The last month in Israel was a life-changing experience for each of us that were able to go! We are different people with a deeper understanding of God's heart for Israel, the people of Israel and how God is moving there today! If we could label the outreach with a phrase it would be DIVINE APPOINTMENTS!
We had daily divine appointments from our Heavenly Father, such as lunch on the Mt. of Olives in a Muslim man's home who had three Deaf-Blind sisters, an Arabic style lunch in the West Bank in a Deaf family's home, and experiencing a real Shabbat dinner at a Jewish Rabbi home in Jerusalem. We meet a Deaf person every 3 to 4 days, got a tour of Jerusalem by the only Deaf pastor in Israel and touched over 200 Deaf students lives by doing programs at 4 different schools. Had the opportunity to do home visits in Bethlehem, Hebron, Nazareth, Jordan Valley on a Kibbutz (community living farm in Israel) and Jerusalem, where we were able to listen to live stories and share our testimonies and the gospel of Jesus Christ with many people. Visited places in the bible which made the bible come alive like Capernaum, the Temple Mount, Western Wall, Garden of Gethsemane, possible sites of the crucifixion and burial and resurrection of Jesus. Worshiped and prayed with Houses of Prayers in Jerusalem, play Dreidel during Hanukkah on a city on the Sea of Galilee and so much more! Below are just a few pictures, we took over 1000! For the next couple weeks, I plan to write blogs sharing more specific testimonies with pictures of some of the amazing people God touched through our team in Israel!
Arabic style lunch with Deaf family in the West Bank
A group of Deaf school in Bethlehem
Nazareth Village-a village modeled after how Jesus grew up. The carpenter was explaining how he made a yoke and our team encouraged Dan and I as a married couple, who are equally yoked to put it on!
Playing Dreidel in Tiberias during Hanukkah
Behind us is the Western Wall and Temple Mount
We arrived home on Dec 10th after waking up at 4:00 am, riding taxi to the Tel-Aviv Airport and then a 5 hour plane ride to Paris with an hour layover and then a 8:45 hour plane ride to Washington DC Dulles International Airport. Through customs and then an our drive home back to Embassy Church, which met us with Christmas tree farm in the front lawn and snow on the ground. It was around 6:00 pm East Coast time which was 2:00 am in Israel. We closed the week with debriefing the Israel part of our outreach, the complete DTS, talking about how to re-enter the world outside of YWAM and just caught up on sleep!
Kayla and Dan leaving Israel waiting in line to get on the plane home.
We were all in row 42 on our flight from Paris to Washington DC!
On Thursday night, we officially graduated 6 amazing world changers, pioneers, radical disciples of Jesus! Arron Zepeda, leader of the David's Tent DTS and Dan led the night filled with testimonies, fellowship, laughter, and prayers. Dan signed the whole night, which he said was a testimony in itself and I interpreted! We had a "taste of Israel" table for supporters to taste dates, sweet nuts and wafflers from Israel and a rainbow of pictures maps and things our students brought there! commissioned them out There was a word from our base leader, Jason Hershey, "God will never leave you for forsake you." as we commissioned the 12 disciples out (6 from the ASL DTS and 6 from David's Tent DTS). Below are some pictures from the night!
Taste of Israel
Testimonies
A word from Jason Hershey
Getting the certificates
Commissioning the 12 disciples out
Our 6 amazing world changers and first graduates of the first ever ASL DTS
