We always thank God for all of you and continually mention you in our prayers.”
1 Thessalonians 1:2 NIV
Photo credit: Deb Feller
Inside Israel – Memorial Day
Hi and welcome to another look inside Israel as our sis from Jerusalem shares today about what she is witnessing there as a believer in Yeshua. Thank you so much for praying for Israel and our Sis! Now, here she is . . .
Greetings, brothers and sisters, from the city where God chose to put His Name…just as He chose to put His Name in your hearts. May you be blessed and may He be blessed and glorified.
Once again we are in the ‘cycle’ of ‘spring’ with it’s unique ‘appointed times’. As I thought about it this year, it hit me for the first time how much these appointed times remind me of the cycle of life…and the events of spring remind me of birth. Of course we see birth as the earth itself buds it’s first swellings and births into bloom, but the hagim (holidays) themselves remind me of ‘labor’ in that they gain in intensity and ride waves of changing emotions before the produce and exhausted but fulfilled ‘end-of-cycle’. Those of you who have read these letters over the years may remember Pesach signals the beginning of a series of events. We hold on to the wonder of the miracles of the deliverance of this people that we celebrated at Pesach as we walk to stand beside the gaping grave of the Holocaust. One week later the sirens will again signal the shared mantle of grief as we observe our Memorial Day (Yom h’zik’a’ron)(this year 15 April) for the fallen soldiers and terror victims. Then the – dare I call it – mystical transformation from grieving to rejoicing will occur again as the page dramatically turns from the price paid to the promise gained and we enter our Independence Day(Yom h’atzmaoot)(this year 16 April) …this year will be the 65th birthday of the resurrected state of Israel. Following Independence Day there is a nearly two week break before Lag b’omer(this year 29 April) is celebrated with bon fires and ten days later we dance in the streets and rejoice at the fulfillment of yet another promise: the 1967 restoration of Jerusalem to Israel on Jerusalem Day (Yom Yerushaylem)(this year 9 May). AND…exactly two weeks after that is Shavuot (Pentecost)(this year on 16 May) marking the end of the spring cycle. Beginning with Pesach and ending with Shavuot is the ‘counting of the omer (not to be described today). Now… these are a LOT of holidays to bare witness to, and any of you who have been through labor and birth of a baby can likely identify with the intensity of these ‘compressed’ events. OF COURSE (you remember…just to complicate things) that our holidays begin at sundown the night before (our ‘day’ is measured from sundown to sundown) and the dates are according to the Hebrew calendar, so they change yearly in respect to the Western calendar. J Are you following me?
So we are currently preparing for Yom h’zikaron (Memorial Day).
Yesterday the first flag was placed across the grave of the most recently fallen soldier and now the placing of the rest of the too many flags continue. Films about our history are increasing daily on the radio and television as are stories in the news. They are fascinating and often poignant, touching and even miraculous. I encourage any of you who might wish to read along to check some of the web sites noted at the end of my letter and before my Pastor’s prayer update, which came to us today and so I am including. At this time of year, our young soldiers, who constantly go through an enviable education process that often grows them up, are taken in large groups to visit different memorials and learn of those who fought before them, just as they visited Yad V’Shem (the Holocaust Memorial museum) last week. I watch these young faces on the bus and train as they absorb the weight of the legacy that has gone before them and is being turned over to them…learning of other young people who have paid the ultimate price for this tiny nation…and yet at the same time they are also beginning to understand that this nation stands by God’s protection alone. With the intensity of our surroundings and history comes an innate challenge…perhaps a challenge presented by God Himself: HOW has this happened? WHY has this happened? WHAT will happen? WHO… May that question ‘WHO’ be the one that is answered THIS year in the hearts of many! Oh Lord, BE GLORIFIED! BE RECOGNIZED! BE WORSHIPPED!
I hope to share with you as each event presents itself. For those of you who wish to follow in our local news here are some sites…but please be blessed by my Pastor’s ‘offering’ copied below. I send much love, your sis
http://www.jpost.com/ http://www.idf.il/english/ http://www.jerusalemonline.com/ http://www.ynetnews.com/home/0,7340,L-3083,00.html http://www.israelnationalnews.com/ http://blogs.cbn.com/jerusalemdateline/
Deb's Blog 