A Chance to Travel; A Chance to Serve
From Olivia:
"Ready? Set? GO!"
Our niece Ilona is one of the cutest toddlers in the world. One of her first tricks when she began talking was that when my sister would say 'ready, set!', she would respond with a long drawn-out 'Gooooooooo!' I heard it on the phone one day and just about fell over from the display of cuteness.
Well, in the words on our niece, we are pleased to have a Go! in taking our vision trip to Israel from April 21 through May 7. We are not quite ready or set, but I am sure that part will follow.
Since before Bryan and I got married, Israel has been deeply pressed on our hearts. With his previous visits, we hoped and longed for this opportunity to take a vision trip together. We just had to wait for God?s perfect timing, which seems to be now!
A vision trip does many things. It allows us to pray about what our specific ties and ministry with Israel will be now that we are married. It will give me, Olivia, opportunity to visit the land and people and get a better idea of the culture since I have never been. It will bless us with the opportunity to work with Our Friends. We both are excited about using our gifts and talents with these ministries, Bryan with speaking ministry, and me with my photography. We will also visit believers within Haifa and surrounding areas to encourage and be encouraged about God?s love and work within so many places and peoples.
I am looking forward to our trip with great joy. I know God will show me many things while visiting and I am ready for Him to dig deeper into my heart during this journey. I am excited to experience Israel and the people, to worship and dance, and visit places that hold valuable history.
Thank you for your constant support. We have been waiting to use what the Lord provided to take this trip and without our support team and prayer team we wouldn't be able to go. Thanks for sticking by our side and rejoicing with us when we are happy and mourning with us when we are sad. It means the world to us.
Olivia
From Bryan:
Hello Faithful friends and family. I asked Olivia to write as well, because she is so excited about this trip. Don't get me wrong. I'm excited, but she's about to jump out of her skin every day we get closer to getting on the plane. Besides, who can beat opening with a quote from Ilona?
We have our tickets. We have our confirmed seats. We've started scheduling our time in the Land. We've started our lists of things to pack, things to carry on, and things to buy before we leave. And we're saving furiously to cover those purchases and our regular bills while we're gone. Pray with us that the Lord will provide. We were very blessed to find affordable tickets.
I've got to be honest and tell you that at times I'd given up hope of ever getting to go on this promised Vision Trip, yet as always, God is faithful even when I lose hope. I'm simply overwhelmed by His goodness to me, to us. Please praise Him on our behalf, because our own efforts don't even begin to come close to what is due Him.
It's been almost four years since I sat in the Pavilion of the King of Kings Congregation in Jerusalem and felt the Lord saying He had a special role in my life for the nation of Israel. I have a friend who loves the Lord deeply but is still longing for that special connection with a nation, and just the other day I was reminded how wonderful it is to have that bond with Israel while talking to him. I believe in God's plan for this people, because I believe God is faithful. If He cannot be trusted to keep His promises to Israel, whom he created from one man (and he as good as dead), whom He delivered from Egypt with signs and wonders, whom He entrusted His Commandments to, and whom He used to fulfill the promise of a Savior for the world? If He cannot be trusted to keep His Word to them as a covenant nation, then what hope do I have, and what reason do I have to believe in my salvation. He is, after all, still the same God, yesterday, today, and forever. BUT, he was faithful, he is faithful, and he will remain faithful.
Therefore, "God has not rejected His people, has He? May it never be!... God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew.... In the same way then, there has also come to be at the present time a remnant according to God's gracious choice.... They did not stumble so as to fall, did they? May it never be! But by their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make them jealous. Now if their transgression is riches for the world and their failure is riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their fulfillment be!... For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?" (from Romans 11)
It is a sad and profound mystery to me that the church has so ignored the message of this letter, while spending so many generations arguing over some of its theological elements! But, in order to remember the days we live in:
* There are more believing Jews alive in the world today than in all the other centuries since Christ combined.
* There is no other nation or group of people on the earth with such longevity in their national identity, in spite of being almost universally despised throughout most of their history.
* There is still a promise from God to the nation born from his promise to Abraham in our Scriptures that He will "Bless those who bless you, and the one who curse you I will curse." (Genesis 12:3)
* And, of course, never has any other State been formed in a day in the way Israel was.
I believe God is at work, and we get to see it and be a part of it, and report it to you. Thank you for your prayers and financial support, which has made this opportunity possible for Olivia and I. Truly, we are profoundly thankful for you.
Blessings in Yeshua ha Meshiach,
Bryan
"Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful..." - Hebrews 10:23
"Ready? Set? GO!"
Our niece Ilona is one of the cutest toddlers in the world. One of her first tricks when she began talking was that when my sister would say 'ready, set!', she would respond with a long drawn-out 'Gooooooooo!' I heard it on the phone one day and just about fell over from the display of cuteness.
Well, in the words on our niece, we are pleased to have a Go! in taking our vision trip to Israel from April 21 through May 7. We are not quite ready or set, but I am sure that part will follow.
Since before Bryan and I got married, Israel has been deeply pressed on our hearts. With his previous visits, we hoped and longed for this opportunity to take a vision trip together. We just had to wait for God?s perfect timing, which seems to be now!
A vision trip does many things. It allows us to pray about what our specific ties and ministry with Israel will be now that we are married. It will give me, Olivia, opportunity to visit the land and people and get a better idea of the culture since I have never been. It will bless us with the opportunity to work with Our Friends. We both are excited about using our gifts and talents with these ministries, Bryan with speaking ministry, and me with my photography. We will also visit believers within Haifa and surrounding areas to encourage and be encouraged about God?s love and work within so many places and peoples.
I am looking forward to our trip with great joy. I know God will show me many things while visiting and I am ready for Him to dig deeper into my heart during this journey. I am excited to experience Israel and the people, to worship and dance, and visit places that hold valuable history.
Thank you for your constant support. We have been waiting to use what the Lord provided to take this trip and without our support team and prayer team we wouldn't be able to go. Thanks for sticking by our side and rejoicing with us when we are happy and mourning with us when we are sad. It means the world to us.
Olivia
From Bryan:
Hello Faithful friends and family. I asked Olivia to write as well, because she is so excited about this trip. Don't get me wrong. I'm excited, but she's about to jump out of her skin every day we get closer to getting on the plane. Besides, who can beat opening with a quote from Ilona?
We have our tickets. We have our confirmed seats. We've started scheduling our time in the Land. We've started our lists of things to pack, things to carry on, and things to buy before we leave. And we're saving furiously to cover those purchases and our regular bills while we're gone. Pray with us that the Lord will provide. We were very blessed to find affordable tickets.
I've got to be honest and tell you that at times I'd given up hope of ever getting to go on this promised Vision Trip, yet as always, God is faithful even when I lose hope. I'm simply overwhelmed by His goodness to me, to us. Please praise Him on our behalf, because our own efforts don't even begin to come close to what is due Him.
It's been almost four years since I sat in the Pavilion of the King of Kings Congregation in Jerusalem and felt the Lord saying He had a special role in my life for the nation of Israel. I have a friend who loves the Lord deeply but is still longing for that special connection with a nation, and just the other day I was reminded how wonderful it is to have that bond with Israel while talking to him. I believe in God's plan for this people, because I believe God is faithful. If He cannot be trusted to keep His promises to Israel, whom he created from one man (and he as good as dead), whom He delivered from Egypt with signs and wonders, whom He entrusted His Commandments to, and whom He used to fulfill the promise of a Savior for the world? If He cannot be trusted to keep His Word to them as a covenant nation, then what hope do I have, and what reason do I have to believe in my salvation. He is, after all, still the same God, yesterday, today, and forever. BUT, he was faithful, he is faithful, and he will remain faithful.
Therefore, "God has not rejected His people, has He? May it never be!... God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew.... In the same way then, there has also come to be at the present time a remnant according to God's gracious choice.... They did not stumble so as to fall, did they? May it never be! But by their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make them jealous. Now if their transgression is riches for the world and their failure is riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their fulfillment be!... For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?" (from Romans 11)
It is a sad and profound mystery to me that the church has so ignored the message of this letter, while spending so many generations arguing over some of its theological elements! But, in order to remember the days we live in:
* There are more believing Jews alive in the world today than in all the other centuries since Christ combined.
* There is no other nation or group of people on the earth with such longevity in their national identity, in spite of being almost universally despised throughout most of their history.
* There is still a promise from God to the nation born from his promise to Abraham in our Scriptures that He will "Bless those who bless you, and the one who curse you I will curse." (Genesis 12:3)
* And, of course, never has any other State been formed in a day in the way Israel was.
I believe God is at work, and we get to see it and be a part of it, and report it to you. Thank you for your prayers and financial support, which has made this opportunity possible for Olivia and I. Truly, we are profoundly thankful for you.
Blessings in Yeshua ha Meshiach,
Bryan
"Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful..." - Hebrews 10:23
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