Hi friends! If you saw yesterday’s post, you know our 20-hour journey would have seemed like a picnic compared to what has been put before us! As this post drops, Lord willing, we are somewhere over Europe, approaching Frankfurt! (One guest is already there, awaiting our arrival.) Once there, we have a brief layover before the much-anticipated flight over the Mediterranean Sea to Tel Aviv. Out our window, we will get a fantastic view of the seashore and skyline of Tel Aviv. It’s the sight every Israel-bound traveler longs to see! Soon we will step foot in the Holy Land!

But what does one do on such a long journey through airports and in airline seats that seem to get smaller and smaller as the trip goes on? Sleep is important, but sleeping at the right time is most important. One of the keys to overcoming jetlag is to sleep while it is nighttime in your destination city! However, given yesterday’s difficulties and lack of sleep (at least for one of us!), we may just get whatever sleep we can get, whenever we can get it! Or maybe not….!

Of course, it is fun to follow the flight of the aircraft on the tiny seatback screen in front of us, but you can only watch a plane fly on a video screen for so long!

One of my favorite things to do on long flights is to curl up with a good book and get lost in the story! Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately in this case), I have yet to read Amir Tsarfati’s latest Mosad spy thriller, The Sick Man’s Rage, so I plan to gobble that up while in flight! Catching up with Israeli superspy Nir Tovar’s daring adventures always keeps me on the edge of my seat!

Another thing I like to do when possible is strike up conversations with Israeli nationals heading home to their homeland! I have met some very interesting Jewish personalities on flights to Israel, and it truly gives me a sense of knowing what it is like for the common family living in Israel. It also presents opportunity to let them know that I love Israel and stand with Israel. When the Lord opens the doors, I love telling them exactly why!!! (As a believer in Jesus, I owe my salvation to the Jewish Messiah! Israel truly has given us a gift we can never earn or repay.)

Once we arrive at Ben Gurion Airport, we will head through customs and into the large baggage claim area with the enormous “Welcome to Israel” sign in both English and Hebrew! It’s a great picture spot, so perhaps we’ll snap a photo to share with you in tomorrow’s post!

Curious about our itinerary? So are we! It isn’t set in stone (as yesterday proved!), but here are some of the places we are currently scheduled to serve:

• A women’s shelter run by Beit Eliyahu Congregation in Haifa. We will minister to the women there, as well as help with any available tasks.
• A food kitchen operated by a Messianic congregation in Kiryat Shmona. There we will help prepare meals for families in an evacuated settlement, as well as soldiers serving in southern Lebanon. (No worries…we’re not going into Lebanon! They will come to us!)
• We will also take a journey to the Syrian border (assuming it is safe to go there), escorted by a guide friend of mine who is currently active in the IDF. There, we will help distribute a large shipment of warm clothing to the soldiers and we will receive a briefing from their company commander!
• A multi-faceted ministry of Beit Hallel in Ashdod. There will be a variety of tasks, such as preparing and delivering food boxes to those in need, handing out clothing or hygiene products, etc. In addition, we will be given the opportunity to engage with those impacted by the October 7 attack.
• Another multi-faceted ministry, City of Life in Sderot, just north of the Gaza border. They have ongoing projects so we will just jump into whatever is happening at the time. In addition, we will see the Sderot Police Station that was brutally attacked and destroyed by terrorists, and we will meet with those impacted.

During our time in the south, we will also be given a tour of the Nova site and at least one kibbutz that was attacked on October 7. It will be a very sobering day as we get a sense of just how brutal the attack was, and just how raw emotions remain, even 16 months following the attack.

If you are following a friend or loved one on this trip, this blog is your source of information. Please know that the areas we are going, though once “off limits” due to security concerns, are now safely guarded by intense IDF forces. Both Hamas and Hezbollah have been driven away from the Gaza and Lebanese borders of Israel and those places are immensely safer than they were before or during the wars. We will be kept abreast of any security concerns, but none are expected. We are safe and will not venture to any site deemed otherwise.

There are other exciting opportunities that I am keeping under wraps for now, but rest assured, if we can pull them off, it will be something! You will want to hear about these exciting opportunities, so tune in each day for the updates!

As always, we appreciate your prayers, your encouragement and, if you choose, your financial support of one of the projects we are involved with. Here is information about that project:

See back here tomorrow!