We have had a wonderful time in Israel. The Young People Tour had about 35 young people from around the world. There were 18 from Russia and the Ukraine, 1 from Taiwan and 3 from China, 1 from Canada, and the rest from different parts of the USA. By the end of our 8 days together, the Lord had blended us together. We prayed together, sang together, ate together, trudged all around Israel together. Together we dressed up like ancient Jews, rode donkeys, and ate humus and olives and unleavened bread. We floated in the Dead Sea together, rafted on the Jordan River, trudged through Hezekiah’s Tunnel (the amazing water system for ancient Jerusalem), and swam together in the refreshing waterfalls and pools of En Gedi. Together we saw famous battlefields from Israel’s recent amazing wars and, arising early in the morning we climbed Masada, Herod the Great’s mountain fortress in the Judean wilderness where nearly a thousand Jews committed mass suicide rather than submit to the Romans in 73 A.D. Standing on the Mount of Precipice, the place where angry Jews sought to kill the Lord Jesus after He read to them about Himself in the book of Isaiah in their synagogue in Nazareth, we looked out over the Jezreel Valley where, in the not too distant future, the climactic battle of Armageddon will be fought. Together we toured the Israel Museum, gazed at the Dead Sea Scrolls, and learned about the sect of Jews who copied them out by hand. Together we went to the very spot where Jeroboam set up a golden calf in Dan to destroy the oneness of ancient Israel. Together we stood on the Mount of Olives from which the Lord ascended and to which He will return. Amidst the ancient olive trees of the Garden of Gethsemane we prayed that not our will but the Lord’s will would be done. Together, amid the shouted protests of irate Muslims who were fasting during their holy month of Ramadan, we toured the Temple Mount where the Muslim shrine, the Dome of the Rock, has stood since 691 AD, but where, someday soon, a third Jewish temple will be build. Together we toured the Temple Institute and were impressed with the fervor of those Jews who are giving their lives to prepare everything — including their hearts — for the rebuilding of that temple. Together we toured the most holy of Jewish sites, the Kotel — the Western Wall — and watched as Jews of all kinds prayed and made their petitions to God. And in a refreshingly beautiful garden, we peered into a rock-cut tomb which might have been the place where the Lord Jesus was laid after His crucifixion and, with great joy, together we testified with the angels, “He is not here. He is risen!”
And as wonderful as all that was, the greatest matter was being blended together in our mutual love for the Lord Jesus and one another. Toward the end of our tour we had a night and a day for a conference together. During Shebat — the Jewish Sabbath — we stayed together at a very nice kibbutz and spent the time in meetings and prayer. We covered messages from The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and were so happy that the Lord spoke to us.
Following the tour and conference, we celebrated the Lord’s Table with saints on the Lord’s Day evening. Then, on Monday morning, we were honored to participate in the first-ever Summer School of the Truth for the young people of Israel. So the small number of young people here from English and Russian, and Hebrew, were guided through their first Summer School of the Truth on God’s Full Salvation. How wonderful it has been. Last night was historic. About 8 Hebrew speaking young people took the test on the previous night’s message and spoke the wonderful truths of God’s full salvation in Hebrew. Excellent! And tonight was another excellent meeting with a test by the young people which was full of exercise, followed by released and enjoyable singing, and capped off by an enlivening and enlightening message from a brother.
And now we are trying to get home. We came amid threats of violence as Palestinian radicals from the Gaza Strip began firing hundreds of rockets into Israel. Most are intercepted by the Iron Dome — Israel’s missile defense system — and most Israelis go about their daily life without much change. These ordinary Israelis have, by the way, been very thankful that we have been here when many other tourists have stayed away.
