During our 3 weeks in Egypt the Lord gave me a picture of our team. I saw a picture of us walking in the desert and up ahead in the distance Jesus was walking, leading us as we followed in his footsteps.
For me and the team this was very encouraging as we felt the Lord saying that he was preparing the way for us for the next 2
months and that were ever we would go he would have been before to prepare everything for us. Looking back at our time I could see how the Lord prepared the way for us on our journey through the promised land and how we literally walked in his footsteps as we walked the streets of Jerusalem and the shores of the Galilee. Our GCEX journey was drawing to an end but the Lord still wanted to show us something dear to his heart before we went home, he wanted to show us Israel.
The Lord opening the doors and we had the privilege of becoming part of a messianic congregation situated on mount Carmel in Haifa for a total of 5 weeks. The ministry known as OrHa Carmel www.carmel-assembly.org consists of the congregation, a refugee shelter for African women and children, a rehabilitation centre for drug addicts called “House of Victory” and a ministry called “School of Ministry” which is aimed at giving international groups a better understanding of the prophetic significance of Israel and how they fit into the picture. We had the opportunity to
serve the congregation for 2 weeks helping with maintenance around the congregation as well as playing with the children from the shelter. While doing this we became part of their community celebrating with them their Jewish holidays, Shabbat and attending their various prayer meetings and worship meetings. Here I once again realized the importance of intercession and I experience worship as mentioned in John 4:23. I experience a group of believers worshiping in spirit and in truth. It was a amazing time for me here on mount Carmel and in these 2 weeks the people of the congregation and the children grew very near to our hearts.
After taking a week off to do our Luke 10's we
returned to OrHa Carmel to help the for the next 2 weeks with their School of Ministry, which is a two week intensive training and study tour of Israel. They where receiving a group from Mexico attend the School of Ministry and we helped out with the logistics, serving the students and being the ‘sheep dogs’ which had the task of keeping the group together while we were on tour. This was an unbelievable blessing for us as a team as we could sit in on all the teachings and could visit all the biblical sites in Israel. We learned so much from the teachings given by Peter Tsukahira and a few other speakers and could walk in the footsteps of Jesus as we went to places like the Sea of Galilee and Jerusalem. We gained so much knowledge that we would never have gained if we were to visit these places on our own and the Bible really came alive to us in these two weeks. In the two weeks we really built great friendships and it was quite sad when we had to say goodbye to all our Spanish speaking
Mexican friends.
After the SOM we staying a few more days in Jerusalem after which we made our way to the Bethlehem. Here we served at a Coptic convent for about 4 days excavating a newly bought cave, which they are planning on converting into a Church. Here I was reminded of what hard work was as we moved about 45 tons of soil in our time here. It was however great to be part of this project knowing that one
day this cave we were excavating would be a church used to preach the Good News of Jesus in a country that is predominantly Moslem and Jewish. After our time in Bethlehem we said our goodbyes and enjoyed our last night in Jerusalem and Israel thinking back at the great time we had there.
Looking back at our time in Israel I could see God’s hand in everything that happened. How he lead us up to mount Carmel and how he put all these people in our lives to teach us more about the Jewish people and Israel. It was an amazing experience and one, which I will forever cherish in my heart and I thank the Lord for everything he did for us here!