A Tour Of Roses Israel, Day 2

The Team found this dove peacefully nesting inside the Western Wall

 

Dear Friends of Improbable People Ministries and A Tour Of Roses,

Sunday brought a bag of mixed blessings for our A Tour Of Roses Team. A clothing bag was lost by the airline. The night before, several of the women were locked out of their rooms for the night. Without a desk clerk available they were forced to share a room with other women of the team. There were too many women and too few beds. Sound sleep was hard to come by. The next day brought the greatest concern. The rental car’s electronic key Fob went missing a was nowhere to be found. How would the team make their travel plans? On the other hand, reports are the Sunday morning worships session was lovely and healing. A dove appeared at the window as Dave sang and played on guitar with wife, Yara, accompanying him. Later the team took the 20 minute walk to the famed Holy place of Jerusalen: The Western Wall.

They saw natives and tourists. The saw IDF soldiers. One was even praying at the wall herself. Many were crying tears of joy, tears of sorrow, tears of uncertainty. Their prayers were fervent and their hearts were focussed. Some of those stories appear below. As I said, Sunday was a mixed bag. But what does Scripture remind us to do?

 

My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials,
knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.
But let patience have its perfect work,
that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

—James 1: 2-4

 

TEAM TESTIMONIES

KHALIDA:

After our Saturday evening service at  Succat Hallel, I approached a young lady who was writing in her journal.  And the Lord was giving her the writing about the “one new man”—about the love in the Arabs and the Jews. And the Lord gave me the same Word as He gave to her. I found that that she just came from South Africa three days earlier to serve in Israel and so-called “halal.” And the Word that the Lord gave me matched exactly the same word that she was writing in her journal! There was so much love, hugging, and tears between us. Many tears. And we talked about the Tour Of Roses.

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When I was at the Western Wall praying today, the Lord put it on my heart to pray for the hostages. And I started weeping, and it was coming from the depth of me—because I felt the Holy Spirit weeping through me. And I notice a young lady on my right and she was also weeping. I couldn’t talk to her because I was just weeping so hard. All I could do was show her my hostage necklace that I have been wearing since October 7th. And I showed her I am praying for the hostages. She started crying harder and I started crying more also, and we couldn’t talk for 20 minutes because we were crying so hard together. Then we hugged each other and wept on each others’ shoulders. After awhile we were able to exchange words. I found out she is a Canadian who is taking a year to live in Israel, and to pray for the Jewish and Arab people in Israel. As we exchanged about our prayer time, I found out that during the time we were both crying early on, she had been told by the Holy Spirit to intercede for the hostages. And, as I showed her my necklace she was really touched. So we were on the same wavelength through the Holy Spirit.

 

Karen:

At the Western Wall I started talking to the lady in front of me. And she was asking where we were from. And if we were Jewish. And I told her we were Christians and that we had come to pray. And she asked if we were afraid. I said “No, God sent us.” And she agreed, saying, “When God sends you that’s good.” She really appreciated us coming. 

YARA:

Worship today was very meaningful and powerful. I felt the Lord’s presence, and so did most of us. Being on the worship team at my church, sometimes you don’t really get to engage the way you want to, so it was nice to engage in worship without worrying about whether I am playing the right notes. So, that was a real blessing. 

ANNIE:

What a combination–the peace, the solemn, overwhelming peace at the Wall as we prayed and as we sat and just watched. There was even a white dove that stuck out to us, as it was perched in the Wall. Having the depths of sorrow was an older woman standing at the wall next to me, quietly crying out to God. I thought of how it must have been for Samuel’s mom, Hannah, when she seemed to be pleading. And it caused me to begin praying for all the mothers and sisters and daughters—and then even the fathers and sons of the hostages. The combination of all that and the struggle of all the blockages on this trip—being locked out of our room, the battle trying to find the car key… and other struggles I have had with handling my phone and plumbing issues back home, I could feel and see that the enemy was trying to distract us. In the evening when we all sat together and prayed, there was a breakthrough as we battled against those hindrances. That was a beautiful time of unity, which was reflected in the morning worship with Dave leading earlier in the day. So, it was very full day. We praise God for the key being found and doors all being opened. And that we are heading out to Tel Aviv to hand out the roses.

SALLY:

Cleaning roses at 1:22 AM in Jerusalem so we have them tomorrow. Hard day–but beautiful also. Worship was lovely this morning and Karen’s devotions were excellent. There was a dove sitting over on the window balcony opposite us while we worshiped. And the windows were open, it stayed there until we were done worshiping and then left. The time we spent worshiping and praying at the Western Wall was hugely impactful for me. I felt SUCH peace in the presence of the Lord. It was awesome!! Later on, in the evening, we had an amazing meal with a couple who are friends with Evi. Alison is a trauma counselor, among other things and shared a lot of information and answered many questions from the group before dinner and after. I was incredibly grateful for the prayer of everyone tonight. I felt so beyond myself. And it was pretty freaky where the key wound up being found. I started working on the roses and some of the others joined me right around midnight—and as I pulled up a bunch of roses the key fell out. ONLY God… So I thank You and praise You God!!! Hallelujah!!! We are off to Tel Aviv in the morning as planned, by the grace of Almighty God.

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READER COMMENTS

This comment comes to us from a family friend who heard through the grapevine, as events were unfolding, the troubles the team have been experiencing. I believe he wrote this as a word of encouragement:

We’re praying for Sally and team… 

It strikes me that so often these “hindrances” I’ve heard about… Luggage, car keys etc etc that are preventing their plan from going off “as planned”…. Needs to be carefully prayed about! 

The Lord’s plan will ALWAYS prevail.  

We can’t stop it. 

Often our first action is to think this is the ENEMY stopping me from doing the ministry I’M here to do… Etc etc

THE PROMISE OF THE WORD IS THE GATES OF HELL WILL NOT PREVAIL AGAINST US!

Over many decades in the Ministry I’ve learned well, this is not and never was, MY ministry! 

I am, and we ALL, are only SERVANTS of  The Lord!  

He tells us what to do.

 We don’t tell him what we’re going to go do for him.

We can have no plans of ours.

Only what he has decreed will be! 

The Example that keeps coming to Mind:

Balaams donkey! 

The Lord had an Angel in his path to protect him from destruction.

My prayer is the team will discern what is the plan of The Lord and NOT worry about the details of things being lost. 

As we are to REJOICE in ALL things! 

Paul was praising the Lord in the Philippian jail! It wasn’t his plan to be there and kind of messed up HIS plans actually… but God’s plan was better!

 

Please feel free to leave comments of encouragement or observations on these events of these updates at the end of this blog post below. The comments are curated and may take a few hours to appear.

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PHOTOS

Sally at the Wall

Lura (blue covering) and Ingemar (flowered covering) beseeching a Holy God

Eric, Ingemar, and Annie go shopping

The IDF, a welcome but constant reminder of where we are

 

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TEAM ITINERARY