Israel Trip - Day 3

Morning Fellowship
Early this morning (5:00am), I arose and prepped to go out to see what ended up being the “non-” sunrise. Too hazy. Jon (Covell) and I hiked up a hill in anticipation of the sunrise. During the hour we were out, we saw at least 3 foxes, silver or gray camels, dogs and 

some birds. What a joy it was to talk & pray together in the early hours of the day. We prayed for each other’s futures - primarily within the context of GEM-YM.

We also saw a very cool beetle, grass hopper and checked out the clover that covered the hillsides.

The place were we were was indeed an oasis. Check out this picture.



As we traveled, I noticed the Acacia trees that Jesus must have occasionally sat under during His 40-day wilderness experience! It’s really dry, dusty and barren here!

En Gedi
We hiked up to one of the water falls where David & his mighty men hid out from Saul when he was searching out David to kill him. What an amazing place to see! Fresh, cool water coming out of this dry, barren desert! And to imagine David & Saul and many others having th

eir meals here. Hiding. Wondering. Worrying? WOW! Here’s a pic of the “medium” waterfalls - (we weren’t allowed to go up to the highest falls).

The Dead Sea
What can I say more about this? It’s incredible. I could float standing up! It’s 350 meters below sea level. To drink a 1/4 cup of the water is to invite death! It was nasty tasting and did sting a bit more than typical salt water in the eye! There is a lot of mineral content and there are oils or something that make your skin feel slippery. Of course, I did the Dead Sea mud bath - it’s supposed to make your complexion wonderful! I hope to have a photo to stick in here before long - Richard (from India) took one of Thomas and me in our mud baths!

Jeff Kreiser sat next to me at dinner tonight. He had a lot of positive affirmation for house-church planting. Seems to be a good resource for that.

It’s 11:33 pm. BEDTIME!!!

Israel Trip - Day 2

The Western Wall
Wow! What a full day! Traveled into the city to visit the Western Wall - also known as the Wailing Wall. Very interesting rituals associated with the prayers - head-coverings, orthodox Jews, men separated from the women, prayers stuck into the wall on pieces of paper, elaborate rituals taking place near and at the wall.

A thought that struck me was the statement that Jesus made, “But in fact, it is best for you that I go away, because if I don’t, the Advocate* won’t come. If I do go away, then I will send him to you.” The prayers of the ones at the wall, though fervent and from sincere hearts, miss the truth that Jesus came, died, rose from the dead and ascended so that He could send the Holy Spirit to come and dwell within us!

The Western Wall is important to the Jews because it is the closest that they can come to the Shekeinah glory, the Lord’s presence in the Holy of Holies.

We, as children of God, have the Holy Spirit dwelling within us! The Shekeinah glory of God resides in us, not in a man-made temple of rock. WOW! What a blessing!

The Southern Steps
We also spent a little time on the southern steps to the temple. It is widely accepted that many Rabbis - Jesus included - congregated on the steps to teach their disciples and that these steps were the steps used by most Jews to come to the temple to worship. It is very possible that I stood on the very spot that the Lord Jesus Christ Himself stood or sat as He taught & talked with His disciples - and others!

The Mount of Olives
We also stopped briefly to see the Old City from the Mount of Olives, commonly called Mount Scopus today.

Bedouin Experience
We then traveled through the region just east of Ashkelon and Ashdod, through Arad (where a large portion of the country’s natural gas resources exist) to a Bedouin settlement where we were greeted with sweet tea and freshly-roasted, freshly-ground, freshly-brewed coffee, camel & donkey rides and a very tasty Bedouin dinner. We slept on mats in Bedouin tents.

After dinner, we gathered in a large dining room tent for some sharing, discussion & fellowship. I chatted with Mitraš from Romania. During our conversation, I was freshly reminded of the need to have an exit strategy for every challenge or responsibility that I take on. I thank God for Mitraš.

Israel Trip - Day 1

Left our house at 4:30am to get to the Budapest airport for my flight to Tel Aviv.

The flight was uneventful, but upon arrival at Ben Gurion International Airport - oh my word! What an amazing airport! Now, I’ve been to Heathrow, O’Hare, JFK, Frankfurt, Amsterdam and others, but this airport is absolutely gorgeous! My first thoughts as I meandered through the facility is that this must have been the reaction of the Jews the first time that they stepped into the Temple after Solomon finished building it. Simplicity. Beauty. Majesty. Those are words that crossed my mind at the airport.

I met Randy because he was sitting with a GYI sign. (GYI stands for Global Youth Initiatives and that is the conference I am attending here in Jerusalem.)

The shuttle ride from the airport to Jerusalem was another experience. I’ve been in some crazy situations with cabbies, but this guy wins the trophy for threading the eye of the needle at 40-60 mph! He was amazing!

What a beautiful city this is. Of course, there are parts that are ugly like any other big city, but there is such a uniqueness to this city. I’ve never seen so many yamikas in my life!

The white Mediterranean stone against the green shrubbery and trees creates a peaceful tone. The sunshine & cool breeze is so refreshing.

Tonight, we had dinner and I returned to my room. I wanted to sit in the jacuzzi, but I’d only have 25 minutes or so because Ladies’ Night at the jacuzzi starts at 9:00pm. Bummer.

Saw folks from Slovakia at dinner: Peto Hrubo, Miska, Draho, Peto Antalik and others. Also saw Dan Hash, Greg Carlson, Mike Sullivan, Todd Morr, Mel & Amy Ellenwood, Kevin Phillips, Mark Gold. Of course, Jon Covell & Holly Davis were present - they came with GEM-YM.

Tomorrow we head out for a Bedouin overnight experience. We’ll actually be sleeping either outside or in tents. Camping! Bedouin style! Supposed to have a camel ride (not too thrilled about that since I did that in Egypt and found that camel saddles tend to be made from wood with a blanket for padding!), but we will also swim in the Dead Sea.

I’m going to sit in the tub in hot water, read and try to relax my back/neck muscles so I can sleep without waking from shooting pains in my neck.

Birthday greetings!

Just got back from Ireland (last night). Waiting for me were some funny b-day cards and gifts. I received an “Old Guys Rule” t-shirt and a nice gym bag with the “Old Guys Rule” logo on it as well.

I also received a rusty red-colored Loyalton sweatshirt, some white board markers, mini-post-it notes cube and a very cool ring that makes Lani go nuts. It is a soft squishy, rubbery translucent kind of material with blinking blue, red, green and other colored-lights inside. When it blinks, Lani begins to hop because she thinks it’s some kind of laser-pointer light or something and she wants to see it on the floor so she can chase it (she’s going in on Thursday for obsessive/compulsive therapy!).

It’s good to be home to rest and be with the family.

Destiny Church - Dublin, Ireland

Quite an interesting church in some ways. The form is pretty “normal.” I should probably describe “normal” so that you understand what I mean.

The front of the meeting room has electronic drums, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, bass guitar a few vocalists, projected words and microphones and all.

Announcements were made verbally with some kind of projection of key thoughts, information, etc.

The singing was the worship time - 3 or 4 songs that appeared to be Hillsong or something similar. Some prayer interspersed throughout the singing time.

Following the singing, Pastor Brandon got up and taught for 45 minutes (maybe more) on “Seeing the positive in problems.” It was a good sermon.

The average age (without me) is about 25. I met Lithuanians, Slovaks, Irish, Czechs & Poles and South Africans.

Here is my (very subjective) analysis/guess of the morning:

        1. Pastor Brandon has the gift of discipleship. Home groups seem to be key in Destiny Church
        2. I had the sense that if they would move from trying to be a “contemporary” or traditional evangelical church and shifted to home churches that they would go much farther in reaching new folks for Christ.
        3. I felt very welcome by everyone there that I met.
        4. I picked up a strong desire for church planting - almost to the point of it being a core value.
        5. I got a sense that Sunday morning is not the crux or highlight of the church body, but that it was only a part of it’s life.

I liked Destiny. I praise the Lord for them and their work in dark Dublin. I pray that God will use them to reach the singles & young professionals of Dublin (their target group).

Dublin, Ireland - GEM-YM and more

I’m on the train back from Bratislava to our home in Banska Bystrica. We (Hannah, Emily & I) just flew back from 5 days in Dublin, Ireland, for meeting with the GEM-YM-LT (Greater Europe Mission Youth Ministries Leadership Team) and others where we spent 3 days mapping out our new vision for the next couple of years. It’s exciting to see God move different people in a variety of ways to begin to put some feet to this GEM-YM ministry.

The attendees at the GEM-YM Strategic Planning meetings were: Emily Olles (Slovakia), Holly Davis (Ireland), Jon Covell (Ireland), Cam Daughty (Malta), Tagg Wolverton (Netherlands), Matt Kingsley (GEM-K and Ireland) and our facilitator Paul Haenze (Field Director - Poland) and me (Slovakia).

When we get the Vision statement in cleaned-up form, we’ll post it for those of you who’d like to see it. I do welcome comments, critique and input!

Busses, marijuana & more

We (Emily & I) attended Destiny Church today in City Center, Dublin. This is the church where Bobo & Anka Jankovic are attending & serving (more on that later).

I have to tell you about an experience on the bus ride from Dublin to Finglas (where Bobo & Anka live).

We all 5 of us got on the bus to head out to Bobo & Anka’s apartment (where they share a 2-bedroom with a young, newly-wedded Polish couple - Peter & Natalia). It’s one of the classic double-decker busses that are all over the area and we headed upstairs and sat in the next-to-last row in the back.

I smelled a pungent, but familiar odor and commented about it to Bobo. He motioned with his eyes to the guys in the seat behind us.

I turned, noticed that he was rolling some kind of cigarette with some “funny” kinds of seeds and commented to him, “You’re not going to light that thing, are you?”

“I sure am,” he replied without even looking up. (I so wanted to flick the paper and send the tobacco and seeds flying off of his lap!) Where DO these fleshly impulses come from? :-)

I turned back to him and said,”Don’t light that thing. There are kids in here.”

“You can go sit at the front of bus,” again without any eye contact.

Shortly after, he moved to the seat across the aisle from me and handed his newly created wonder-stick to the fellow in the last seat in the corner of the back of the bus.

I turned and, noticing that he was also handing him a lighter, said, “Hey! Don’t light that thing!”

“Shut the f*** up!” the guy in the corner seat snapped.

“Why!?” I asked - obviously not expecting any sort of intelligent reply, nor did I receive any.

As I mulled my next step, I considered standing up, grabbing the doobie and grinding it onto the floor under my shoe.

In a matter of seconds, my non-spiritual side sized up the 3 men creating a stir in the back of this enclosed bus cabin. “The little guy is so blitzed from drugs, I could hold him down with one hand,” I thought. The mouthy guy in the corner is trapped by his choice of seat and the guy in the middle, hm, I’d probably have a little bit of trouble with him.

As I came to the conclusion that that would not be an appropriate response, the 3rd guy (in the middle) tapped me on the shoulder and blurted, “Hey, it’s out, okay. He put it out, all right?”

“Good,” I shot back, though unsatisfied.

Just then Bobo informed us that we needed to head down to get ready to get off of the bus. As we waited down below, we smelled the fresh scent of the lit cigarette. Anka informed the bus driver, who - through the bus’s PA system - promptly commanded the fellow to put out the doobie.

Ahh, the excitement of international travel.

Actually, I rather quite liked the accent of the one fellow who told me to shut up. I had thought to say to him, “Hey, I like your accent. It’s your attitude that stinks - like your cigarette!”