Sep 13, 2015

Israel in a Nutshell

Jerusalem at Night from my balcony

Before I left for Israel, I had volunteered to write the trip report for Global Awakening upon my return. It was more difficult than I thought it would be because how can one express the trip of a lifetime? Impossible. But I did my best and thought I would share it with you. My Israel team hasn't even seen this yet, but you helped get me there and I am already far too late in reaching out to you with all that God did on the trip! You should be the first to hear it. Also, I took over a thousand pictures and will be sharing them for months on my Facebook page, but I am including a few from the early part of the trip along with my Baptism video for which I have almost no words! Enjoy!

The Sea of Galilee Gallery

The Trip in a Nutshell

What an honor it was to be a part of the first ever Global Awakening Trip to Israel! Initially we thought we would be ministering but were told at some point that scheduling such times did not pan out. We were given the option to get our deposit back at that time, but for most of us-we knew that we were not going on our own accord but rather it was the Lord who had given us the call to go.

The trip was led by Tom Jones, Pat Bock & Charity Cook and because the team was smaller by half than my last trip with Global, I got to know each of them a little better, I think we all did, and it was such a blessing! Tom's wife Brenda was also with us and brought such a sweet spirit to our time together.

This trip was based on a scheduled tour with a very knowledgeable Jewish woman named Jane. She knew more about the history and archaeology of Israel than I even knew was possible! If you love history and want to understand all that has happened in Israel since the time of creation until now, this is the trip for you!

We stepped off the plane and hit the ground running. The great thing about that is that we got to see as much as possible on our eight day excursion, the downside was that retaining it all was next to impossible! (Thankfully we had an awesome note taker named Suzy on our team! I took over a thousand pictures and will eventually match up her notes to my photos so I have a better remembrance of all I saw.)

First stop-the Mediterranean Sea. Talk about an amazing seascape. Picture perfect and rich with story after story. We even got to wade in its waters and collect a few shells before moving on, and even though exhaustion was prevalent from the flight and time change, the refreshing waters of the beautiful sea gave us the energy we needed to make it through that long first day as we made our way to the hotel in Tiberius.

Our time at the Sea of Galilee was just incredible. The hotel overlooking the Sea was beautiful, but it was the boat ride with worship that made the bible come to life in a new way for me and others. To be riding on the water that Jesus miraculously walked upon, and learning on the very shores that He taught, was just surreal. As I type this, I long to get back there even now.

Jane surprised us with a special guest who grew up fishing on the Sea with his brother. His testimony is just lovely but I don't want to give away the reason he was so special! It was a highlight of our time in Tiberius and I would imagine will be included in the agenda of all future trips!

I can't possibly cover every stop along the way, but I must talk about the Baptisms in the Jordan, although mine left me pretty much speechless! Baptisms are my favorite, but I have never, ever seen them as beautiful as Pastor Tom did them. He spoke an individual, prophetic blessing over each person before he dunked them. The Holy Spirit was all over each of us and I believe that even though most of us had been baptized before, we emerged NEW once again. God did a new thing in all of us that stepped into the river that day. I will never be the same. My baptism that day was one of the highlights of my whole life. I would make the trip again just for that and everyone who gets the chance needs to take it. That is all.

Next stop was a palace on a mountaintop called Masada. Such an interesting and spiritually heavy place. All I can say is that after that, we couldn't wait to get to dip into the Dead Sea! Weird, warmer than we expected, and SO MUCH FUN!!!

Next stop. JERUSALEM. As we stepped off the bus to the hotel, the young man at the door looked right at me and said, “You made it. Welcome HOME.” Tears sprung to my eyes at the implication, he was right, I was home. Each step throughout the city after that confirmed it. When I got upstairs my key didn't work and I had to head back down fifteen floors to the lobby. As I stepped off the elevator, that same man asked me if I was a Christian and if I would pray for him. Even though the ministry wasn't scheduled, God opened doors like that for most of us that I have talked to. Little moments with the people of Israel where we got to pray in the name of Yeshua. Hallelujah!

This report is already probably too long but I have yet to mention Tom's friend Michael who was AMAZING!!! You could see Jesus in his eyes and he was so full of passion for the people of Jerusalem! He has ministered there for over thirty years I think he said, and surprised us with a special trip to a secret place that you will just have to go to find out! He filled in a lot of the holes in my end times theology and when he spoke my spirit leaped as revelation and understanding took root! I could have listened to him all day everyday.

I would be remiss not to talk about the Jewish Quarters, my favorite place in all of the sites we visited. And the people, the soldiers, the children, the FOOD! Oh the food! All of it was incredible. We were treated like kings and queens at the hotels, but even the street food was some of the best anywhere in the world! If I could've just sat in the Jewish Quarters meeting people and grazing on the pastries the whole trip, it would've still been life changing. God even opened a door for me to talk about the Free Masons with a homosexual that then let me pray over him! He was hungry and although he said he was a Christian, he had never heard of people actually healing and casting out demons like Jesus did and was HUNGRY for that in his own life! So maybe we didn't get to do that on this trip like most Global trips, but you'd better believe that God planted seeds in the people there through our team. Talk about awesome!

This trip was so very different. It is difficult to write about what God did while we were there because for each of the forty plus of us, it was different. Totally different. I learned while trying to connect with Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, that I was on assignment from the Lord. My purpose and call there was to pray warfare prayers for Israel. Tongues flowed up and out almost continually as we toured. In some dark places I could feel my spirit warring and became even more content in my call. But if you ask others on the team what it meant to them you would hear everything from it being the fulfillment of a lifelong dream, to how just hearing the history of all the holy sites had deepened their relationship and understanding of their walk with the Lord. One woman had a dream of a place that she ended up unexpectedly walking into in Jerusalem! Another man kept getting confirmation upon confirmation of prophecies that were spoken over him previously! On and on! There is no summing up this trip because there are over forty different summaries and not one is any less fabulous than the next. It may have been a touring trip-but God had a supernatural plan for each of us that He fulfilled. I know that all that happened there will continue to unfold for each of us over the days, months and years to come. Eight days in Israel, a lifetime of revelation. Praise Jesus.