Day 9 – Proverbs 16:9

Proverbs 16:9 is a verse the Lord gave me when we started the church 9 years ago, A man’s heart plans his ways, but the Lord directs his steps.  Today would be a day when we would begin to plan the way and watch the Lord begin to direct our steps.

In this last leg of our trip, we would begin with breakfast in the Hotel Gilgal dining room.  This hotel has been a real blessing.  It is owned by a Christian Jewish man and his wife.  Both Donna and Sue have met them and I am hoping to as well, before we leave. 

Their accommodations are very nice, but what has been even better is the lobby where I am able to use the working internet at a very reasonable price, 20 shekels (approx $6.00) for 24 hours.  They wanted $20.00 for 24 hours at Nof Ginnosar.

We had a great discussion over breakfast as to the goals and strategy for bringing Healing Hearts ministry to Israel.  The Lord has been, step by step, opening various doors with unique opportunities.  It will be fun to watch them continue to unfold.

Our lunch with Pastor Steve Apple was very insightful.  We learned a lot about the challenges of witnessing to the Jewish people.  I am looking forward to sharing at Veritas on Saturday about some of the things he shared.  He and his wife have been here for 6 years and have to leave the country every 90 days to renew their visa.  He shared with us that less than ½ of 1% of the population are Christians.  This is a much smaller percentage than many of the other countries.

Pastor Steve gave us some great ideas for the missions portion of our trip in 2011.  We talked a lot about the trafficking of women in Tel Aviv which though is illegal is not considered by the authorities to be a big enough problem to  address it with all of the other things that are happening in this country.  He gave us good input on how we can establish a Healing Hearts presence here.  It was after this meeting that Sue felt the trip was well worthwhile.

Whitney, Sue and Donna headed to the church for Women’s bible study.  There were approximately 9 women in attendance.  Gigi was filling in for Pat Apple who was still recovering from a near case of pneumonia.  Gigi was leading the worship and Sue and Donna had an opportunity to share about Healing Heart’s ministry.  Donna was able to share part of her testimony and they felt that the women were really touched.

Our day ended with dinner at a unique restaurant which served various meats on skewers.  There was goose livers, lamb, kabob (pressed meat)…I was very bold and had chicken.  Without a word being said, Sharif and I were having a pickle and olive eating contest, I think I might have won.  One of the highlights was when I looked over at the owner cooking the skewers who needed to whip out a cigarette and light up…while he was cooking the meat.

EPILOGUE…

Tomorrow we will shop for the food for the soup kitchen.  It sounds like this is where the adventure begins.  We will be heading into a market area and purchasing all of the food and then transporting it back to the church…on foot.  Our team of four is getting along so well it is surprising to us all.  We are each trying to figure out to get a good fight started, doesn’t seem right that we should be around each other this long and not have had an argument.  Even Whitney and I haven’t fought, yet…but there a still a couple of days left.