Israel Testimonies: Divine Appointments, Greg

Posted by Dan and Carole McClelland

If we could sum up the trip to Israel with a phrase it would be DIVINE APPOINTMENTS! We debriefed for two and a half hours with our base leader, Jason Hershey when we arrived back from Israel and he only had time to ask us one question: Who are some of the people you met and God touched through you in Israel?  That was his first question and for two and a half hours, our team shared stories of the countless people that God had touched during our month in Israel.  I love that our God is a God of relationships! And works through relationships! The next few blogs will be an attempt to share some of the people (I have changed some of the names to protect them in Israel) and relationships that we had the opportunity to met and develop in Israel. 

So we arrived at the place we were supposed to stay and as we were entering the apt complex a man on a motorcycle pulled up and in perfect native English asked "Are you the team from America?" Dan turned around and replied yes.  He then went on to explain that the apt we were supposed to stay locks had been changed by the landlord and we were not able to stay there anymore. Greg shared that he heard about us and had just finished school in Jerusalem and thought he would come to check if we had arrived. We had not even found out that we could not be able to get in and God already had different plans. Greg said that he had a friend of a friend that had a guest house that we could stay with so he called us Taxis, paid for our ride to his friends place and left for school again.  In the mist of the storm of things happening, God gave us such a peace it was overwhelming!

In the Taxi going driving to a new place, we were packed!

It was cool later in the week, we had the opportunity to share our faith with the taxi drivers 

as we asked them to drive us to the Dead Sea and Jericho!

We arrived at the friends house, they welcomed us like family, well they were family! That afternoon we got a teaching on the atmosphere and history of Israel. It was amazing that now we had a place to stay however all ministry contacts for the two weeks were in the apt.  So we were are the 2nd day in Israel and have no contacts and no planned ministry, but we did have an amazing place to stay.

Some of our team with Janine, a friend who opened her guest house for us,

when we went to some towns to respect the culture we covered our heads 

other places the men needed to cover their heads

So the next day we decided to go on a prayer walk.  On our prayer walk, guess who we saw? Yep Greg, he was riding home from a friends house and passed us and had to stop to say hello! We had the opportunity to pray for him and his wife and afterwards he invited us on Thursday for dinner at his home.  We said YES.

Our team at Greg's house with Greg (far back row) and his wife and one of his friends

So a few days later, we had dinner at Greg's house.  We arrived and he introduced us to a few of his friends, a couple who were missionaries, and two Christians.  All who shared their stories of how they became believers or how God led them to Israel.  One was born into a Christian home shared how his family became believers. A revivalist had come to Jerusalem before he was born and his aunt was crippled and could not walk.  His great grandmother who believed in Jesus told the family to go to the revivalist meeting, the family was all Muslim.  The family went and got prayer but nothing seemed to happen.  The next week, his aunt was able to start walking, they went to the doctor to get new x-rays, his aunt was completely healed and able to walk again! The whole family became Christian and the x-rays are not passed down to the next generation to encourage and have the family remember what Jesus did in their family and why they believe in him!

Our team doing a drama for the group 

The other man we met had been in prison and in prison he saw a light and had wondered what this light was. A few weeks later, he got out of prison and as he met people he noticed that some people had the same light he saw in prison inside of them and others did not.  He was drawn to the people who had the light.  It was two years later that he met someone with "the light" that explained to him what that light was. It was Jesus! and the people with the light were Christians.  He immediately believed in Jesus and gave his life to him.  When we met him, he had just been baptized 4 months before and was learning to walk with Jesus daily! He said "I used to carry a gun with me everywhere I went but now (he picked up his bible and said) this is my weapon!" After he shared his testimony, he asked for prayer for his family to know Jesus.  So we had the opportunity to prayed for his family and the others there that night! We also did some dramas and worship in ASL for them!  It was amazing to be able to met Greg and his friends!  We were blessed by him and his friends and how God used them within our first week Israel!