Casey's Israel Outreach Journal 2010

Sunday, May 16, 2010

The best laid plans…..sigh. At least I made it to the airport and am now sitting at my gate. It was touch and go for a while. My morning was all laid out in an organized and leisurely way….however, I ended up running behind because of the loss a VERY IMPORTANT ITEM, that delayed me about 45 minutes searching the house, and finally digging frantically through the garbage bin outside for it. I had apparently thrown it away in my admirable zeal to clean out my purse and be organized. And thus, my adventure begins. I’m praying fervently right now that my luggage all arrives in the two pieces I came here with….in the proper location, at the proper time. There is some concern, as my boarding passes were messed up….and then they thought I might have to claim my luggage in Vienna, Austria, scan it and recheck it on to Tel Aviv. I don’t know. Frankly, I’m praying it won’t end up in Botswana, though I hear it is pleasant this time of year. Nah….I’m making that up, I have never heard that at all. Sad and teary farewells to my sweet family…..I’m missing them already. My dog, who loves me, refused to give me a goodbye hug and kiss. She began holding her grudge the minute she saw the suitcases.

The air-conditioning appears to be out of order here in International Flights….and so, between the garbage bin dive this morning, the jam packed dash through security and now the heat of the equator right here in Atlanta Hartsfield Airport, I’m dismayed to find my deodorant is wearing off already. My hair is plastered to my forehead, and my chic black outfit is wilted and damp. My days so rarely go as I picture them…..no matter how I plan..

Monday, May 17, 2010

Have arrived in Tel Aviv. Finally have had a shower, and brushed my teeth. God is good. The flights were long. There was a gentleman a couple of rows ahead of me on the airplane that was flatulent in at least 5 languages, which made eating, sleeping and breathing a challenge, the last 9 hours of my journey. The couple behind me was delighted that I could speak Russian, so the man, Tomas, did so, at a very high decibel, most of the journey. His wife got stuck in the tiny restroom. I had to go back and get her out of it. Tomas was so thankful he asked to meet me in the back of the plane, near the restroom, and tried to kiss me……I’m not sure he was really grateful at all. I am thinking he was um, up to no good. Needless to say, I’m thankful to be on the ground and out of that plane.

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

I sit here, groggy…. jet-lagged…..head-achy, and yet with tears of utter joy streaming down my face. I’m halfway around the world….and yet, I am home. My family is in Atlanta, and yet, I am still with my family here…..I’m surrounded by the dear faces of my brothers and sisters. We worship together in different languages…..our devotion is translated right now into 2 other languages, and yet we are one. As much as I love my home congregation, there is NOTHING like the small group, gathered as one, fellowshipping here in this tiny chapel in the middle of the countryside in Petah Tikva. I am home. And in tears.

Right now, Tier 1 (new to Jews for Jesus campaigns and Israel) and Tier 2 (new to Israel) are taking quizzes and finishing lectures. I am free for almost 2 hours, until I join both Tiers for a “geography of the region” scavenger hunt. While I have not yet begun my training ( Tier 3- just new to this particular region) I am going to join the geography hunt. We will be assigned locations to find, and photograph, all over the territory. This will help us so much to actually be familiar with how to find all our sortie sites. What can I say? JFF is genius when it comes to training everyone effectively. The rest of Tier 3 arrives today, and we will have our specific training tomorrow.

For those of you who are new this year to my prayer journals, I will try to remember to define some terms as we go along. A sortie is military term and pictures one brief “attack” so to speak of outreach at a given time. We go in and out at our sites for about 2 hours if we can stay that long….then we leave and regroup. We usually do 4 sorties a day. They can range from passing broadsides (gospel tracts) and conversations sharing the gospel, bannering (large banners at busy intersections with the gospel message on them and a phone number to call), phoning, music sorties where we have our talented praise and worship team go into parks and so forth and play and sing while we mingle in the crowd that gathers sharing the gospel, stickering (which is my most favorite and I will define later….as we do one) and so on.

Wednesday May 19, 2010

Our campaign has centered around the consecration service being held on Shavuot (Feast of Pentecoste). To find out more about this particular holiday, read in Acts Chapter 2. That was our scripture tonight for our service, and if ever the scripture could come to life before your very eyes…..it would have been tonight. In a room filled with Jewish believers, praying and seeking the Lord, consecrating ourselves and setting ourselves apart for the next 5 weeks and beyond strictly for the sake of taking the gospel to the people of Israel…… on the same night that the Holy Spirit fell upon the disciples and they were able to communicate in all languages so that all men could understand their message…..that same experience happened here. English, Hebrew, Russian, Spanish, Finnish…..there are Jewish believers here from Finland, Sweden, Russia, Ukraine, Israel, America, Canada and we were all praying with one heart….with tears….with joy and singing…..halleluia….there are truly no words that can describe it.

Tomorrow we kick off our very first official sortie of the campaign…..Tier 1 and 2 had a practice sortie and we have already had one Jewish person come to faith from their training sortie! Over 2000 tracts were distributed and I think something like 29 or so Jewish contacts were received for follow-up….on the training sortie!!! So, tomorrow it all begins…..all the preparation comes down to this. At 11:15am Israel time, we will take Jesus to the streets of the HaSharon region of Israel. We begin at 11:15am which is a late start, because we will be in the streets ministering until 1:00am. You did read that correctly. So, let’s see, 11:15 am would be 4:15am for most of you…..so please pray. Please please please lift up this team and this land…..Of course you don’t have to get up at 4 am to pray…..but there is ample opportunity all day long (since we will be out so late) to lift us up as the Lord brings us to your heart and spirit.

Our leaders are: Ze’ev, who is truly the most humble, Godly, compassionate, lovely leader you could imagine…..Peter, who is an Arabic believer, and a great lot of fun, is his second. The missionaries and stewards are: Karol, Avigail, Gadi, Daniel, Jonathan, Yehoshua, Orly, Dan, Oded, Vladimir, Reggie, Wayne, Marguerite, Deloris, Bill, Joe, Anna Marie, Savelieva, Tom, Tuvya, Jeremiah, Valera, Marcel, Leonid, Natasha, Casey (me), Laura, Paula, Karen, Victor, Gary, Tzachi, Sarah, James, Rob, Eric, Anna, Amer, Steven, Herut, Heather, Francoise, Simcha, and Murray. Some are here now, and some will be coming in later on in the campaign.

One thing I also need prayer about, in addition to EVERYTHING….is that I have had a really horrible headache since I arrived here. It’s wearing me out and nothing is touching it. It’s keeping me from sleeping, and it makes it hard to think.

But, heaven touched earth tonight, and despite the headache, there is nothing to compare with experiencing the heart of God….right here in His land.

Thursday, May 20, 2010

I finally got a good night sleep last night, but my headache is still lingering. I’m praying so hard for it to go away. Around 12:30am our time, I got a phone call from a dear unsaved Jewish lady named Madelyn, who lives in Marietta. She has been ill for a while, and is just beginning to feel better, and decided to return my phone call at long last. I was so thrilled to hear from her, I jumped out of bed and ran to the bathroom to chat for a minute, so I wouldn’t wake my roommates, Anna Marie and Heather. At any rate, that was an unexpected surprise. I will look forward to a visit with her, upon my return. I will have to find something special here in Israel to take back for her.

Our shirts today are a bright, brilliant blue and say Yeshu = Yeshua in Hebrew. Yeshu is what most Israeli’s call Jesus…..and it means something like “may his name be blotted out”, and so, we like to educate them that his name is not Yeshu, it is Yeshua.

Excited for our first outing…..a little concerned about my headache and being out so late tonight. Jesus knows.

Also, the team had some very sad/joyous news of Moise Rosen, the founder of Jews for Jesus, having his homegoing, after many years battling illness. Tuvya spoke in a moving memorial and we all give thanks for a life well lived, and a battle bravely fought, and the joy of him seeing Jesus face to face.

Friday, May 21, 2010

Our first sortie went really really sweetly, and I was thrilled to be able to communicate on some level of English/Hebrew/Russian with just about everyone I met. When I got in over my head in Hebrew, I would say “rega rega” and call Daniel, my wonderful partner, over, who would finish the bits I couldn’t. Our crowd was a little thin, where we were, but it was a great first outing. Just a note to say, at this point, my headache was really getting beyond bearing.

Tried to rest a bit after lunch and before next sortie…..but my head hurt too much to do any good. Our second sortie was a banner sortie and it was FUN! All the way up until the end, when the police arrived. Ah well. We were almost done anyway. Because of that, we were all so agreeable with the officers that the man who made the initial complaint came over and was trying to explain why he did it apologetically, and ended up pulling out his wallet and showing me pictures of his wife and children and shaking my hand and just overall good will and cheer. One officer lit up a cigarette, chatty and relaxed, while the other was asking where we were all from in a nice, interested attitude and was talking about travelling there and so forth…..both officers talked about taking a vacation to Atlanta…..and all ended practically with us having tea and crumpets together!!! Such a difference from last year! Ze’ev had given us a rousing message that morning about some of the supernatural gifts that God has given us when we go out, and one of them was supernatural favor with authorities…..and boy oh boy, God came through!!! We did not even get a ticket!!!!

However, on a headache front, after 3 + hours standing above a busy highway, with horns, blazing sun and etc…..I thought it might be preferable to remove my head and have someone else carry it around.

From a more broad perspective there was another Jewish decision yesterday!! And tons of contacts for followup phone calls or free books.

My last sortie was to be a 3 hour stickering session in the middle of the night….my all time favorite kind of sortie…..but by this time, I had to get into a dark, quiet place and just be still, or I was going to be throwing up, or headed to the hospital, because the pain was so bad. I couldn’t believe I had to lay out my favorite kind of sortie.

However, this morning…..But God!!!! I do seem to feel much relieved. I got some sleep, and while I can tell the headache is still there…..lingering…..it’s not unbearable so I feel much better. Praise the Lord!

Today is a new day. What does God have planned for us?

Saturday, May 22, 2010

We had a lovely Shabbat barbecue and worship under the stars last night. It was really beautiful.

My team’s first sortie was phone calling, and we got 5 contacts who were interested in receiving the New Testament. That afternoon, we went to Hertylia South Beach, and did a beach sortie. As you know, me, Miss Priss, struggles doing beach sorties because I don’t like getting all sandy, but everytime I go out of my comfort zone, the Lord brings such blessing. Martica is a Jewish lady who made aliya from Monte Carlo was there with her husband (atheist) and two friends (who were mockers). Yet, Martica was staring me down the whole beach. As I was searching for anybody who might be alone because it’s so much more productive (at least it feels that way), I kept wanting to NOT go over there, because there was such a crowd. But her eyes kept drawing me. So, I approached and began to share the gospel. Her husband arguing and making sport the entire time, she hung in there with me…..her eyes hungry, and recognizing truth. She gave me all her contact information because she wants the NT and she wants the prophecy book “His name is Yeshua”. She told me she believes this is the most important thing she has ever heard….and this is all while her husband is mocking both of us. If he had not been there, she would have gladly come to faith, I know this in my spirit. The best I could do was to give her one of our decision cards that takes a person through the gospel and has a prayer of repentance on it. I walked her through it….but at this time her husband was shaking his towel out and packing up, flying sand making it really impossible to continue the conversation. She begged me to pray for her. Now you all can pray for her….and her husband, to get radically saved!!!

Late night was stickering…..I kvetched, batted my eyes and begged to get on a stickering team since I missed it the night before because of this blinking headache……and it was so fun!!!! I love putting out these gospel stickers in the middle of the night….although it is a long and exhausting night. Sadly, my headache keeps recurring, but yesterday I pressed on. Lord help.

I have no stats as of the past few days, but I do know on our banner sortie we were reaching about 5700 cars an hour with the banner of Jesus raised high. Phone calls were pouring in to the follow up team, and this happens every time a banner goes out.

One team yesterday did end up at the municiple building…..but were released without a lot of drama. Peter, who led a team the first day did get stabbed with a screwdriver, but is fine and pressing on. These are so isolated, compared to last year. It is so exciting to be able to actually finish our sorties!!!

Please continue to pray me through these headaches. They are really just mindnumbing and makes it very hard to focus on the task at hand. Also, Laura has injured her leg….Anna Marie’s left foot is hurting…..and Sarah’s foot is swollen and painful. We do a lot of hard walking, great distances all day long, and it is wear and tear on our bodies. We need strength, and stamina. It will be 95 degrees today, and it feels over 100. The sun is hot hot hot.

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