Friday, April 22
As the sun rises in Israel, our time is setting here is this great land.
Pray for Peace on Jerusalem
Well, its 4:30am EST in New York , and my body clock is all messed
up. We got in at about 4:30pm yesterday
into Newark ,
our flight landed about an hour early.
Thank You Lord for the traveling mercies, the 4 movies I watched, the
extra leg room and the 2 nice older ladies who sat next to me. Lol.
Was weird, they served us a lasagna meal with Mediterranean salad about
1.5 hours into the flight. Then about 2
hours out from landing, they served us a egg dish with salsa, yogurt and a mini
bagel..based on Israel
time, it would have been about 9:30pm night time or about 2:30pm NY
time…unusual food timing…but oh well…at least we had food. 10.5 hours in a plan sure is long a long time
to be flying Still amazed that we, just
spent the last 8 days in Israel .
Still processing out all the amazing things I saw,
witnessed, heard and felt in the land that Jesus walked, lived and loved 2000+
years ago. Totally blessed by all the
people we met…the 3 Tom’s and their wives:
Tall Tom and wonderful Amy ,
Texas North
Carolina left us a day before to Paris and I was so amazed at how small their
bags were..they had 2 bags, when combined smaller than my 1 bag…and they were
traveling for like 17 days..they went to Jordan
for a few days before meeting us and then went to Paris for a few days after. And finally, our hosts, David and Monica
Stoker. The Stoker’s are a
Punahou/Westmont connection and in the short time that we got to know them
since 2009, they have been a huge blessing to my family and will be forever
grateful for allowing us to come on this trip and making us feel so welcomed
and loved. This trip was much as about
relationships as it was about seeing the HIS-story of the Bible. At NH Aloha
Pau’ole our church plant, our mission statement is;
We are
committed to loving God and advancing His Kingdom by loving people to a place
of freedom.
So in this mission statement, we get the loving God and
loving people part – it’s the greatest commandment Jesus gave us. What we have been learning is the other 2
points of our mission statement over the last 3 years – Advancing His Kingdom
and to a place to freedom. For us, at NH
Aloha Pau’ole, Advancing His Kingdom means 3 things and its all about
relationships:
Making
a new relationship
Taking
an existing relationship and making it better/stronger
Restoring
a broken/damaged relationship
You see, Jesus came to reestablish God’s kingdom on earth…to
reconnect us to the Father and each other in a healthy way, regardless how
messed up we are or have been. Jesus is
and was a relationship. God the Father,
God the Son and God the Holy Spirit is a relationship…Love is a
relationship. And as we, me, learn and
relearn how to love God and love people, for who they are and how valuable each
person is to God I am freeing myself from whatever struggles I am going thru and
also helping other people to be free in their God given design. This trip accomplished 2 of the 3 goals in our
church/life mission – making new relationships with our Israel Ohana and making
my existing relationship with Brandi and the Stokers better/stronger. God blessed this time and blessed me with
this people.
During Lori’s 2.5 year battle, we lived out this mission
statement as a family and God has blessed us with so much people, so much
comfort and so much love. This trip was
a capstone and also a milestone in our journey for me, as well as Brandi. So looking forward to what God has in store
for my future with all of His hope, promises and callings.
One amazing blessing that came out of this trip was the very
first couple we got to meet and get to know was Tom and Marilyn Griffith
(Baptist Tom). We had just met them at
the Newark
airport as well as the rest of the group and were waiting in the pre-boarding
security line. As we were talking,
Marilyn asked Brandi where her mom was and was she not joining us on this trip.
Brandi shared her testimony and Marilyn began to tear up…she shared that her
and Tom, were both widowers whose spouses had died at very young ages and
remarried later in life and have been married for now 7 years. They had been through what I had been through
and totally understood all the emotions that I have been going through the last
year and then as parents of children (Tom’s kids were young, like in early
teens and Marilyn’s kid was a teenager) understood the struggles of Brandi,
even though as a young adult. There was
so much compassion and understanding and the connection was automatic. Thank You Lord for the right people and the
right time You provided because of this trip.
To You be the glory.
Final story before I close out this blog…we had 3 men named
Tom on this trip…and when we arrived at our hotel in Israel on Wednesday night,
late…we had dinner and then met as a group to introduce ourselves and share, as
Jim and Ann from North Carolina joined us to make the group of 14…we started
labeling the Tom’s so we would be able to yell out their names and they not be
confused…Tall Tom for obvious reasons, cause he was a good 6’6” tall and stood
out in the crowd...his personality and love for us was as big as he was..what a
great guy. Then there was Texas Tom,
with the Southern drawl who married a French girl from Canada and
could not speak English when they first met..a french speaking girl with a
honky tonk Texas dude…Tom reminded me of the favorite uncle that we all
have…always talking to you and making you feel valued and wanted and the best
nephew or niece…and finally Baptist Tom, the Godsend couple who related to me and
my recent loss…he was labeled Baptist Tom cause he went to seminary school and
is a Baptist trained minister and just an amazing, intellectual, thoughtful
guy. These 3 Tom’s, along with Jim,
Steve and David are all Godly men who blessed me tremendously on this trip.
Lori would have loved all of them and their great and lovely wives. I cannot even begin to be grateful enough to
the Lord for this bountiful of blessings.
Well, it’s now almost 5am and Brandi and I are both
up..lol..body clocks all off…I’m going to go work out and we going meet for
breakfast in our lobby (Fairfield and Courtyards are so awesome) at 6:30am and
then begin our day. Hoping to see a
Broadway play this afternoon, see the sights of Time Square and in our hotel,
is a attached the highest 360 view Sky Room over NYC Times Square. Its on the 34th floor of our hotel
and we plan to get some pupus tonight.
Lord, thank You for your continued love and joy throughout
this trip and through our lives. Love
You so much and bless You!! To You be
the glory!!
Thank you all for your love and support and prayers and
being a part of our journey. God bless
you all!!
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