Israel trip Kluge and construction project Soup kitchen Matthias Krones
Review
This year, too, we decided to travel to Israel again, despite the tense situation. Our small group consisted of four women and two men. Our first stop was the House of Prayer in Jerusalem on the Mount of Olives. The couple in charge, Andreas and Adelheid Bauer from Berlin, were already waiting for us. Together with them, we had intense times of prayer every morning and evening, where we prayed for Israel and its people (as it says in Isaiah 62:6) like ‘watchmen on the wall’. Between the prayer sessions, we visited our friend and Holocaust survivor Josef Aaron twice, met with the Messianic Jewess Nancy, visited the underground excavations of the ancient temple complex, the highly recommended ‘Friends of Zion’ museum, and simply ‘breathed in’ the dense atmosphere of the Old City. After this week, three women from our group had to return to Germany.
For Torsten, our friend Christoph and me, the second stage of our journey now began. First we drove to Latrun. There is a small branch of the “Jesus Brotherhood” there. Brother Siegfried was already waiting for us and showed us the beautiful ancient rooms, which have been integrated into the restored parts of an old Crusader castle. A special place!!! We collected the toolbox belonging to Matthias, a member of our association, and drove on to Sderot. There we met him and his group of craftsmen the next day at the soup kitchen. We, as the “Gate to Zion” association, have been supporting them for almost three years now. The men had their hands full with building work, and I helped out in the kitchen, which is firmly in Russian-speaking hands. As my Russian has unfortunately faded over the years, we had to communicate with our hands and feet and with our hearts. It worked!!! It was once again a wonderful experience to work alongside the Jewish women. Once again, I marvelled at the wonderful dishes they conjured up. At lunchtime, poor and needy people came for lunch and to take food away.
After four days, we said our goodbyes and drove on to Sde Boker, a town in the Negev Desert. Our long-standing friends Kelly and Yaron, Baruch and Jeanie live there with their families. We celebrated Shabbat together, attended the small congregation’s service, went on two fantastic desert hikes, helped with the gardening, and Torsten spent a day tiling their new food truck together with Yaron. Then we took our friend Christoph to the airport and set off as a pair on our third leg of the journey.
We headed north to the Sea of Galilee. Everything was in bloom and lush with greenery. Simply beautiful!!! We visited the Winkler family, a German couple who have lived in Israel for many years and lead a prayer ministry. We then went on to the Ben Nesher family, Swiss Jews who came to Israel many years ago. From them we learnt of the difficult situation Messianic Jews face in simply coming together and living in fellowship. A real cause for prayer!!!
Between visits, we walked a stretch of the Golan Trail with views over the lake and the surrounding mountains. Once again, I was overcome by the longing to one day hike the ‘Shvil’, the Israel Trail.
Then we carried on to Haifa to see our dear friends Avishay and Chava. As always, they gave us an extremely warm welcome. In the evening, we were all invited to our friend Ileni’s house.
She had been cooking all day and was very excited that we were coming. Avishay’s son Omer was there too, and we had deep conversations with him about the Bible and faith.
After breakfast, we set off straight away for Netanya. The Mund family have recently moved there. They went to Israel last September to help with work for Holocaust survivors and Jewish new immigrants. We were able to help them organise an afternoon gathering and arrange the musical programme. An impressive endeavour under the most basic conditions.
The next morning we travelled on to Herzliya. A Jewish woman lives there whom we met last year in a mountain hut in the High Tatras and who warmly invited us into her beautiful home. We celebrated Shabbat together with her, her husband Moshe and their adult children. The next morning, just as Torsten was in the shower, the first alarm went off on our mobile phones. Torsten and I were completely bewildered and didn’t know at first what was going on. Our hosts reassured us and said it was ‘just’ a sort of early warning. It meant: Be ready. The war has begun!
The very next moment, our long-time friend Shira from Tel Aviv rang and said we had to come to her place as quickly as possible because the Iranians’ first attack was about to begin. As we’d been planning to visit her anyway, we packed our bags in a flash and drove to Tel Aviv. No sooner had we arrived than it started. First the mobile phones went off, and a few minutes later the sirens began. We rushed to the shelter, which fortunately is in our friends’ flat. Many people in Israel have to use public shelters. There we sat with our friend’s family and her four dogs. A very unusual week began. Our flight the next day was, of course, cancelled, and no one could say when we would be able to return home. So we simply stayed in Tel Aviv. Our friends looked after us wonderfully. The alarm went off time and again, and we sat in the shelter. In the distance, and sometimes very close by, we heard the sounds of explosions. Every evening we sat together with our friends and sang Hebrew worship songs. It was so special because our friends aren’t believers. Once, whilst we were in the shelter, our friend hummed a tune from one of the songs. Then we all began to sing the lyrics, which translate as: ‘As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul longs for you, the living God.’ Truly a divine moment!!! At the end of the week, the opportunity arose for us to take the bus to Sharm el Sheikh and fly from there via Istanbul to Berlin. We decided to embark on this adventurous journey. Saying goodbye was not easy for us. We were able to return to the safety of Germany, whilst our friends had to remain in this dangerous situation. Looking back, we are glad we had this experience. Having witnessed the pressure and distress helps us to pray wholeheartedly for His people. We are deeply grateful for this journey, every encounter, every conversation and, of course, all the protection we experienced. Thank you, Lord Jesus Christ!
Kerstin Kluge
