Category Archives: Israel

The Shuk in Jerusalem

Once again, it’s time to hear from our sister in Jerusalem about what she is witnessing there as a believer in Yeshua. Put your prayer shawls on and pray for Israel and Sister J. Now here she is —

Greetings from a finally quiet Jerusalem. May you be blessed and edified and may THE LORD be glorified and blessed and adored.

Today is TISHA B’AV or THE 9TH OF THE MONTH OF AV, known by Jews as the day of great grief. A day of fasting, set aside for mourning the destruction of both the first and second temples in Jerusalem by judgments of God and numerous other calamities that have befallen the people on this date since called by God to follow Him thousands of years ago.

 From a simple online dictionary:  LAMENTATION  –  “groan, howl, keen, lament, moan, plaint, wail“

“an expression of great sorrow. Mourners uttered lamentations.” 

The book of LAMENTATIONS (AEKAH in Hebrew  ‫איכה) left for us an agonizing witness by the prophet Jeremiah, is read today, prayed through, and wept over. It’s often done at the western wall of the second Temple – the remnant left standing in the Old City where Jews go to worship and pray.  Others meet in homes or out in the open to read, study, pray, search hearts.  Study groups form everywhere and some stay all night in front of the western wall expressing grief.  The evolving traditions are varied and many.

But on my heart this year is a different sort of cry.  I have held it before The Lord as a question for years now:  What is in YOUR EYES, LORD?  Not just tisha b’av, but how YOU see it all. YOUR purposes. YOUR plan. YOUR grief. YOUR heart for this people, this land and beyond.

One thing that I see so clearly this year is that THE LORD makes plain those things that are an abomination to HIM and where our sins lie, and yet we so often choose to call it something else, and not agree with Him.  The Lord stated CLEARLY why Jerusalem was judged and why the people were scattered and cast out into the nations, not once, but twice cast.  There was the horror of idolatry, the grievous half hearted or feigned hypocritical worship, and the disobedience of all that was written in Your word.  Yet the rabbis have stuck to their decision that the reason for judgment is “sinat chinam” or hatred for no reason.  Thankfully they have enlarged on that idea and as I read 1 Corinthians 13 this morning and thought about God’s Love yes, this is such a part of His Heart.  BUT once again it skirts the issue and avoids what God was focusing on.  We did not TRUST AND BELIEVE.  We did not OBEY.  Do we today?  Perhaps these questions are too big to look at.  Thankfully some do.

BUT WHAT ABOUT US?

As the body, how do we pray for this nation, this people, several of you have asked, What is HIS HEART, HIS CRY, HIS PURPOSE?

FRIDAY NIGHT: 

I have told you before that we live on a terribly noisy, busy corner.  Shabat is a blessing as the train and traffic grind to a halt and the stores close. People go home to their families and shabat comes in with its quiet rest.  It should.  But this Friday night I was awakened by screams, and hoots, and motorcycles.  It was about 2 a.m.  I guess that the “hidden bars” had closed.  Something about a day set apart for repentance seems to stir up demonic activity, eh?  I’m sure that you have all noticed that.  It was true here.

From 2 a.m. until around 5 a.m. the voices of alcohol and drugs, rebellion and bondage screamed loudly under my window and I struggled to pray.  “Lord!  What do You want me to pray?” I cried.

It took me until 5 a.m. to finally have my ears and heart unstopped and I was able to pray that The Fear of The Lord would be established on THIS CORNER of Jerusalem.  “That’s IT Lord?  Nothing more?”

Sometimes it is only one corner. One corner at a time.  Stand where He has placed you and having done all – stand.  Meanwhile, there was anger in my heart.  I was tired.  I wanted to sleep.  There was hatred and not love.  I did not love the partying howlers outside of my apartment.  Natural?  Yes!

But NOT the response of The Holy Spirit, Who kept reminding me of my own days of rebellion before I met His mercy face to Face with my sin.  Yes, I hooted outside of others windows and disrupted many a resting person.

HIS HEART.  HIS PRAYER.  HIS FOCUS.  LORD!  AFTER ALL OF THESE YEARS: TEACH ME TO PRAY.

I am tired of “beating the air” and not seeing an answered prayer.  Oh, it is NOT “super me answered prayer” that I’m looking for. It is PRAYING HIS HEART.  Why don’t I HEAR CLEARLY?  Why are MY ears plugged?  Come, hear and obey.  Do I hear SOMETIMES?  Yes.  But I for one am convinced that we all have an open door to ABIDE IN HIM ALL THE TIME.

Is there a price?  Yes.  It is already paid in full, but we still need to make that painful exchange and die to self COMPLETELY.  Is it easy?  Only once we have done it.  WHERE IS THE DOOR LORD?  Lead me there. Give ME a willing heart AGAIN.  Take the blinders off of MY EYES, AGAIN.  And once again, plow up the fallow ground of MY heart.

IS THIS SUPPOSED TO HELP YOU PRAY FOR THE NEEDS IN ISRAEL, JERUSALEM AND OUR PEOPLE…AND THE NEEDS OF THE WORLD?  Well, actually maybe it does.  I’ve been writing this for an hour now, struggling with the words, the direction, but perhaps until we are praying HIS HEART, the rest doesn’t really matter. DARE I say such a thing?  WHERE IS THE BODY?  We are praying here in this city today about the judgment and destruction of the temples and WE ARE THE TEMPLE.

I get letters from people who want to know about the rebuilding of the third temple.  More than 20 years ago now I was here praying for the rebuilding of the third temple and understanding from His perspective about Temple Mount when He spoke clearly to me and startled me to my core.  It seems so OBVIOUS to me now, but until that moment it wasn’t at all.  He said, “I AM building The Last Temple right now and you are to be a lively stone in it, being built without the sound of hammer on stone, outside of the camp, a Temple for Me to dwell in. The Body is now in Jerusalem being built up!”

It was such a shock to me at the time and such a new thing when my focus was on rebuilding a physical Temple here.  I went to the scriptures and searched them if this indeed could be true. “Confirm it Lord, in Your Word.”  Well, THAT was EASY!  As I searched I wondered how I could have ever MISSED it and had my eyes so fuzzy.

SO I KNEW THAT IT WAS HIS PURPOSE AND HIS HEART TO PRAY FOR THE BODY BEING BUILT HERE IN THE LAND. THE INDIGENOUS BODY. THE ONE THAT SAYS, “BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD”…AND FOR THE LEADERSHIP OF THAT BODY TO BE SHARP ARROWS WITH NO MIXTURE OR PRIDE OR ULTERIOR MOTIVES.  FOR TRUE REVIVAL AND FOR A TRUE ON-FIRE BODY THAT WOULD BE ABLE TO REAP A HARVEST IN HIS SEASON.

It is equally important to pray for the body in your nation to see clearly HIS PLAN for Israel and its people at this point in history because it IS a focus of HIS purposes in the last days.

It makes me shiver that I am stating these things as if I had authority. Oh may I not be offending ONE SHEEP.  But I am convinced that this is Him.  So much I question and say, “Is this You Lord?” But these things are settled in my heart.  HIS WAY IS PURE, HOLY, SETTLED, NEVER CHANGING, FAITHFUL – AS HIS NAME  – SO IS HE.  ALL THAT HE IS CALLED, HE IS.  AND IT IS ALL THERE IN HIS WORD. SO DON’T TAKE MY WORD FOR IT – ONLY HIS ALONE.

You all know by heart as He tells us in Mat 11:28 ” Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.“

As some of you are praying for my people today, this scripture has brought so many of us to His rest. It still applies for us believers and for the people here who don’t yet know Him.

I pray that something in this rambling makes some sense to you.  For those of you interested in the traditions of tisha b’av and don’t remember my past letters going into that, please google tisha b’av.

May The Lord be glorified in our lives and may He be pleased to dwell in His Temple in all of His fullness.  Even so, come Lord Yeshua.

Lovingly,

Sister J in Jerusalem

P.S. I have just returned from running some errands, and, as usual, there were things to observe.  I wanted to include them as a very short addendum.

The streets were very empty downtown.  Many shops were closed as well, in spite of the fact that this is not a non-working day.  On the train, I sat beside a woman who was on the phone, loudly sharing in English with a friend how she had participated in last night’s march around the Old City walls and went to the Western Wall and listened to the reading of Lamentations. “It was such great exercise, a wonderful work out.”

There I sat beside her in my full judging garment of superiority until He smote my heart. Who did I think I was anyway! And I repented.  As I lifted my eyes I noticed another woman sitting on the floor (yes, of the train) reading Lamentations.  She was neither a crazy nor did she appear to be trying to draw attention to herself. But sitting on the floor is the traditional Jewish position of mourning.  Another woman (not on the floor) sat across from me reading Lamentations.  I thought about the physical position that I like to pray in and wondered: “where is the line between tradition, drawing attention to one’s self, being self righteous OR self critical, judging other people and just LETTING GO AND LETTING GOD TAKE US INTO THE HOLY OF HOLIES.

And with that thought I will close, again.

The Shuk in Jerusalem

Once again, it’s time to hear from our sister in Jerusalem about what she is witnessing there as a believer in Yeshua. Put your prayer shawls on and pray for Israel and Sister J. Now here she is —

Beloved, friends, sisters and brothers, greetings in The Name of our Lord Yeshua, Jesus.  May He be glorified and blessed and may you be edified and blessed…Only The Lord can take small portions of bread and fish and make them enough.

As I write to you, it looks as if Jerusalem is in a lock down and maybe under siege.  It is definitely a great grief. An outbreak of the cancer in the world today spreading everywhere in all of its various forms − be it this sin or that and this crime or that and this war or that − the source is the same.  It’s taking the form at this moment of the gay pride parade, which insists that they must march through JERUSALEM too.  THANKFULLY, this is NOT too big for The Lord Who hears our sighs and grief-filled cries for His city to become a PRAISE unto HIM in all the earth.

One year ago today at the parade, a young girl was stabbed to death by a religious Jew stirring great sympathy in the general public, many of whom are there today to support the parents and to stand against such hate.  It is a VERY deep rift as being a people under the first Covenant and the fullness of the Law. Those who are particularly zealous for the Law do look to emulate Phinehas, who, if you remember the account in Numbers 25, was greatly esteemed for killing the couple caught in gross sin in the camp as God’s judgment fell.  His act stayed the judgment of God.

I will only say that both the spirit and the emotions in the city right now are volatile. I search for The Holy Spirit’s Heart in the midst.  What a time we live in!  WHAT A RESPONSIBILITY TO PRAY!

This morning Ahuva died and she is being buried as I write.  I asked for prayer for her such a short time ago and this morning as my boss read to me the day’s notices concerning our patients that we receive on the computer, he said, “Ahuva is in hospital again…and…she died this morning!”

He was in as much shock as I was as the words spilled out of his mouth surprising him.  I gasped, ‘No!’

She was 61 and her daughters, Bat El (daughter of God) and Ma’ayan Nissim (a deep clean spring of water or miracle) are just 33 and 31.  The 3 lived together as the girls are both still single.  I had seen her last on the 11th when her lung was bothering her.  She pulled toward me and I said, “Oh Ahuva, I want to hug you but I am sick and I don’t want to infect you.” So I didn’t.

And sick I was!  For the first time in 20 years I was really sick with a plain old germ − sort of strep throat and bronchitis together. So I stayed home in bed for the next week and didn’t call her in the hospital where my boss sent her, suspecting a blood clot following the cancer surgery on her kidney.  I prayed for her, but the cancer moved so quickly. She had just been diagnosed but it had spread to her lungs.  She had been so scared and I said to her, “We each have just today.  Please don’t waste it being afraid.  Go out and look at the beauty…” And she did.

But I did not get to the hospital to share Yeshua. The One Who is our Peace, with her and I can only lay it before Him and leave it there.

What a gift this life. How precious. A reflection of His Love for us. He takes us on a journey, NOT to find ourselves but to LOSE ourselves and be found in Him.

Ok…enough!  I will get on…the train with you.

After a week in bed, reality hit me between the eyes as soon as I got downstairs to the train station in front of my apartment door. “Train delay due to security reasons.  There will be delays. 18 minute wait.” It is what the moving electric sign said in 3 languages.

No doubt about it, the train would be crowded and it was.  This was Sunday morning when the soldiers who have been home for Shabat travel back to their bases with their huge backpacks full of a week’s worth of freshly washed clothes and inevitable snacks and homemade goodies.  Thankfully, a young person got up to give me their seat. Yes, this is the way it is done here.  There are even signs saying: “rise before the elderly” on buses.

“H’Shem tishmor aleyhka hi’al!’ (The Lord watch over you, soldier!)The woman beside me said to the group of soldiers standing in front of us.

Everyone nodded.  They thanked her shyly, appreciating the prayers and sloppy love of the nation; their parents and siblings and children.  I still love watching fathers traveling with their sons on the train or bus to the central bus station and giving them a big hug and kiss and their big strong boy/man for the week.

I needed to stock up on whole oats so went to the grain vendor and dipped the scoop into the sack.  As I did I heard him describing an event.  I looked up and caught his eye. “What happened?” I asked.

“On the corner of King George and Yaffo, a te**orist  (sorry, it’s a catch-word on internet) with a belt was caught trying to get on the train!”

That’s 2 blocks away from the shuk and that is why the train was stopped.  He went on. “They blew up the e*plosi*es and it was a huge boom!” His adrenalin was flowing.

“Thank You Lord!”  we both agreed.

I’m sure that you know that we are not known for being politically correct (incredibly liberal, yes, but politically correct − not!) here in too many ways.  All of our security people and actually, all of our population, are well trained in reading body language and noticing suspicious actions.  This young man had been unusually nervous and several people had alerted the security guards. It was a Druze (like Bedouin, related to Arab) police officer that approached him and became the hero of the hour.

Going for my weekly blood test, I greeted all of the lab technicians. “Ma nish ma?  Ma shlom hem?” (‘what’s new?  how are you – or more accurately translated, “how is your peace?”)

There is a lovely display of the traditional mixture in Israel working together there. Very secular Russian immigrants, very religious middle eastern Jews, Muslims, Christians, Druzim, immigrants from France, all working in harmony as is so well displayed in all of the medical profession here.  It never ceases to bless me.  I was greeted by Oria (Light of God). “Hi!  My daughter had twins,” she beamed.

“Brachot rah’bot,” I answered (many blessings).

We spoke about the blessing of the thwarted attack and the abundant shifts going on all around us, the sad events in France, the boldness of Brexit, our political events, the extreme moves in Turkey and the upheaval all around us. It is amazing how much you can talk about in the short time that a blood test takes.  But thankfully it ALWAYS ends with uplifting joy. “What a blessing to know that Elohim takes care of us all and is watching over us.  He is just so good.” 

I must admit that I ENJOY going to our lab.

It had touched me that the Arab beggar who has come to me for nearly 20 years now, said the very same thing.  I found myself concerned about him and praying for him in the extreme heat spell awhile back.  He and I are the same age and I know that he isn’t feeling very well.  I hadn’t seen him for a week and when he finally came in I asked him how he was and told him that I had been concerned for them.  He also said, “h’Shem tshmor alenu.” (God watches over us) and I thought about that:  Yes, He DOES care for those who can’t care for themselves, the simple, the broken, the sparrow, the Arab and the Jew.

As I returned home from my first outing on my still unsteady legs, with some hot pita and some basic fruit and vegetables everyone on the train was saying, “God bless those Druzim police.  That could have been awful, but God watched over us.”

May The Lord add His touch to this offering out of physical weakness.  I miss you all…your fellowship is sweet.  May we be a blessing together to Him Who is the All in All.

Lovingly,

your sis J

The Shuk in Jerusalem

Once again, it’s time to hear from our sister in Jerusalem about what she is witnessing there as a believer in Yeshua. Put your prayer shawls on and pray for Israel and Sister J. Now here she is —

I greet you dear sisters and brothers in The Name above all names, Yeshua h’Meshiach, Jesus Christ.  He IS Lord.  May He be glorified and blessed and may you be blessed and encouraged; HE IS HOLY.

“There are just too many people, Lord…I can’t love them all…or even a few…How do YOU love this many people?…Lord?…I NEED a baptism into Your Love to be filled with YOUR love for others.  I don’t have it! Fill me with Your Spirit. I am lacking and in need. ”

This was my desperate conversation with The Lord on the crowded train earlier this week, BEFORE  13 year old Hallel Yaffa Ariel was murdered in her bed by a 17 year old knife wielding terrorist. And then 48 year old Miki Mark, father of 10 was gunned down in his car, his wife and 2 of his teen children badly wounded.

Yet I think that it was AFTER the British vote to leave the European Union, which I and most of the Israelis felt was VERY brave. A moral decision in the face of each one knowing that it was going to hurt them financially.  In spite of losing MONEY, standing, face and free travel and trade, they did it ANYWAY!  BRAVO! We applaud you for taking a difficult moral high ground in the face of the immoral decisions being made by the EU.  We read that it was a vote for hatred and against immigration, but we KNOW how the press works. I pray that God will honor this move and send revival! Israel is (generally) impressed!

Moving on: I think it was also just AFTER our agreement with Turkey and then the horrific bombing in Istanbul airport, the running of critical events one into another. And in the midst of all of the oppressive heat wave here and floods around the world, a world at the door of judgment eh?  Upside down and tumbling over, but WE HAVE AN ANCHOR!!

Yes, it was in the midst of all of this that I was on the train.  It was HOT.  It was CROWDED.  I was TIRED!  Again I looked at the assortment of objects vying for space with people around the train car.  Aside from all of the back packs, the shopping carts in all sizes, shapes and colors, there was a bicycle, a seeing eye dog, baby carriages and in came three boys juggling a super sized cage for raising canaries.

There is a unique type of baby transporter that was widely used on the kibbutzim.  It is actually a large playpen on wheels with a handle for pushing and can easily transport 6 two year olds.  They take up a LOT of room,but are VERY handy.  Thankfully there was none on the train THAT day, but that was when I looked around and said, “I do NOT love all of these people, Lord, but You do!  HELP!”

I began to think back to when I first became His disciple.  Did I love then?

It was MUCH easier to love the neighbor down the dirt road and the people in the feed store.  There just were NOT so many’ of them.  One at a time, I could pray.  One at a time I could love.

I remembered a time when I sat outside a mall with my Baby waiting for some people shopping inside.  I sat there for a long time and began to pray for all of the people coming in and out and wonder if that was really praying when suddenly I felt The Holy Spirit say to me, “That one is Mine!” And I looked and sure enough, He was hearing my prayers and assured me that He DID know the hearts of each one.

But now?  “THERE ARE JUST TOO MANY LORD!  WHERE IS YOUR LOVE IN ME?”

Revival!  That is what I have prayed about for YEARS!  And perhaps I more than anyone need it now in MY heart. A fresh outpouring and infilling of His Spirit.  I met Him during real Revival. Indeed I am a product of the prayers of that time…and the … well… I really feel it was (is) too Holy to taint with my words of description.  Because I had no experience BEFORE that time, I thought that was the normal state that every disciple walked in all of the time. Praying 24/7, filled constantly with His Words, moving from leading one to Him and then another. Meetings full of those falling on their faces before His holiness. I did not know that this wasn’t “normal Christianity.”

But even when I was removed from that wondrous season, I had seen and tasted enough to know that there was no other place for me than by His heart.   HOWEVER, there is nothing we can do or work up or pray up imitate.  It is only something that we can hunger for and cry out for until He opens the heavens and pours Himself down upon us!

“LOVE, Lord!  Do I even REALLY love my BROTHER, which you command that I must?”

I have found myself waking in the night praying for Him to pour out His Spirit and send Revival.  Oh, I know I’m NOT alone.  I’m sure that there are many of you praying the same thing also for years.  But if not now, when?  The times are surely desperate and changing so quickly.

It makes me wonder how long I will be able to continue these letters?  So few even read email anymore, with social media being so popular.  Snail mail has become almost unheard of and cell phones have replaced landlines.  Will this all collapse with the door closed?

So, while I can be, I am happy to be your “street walker and train rider here,” offering my eyes and ears AND my heart, although in poverty of love, still seeking His love.

My work place has become more intense lately.  I guess since my boss has had his practice for about 35 years now. His patients [as well as all of us workers] are aging as I have been there nearly 18 years. Death and impending death open up many opportunities to point toward the door of LIFE and I seem to have more and more opportunities like that lately.

I am shocked at how bold I have become at addressing death and HIM with those who suddenly find themselves approaching it.  Surely those of you who are health professionals in your countries find yourselves in such positions.  The main challenges that I find are:

1) language (although I can now function well in Hebrew I am not fluent with a depth that is needed to touch on deep things and 2) His Name to my people.  Still a wall, a veil, blinders, and an offence.

Ahuva (pronounced Ah’hoo’vah, which means God’s love) was the last patient in the office on Friday before we closed for Shabat.  Thankfully the office was now empty and when she came in I instinctively got up and put my arms around her and went and sat down with her.  She began to weep.  The single mother of two unmarried daughters in their early 20s, she finds herself with a new and advanced cancer.  She just got the diagnosis.  She begins to speak through tears: “I’m scared.  I find I am suddenly scared of everything.  I have never been like this but I am scared and without hope.”

I prayed silently.  Words began to come about how we have been through the doors once already when we are born and we know that our time here is finite.  She relaxes in my arms.

“But it is so dark,” she said gazing into my eyes.

I begin to tell her about my life BEFORE I met Him and how I had no hope, while praying how to share.  I said, “Then, I had an experience with God. Whom I hadn’t believed in up to that point, which changed my life. I could look AWAY from the fearsome pits and at the things in front of me NOW and suddenly see the beauty in birds and flowers again.”

As I spoke it came to me, how to begin to share with her.  “Ahuva, it is so much bigger than us. We are just for a moment, only God is forever and He really knows.  Talk to Him.  He is the source of our lives. Turn your face toward Him and ask Him to show Himself to you…”

I couldn’t believe that I was saying such things at work to this woman, but she was being truly comforted, so it MUST have been HIS Words and NOT mine.

Please pray for her and for an opportunity to share HIS Name with her OR THAT HE WILL HIMSELF.

Then there is Danbi.  She is exactly 6 weeks older than I am and the picture of health until she got a stomachache and was diagnosed with an incurable fast moving cancer this past week.  Talk about a shock!  I called her to see how she was doing and she said, “Please pray for me.”

She does not know that I am a disciple.  “Of course,” I said, and I have been.

There are many others.

But there was yet another- a different kind of interesting encounter when I went for my weekly lab test as I still have not yet been healed from my blood disorder.  I am friendly with the lab technicians.  Most are either religious Jews (dati) or Arabs.  I get a hug from each of them.

Last week I saw Rivka.  We got to talking about being thankful.  I enjoy her.  She has a big heart for God and seems to truly trust and love Him.  I do not know yet how to share His Name, but we speak much.  “I have a tool for praising Him while I’m on the bus,” she said.  She held up her hand with her fingers spread.  “One, two, three, four, five.  I take five words.”

“How do you do this?” I asked.

‘Well,” she said holding up finger number one, “this is my independence.  I was very sick and could do nothing for myself when I was a child, but God healed me and now I can walk and take care of myself and my family. I am not dependent upon others for my daily life, and I am so thankful, so I thank Him for all of the things I can do.”

I had never thought of that before.  “What is the next?” I asked.

“Two is for my body and the wonder that it is.  I thank Him for my eyes, I can see, hear, speak, move, and that it knows how to heal itself…it is wonderful!”  She went on, “Three is my family.  I am so thankful for my family and I thank Him (ha Shem…which means “The Name”) for each of them and bless them. Four is for provision.  I have a roof over my head, enough to eat, a job, all of these blessings are from “ha Shem. And FINALLY Five is Faith.  That too is a gift from ha Shem and I am so thankful for the gift of faith as so many do not have this. It is the most important.”

I could only agree with her and we hugged and smiled broadly at one another.  I thanked her and wrote her 5 points down.  What a wonderful way to keep a tender heart while on the bus and train.

Perhaps titling this letter as a “street walker” in the midst isn’t quite appropriate, but as I walk these streets, the streets of earthly Jerusalem praying, “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, even in the earthly Jerusalem as in the heavenly,” I truly think of you and try to record what to stash in my memory so that I might share it.  You help me to look for His perspective as I sometimes feel a little like a beaten up Ping-Pong ball.

I told you awhile back how He had exercised me in reading the major prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel along with Revelation), straight through over and over again for about a year. THANKFULLY I was also reading through New Covenant and Psalms at the same time or I surely would have lost my balance.  However now, looking at world events, I find I am almost not concerned. HE REALLY DOES HAVE IT ALL UNDER CONTROL!

I feel that even though, yes, we are important to Him, our little lives are so small in the hugeness of His plans and purposes.  Oh, I pray into the events, and roles of countries and leaders, but I remember clearly the words of Campbell McAlpine, a wonderful man of God, who said “Never be moved by circumstances.  Only be moved by God!”

How incredibly important that is as we watch it all sigh and heave and tremble, to keep our eyes fixed on Him.   I think how Elijah sent his servant to search the sky while he himself put his head between his knees, toward the ground, and prayed for rain. Finally a small cloud the size of a man’s fist appeared, but he didn’t have to look at it. He was looking at The One Who sent it.

May we be found of Him at PEACE, which is so elusive to the world and so longed for by men. It comes freely through the Precious Blood and we have the great privilege of being  “contagious carriers” of that Peace, reflecting it, in a lost and dying world.  Lord, shine on us so that we would reflect YOU Alone.

The Lord bless you and keep you and encourage you (and me) closer to Him.

Lovingly,

Your sister J

The Shuk in Jerusalem

Once again, it’s time to hear from our sister in Jerusalem about what she is witnessing there as a believer in Yeshua. Put your prayer shawls on and pray for Israel and Sister J. Now here she is —

Greetings, brothers and sisters, in Yeshua’s (Jesus’) Name.  May HE be glorified and blessed and made known, and may you be encouraged.

The name “Jerusalem” occurs 815 times in the Bible, 669 times in the Old Testament and 146 times in the New Testament; additional references to the city occur as synonyms.

The number of times will vary of course according to translation.  That used to scare me, [ie: how can TRUTH vary?] but the more I understand Hebrew, and the more I learn how to trust The Lord and His Holy Spirit, the less it scares me that translation differences occur.  His Truth IS and WILL BE and ALWAYS HAS BEEN and His Spirit can interpret it for our hearts.

It  seems that perhaps the fullness of time concerning Jerusalem is here and we must know what He says about this and where we stand concerning the city and His Word.  We must KNOW what God is saying about Jerusalem, for surely, though we may not fully understand why, it has a particular place in God’s heart and plans. 

Jerusalem Day (Yom Yerushalyim) is here.  It begins Saturday night and marks the 49th birthday of reunited Jerusalem, the beginning of the fiftieth (Jubilee) year.  [Interestingly, the Muslim’s month of celebrating Ramadan begins at the same time this year.]

Early this morning as I walked the two short blocks to work from my bus stop, a cloud of holiness pressed me into worship, a bowing down worship.  Multitudes of singing birds flew over my head and I began to count the flowering trees, bushes and plants along this very short route. Olive trees, pomegranates, passion fruit, grapes, lemons, oranges, shesek, almonds, apricot, the smell of the jasmine, mint, rosemary, hyssop, and nameless (to me) trees with blue flowers, purple flowers, red flowers and oh so much more.  The combination of the colors, the sweet smells and the songs of the birds overwhelmed me and my heart nearly burst.  This is Jerusalem!

“What is Jerusalem, Lord?  How does she appear to You and what do You feel about her? Teach me please…”

I have NEVER loved a city.  I ran from NYC where I was born, as soon as I was old enough, oppressed by the pressure of the too-many-people-and-too-much-noise all crammed together with its demands.  I longed for the wind of the country finding its way over the hills and through the trees whispering its own song.  And when we made aliyah some 22 years ago I didn’t think of coming to Jerusalem. But Derek Prince said it best: “You can not choose to live in Jerusalem, Jerusalem chooses whom she chooses.”

And I am still full of questions: “Who ARE you, Jerusalem?”

The sheer wonder of it all continued all through work today, and I HAVE to share with you.

“Where were you in 1967 at this time?” I asked in Hebrew nearly every patient that walked in to the clinic.  The reaction was UNIVERSAL.  All stopped and their eyes clouded over with wonder.

“b’mil’cha’ma?” (In the war?)  each asked.

Then they would stand still and look at me.

Shlomo Alkali turned a shining face to me before he had to run off. “I was in kita dalet [fourth grade].  We are 8th generation Jerusalemites. We all fought. I remember it as if it were today.”

Another said, “Although I was only two years old I remember it as if it were happening now. There was a wonder so that our skin stood on edge. I heard the sounding of the shofar. The people that had been dying stopped dying and were dancing in the streets instead.”

Dr. Wexler’s story was the one that brought me to tears (although they almost all did) because he is a bit fearsome.  He is now retired but a very famous doctor, artist, writer, highly regarded by one and all.  I haven’t spoken to him much.  But today, asking him this question transformed him.  I wish that my Hebrew were good enough to share with you the entire story, but I must admit that, although I fully understood and entered into the emotion of it, I did not understand all of the details, which this scientist described as nothing less than miraculous and holy.  As a matter of fact, the word “holy” was used by nearly everyone I spoke to today.  When I asked him where he was, he turned his face to me and stared with a profound silence. His face seemed to melt.  “I was a young doctor in the army, stationed in the Sinai,” he said.  “Right on the border with Egypt. There I was when the war started.  It was big.  Very big!  But the Bigger One fought for us and they miraculously surrendered to us the first day although we had nothing to defeat them.  I was rushed up to the Syrian border in a helicopter, where the fighting raged for another day: more miracles! Then I was rushed to Jerusalem, to Latrun first.  Each field hospital was full but we had to be rushed along the front where the fighting raged.  Then I was at the Old City when the line with Jordon came down.  You know, Jordon had all of this. It was a miracle. It is still a miracle.”

He spoke of being flown in helicopters held together with rubber bands and looking at Moti Gur and knowing he was a great man.  “He will be a General someday, I said to myself. ” You could feel the special mantle of authority on him.  This same Moti Gur became the General responsible for planning the famous Operation Entebbe to free the Israeli hostages held in Uganda in 1976.”

The stories went on.

“I was fighting for my home with my family,” one said.

Another said, “We lived near the wall and I followed the soldiers into the Old City!”

Each said that there was an electricity in the air that they never felt before or after. Their skin prickled with the wonder of the fact that they KNEW that they were part of a “holy event.”

I asked Bat El (her name means “daughter of God”) who is only in her 20s, if her mother, Ahovah (Beloved) told her about it.  She was vague. “My Grandmother told us all about it once and I think my Mother spoke of it, but I didn’t pay that much attention.”

I’ve gotten close to her mother who is undergoing cancer treatment and has grown fond of me.  I looked at Bat El and said, “You MUST ask her and ask her again until you feel as if you were there”  I showed the younger ones photocopies that I have of the proclamations signed by the Chief Rabbis and Generals thanking God and promising Him that we would guard Jerusalem and be faithful.  They HEARD and wanted to know more.

Here’s a link to more info on the 1967 Six Day War here.

And a great five minute video history of the war:

May we each be found IN HIM ALONE…With our eyes fixed upon Him…for His glory.

Lovingly,

your sister J

The Shuk in Jerusalem

Once again, it’s time to hear from our sister in Jerusalem about what she is witnessing there as a believer in Yeshua. Put your prayer shawls on and pray for Israel and Sister J. Now here she is —

Greetings, sisters and brothers,

I want to share a very special testimony.

I am deeply thankful that The Lord did not let me think I was okay so that my self-esteem wouldn’t be damaged.  I remember when the book, I’M OK, YOU’RE OK, was published years ago which basically stated that we are who we are and it’s okay.

OF COURSE to an extent, this is true.  He made us all with wonderful variations, just as He made the heavens and the earth His way, so creatively.  But I’ve also read and reread and reread again His Book and met Him who said “You, follow Me.” He has been faithful to tell me that I was NOT okay but that I was riddled with sin and desperately needed A Savior Whose Blood ALONE could atone for all that was NOT okay in me. And that I needed to confess and forsake those sins.  He EVEN is willing to gently lead me along the path that brings me over and over again to His True mirror where I can see myself in His Light and again say, “Oh no!  This stinks.  Help!” He is faithful.

One of the areas that I have stumbled at again and again is unforgiveness. I’m so thankful He hasn’t given up on me and I long to walk in constant forgiveness of others.  I have learned that unforgiveness (for me anyway) often clothes itself in nice “poor-me pity party” terms like rejection, victim, hurt, wounded, wronged, etc.  My flesh loves those terms and poor me becomes the focus instead of Almighty God.

The testimony of the woman below is that of an Israeli…NOT YET A BELIEVER…but I believe, a hero.  When “I’m ok and you’re ok” there ARE no more heroes. We don’t need them. They might make one of us feel badly and not so ok.  I am inspired by heroes to walk before Him Who is Holy.  Perhaps you will be too.  May the testimony of Smadar Haran encourage us all in this very upside down world.

Smadar Haran tells her story, brings journalists to tears.

Survior of the 1979 Nahariya terrorist attack tells her story to foreign war correspondents, who walk away in tears, shock at her lack of hate, and in awe of her refusal for revenge.

When Smadar Haran spoke, not a single pair of eyes around the table at the Rimon Hotel in Tzfat was without tears.

The foreign guests and journalists who sat around her – all of them veteran war correspondents – thought they had already written and seen everything. But this meeting with Haran, who lost who her husband Danny and her daughters Einat and Yael during the terror attack on Nahariya in 1979, somehow managed to shake them up. While with one hand they were writing down every word, with the other, they were wiping away tears.

This was the first time that the Foreign Ministry had ever flown in a delegation of European war correspondents. The purpose of the trip was to expose the journalists to the terror that Israelis have to deal with, and find correlations between the Israeli and European fight against terror.

The delegation was taught about the security arrangements at Ben Gurion International airport, received a tour of the Israeli border with Syria, and visited injured Syrians who were undergoing treatment at Ziv medical center in Tzfat. However, the headline of the trip was with Haran.

Smadar Haran meets with international journalists in Tzfat (Photo: Israeli Foreign Ministry)

“My story isn’t just my own personal story. It’s the story of the Jewish nation and of the State of Israel. It represents the spirit of the state of Israel,” Haran began.

She continued, “This is a national story, and although I’m a terror victim, I decided not to live like a victim and to re-build my life – just as my mother survived the Holocaust and re-built her life in Israel, just like how the Jews creatively re-built themselves any time there are losses or casualties.”

In 1979, terrorist Samir Kuntar infiltrated Israel on a rubber boat from Lebanon along with three other terrorists from the “Palestine Liberation Front.” The four came ashore in Nahariya, shot dead police officer Eliyahu Shahar and broke into the apartment of the Haran family. There, they took Danny Haran and his four-year-old daughter Einat hostage while Smadar hid in a crawl space with two-year-old daughter Yael.

The scene of the Nahariya terror attack (Photo: Tzvi Roger)

Smadar accidentally smothered her daughter Yael to death while she was trying to stop the toddler from crying and revealing their hiding place.

Danny and meanwhile Einat were taken to the beach where a firefight ensued between the terrorists and police officers who arrived at the scene. Kuntar shot Danny Haran then smashed Einat’s skull with the butt of his rifle, killing her as well.

“After the attack in Nahariya,” Haran went on, “I thought about my values – what type of person I want to be – and I decided that I want to be a person full of giving, not hate. I didn’t seek revenge, and I decided that wherever my life is stopped or interrupted, I would continue anew.”

“I never left Nahariya, and I live there today – close to where everything happened. A lot of the people who came to mourn my loss were Arabs, and they live together with us. My children knew their children. The lives of the Arabs and the Jews are intertwined like a collage.”

Terrorist Samir Kuntar, who killed Smadar’s family, being warmly greeted by Syrian President Bashar Assad (Photo: AP)

When asked what she thought regarding the fact that Samir Kuntar, the man who killed her family, was freed by Israeli authorities, Haran said, “When others asked what I thought about Kuntar’s release, I wrote a letter to the prime minister saying that Kuntar isn’t my personal prisoner, and I’m not his personal jailer. I said the decision needs to be made for the greater good and be done with the best interests of the State of Israel in mind. I knew he would return to terror, it wasn’t something that surprised me.”

When she was asked what her feelings were when Kuntar was assassinated, she said, “To my surprise, I didn’t feel anything, but I was happy to know that he wouldn’t be carrying out any more terror attacks in the future.”

The foreign journalists left the meeting with the emotion showing on their faces.

“Smadar is a model to be emulated, a true hero. The thing that really amazed us was her lack of hate and need for revenge after everything she had been through.”

Sincerely,

Your sister J

The Shuk in Jerusalem

Once again, it’s time to hear from our sister in Jerusalem about what she is witnessing there as a believer in Yeshua. Put your prayer shawls on and pray for Israel and Sister J. Now here she is —

Shalom again to Holocaust Memorial and Remembrance Day (Yom h’Shoar). Welcome, Lord of all comfort and Truth into this day.  Invade the hearts of those whose hearts have been so damaged by the unimaginable and yet still hope against hope that there is Truth, Hope and justice. May we who have seen The Face of Truth, Hope and Justice bring your Light into this darkening world.

Yes, it has been Yom h’shoar (Day of Holocaust literally but called the Remembrance day for the martyrs of the Holocaust, or just Holocaust Memorial day) once again, with its full shock of entry and time of deep reflection.

How does one begin to grieve or share the grief of 6,000,000,000…six million?

One at a time.

Our Knesset holds a ceremony: “Unto every person there is a name.” It goes like this: (a quote from the Jerusalem Post) —

“Social Equality Minister Gila Gamliel and her daughters lit a candle in her mother’s name, and in memory of her relatives killed in the Jado concentration camp in Libya, where 2,600 Jews were sent, 562 of whom died. Gamliel’s great-grandfather, Shia Bracha, was sent to the camp from Tripoli, and was killed while trying to escape, and her grandparents lost a daughter from malnutrition in Jado.

“Modern Israel owes part of its establishment to the heroes who underwent the hell of the Holocaust and rose from it to fight for Israel’s independence, thus ensuring the continuation of future generations in Israel,” Gamliel said. “The recognition in recent years of Holocaust survivors and victims of the Nazi regime in Arab countries is for me, as the daughter of a Holocaust survivor from Libya, is the closing of a circle and does justice to a large group in Israel that did not receive the recognition it deserves.”

Others who lit candles were Holocaust survivors Esther Meron, Avraham Ivanir, Fruma Galant, mother of Housing and Construction Minister Yoav Galant, and Svetlana Sorokin, mother of MK Ksenia Svetlova (Zionist Union), as well as Company for Location and Restitution of Holocaust Victims’ Assets Director-General Dr. Yisrael Peleg.

Next, MK Yaakov Margi (Shas) read from Psalms, Sephardi Chief Rabbi Yaakov Yosef said Kaddish and an IDF cantor chanted the El Maleh Rachamim prayer.

Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein began the name-reading by reading the names of children who perished in the Sharogorod Ghetto in Transnistria, where his grandparents and mother survived the Holocaust.

President Reuven Rivlin read the names of soldiers killed in the War of Independence who were the last surviving members of their families, as well as the names of their relatives who were murdered by the Nazis. His wife, Nechama Rivlin, read names of relatives, and had to stop in the middle to compose herself, as she was crying.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu kept his annual tradition of reading a poem his father-in-law, Shmuel Ben-Artzi, wrote in 1941 in Israel, when he lost touch with his family in Europe and did not know what happened to them. They all perished in the Holocaust.

Supreme Court President Miriam Naor said she and her cousins did research to find out names and details about relatives who were killed in the Holocaust…” AND SO ON IT GOES.

Poignant. Emotional. Indescribable. These are the words that come to me as I seek to describe the day that I have sought to describe for 21 years now.  At 10:00 am the eerie wail of the siren sounded throughout the country for two minutes while a nation stood silent and at attention, agreeing to share a mantle of grief far too heavy to be borne alone on the shoulders of tattooed old people.

For one day in the year they open the coffin of a closet where the dark memories lie hidden and share the unimaginable openly, in schools, on television and in ceremonies or homes, so that we can all carry it together with them.  We listen to their stories, sit and have tea with them, weep with them and hug them.  The stories are collected, written, and dramatized. “They must never forget!” they cry.  ‘The world must never never forget!’ they yell collectively, but their voices grow ever weaker.

It has been 70 years now since the Holocaust.  Many of them have lived this long because they have a burning passion to “Having survived −survive!” But they are dying because they are, after all, just flesh and blood.

A new and hopeful thing has cropped up.  It is called Zikeron b’salon or literally “Memory in the livingroom.”   I was listening to a report about it. They said that several years ago some young people were speaking of a need they had to find further expression concerning the Holocaust.  Children here learn about it in school from pre-school and the studies continue through the army and university.

During the last year in high school they participate in “The March of the Living” − a trip to Auschwitz death camp.  Suddenly they are post army and university and it all comes to an end.  A small group of young adults decided to meet in the livingroom, hear a testimony in person or on a tape, and to hold their own discussion and ceremony.  It caught on with young people all over the country and this year there were hundreds of such meetings.

Yes, it is taken personally.  Life from the dead…hope from ashes.

Last week one of our patients died.  Ada Steinberg was 96 and lived with a helper.  Originally from Russia, she had never married, made aliyah alone as a teenager, became a professor and had many friends, but she outlived them all. That was a chilling thought to me when she told me that her last friend died.  She was now all alone but she went on and became very close to her helper.

She died quietly in her sleep last week and I asked my boss who would sit shiva for her (mourn her in the Jewish tradition).  He stopped and said, “I don’t know.”

That wasn’t like my boss.  He knows ALL of these things!  “Was she in the shoah?” I asked him.  To my surprise, he didn’t know that either.  It took me quite awhile searching online to find anything about her but finally, on the Yad V’Shem website, (take a look) www.yadvashem.org/  among the recorded testimonies, I found hers.  It is in Hebrew and so it will take me awhile to listen, but I intend to.  She had a name.  She was brave.

I was raised with the Holocaust.  Today I found myself wondering how it had colored’ my world.  I guess I will never know really.  I was very small, perhaps two, when I first became aware of the Holocaust.  I had very thick curly dark hair and I was with my Mother.  It was summer.  I remember the dress that I was wearing.  A woman stopped to talk to my mother and she reached out and put her fingers in my hair and began running them through lovingly, but even then at that young age I knew something wasn’t right.  I remember her getting down on her knees and looking at me and saying over and over, “I had a little girl like you once, yes, I had a little girl just like you…”

My Mother sheltered me behind herself and I was holding on to her knees. But that was only my first encounter.  Holocaust survivors began pouring into our neighborhood in NY, USA and there was a scary feeling about them…something of death held on to them and it haunted me.  In our apartment there were books and photos of the newly liberated camps.  I would lay on the floor and look at the pictures and wonder.

My conclusion then was: “We must be such an awful people to be so deeply hated.”

HOW THANKFUL I AM THAT THE ONE WHO WAS DISPISED AND REJECTED PURSUED ME AND SAVED ME OUT OF THE HELL THAT I FOUND MYSELF TRAPPED IN!

So I stood outside of work at 10:00 a.m. this morning when the siren pierced the air and prayed for Kala Zeltzer, Yaakov and Ruth Lork and the other survivors that I know by name − for them to be comforted face to Face by The One Who is truly able to understand and bare even their grief and lead them safely home.

God bless you all.  Lovingly,

your sister J