We experienced two very special blessings yesterday (Saturday, March 21) in Israel that I want to share with you right away.
One was certainly the Mother's Day event in Eilaboun where about 900 women gathered for worship and fellowship. I'll tell you more about that in a moment.
The other was meeting a unique lady last night in Turan who has given me permission to tell you her story. She asks for your specific prayers during a time of trials and growth in her life.
You may remember Andera talking in the last report about visiting a lady in a nearby kibbutz whose background was Christian. Her name is Rosa. She came to Israel 15 years ago from her native Ecuador to live in the kibbutz with her new Jewish husband. She has raised her two children--Israeli and Jewish by birth--with the values and knowledge of Christianity, but her personal faith began growing and being very real to her just a couple of years ago.
The more her faith grew, the more her husband distanced himself from her until he left her early last year. He still professes love for her, and she for him, but he says his spirit will not let him share the same room with her because of her faith in Jesus. He has now moved to a new city and they only have contact when arranging for their 12- and 7-year-old to visit him.
Rosa told me she has not had contact with Believers the entire time she has been in Israel, until Andera and another lady learned of her through God's intervention and began visiting her. She is now greatly encouraged and looking for opportunities to get to know Him better, and looking for ways to be involved in the local church. She has even become a generous financial supporter of the Church at Turan.
While she was given options to visit a church of Believing Jews (where she could understand the language of her adopted country) she has asked to stay in fellowship with her new Arab friends at Turan where someone will translate the sermons and songs from Arabic into either English or Hebrew for her.
She shed tears of joy and trials several times during our conversation, particularly when talking about her new-found friends and how God has answered her prayers in His time about her loneliness and her need for Christian fellowship.
She is asking for specific prayers for these three things: Her husband's heart that he might find God and through that experience return to his family; Her own strength to remain faithful to the things God has called her to be; and for the growth of her children as they struggle with the loss of their father and the persecution from other children in the kibbutz because of their Christian beliefs.
I believe God has brought Rosa to this ministry as much as this ministry to her. It is not clear what He is doing right now, but I ask your sincere and specific prayers for this lady of faith, for the Team's response to her in a very difficult situation, and for our openness to whatever it is the Lord is doing between a few loving Arabs and this lady of the kibbutz.
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