My miraculous 2018 trip to Israel

 

In 2012, I contacted the Hebrew University of Jerusalem with a view to taking Biblical Hebrew lessons with them, online.

https://israelbiblicalstudies.com/

Unfortunately, at that time in my life, there was NO WAY I could even think of affording the fees. But talking to the consultant ignited a fire that I would fan into full flame five years later.

Since I had been saved in 1990, I had always wondered with great pain why Israel was always God's favourite in the Scriptures. No one in the church could ever answer my question satisfactorily.

In 2017, after searching for "Jesus in the Jewish feasts", I finally took the plunge and signed up for those Hebrew lessons I mentioned earlier.

My first teacher was a Cohen whose family were from Yemen. After just a few short weeks, I began to actively seek a way to go to Israel. Since there was no financial way I could pay for a trip to the Holy Land, I investigated each and every sponsorship programme I could find, without success. After a few months of this, I said to the Lord:

"OK, Father, it looks like I will only go to Jerusalem when You fetch me and take me there for the Messianic reign. I have found no way to go before then."

Then the thought of using part of my small pension payout towards this end entered my mind.

My friend, Peggy, who I had met in the Hebrew class, received an email from me asking if she would like to go to Israel with me. I honestly did not expect her to say yes! But she did!

She has an Israeli friend by the name of Clint Correll. He is an amazing individual. He plays the French Horn in his local symphonic orchestra in Virginia, USA. He travels to Israel twice a year and leads small tour groups while he is there - so we excitedly asked him if he could facilitate such a tour for us around the time of Sukkot.

Clint Correll, Master Tour Leader to Israel, can be contacted on:

stich_@hotmail.com

or via WhatsApp on +1 804 304 5557

Due to his commitments to his orchestra, we went in early October. Peggy and Clint promised me the best time of my life. And they certainly did not disappoint!

I could not believe how fortunate I was to have found this treasure and began planning and packing for my trip to Eretz Yisrael with great vigour.

I had friends at my church who offered to cook a meal or two for my twin girls of 16 years old while I was gone. I bought a lot of frozen meals for them and made sure they were well provided for and looked after for the 3 weeks that I would be gone. I could hardly believe it - I was going to Israel!!

At the OR Tambo, I was the only person traveling to Israel alone so there was only me in the queue. The El Al staff gave me the best of attention. My suitcases were already through and on their way to the plane, when the security person interviewing me asked me why I was going to Israel, I told him that I was meeting friends from the States there and we were going to spend time in Jerusalem. He thought that sounded suspicious and I was then repeatedly questioned by 3 different people, each time more intensely. Then they brought my luggage back and unpacked everything, even x-raying my umbrella! I was almost in tears! There was also a sniffer dog walking around - I'm not sure if that was for my benefit or not. Anyway, to my great relief, they let me get on the plane. I sat next to a kind young Jewish man all the way to Ben Gurion Airport.

When I arrived at customs, I was again the one and only visitor that was not traveling as part of a group from South Africa, and because of the political climate, I had the queue all to myself. In a matter of minutes, the sole of my foot touched down upon the soil of the Holy Land! Wow! What excitement!

The rest of our little tour group, Clint, Peggy, and Louis, were to meet me in the arrivals hall upon my disembarkment from the plane and collection of my luggage. I walked confidently through to the main plaza just inside the airport doors, looking around for my friends. I walked the length and breadth of the plaza four times, but could not find them anywhere. With mounting apprehension at being stranded in a foreign country and unable to speak the language, I approached the lady at the helpdesk. She did understand English to some extent, fortunately, as I told her my story of woe: That my friends have not arrived to fetch me. She asked me where they were coming from and I couldn't remember the name of the hotel, so I scratched in my luggage for the itinerary and finally gave it to her, The Mitzpe Yam in Netanya. She called the hotel, who said my friends had just left to fetch me. As I turned around my eyes came to rest on a smiling group of three people who were approaching me. As my eyes came to rest on the only female member of the group, I found myself flinging my arms in the air and joyfully shouting: "Peggy!"

Here is a picture of three of the four musketeers in front of the delightful Mitzpe Yam Hotel, Clint in the middle:

We spent a few joyful and busy days in Netanya, meeting some wonderful Messianic Jewish people. We visited, among others, the Promenade:

The Russian Memorial:

    [The scene depicted in the photo above made me so sad. It is a memory in stone of something that actually happened: A Nazi soldier shot a Jewish mother and her baby at point-blank range. The mom can be seen turning her back to the soldier to protect her baby. How can people do such things to one another?]

Zikron Ya'akov:

Wadi Dawid (or En Gedi):

    [This is where King David hid with his men for about 9 months while he was feeling from King Saul. It is the most amazing place, dry white cliffs with water coming out of them in secret corners, a perfect hiding place for the King Elect.

    In reading through Song of Songs the other day, we discovered that this place used to once be a fertile and flourishing vineyard and possibly an orchard too.]

    Rosh Hanikra:

We went right up to the Lebanese border to these amazing white caves. "Lavan" in Hebrew means "white", ie, Lebanon.

    Inside, the colour of the water is a stunning blue. We could hear the sea pounding on the outside of the walls of the caves. On the day we were there, scores of excited kindergarteners were in attendance with their teachers. It was a joy to behold the exuberance of youth:)

        

    Back in Netanya, I looked for the Yemenite Museum which I had found advertised online, but in its place, we found new buildings being constructed. There is an extraordinary amount of building going on in Israel.

    Here we are relaxing at a coffee shop in Netanya, right across from where the Yemenite Museum was supposed to have been, directly after Motzei Shabbat, at about 8pm, one Saturday night:

(I was behind the camera!)

Soon, we found ourselves on our way up to Yerushalayim! Halleluyah!

    Clint gave us the freedom to choose what we would like to do and see in Israel, so I did a lot of online investigation and found several places I just HAD to see. One of them was a coffee shop/restaurant/bookstore called Timol Shilshom, which literally means "the day before yesterday", but is also a Hebrew idiom, which I can't remember the exact meaning of. It turned out that the owners were friends of my Hebrew teacher, Yahuda Cohen.

    It did not disappoint. The food and service were outstanding! We went there several times during our stay. It was just around the corner from our flat on Ben Yehuda Street. Here is a pic of Peggy & I, chilling in a comfy corner of this amazing little gem.

I have never felt such happiness and peace as I did while in Jerusalem. It was the most remarkable experience of my life.

    Something I had been looking forward to very much was to be able to pray at the Western Wall. Prior to going to Israel, I found a live feed of the Kotel and watched it, and the people praying at it, day in and day out, my heart filled with such longing to be there.

    Here I am FINALLY walking towards the Kotel for the first time in my life to pray:

    As I approached the Wall, I was almost overcome with awe and joy. When I placed my hand on the stones, I felt the Presence of the Father so strongly that I just cried and couldn't pray for several minutes.

    I had brought only one written prayer request for one friend with me and so I placed it lovingly in one of the many over-crowded cracks in the Kotel, trusting God for my friend. I also squeezed in a prayer for myself, though Clint brought us back to pray here often during our stay, for which I am very grateful.

    The strong Presence of the Father that I sensed is backed up by 2 Scriptures:

    2 Chronicles 7:16 - "For now I have chosen and consecrated this house (the Temple Solomon had built), so that My Name can be there forever;  My eyes and my heart will always be there."

    1 Kings 9:1-3 - After Solomon had finished building the house of the LORD, the royal palace and everything else he wanted to build for himself, the LORD appeared to Solomon a second time, as He had appeared to him in Giv'on. ADONAI said to him, 'I have heard your prayer and your plea that you made before me. I am consecrating this house which you built and placing  My Name there forever; My eyes and My heart will always be there."

Solomon's prayer to God in the dedication of the Temple is very intense and moving. It can be read in 1 Kings 8:1-61.

    Since the Kotel is the part of the ruins of the Temple that is closest to the Holy of Holies, it is no wonder the Presence of God is still so strong there. He said it would always be!

This is already a very long piece of writing, therefore I will offer the entire story in installments - the second part will be out in a few days.

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem!