The Last Two Days in Israel

-----The Sea of Galilee-----

Were unbelievable.

Though I really do need a better camera. Friday morning we had a chance to meet Taysaar Saada, author of the book “Once an Arafat Man”. He told stories of a crazy past filled with hate and acts of jihad, where he had worked closely with Yasser Arafat.

After meeting the Lord in Kansas City, he has returned to Israel to help with the impoverished Palestinians. Check out his organization, Seeds of Hope, here.

After some time with him we met a gentleman who was traveling with him, Mark Crosslin. Turns out Mark is from Atlanta. Any guesses on where he goes to church?

12Stone.

Which of course just happens to be my church. Yeah right.

Thanks, Lord.

Mark and I have already had lunch on this side of the world. What a cool connection.

After the time with Taysaar, we took off for Galilee, arriving in just enough time for a quick lunch before heading out on a worship boat. It was a little cheesy, especially when the first song they sang was the US national anthem. Yikes. Now, I love my country just fine, but that was a little ridiculous.

After the boat ride we took off for Haifa where we spent time with Kehilat HaCarmel right on the top of Mt. Carmel. They were just celebrating the graduation of a class of adult students from all over the world. I was able to meet people from Ghana that knew my good friend Sam Oppong, as well as people from Finland that knew Risto Huvila, a gentleman that has helped us promote Crown there.

Small world.

At the Shabbat dinner one of the leaders of the ministry was telling one of our team members how he had really hoped to get Crown to come to Israel. He called me over. The guy, Peter Tsukahira, has written a book called “My Father’s Business” and is passionate about seeing Israeli’s raised up to serve God through business. How cool is that?

My mind filled with thoughts and possibilities, I slept incredibly well after this long day.

The next morning we journeyed back to the top of Mt Carmel and worshiped at the Mt. Carmel Assembly. Their worship slides were in Hebrew, Russian, Arabic and English. The church had an incredible mixture of nationalities and cultures, all bound together in their adoration of Yeshua. There were messianic Jews from Israel, Arabs, Russian Jews and a large crowd of Sudanese refugees that had migrated from Darfur.

David and Karen Davis planted this church almost accidentally several years ago. It has been multicultural from the very start and we all felt incredibly blessed to worship with them. Oh yeah, they had 12 stones placed around the alter, I guess some guy named Elijah piled up 12 stones in the exact same spot a few thousand years ago.

-----Some of the 12 stones around the alter at Mt. Carmel Assembly-----

We walked down from Mt. Carmel into the surrounding Druze village and ate at a local Druze restaurant. The food was amazing…and my Greek friend Yanni will be glad to know I had the lamb.

And that was it.

A 2am taxi ride to the airport, a 3:30am interrogation about my recent trips to Indonesia and Malaysia, and they let me board the plane and go home.

Thanks, God. Thanks for choosing a people to demonstrate your grace. Thanks for placing them in this amazing corner of the world. Thanks for sending your Messiah to this place so we could celebrate His coming. And so, Merry Messiahmas!

-----On top of Mt. Carmel, believe it or not this was a candid photo-----