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

To say our recent journey into Israel was a wild ride would be giving Mr. Toad of Disneyland fame unjust equivalency, the ride being rather tame by comparison.  The  Team might have chosen a slightly less exciting landscape, given their druthers, than the rockets-red-glare and bombs-bursting-in-air backdrop to the business of sharing a single long-stemmed rose. But when God calls, I suppose the best thing to do is look past world events and gaze into the grateful eyes of the people as they receive the gift of God’s extravagant love for His Chosen.

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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.

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