because…well…we live in a desert and we must ALWAYS thank God for the rain and for the water that we must never take for granted. I learned that lesson well and truly it was all around me. We prayed for rain, as a nation, at Sukkot. We watched every drop of water and gave thanks for it. There was no air-conditioning here back then, and huge black fans churned the hot summer air into a boiling, churning breeze. There were small water faucets at intervals along the streets and it was not unusual to see someone bend down and run the water over their head to cool off. No water was EVER wasted! Letting water run was unheard of. Every drop was precious and we knew that, and we thanked God for it. Showers were ‘dry showers’…a bit of water to wet down…then a soap down…then another bit of water to rinse off. It worked…enough anyway. And, I had a lesson from the best as to how to wash the floor! I was shown a cup. That’s right…a CUP. Into it went hot water and a bit of floor soap. Half of the cup of water was thrown on the floor and with a large squeegee on a long handle (no floor mops, buckets or sponges here) I learned to pull the water toward me, cleaning the floor. The second half of the cup was used to rinse. Each apartment has several plugged holes in the floor through which people used to drain the dirty water (now we are too crowded and it usually lands on someone’s head so they are not used much anymore). Once the floor was clean, we would take two ‘smartoot’ (a special absorbent cleaning rag) and put one over each foot and get excellent exercise by drying the floor doing the ‘smartoot dance’ (I called it).
Well…you all know how Israel started desalinating and reclaiming water etc. etc. I did not realize how that effected the next generation. It is true that I myself have become more ‘water wasteful’ these days, yes. I do take a full shower and sometimes let the water run. I do flush (excuse me). BUT…I continue to do the smartoot dance and so I was surprised when O asked me how I wash the floor. I handed him my small pitcher (no longer a measured cup) and the squeegee (called, affectionately ‘sponga’ in Hebrew) and he asked me to demonstrate. I was puzzled. He IS an 18 year old boy, but surely he’d seen his mother wash the floor? I first explained the procedure and he said ‘How can you wash all of the floors with a cup of water??’ I don’t know if I can explain it, but for me this was a dramatic moment. I, an immigrant, was explaining to a pre-army Tsabra (native born) a practical part of the cultural history of Israel. It was an indescribable moment of humility and joy.
It’s difficult to explain what it is like to be an immigrant.
Or even a transplant.
Many of you are, I know. Particularly when we are young in today’s world, we wander and there we are…’elsewhere’.
It seems to me that I was ALWAYS ‘out of place’. I grew up in NYC but in a ‘mixed’ neighborhood, not a ‘Jewish neighborhood’. Our neighborhood was mostly Italian and Spanish and people were always asking me where I was from (‘That street over there’ I would say and they would answer’…no…where are you FROM!’) Everywhere that I lived there were natives of that area with a history, with roots, with ties that I could not claim. When I met The Lord, I KNEW that I WAS HOME. I KNEW that I am His and He is mine…and that I belong in His kingdom, and someday I shall feel that longed for feeling of not being somehow strange or different. You might think that returning to our ancient homeland would make it natural, but believe me, it doesn’t. We are immigrants with accents and ‘strange ways and habits’ even here. SO…perhaps that can explain the great flush of joy that I felt explaining to this young Tsabra brother how the older generation here in Israel washed the floor! He looked at me with amazed admiration. This is a young man who is about to put down the mop and pick up an Uzi. He will be learning the history, near and ancient, of this land into which he was born, which he will walk with his fellow recruits. He will visit memorials, generals, survivors, Arab villages and Jewish villages and listen and see in our ancient language of Hebrew, more than I could ever dream of understanding. I get to pray that he walks faithfully as a disciple of Yeshua before his fellows…in a place that I’ve never walked.
And I got to teach him how to mop an apartment with a cup of water as his Grandparents did.
It’s my ‘place’…the ‘place’ that God has given me to stand. It’s small, but I’m expected not to bury my 1 talent…to use it and be faithful.
He HASN’T given me the place of a tsabra, nor the place of any other- and undoubtedly He knew my wild nature and that if I were to ever become rooted and grounded in Him, I would not be able to become attached to some earthly home:
“Tell me, O you, whom I love, where you feed your flock and where you make it rest at noon…Follow in the footsteps of the flock and feed your little goats BESIDE THE SHEPHERDS TENT” Song of Songs 1:7, 8
But most of you do not want to take your time right now reading a letter with stories about young boys mopping floors. The questions in the world are big; What is happening with Israel? you might ask. What it is going on there with the virus? What about your rights? The government? Iran? Gaza?
“Looking unto Jesus, The Author and Finisher of our faith, Who, for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross…For consider Him Who endured….” Heb.12:2,3 I have no answers…BUT THE LORD! What do I see here? Confusion, rebellion, anger. What do I see? GOD’s Hand…yes…not very popular, but I see God’s judgment EXACTLY as described from Genesis through Revelation settling upon the earth. Madness, rage, confusion, deception, violence, division, lawlessness, panic…this is what I see…BUT “Looking unto Jesus!...The Author….The Finisher of our faith…considering Him Who ENDURED!” That we might yet produce the fruit of His Spirit.
In other words, I have NO answers but to seek to please Him with my response to what I encounter minute by minute. I have NO answers but to find that one small place that HE wants me to stand on…to gain victory in that spot…to influence…and to be faithful to that one small thing! I have NO answer but to seek to be as close to Him as I can for the purpose of being a lamp so that His Light might somehow shine into this world that is catapulting itself toward darkness. I want NO OPINIONS and ESPECIALLY not my own…because really, what do I know??? BUT I CAN KNOW HIM! And so can you…and indeed we MUST because He is the ONLY ONE Who can lead the way.
It is time to close. We are blessed and God is faithful. Our older daughter has a ticket to come and visit with us for some 4 days at the end of this month LORD WILLING! It has been 2 years since we have seen her and we are beside ourselves with joy (having JUST found out!) and in prayer concerning it. Our younger daughter and the three Littles are doing well. Our sons in laws are beloved. We are both still working…apparently for as long as we are able. Thank you SO MUCH for your prayers…both for our family and for this people who is called by His Name. May HE BE GLORIFIED!
Lovingly, your sister here.
(ps. I have found that I have to title these letters simply or they are knocked out as spam)