September 14th, 2016 Shalom y’all! It feels so
good to be back. The last two ½ weeks has been so crazy but wonderful. August
20th-22nd was my brother and now sister-in-laws wedding
at a ranch close to the border of Utah and Colorado. They had their
ceremony at Rifle Falls, Colorado. It was a beautiful (but quick)
ceremony/wedding. I had a blast staying at the ranch, goofing off with my
siblings and niece and enjoying the beautiful scenery with my wonderful family.
I will possibly be giving a blog post about the wedding or at least show the
pictures. But I first want to share about my and my family’s two week
incredible adventure to… ISRAEL!!!
God’s Holy Land! Wow! All I can say is… wow.
Our family experienced and did so much in just a two week period. We met so
many wonderful new friends, saw amazing beautiful places that major events took
place at, ate really tasty food and more. I will be sharing more thoughts on
the trip itself after I give you a little taste into our days while being over
there. So, lets get started.
On August 23rd at 3:00am our family headed out to
go to the airport. The day before leaving for Israel, we left the wedding
celebrations, drove 5 ½ hours back home, cleaned, packed last minute things and
slept for a few hours. Basically, it was all crazy! When we got up, though it
was early, we had smiles on our faces with ready hearts for our much
anticipated trip. We first drove to my sister and brother-in-laws house so that
my older sister could take the car back after dropping us off at the airport.
In the car my mom shared with us that she wants us to come back to America and be like Joshua and Caleb, sharing
the truth and good report about Israel.
Psalm 48:12-14. The news here in American doesn’t tell the truth at all about Israel. There aren’t
bombings exploding everywhere you walk, or people betting stabbed every where
you turned. No, most of the people were so friendly. Jews, Muslims and
Christians are all walking on the same street into the same stores. The Jewish
people, as a nation, are being mistreated by the extremist Muslims of the world
because most of the Muslim world just hates them. In Israel, the Jewish people still
live their lives. They don’t live their lives in fear, yet with caution. They
try to live as normally as possible. It was so beautiful to see how life
actually is there.
Anyway, 10 spies in the Bible came back with a false report
saying that there were giants filling the land etc. but after Joshua and Caleb
saw the land, they came back with a good true report. That’s what we feel
called to do now that we are back. We are called to spread the truth about Jerusalem and Israel
and show the people in America
how 1. important the Land
of Israel is and 2. how
much the Jewish people need our support. America
has begun to turn her back on Israel,
which makes me so sad and they don’t deserve any of the hate they get. I just
want you all to know that America
is dangerous too. We aren’t safe anywhere. There are shootings happening in Chicago, Orlando etc.
etc. I was telling a friend the other day that I felt safer sometimes in Israel then I do in Denver. You do want to use common sense in Israel, just
like you do any where else. For instance, you don’t go to the Muslim places
that have signs for Jews and Christians that say “go at your own risk, for you
may be killed” but it’s the same with Denver
and any other major city. Obviously, I wouldn’t go down a dark alleyway in the
middle of the night in a city. Part of the reason I felt so safe in most parts
of Israel
was because 1. the people are so friendly and 2. there is literally IDF
(Israeli Defense Force) or city police
soldiers everywhere you go. If something happens, there is most likely a
soldier nearby to help you.
My little sister also shared in the car a verse that she
read that morning in Exodus 33:14, “And He said, ‘My presence will go with you,
and I will give you rest.”” My sister shared how this really touched her
because all of us were tired that morning but His presence goes before us. He
gave us the strength and rest that we needed. We said our goodbyes to my older
sister, checked in, bought breakfast, went through security rather quickly, ate
our breakfast and boarded our plane to Newark,
NJ. On the plane I slept, ate,
had a little “dance party” with my sister, listened to music, journal led and
read. The flight went by really quickly which was nice. Our plane landed safely
in Newark and we bought some really tasty New York pizza for
lunch. It was crazy to see New York from the
plane and then eat their pizza in New
Jersey. Our family arrived to our gate 2 ½ hours
early. At our gate, security guards came and told everyone to move somewhere
else. They shifted our Tel Aviv gate - which was a little concerning. Once it
got closer to time to board, we went through a small international security
area. We had to set our bags on a table. They scanned the bags, scanned us and
we gave them our passports. Everyone was able to sit down at the original gate again.
I’m glad they had the extra security.
It really hit me that we were going to Israel when we
were standing in line to board the plane, seeing all different kind of Jews, a
few Muslims, and hearing the Hebrew language all around us. I could pick up
some words here and there which was encouraging. It was so interesting seeing
the different kind of Jews boarding. There were the ultra orthodox Jews with the kippah, tzit tzit’s, black tall
hats, long beards, and for the ladies long skirts, long shirts, and head
coverings. Then there was the traditional, modern orthodox Jews who wore skirts
and modest shirts but the men only wore a Kippah and tzit tzit’s. It was sweet
that some of the children matched too. Most of the ladies and girl children were
wearing modest clothing with long skirts and longer shirts. For my mom, sister and I it was really
encouraging to see young ladies wearing modest clothing. Since we wear skirts
the majority of the time, it was comforting to not be the only women wearing a
skirt. I have never seen that many ladies and children on a plane all wearing
skirts. Seeing the children run around wearing Kippah’s and tzit tzit’s or
skirts was so sweet and it melted my heart. Also, hearing children call “Ima”
or “Abba” was so sweet. We boarded the plane, had a kosher meal of chicken,
rice, vegetables, bread and chocolate pudding. It was so nice in Israel that all
of the restaurants we went to were Kosher so I didn’t have to worry about the
pork or shellfish issue.
On the plane I did the same things that I did on the Denver to Newark
flight and I also read a couple of verses that a very dear friend of mine gave
to me before the trip. She had made this packet full of verses that really
encouraged me so much. It was really sweet of her to think of me and do that.
On the plane I got about 3 ½ hours of sleep and it was great waking up that
morning seeing the sun rise and seeing Jews praying on the plane. Many of the
men were covered in their prayer shawl and using their prayer books and many
women were praying using their prayer books as well. I felt very safe and comforted on the flight
because so many people were praying, ha ha!
Alright, so now we are going into the 1
st day of
the
Israel
adventures. Yay! When we landed into
Israel many people was clapping,
which was so fun! I was SO excited that we landed! I couldn’t keep the
excitement in any longer. When we got off the plane everything was in Hebrew,
even the exit sign! The Tel Aviv airport was so nice and clean. We found our
way to where we needed to go very easily, thanks to the help of some English
signs, praise God. It REALLY started to hit me that we were finally in
Israel when we
were driving and seeing all of the Hebrew and Arabic signs. My dad was very
brave to drive on that trip. He did such a wonderful job, and we were all proud
of him. If you ever go to
Jerusalem,
just a warning, people love to honk their horns there… even if you are doing
nothing wrong. It was so funny to hear the horns honking everywhere you go. I
will say I witnessed lots of impatience! As we drove up the hill we started to
see “The city on a Hill” a.k.a.
Jerusalem!
It was amazing coming over the peak and seeing houses, lots of construction going
on, tall business like buildings, brick walls etc. I can’t explain the sight
but it was beautiful seeing so much life in the city. Our family had a lot of
confusion driving around trying to find our hotel but we all stayed calm and
finally found our way around. We checked in, met up with a friend of several of
our
Colorado
friends, talked a little bit, and headed out. Our friend took us through a park
called Teddy Park. Teddy saved over 3,000 Jews during the Holocaust time through
an under ground tunnel. They made this park in remembrance of him. Fountains
were on in the park and there was at least 100 children (and some parents)
laughing and having a blast in the fountains. I noticed in
Israel that so
many of the Jewish families are so family oriented. It is really nice for a
change. Everyone was having a great time. Our friend told us that it was the
last week of summer so everyone was out enjoying fun activities before school
starts. I have never seen so many Jewish families at one place and enjoying
life together. It truly warmed my heart!
We then walked through a fancy mall that has the best coffee
I have ever tasted. For the Starbucks lovers out there, it was so much better
then Starbucks. The coffee shop was called Aroma and I can’t tell you how many
times our family got coffee there while in Jerusalem. It’s kind of embarrassing how
often we went, ha ha! We soon had the joke: “when tired in the
morning-afternoon-or evening, drink Aroma. When it’s hot outside, get Aroma.
Need a small treat, get Aroma.” This
first time, we all got regular iced coffee, and chocolate croissants for a
little snack. Everything was so good! With coffee in our hands we headed
through the Jewish quarter. How beautiful it was through there. Everything was
so clean and there were beautiful flowers growing. Also, seeing the Israeli
flag is so nice and comforting. On our way down to the Western Wall, we passed a
lot of Jews trying to hand red strings out. A friend of mine suggested that we
don’t take anything that is handed out, especially the red strings that were
being handed out in Jerusalem.
When we arrived down to the wall, there were at least 2,000-3,000 Jews celebrating
with singing, dancing and waving of flags and a gigantic video screen
displaying the key people. We asked someone what was going on and they said
that for about three years they have been working on a new Torah scroll and
they had just finished it. Every letter and detail on a Torah scroll has to be
perfect and there was about 30,000 shekels ($7,500 dollars) poured into this.
How exciting it was to see many people rejoicing and celebrating God’s Word. It
was really inspiring to me seeing that many people rejoicing for God and His
Word. If only we all rejoiced and celebrated like that too. We overlooked where
the City of David
was and where David would’ve come up singing the Psalms of Ascents. That was a
cool image in my mind and another goose bumps moment (I had many of those on
the trip J).
Our friend then pointed out to us the Mount of Olives
which has a pretty amazing significance to it too.
Our family had a lot of tears on the first day just seeing
the Bible
come alive in such an
amazing way that I could never put into words.
We then hiked back up through the Jewish quarter. There are
a ton of stairs and hills. Some days we got very sore and tired. We found our
way by ourselves and I think we did a good job for our first time. For dinner
my sister and dad had Israeli pizza and my mom and I had the best chicken
schwarma and humus sandwich that I have ever had! The humus in Colorado is so fake now
that I have tasted the real stuff. We
arrived back to the hotel safely and a crazy thing happened while we were
walking up in the Jewish quarter. We passed a HaYovel group. This is a ministry
we are fond of and where many friends serve. By the time it all registered, we
wondered if one of my friends siblings were in that group and we didn’t realize
it until it was too late to go say hi. We considered running down, but the
streets are hilly and sometimes slick. I was so bummed, but it was so fun to
see/pass people we know from the USA
in Israel
already. On a transparent side, I did have some thoughts and some fears back
home knowing that we were going to be seeing and be around Arabs. But when I
came into the land all of my fears went away and I felt so joyful and brave. It
was a really great comforting feeling.
I hope you all enjoyed the travel days + the first day in Jerusalem. I hope to be
posting a lot these next couple of weeks of our adventures in Israel. I will
also be showing some photos on here of our trip. Hope y’all will come back for
more.
Shalom and Blessings to you,
Kaila
