I have been on internet silence since we moved into the new Ninth Hour missions base last week. Oh the joys of moving. I have only been able to get online a couple of times from Rocky and Margaret Gathright’s house and from our next door neighbor’s house, but I haven’t been able to write a blog post until now. We are eating dinner tonight at David Vandeput’s house (Jon’s brother), so I’m posting from there. The internet is supposed to be hooked up in a couple of days at our house, and we are SO ready. It’s amazing how dependent we’ve become on the world wide web. I don’t even know what’s going on in the world.
Just wanted everyone to know we are still alive and well. Life is good. We are getting settled in the house, and eagerly awaiting the arrival of my precious husband from Israel. He has been tying up loose ends in Jerusalem for three weeks and has worked so hard. He had to move out of our apartment without me and Preston, and I’ve really felt awful that we haven’t been there to help him. The hard part of the move is behind us, and we can’t wait for him to get here!
Gary just sent me this picture on his iPhone as he was closing the door to our apartment in Israel for the last time.
I have to admit that I cried when I saw it. This last year has been such a gift from Abba God, and I mean that with all my heart. I have no feelings of pain or regret at having to leave Israel. On the contrary, my heart is filled with such gratitude for having spent a whole year there, that I all can do is thank Him for that very special gift. There are many memories attached to this apartment. Great memories. The laughter, the friends we made, the friends from Texas who stayed with us, the meals served, the movies watched on laptops, the games played at the table, the worship at the keyboard and guitar, the hours of Bible study and meditation looking out over the Judean mountains. Ahhh…..great memories!
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A couple of weeks ago, Gary and I took Austin and Hannah (our oldest son & future daughter-in-love) into the Old City to eat a shawerma. I love falafels and shawermas. Have I ever mentioned that? Anyway, on the way to the little falafel shop, we stopped off at the Western Wall. We didn’t have time to stop and linger, but we saw a white dove on the Wall over on the women’s side, and Hannah and I didn’t want to pass up the photo op! A white dove on the Western Wall…the only section of wall left from the 1st century when Yeshua walked here….a Wall that His human eyes looked at….
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Neh. 3:29 “…the gate that looketh toward the east: And the glory of the Lord came into the house by the way of the gate whose prospect is toward the east.”
Eastern Gate from inside the Temple Mount
Ezekiel 44:1-3 Then he brought me back to the outer gate of the sanctuary, which faces east; and it was shut. And he said to me, “This gate shall remain shut; it shall not be opened, and no one shall enter by it; for the LORD, the God of Israel, has entered by it; therefore it shall remain shut. Only the prince may sit in it to eat bread before the LORD; he shall enter by way of the vestibule of the gate, and shall go out by the same way.”
Eastern Gate from the Mt. of Olives
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I have the wonderful privilege of visiting the Temple Mount almost every week, and I have determined that it is my all-time favorite place in all of Israel. It’s on the top of the list. It tops the Southern steps of the Temple, the Sea of Galilee, the Western Wall, Ein Gedi, Capernaum, the remains of the tabernacle at Shiloh, and the Rabbi’s tunnel. To me it even tops the City of David, and anyone who knows me knows that I LOVE the City of David. There you can see ruins of his actual palace, the retaining wall (Millo in II Chron. 32:5), Hezekiah’s tunnel, and Jebusite stone columns in front of the Gihon Spring. Even over all of this, I love the Temple Mount. To say that there is a lot of history on that 36-acre plot of land is a total understatement. There is history, but there is also future significance to this place. It is what all believers in Yeshua cry out for. We long for the Day when He will appear in the sky, catch us up with Him, change us in the twinkling of an eye, and return with us to the earth to rule. We will be part of His earthly government!
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