A Tour Of Roses Israel, Day 3

 

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

The fellow above, presumably an Israeli citizen, looks a bit dazed as he studies the beautiful, long-stemmed rose which was handed to him just moments before by a member of the A Tour Of Roses Team. “Why would someone come all the way from America, a Christian no less, just to share this beautiful gift with a complete stranger?” He may be pondering this thought for several days, for there is no clear answer to that absurd question. Except maybe this:

 

FOR GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD . . . 

 

With that idea in mind our Team loaded up the vehicles and left Jerusalem today, headed back to Tel Aviv, Having cleaned, removed withered petals, stripped of thorns, tied ribbons and a card on each long stemmed rose, they headed out

for there very first Rose encounter with God’s Chosen on the streets of Israel. There are many testimonies of their encounters along with pictures bringing the tales to life. So we’ll turn the rest of the update over to these stories and pictures. We hope you are blessed by them.

 

TESTIMONIES

 

DAVE:

My wife, Yara, and I were walking in the streets of Tel Aviv and giving out roses. And I had the opportunity to give to a man sitting on a park bench who had some disabilities and people were just walking past him. And so, I walked up to him, smiled and I told him  I had a gift and I handed it to him. The rose made him very happy and he took it and he smiled.

And then when we got to a fountain area where there was a memorial for the hostages, there was another man who also had disabilities and my heart was drawn to him. I was able to give him a rose and it made him happy. And another man saw that and he rode up on a bicycle and I gave one to him. And we were with a person that spoke English and he was very thankful for the rose he received.

Then later, Yara and I are walking down the street and Yara gave a rose to a young girl. And we told her that we were from the US. Yara was talking to her as well. And she was very, very surprised that we would come this far to show our love and support to them. This is just  really amazing walking around to these people and to see the other team members as well, touch the hearts of different people. Today  was a blessed time,  just to have those opportunities to meet just those three people,

KHALIDA:

We were handing roses today in Tel Aviv and I handed a rose to a man and he said, “No, no, no, give it to a lady.” And I said, “It’s for you also.” And he said, “No, no, no, no, give it to a lady.” And I said, “Okay, I will take it to a lady.” And we kept walking and. I turned to the side and I saw this lady. and a guy with her.  I handed her the rose and she was so happy and her husband was also so happy and they said “This is our anniversary!  We’ve been married for 15 years. Thank you so much for the roses!”  And we just talked and we hugged and took a picture together It was just a very joyous time in the Lord.

We are so grateful and blessed to be here and ministering to people in Tel Aviv in this time. That Israel going through war, that the people are open to receive our love and receive in the form a rose from us. Thank you all for praying for us.

 

SALLY:

This is my mom’s birthday. She died in 1999. We were giving out a few roses on the streets of Tel Aviv, as we were walking with Aviv Mizraki from Dugit Minitries to the coffee house. And some of us were giving out the roses with cards on them.  There was a young woman I gave a rose to. I can’t think of her name right now. But I gave her a rose and she began crying when I gave her the rose.

She read the card and then she started crying. And when she read the card, she said to me. “What is this about?” And I said, “Well, we’re here. We’re giving out roses, 2,500 roses in Tel Aviv, and 2,500 roses in Haifa.” And I said, “This is because God loves you, and because God loves Israel, and He has not forgotten you. You know? He sees you. He has not forgotten you. And she just started crying more. And she gave me a hug, big hug, long hug, And I could see she was shaking while she was hugging me.

And she said, today is also my birthday. And she said, thank you so much. And she was just so moved by that rose. So, I just praised God. You know, I mean, this is what He wants to do through us.

 

YARA:

I handed out a rose to a nice young lady who was very happy to receive the rose. She asked why we were doing this and I told her that we want to bless your people, say that God loves you and that we’re praying for you guys. She said, “Wow, that’s really amazing that you guys are here. Where are you from?” I told her that I was from the Los Angeles area and she was very happy and taken aback by the fact that we actually came to Tel Aviv to do this and she was very grateful to receive the rose and I just told her, “God bless you and God loves you.” And she said, “Thank you so much.” So, I was very grateful to God for the openness of the people here in Tel Aviv and just pray that God will continue.

 

ANNIE:

We just arrived in Tel Aviv today and handed out our first 150 red roses. In Tel Aviv there are pictures and memorials of the hostages from October 6th. One of the first places we went to was a fountain and around it were pictures and names and flowers of hostages who had dies or were still being held. We handed roses around that area and people were very deeply touched one.

I gave a rose to an elderly gentleman. He just looked at me. He had no words. I don’t think he spoke English and I didn’t speak Hebrew. So, he just kept raising his hands and looking up to heaven as if to say, “God, only God.” And I just nodded, “I understand. We’re praying for you and it was beautiful.  He really was touched by the rose.

A second encounter was lighter We were walking back and there were two young girls in their 20s— just beautiful young girls. And I said, “Would you like a red rose?” They asked, “What’s this for?” And I told them, “We’re sharing the love of God. We came to love you and show God’s love. I handed them the roses. One girl started jumping up and down like she was so excited and they both one gave me a big hug. They  were just so blessed and encouraged by that and I told them we’re praying for you guys and we love you.

They were so happy, they had me take their picture. You know how girls are in their 20s, they’re photogenic.

 

ERIC:

I want to share with you a journal entry that I made yesterday from when we went to the Wailing Wall and I’m just going to read it:

I tried to get a spot that was open at the Wall. Once I stepped into this open space, I put my hands up at shoulder level and grabbed the Wall. I held them there for approximately a half an hour as I prayed. I did not go to the Wall to pray with any preconceived notion of how or what to pray. I wanted the Holy Spirit to guide me in this way.

Closed my eyes, I could feel the smoothness of the massive stones where I stood. There was a crew next to me at a part of the wall that was closed off. They were cleaning all of the paper prayers that people had wedged into the cracks. They were taking them all out. They were taking them out of these tight spaces by the hundreds. Secondly, as I started praying, I found myself naturally praying for peace.

Of the land and for all the people in it. I prayed this for Israel for a while and asked for the same thing for the surrounding countries and Iran also. Afterwards I prayed for peace for all of us. I could feel all the trauma and pain of the people who had prayed there in the past. It was palpable. Third, still praying. I found myself right next to a soldier in his fatigues trying to get close to the wall. But the thing was that his rifle was in the way of him getting close enough to be able to touch the wall. Finally, after some wrestling, he got the rifle sort of down between his legs. Then he awkwardly got close enough to touch the wall. First thing he did was to kiss the wall as he touched it. Then he sort of melted up against it.

I took a sneak peek at him and he looked like a teenager. Then I looked back at the Wall and saw out of the corner of my eye another young man in his green fatigues. He was praying quickly and with talking fast and with many names coming out of his mouth he was praying loudly. It was then that I that I started praying for these two young men and I realized at the moment that I was probably in the safest place in all of Israel just where God wanted me to be so I could pray for them.

LURA:

just want to share a brief story with you about an encounter I had yesterday at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. We were there and we sat and prayed for quite a while. I went up to the Wall and prayed for some of my friends and family. for different situations that we’re dealing with.

Our group was just trying to pray for logistics, pray for people we might encounter. I did encounter a young woman because on the way out we saw a large, very large group of IDF soldiers, young soldiers, women and men both and they were coming in and you could tell they were coming in by company. And pretty soon they filled half the plaza.

They were all in full gear with their weapons and they began to set up tables across the front and we found out that they were being inducted that day. They had been through their training and they were being inducted formally into the IDF. And I encountered a young woman. I think her name was a Leah.

She spoke very good English, and I said, “Oh, where are you from?” And she said, “I’m from New York.” And I said, “Oh, did you make Alia?” And she said, “Yes.” She said she was here four years now. And through our course of our conversation, I found out that the rest of her family is still in New York. And so she made Alia on her own to come to be part of the IDF.

We asked if we could give her a hug and we told her that we would pray for her and she was very happy to have the hug. So we hugged her and we said we would pray for her.  She had to get back in line, so we had to let her go.  It was it was very meaningful, though, to see all those young men and women ready to go into active service and it struck me.

It struck my heart because I thought how young they are. You could tell that they were mature beyond their years but still very young lives going to be on the front lines. So,  I would ask all of my intercessors to please pray for the young soldiers just starting into the IDF.

 

PHOTOS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PLEASE BE PRAYING. FOR THE ATOR TEAM, THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL, AND THE HOSTAGES WHO MAY STILL BE ALIVE ALONG WITH THEIR FEARFUL AND GRIEVING FAMILIES.

 

ITINERARY

 

 

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