Casey's Israel Outreach Journal 2010

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Some date in May, I think…..

I don’t know what day it is. All I know is it was blue shirt day and it was very very very hot…..y’all are letting me down on the cold front!!! Just teasing, but honestly the heat is absolutely brutal, especially with the headaches and sore throat. I don’t know what else to say about that. I take all kinds of different types of medicines trying to get them to stop….drinking water like crazy, but it just won’t stop. It got really really bad this evening, with the throat and coughing. I can’t stand to swallow anything. Ah well. I whine too much. Jesus suffered so much more, who am I to complain?

Had good sorties all day. Last one was split….. parking tickets in this HUGE Microsoft Parking garage…..we have these ingenious parking tickets that I believe are offering the “His Name is Yeshua” book….and looks very much like a ticket, but has stamped in red “Paid in Full”……I don’t know what all it says, but people really panic when they first look at it…..sort of a whimsical, playful way to get people thinking.

Then we had banners, and we were having a great banner sortie, when of course the police came…..this time we did not have favor….they were pretty hard core in their attitude. No tea and crumpets this time. So, we rolled up the banner rather than do the whole police department thing, and then instead, we gave parking tickets to every car in the lot we parked in…..it was really quite fun.

Ze’ev and Peter had mercy on the entire team, since we all are quite exhausted, and they cancelled post cards so that we might have some down time and get good rest tonight. Thank God!! Answer to prayer. I find that I am willing to forgo just about every other necessity…..considering even letting go of showers….meals……whatever, just for some extra time to sleep. We sleep in the car on the way to each sortie….we sleep through chapel…(Just Kidding!!!)

Anyway, going to bed now. Asked to change out the concrete with a different kind of concrete in case it was my mattress that maybe I am allergic to or something. We’ll see what transpires.

Blue Shirt, 2010

It’s one of our late days…..so I have just a couple minutes this morning to jot down some thoughts and stories….if I can remember them.

First of all, here are some stats from the first ten days of campaign:

Total Tracts passed out: 9675
Total Parking Tickets: 23,975
Unsaved Jewish contacts for follow-up: 851
Jewish Decisions (need follow-up still to completely verify): 8
Gentile Decisions “ “ “: 10

Now, I know that from yesterday, when our team was phoning, Leonid and Valera each had a Jewish decision as well…..plus Leonid had one the day before also. Again, these need follow-up to verify everything, but that’s 3 more potential decisions, just from our team.

The thrilling thing is that we are getting an average of 87 unsaved Israelis a day here in the land willing to read the New Testament, read the “His Name is Yeshua” book (which goes through OT prophecies about Messiah and Jesus fulfillment of them) and to receive visits, phone calls, emails, whatever……this is really just a dream come true!!!

A story from my phoning yesterday: I was calling into Petach Tiqwa, which has many orthodox and ultra-orthodox families. I got a young lady (over 18) on the phone and was offering the Yeshua book, and she was getting terribly angry over it, but was staying on the line while yelling at me. This attracted a young man to get on the extension and when he heard what I was talking about, he eventually became intrigued. This enraged the young woman who yelled all the more, and I was having a huge “salad mat bucah” (spicy salad) on the phone….trying to have two conversations at once….one hostile, one genuinely asking questions. The young man said, “I really want this book….I want to know”. He was having trouble giving me his address, spelling it in English, so Gadi, a Hebrew speaker from the other team helped me out. Turns out, these were brother and sister, and ultra-orthodox…..and I was really praying hard for the man to win out and persevere through his sisters loud objections. He did. And I was reminded of the scripture in Luke 12: 51-53
“Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division. From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”

Don’t know what today holds yet, except we’ll be out til 1 am making salad!!! Off to breakfast now…..

It’s nap time, so I have to be brief, but had SALAD MAT BUCHA (spicy salad –meaning a big big balagon) on the first sortie. Oy gevalt! Yad L’Achim….cameras…..following…..found the car…..actually Tzachi followed all protocols and we managed to finish our sortie for some time before it became impossible. At one point, I was in my cover shirt, trying to disappear, all the while watching the car and planning to take pictures in case they damaged it…..when the security guard who had watched the SALAD take place told me I had to leave, it was private property. Meanwhile, the bad guys saw me and were coming at me…..and I begged the guard to just let me stand behind the wall, and he told me to get out of there. I said to him “you see these men are coming after me and want to hurt me and this is what you do? You send me away? You send me out to them??? Is this what God would have you do???” He turned his back and went inside the building. I have to tell you, I was offended on behalf of all womankind at that moment…..and heartbroken. How….how could anyone do such a thing? Ah, but God. My God is mighty to save, and He got us all out without a scratch….without any repercussions. Tzachi really was amazing, and we are all safe. I have more to tell from this, but I’m going to sleep for a little bit first. I love love love nap time. Why do we fight it so much as children? It’s a GIFT!

Phoning this afternoon. In my first session, I was able to get two contacts who were interested in receiving the book about Messianic prophecies. Then I had a phone call where the first man I talked to didn’t want the book, but said to talk to his friend. His friend started out just playing with me, then he changed his tune after confronted with his lack of atonement for his sins, especially should his life be required of him this very day……he was about to give me his address when his “friend” grabbed the phone and began cursing me and told me to never ever call his number again with this “curse words curse words curse words…” and then slammed the phone down. First I wished very much, in my flesh, to call him back and to ask him if he prayed or kissed his mama with those lips…..but I resisted the temptation. I have a brief break before phoning again, and I am listening to some very soothing praise and worship music…..it makes me feel less defiled by all those curse words. Sometimes I forget how ugly cursing can be.

Before I forget, please be in prayer for the entire country, as there is much ado about this situation with Turkey…..the situation is getting rather serious. I don’t want to alarm anyone back home, but I would ask for you to pray about it.

Finished tonight….it’s almost 1:30am. Really tired. Had a very frustrating evening….but that’s neither here nor there. Not every day can be a mountaintop.
I did get out 1000 parking tickets with Leonid….and Anna Marie and Tzachi had some great conversations and got 4 contacts…..

Yellow Shirt Day, 2010

Ok, so last night, I was so tired…..and a little frustrated….now, I was trying to send out a quick text to some really good praying friends, but my abbreviations and so forth sent the spell check on my phone into haywire mode….and in my exhaustion, I was accepting their changes, instead of making it leave it alone. So, what started out as a late night prayer request turned into some sort of scene on a balcony, where I was biting a person named Tim at 1 am. I got some pretty hilarious responses that made me laugh all night long. People were saying….”ok…..?” and “what on earth does this mean? I’m not up on all this Hebrew lingo”…..I could barely fall asleep from laughing so much.

God restored me with laughter instead of frustration. And while I’m still tired….I keep giggling at the drop of a hat. Laughter is good medicine.

Today we get a 3 HOUR NAP TIME!!!!! Could anything be more beautiful than that? We still have a very long day, until 1 am, but that nap is like a cool pool in the middle of the desert…..I will try to avoid biting anyone named Tim on a balcony until 1 am….it’s really better for everyone if I refrain!!!

Tuesday, 2010…sometime in June

Today is a day off, and Anna Marie and I simply had a take it easy day…..got mani’s and pedi’s…..had a nice lunch….planning on having a dinner at the beach with Tzachi, Sarah, Jonathan, perhaps Jeremiah and Sean…..it’s been so relaxing, and so needed.

Yesterday, as a sweet reward, Ze’ev and Peter gave us a team fun day….and they took the entire team to raft down the Jordan River and then take an evening cruise on the Sea of Galillee. In theory, the rafting part was a great idea…..if anyone in your raft is familiar with using oars…..in reality, oars can be quite dangerous, or useless, depending upon who is holding them!!! At one point, I was in the front with Heather, a sweet, English grandma…..who wanted to use the paddles, with Jonathan paddling in the back. She was singing in her lovely angel voice, and we were going round and round in circles….then wap! She smacks me in the face with the oar….”oh, darling, la la la la, did I catch you with that oar? So sorry lovey!!!” I’m like…..uhhhhh, wahhhh what happened…..she cheerily begins paddling again…..I and others began encouraging her to let Gadi have the oar, to help Jonathan, but she was so enjoying herself….singing happily, the SMACK again, a blow to the head this time! My white hat is now covered in Jordan River mud…..my eyes are seeing stars…..so stinking funny! Poor Anna Marie is in the middle, and I cry out, “oooh oooh look out, log!!” Smack! Anna Marie takes a log to the side of the head…..

We got the oar back to Gadi, and Jonathan…..but you have to realize, that originally, it was Gadi in the front, Heather and I in the middle, Anna Marie and Jonathan in the back…..Anna Marie burying her face in Jonathan’s shoulder crying out to the Lord every thirty seconds……then we decided this was not a good set up…..so Heather went up with Gadi to try to “row”…..then I was to move up front, Gadi to the middle, then AnnaMarie to the middle and Gadi to the back…..all while going over a waterfall…..rocks, slamming into the banks of the river….my silver/gray capris were soaked through, and had become clear, much to my dismay, and as I’m trying to move to the front, I throw myself face first into the front of the raft…..my feet up in the air in the middle…..sigh. Not graceful. Heather says “Darling, you’ve got dots on your knickers!!”……and thank you for noticing…..oy gevalt.

We did eventually make it to the end of 8 kilometers of mayhem, rocks, impalings upon bamboo sticking out from the banks…..being rescued from tree branches in the middle of the rapids……I felt like weeping with joy to put my feet upon dry ground again!!! I can actually say I was baptized in the Jordan River, but only by paddles…..and splashes from Tzachi and Peter. They would lurk, waiting for our hapless team….slowing making our pitiful way towards the end, then skillfully paddle out and dump so much water into our raft…..you see how the ugliness really comes out in people you trusted with your life, only hours before….

The evening cruise down the Galillee…..beautiful, but there was a Muslim enagement party for the women, going on on the boat as well, so these very religious Muslim women were in their full garb, head coverings and whatnot….rocking OUT to some really wild, loud music…..so, it wasn’t quite what I expected, although it was certainly an experience I won’t soon forget. Needless to say, we laughed so hard and so much…..and it was more fun that you can imagine.

I am really so not not not an outdoorsy kind of girl, so to spend the day soggy, muddy….sweaty…..and my hair curling up like bozo the clown…..well, you can just imagine!!!! I’m so much more “Barbie and Ken” than shrimp on the barby……

Tomorrow we begin our last big push of the campaign. I remember my last sortie before fun day and day of rest…..I had an amazing conversation with a young army man in the middle of a little ice cream parlor thingie in Hod Hasharon. He was so open to listen and so incredibly interested in the possibility of Jesus being the Messiah. It was an amazing dialogue, and this young man actually had his Tenach (Hebrew Scriptures) with him, so we were opening up the scriptures of Messianic prophecy and he was reading them in his own Tenach! Wonderful. But, there was this really shakalaka girl who kept interrupting every conversation I was having….she kept saying “Oh, do you speak English? Then “F” you!” and many other cursings. It was quite distracting.

There have been so many memories….filled with good and with upsetting moments. We long to finish well and strong.

Here are stats from 14 days of campaign:

Total contacts: 1255
Of which :1124 are UJS
JBD’s: 12
GBD’s: 19
10, 725 Tracts out
27,7675 Parking Tickets
Calling attempts:11,746
Calling completes: 4969

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Yesterday was a kind of quiet day for me, I did an interview with the Kossovers, who are filming a documentary for Jews for Jesus, and then in the afternoon, I had double phoning…..and a few administrative balagon issues from my office in the states, to take care of. The phoning was a dry dry dry field yesterday. Out of 3 straight hours of phoning, I only had one person who was open and would listen. I found myself pretty discouraged.

Went to bed by 11, which is good for here, but then my precious son called me from the Gulf of Mexico, at 3:47am…..to let me know he will be there working on the oil spill crisis for at least another six months, which will make it a whole year before we see each other face to face …..and I’ve been sort of a basketcase ever since. I really really miss my family. I really really miss my son, and I’m struggling today.

Our first sortie was in Petach Tikva, with no colors on…..and we were doing surveys. Again, I seemed to struggle…..I had many conversations and opportunities to share, but only one really resulted in real interest. Now, the rest of my team had amazing results, so this is a huge blessing, and makes it all worthwhile. Oded even had a JBD (Jewish decision for Jesus)!!!!

At one point during the sortie, Anna Marie was seated at a sidewalk table talking with an orthodox man (all black and white clothing), and I was engaged in a very good conversation (the only truly fruitful one I had this morning) with a man named Moti. Moti was open and took in a lot of scripture from me, and ultimately ended up wanting to get the Hebrew book, Corim Lo Yeshua. After we finished, I went back around the corner where Anna Marie had been with the OJ (Orthodox Jewish person). She was gone, but he was still there. As I rounded the corner, he startles….looks up at me and declares “You have the same smell!” I’m thinking, this doesn’t sound good, I know it’s hot, I can’t help it I’m sweating…..and then he says “You have the same smell as the girl who was just here….I can smell your soul…..your soul is pure.” Wow. Wasn’t expecting that. So, I sat with him and began to share the gospel, although I know Anna Marie already had. I talked about that smell being the fragrance of Jesus…..from a favorite scripture of mine” Thanks be to God Who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of Him” from 2 Cor. 2:14. I was able to write out some scripture references for him to have until he receives information from the follow-up team.

One other memorable encounter was with an older gentleman who claimed to be a psychic. He would do my survey, if I would answer the same number of questions for him. I decided, why not? So, I asked him questions about Jesus….and then he would ask me to guess a number between 10 and 25…..he ultimately decided that he was too old to seek after God now…..he said I should only talk to young people. I shared with him that there is no one too old….and that should his life be required of him how could he stand before God without atonement….the blood sacrifice of Jesus? He just kept waving me off. Since I guessed all his number questions correctly I told him that he at least should all me to send him a Bible, but he just laughed and left. Sad.

And so, it was really I suppose a good sortie. I wish so much that I didn’t feel so defeated though. Inadequate. Insufficient for the task. Unprepared. I know in my heart it’s not for me to pull any of this off somehow….to somehow be wise and eloquent and persuasive…..it all has to come from Him. I can’t do anything without Him. I guess today though, I feel as if I somehow can’t find Him. Sigh. And I really miss my family….and I can’t stand the thought of not seeing my son for a whole year. However, I can’t spend my whole nap time crying, so I have to try to rest. Jesus help.

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