Jan 22

Hello All -

I have posted new pictures to Facebook, if you are interested.

As I sat in church this morning, the Spirit of the Lord touched me in a powerful way, for which I am grateful.

B/c we leave the doors of the church open our worship music can be heard in the streets as people pass by, and oftentimes they poke their heads in to see what is going on inside.  All kinds of people – mostly Arab men come in and site for a while in the presence of the Lord.  I was so touched today when about 10 different men came in and spent time (they come in one by one or in two’s) with us.  It was precious to witness.  Some stay a while and play the hand drums; at other times they will just sit quietly and watch us and listen to whomever may be speaking or praying.  Sometimes I do what I did today which is stand by the open door and welcome them and invite them to come in.  Many hesitate to do so, but a smile and warm greeting goes a long way toward drawing them in.  We trust that the Lord is allowing us to sow seed and do some watering in the hearts and lives of these precious souls.  We also offer them Arabic Bibles and / or a book about forgiveness written by John Arnott.

Today as I studied one young man who cam in, I just began to weep and weep for lost souls.  I sensed how extremely blessed we are as Believers, and cried for the lost, hurt, desperate and bound.  My thoughts revolved around the Arab community globally.  No doubt God is doing something in my heart in this season of time in Israel, though I am not quite sure what it is.

Gaza trip update:  This afternoon we received news from Hamas officials that we have been approved by their Minister of Education and the Minister of Interior to go in and work with Hamas students.  As I believe I have mentioned, we will be working with 14-16 year old young men and women helping them to improve their English skills and just encouraging them and imparting hope, etc.  We had not known that there were going to be young women there as well so for that we were grateful.  The women on the team were not going to be able to work with the male students.

God’s plan and agenda is starting to take shape and we are becoming closer as a team.

Most (if not all) of the team has been sick for the past week.  A cold/flu thing really spread quickly throughout this camp.  I did not start getting it until a day or two ago.

Will update again soon.  Love to all!

Val