Introduction
When I came to CFNI I originally wanted to go on the riskiest mission trip available so I chose the trip to China. After a few weeks I new it was not in God’s timing and I went home, got married and came back to finish my two years. This time I felt that going to Israel could give me a solid foundation and strengthen my faith for a lifetime by actually seeing the real biblical sites. My wife and I chose Israel and put down our money and still had peace in our hearts about God providing. We soon had friends and family consistently sending money and we were on our way to Israel.
The Outreach
We arrived in Tel Aviv and stayed there first night. The next day we drove into the Negev, which is the wilderness. It was really hot so we had to consistently drink water so we would not get dehydrated. We saw some amazing things like where Jonah set sail when he was running away from God. We came across a well in Be’er Sheva that was dated around Abraham’s time, about 1250B.C. In Avdat we saw a similar setting of the “street called straight” found in Acts 9. The Nabateans lived here and were the first Arabs ever to be called Arabs. They all became Christian at the end of the 1st century. In the ancient east many people were very hospitable. They would bow themselves down to strangers and give them shelter, food and drink for three days. One of the reasons scholars think that Sodom and Gomorrah was destroyed was because of their selfishness. The Israelites could have gone through the promise land a few times and not have known it. They did not go in officially until they sacked Jericho.
After traveling to Eilat and coming back up the eastern side of Israel we went to Masada. After the Romans destroyed Jerusalem, a lot of the Jews fled to Masada. It was at one time a large resort that King Herod built on top of a huge mountain. When the Romans eventually made it up to the top, the Jewish zealots killed themselves.
It was so fun to see so many biblical sites and to read in the bible where you are standing. We got to see En Gedi, where David cut Saul’s tassel. We passed by the Qumran caves where the Dead Sea scrolls were found. Among the scrolls was found a complete Isaiah scroll dated from 100B.C. that matches exactly to the King James Textus Receptus Manuscripts. From there we saw where Pilate lived in Caesarea. Herod’s speech that got him killed in Acts 12 happened here. From Mt. Carmel we could see in every direction from the Mediterranean Sea to Nazareth. We saw the beginning of the Jordan River, Caesarea Philippi, Capernaum, Tiberius, and Mt. Of Beatitudes and many traditional sites where Catholic or Orthodox churches were.
The Country
Before I went to Israel I thought it was a nation where people have morals. I came to find out that they are probably more immoral than America is. In Jerusalem I saw many religious people such as orthodox Jews, Muslims, and many Greek and Russian Orthodox. I have never seen so much dead religion. People go to great detail to stick to there traditions even if they are not found in the scriptures. They hold commentaries to the same authority as the scripture themselves. When Israelis hear the word Christian or missionary they think of someone coming to take away their religion. The Muslims and the Jews both think that Christians worship idols and serve three gods: Mary, Jesus, and Father. They have good reason for that because the only representative of Jesus is one dead on a cross with a plate on his head in a building full of statues and paintings saturated in rituals. They constantly see tourists from other nations kissing and adoring Catholic relics. The best way that I can explain the view of Christianity over there is dead religious idol worship. But I have heard and seen good news. More and more Jews are becoming open to the real Jesus of the Bible. Over twenty years ago everyone got excited when one Jew came to Christ every six months. Now it is one Jew a week. Praise God! Although things can look bad I believe nothing is outside God’s sovereign plan to bring the Jews to the knowledge of the truth.
Evangelism
Two weeks of our trip was traveling the country seeing biblical sights. I ordered about 700 gospel tracts to take along with us. Every city or town or rest stop we were in I tried to take advantage of the situation and pass out tracts. In one town I handed one to an orthodox Jew teacher and he began calling the police on us saying it was forbidden to pass out Christian literature. I later found out that he was only trying to scare us and it is perfectly legal to preach the gospel in Israel. Our last week in Israel was our official outreach in Tel Aviv. Tel Aviv is a really secular city, kind of like most of America. We linked up with a messianic Jewish congregation called dugit, which means “little boat”. Pastor Avi taught us for two hours on how to talk to Jewish people about Jesus being the Messiah. We then went out into a place where thousands of people were walking around and we got out the guitar and keyboard and we sang three American praise songs as loud as we could. Once a crowd was gathered we passed out free coffee coupons that would take people back to dugit where we could talk to them there. Almost all the coupons were passed out and I saw a lot of people talking to people why we were out there. I talked with a guy named John and he was a person that hated God and did not care about religion. I took him through Ten Commandments to show him how he had sinned against God and how Isaiah says his sin has separated him from God. He was a very attentive to what I had to say and after some scriptures I told him that Jesus is the true messiah and His word can be trusted 100%. We left each other with a handshake.
Teamwork
The leadership on this trip was very good. Our tour guide, Yoni, was phenomenal. He took us places where regular tours would not go. The unity of the students I did not think was too good. I got the feeling everyone had the mindset that this trip is a vacation and not an opportunity to evangelize and reach out to the lost for Christ. Nobody seemed to care about preaching the gospel until we were forced to, in our last few days in Tel Aviv. I think if we all had the same purpose and were unified in reaching out with prayer and preaching then I think we could have seen God move in a big way.
Conclusion
On this trip to Israel I learned some patience. Being around the same people everyday that do not think exactly as I do. I learned that the harvest is ripe but the laborers are so few. In Israel the Jesus of the Bible is not known in too many places. Israeli’s think of him as the one on the cross in the church building. Going to another country for the first time with a passport confirmed to me that America is saturated with the gospel. We have too many resources being wasted and preachers wasting there time over here in America when they could be used by God in countries where the name of Jesus Christ is not known. It made me mad to see so much spiritual starvation and knowing many Christians in America take for granted all their bibles and bible teaching.
This trip increased my faith and zeal as a result of seeing all of the real places that I have read about in the Bible for years. It was amazing to actually walk where Jesus and the Apostles once walked on earth.
When I came to CFNI I originally wanted to go on the riskiest mission trip available so I chose the trip to China. After a few weeks I new it was not in God’s timing and I went home, got married and came back to finish my two years. This time I felt that going to Israel could give me a solid foundation and strengthen my faith for a lifetime by actually seeing the real biblical sites. My wife and I chose Israel and put down our money and still had peace in our hearts about God providing. We soon had friends and family consistently sending money and we were on our way to Israel.
The Outreach
We arrived in Tel Aviv and stayed there first night. The next day we drove into the Negev, which is the wilderness. It was really hot so we had to consistently drink water so we would not get dehydrated. We saw some amazing things like where Jonah set sail when he was running away from God. We came across a well in Be’er Sheva that was dated around Abraham’s time, about 1250B.C. In Avdat we saw a similar setting of the “street called straight” found in Acts 9. The Nabateans lived here and were the first Arabs ever to be called Arabs. They all became Christian at the end of the 1st century. In the ancient east many people were very hospitable. They would bow themselves down to strangers and give them shelter, food and drink for three days. One of the reasons scholars think that Sodom and Gomorrah was destroyed was because of their selfishness. The Israelites could have gone through the promise land a few times and not have known it. They did not go in officially until they sacked Jericho.
After traveling to Eilat and coming back up the eastern side of Israel we went to Masada. After the Romans destroyed Jerusalem, a lot of the Jews fled to Masada. It was at one time a large resort that King Herod built on top of a huge mountain. When the Romans eventually made it up to the top, the Jewish zealots killed themselves.
It was so fun to see so many biblical sites and to read in the bible where you are standing. We got to see En Gedi, where David cut Saul’s tassel. We passed by the Qumran caves where the Dead Sea scrolls were found. Among the scrolls was found a complete Isaiah scroll dated from 100B.C. that matches exactly to the King James Textus Receptus Manuscripts. From there we saw where Pilate lived in Caesarea. Herod’s speech that got him killed in Acts 12 happened here. From Mt. Carmel we could see in every direction from the Mediterranean Sea to Nazareth. We saw the beginning of the Jordan River, Caesarea Philippi, Capernaum, Tiberius, and Mt. Of Beatitudes and many traditional sites where Catholic or Orthodox churches were.
The Country
Before I went to Israel I thought it was a nation where people have morals. I came to find out that they are probably more immoral than America is. In Jerusalem I saw many religious people such as orthodox Jews, Muslims, and many Greek and Russian Orthodox. I have never seen so much dead religion. People go to great detail to stick to there traditions even if they are not found in the scriptures. They hold commentaries to the same authority as the scripture themselves. When Israelis hear the word Christian or missionary they think of someone coming to take away their religion. The Muslims and the Jews both think that Christians worship idols and serve three gods: Mary, Jesus, and Father. They have good reason for that because the only representative of Jesus is one dead on a cross with a plate on his head in a building full of statues and paintings saturated in rituals. They constantly see tourists from other nations kissing and adoring Catholic relics. The best way that I can explain the view of Christianity over there is dead religious idol worship. But I have heard and seen good news. More and more Jews are becoming open to the real Jesus of the Bible. Over twenty years ago everyone got excited when one Jew came to Christ every six months. Now it is one Jew a week. Praise God! Although things can look bad I believe nothing is outside God’s sovereign plan to bring the Jews to the knowledge of the truth.
Evangelism
Two weeks of our trip was traveling the country seeing biblical sights. I ordered about 700 gospel tracts to take along with us. Every city or town or rest stop we were in I tried to take advantage of the situation and pass out tracts. In one town I handed one to an orthodox Jew teacher and he began calling the police on us saying it was forbidden to pass out Christian literature. I later found out that he was only trying to scare us and it is perfectly legal to preach the gospel in Israel. Our last week in Israel was our official outreach in Tel Aviv. Tel Aviv is a really secular city, kind of like most of America. We linked up with a messianic Jewish congregation called dugit, which means “little boat”. Pastor Avi taught us for two hours on how to talk to Jewish people about Jesus being the Messiah. We then went out into a place where thousands of people were walking around and we got out the guitar and keyboard and we sang three American praise songs as loud as we could. Once a crowd was gathered we passed out free coffee coupons that would take people back to dugit where we could talk to them there. Almost all the coupons were passed out and I saw a lot of people talking to people why we were out there. I talked with a guy named John and he was a person that hated God and did not care about religion. I took him through Ten Commandments to show him how he had sinned against God and how Isaiah says his sin has separated him from God. He was a very attentive to what I had to say and after some scriptures I told him that Jesus is the true messiah and His word can be trusted 100%. We left each other with a handshake.
Teamwork
The leadership on this trip was very good. Our tour guide, Yoni, was phenomenal. He took us places where regular tours would not go. The unity of the students I did not think was too good. I got the feeling everyone had the mindset that this trip is a vacation and not an opportunity to evangelize and reach out to the lost for Christ. Nobody seemed to care about preaching the gospel until we were forced to, in our last few days in Tel Aviv. I think if we all had the same purpose and were unified in reaching out with prayer and preaching then I think we could have seen God move in a big way.
Conclusion
On this trip to Israel I learned some patience. Being around the same people everyday that do not think exactly as I do. I learned that the harvest is ripe but the laborers are so few. In Israel the Jesus of the Bible is not known in too many places. Israeli’s think of him as the one on the cross in the church building. Going to another country for the first time with a passport confirmed to me that America is saturated with the gospel. We have too many resources being wasted and preachers wasting there time over here in America when they could be used by God in countries where the name of Jesus Christ is not known. It made me mad to see so much spiritual starvation and knowing many Christians in America take for granted all their bibles and bible teaching.
This trip increased my faith and zeal as a result of seeing all of the real places that I have read about in the Bible for years. It was amazing to actually walk where Jesus and the Apostles once walked on earth.
