Guest Post by David

The silence is broken! David left me our external, portable modem, and with a little determination I was able to get it running on our desktop computer. So, I am back to blogging!

The following post was written by my favorite man in all of the world, my husband. He is in Israel right now, and I miss him... terribly. But, I know he is having a great time with the two church groups he met up with. I am sure there is an abundance of laughter on this trip because I personally know the people he is with (and they are a crazy bunch... but what else can you expect from Texans and Oklahomans?!)

This post can also be found on David's blog.

Jolene
Above is a picture of me (right) with Col Muni Katz. Muni is the Commander of the Givati Brigade, which is composed of over 4,500 soldiers. He asked us to pray that he and his wife would have a baby girl. Jolene and I have two boys and a baby girl. They also have two boys already, whom he calls “little terrorists”, and he and his wife really want a baby girl. I know he’d appreciate it if you would pray for this as well.

Our group made it in safely to Israel on Monday, and we are getting things prepared for a special three-day event to honor the families of Israeli Defense Forces soldiers killed in action. There have been 197 soldiers from the Givati Brigade killed while fighting the enemies of Israel since 1948. There will be about 400 family members whom we will honor beginning Thursday here in Netanya, on the beautiful shores of the Mediterranean.

We were supposed to meet with Vice Prime Minister Moshe Ya’alon on Tuesday. However, because of the conflict that took place with the “peace activists” out at sea, and because Prime Minister Netanyahu was out of country, Minister Ya’alon was standing in for the Prime Minister at Knesset, etc. Therefore, Anat, his personal assistant, called and asked if we could reschedule to meet with him in a few days.

Due to our change in schedule, we met with the Sr. Dep. Director-General of the Ministry of Tourism, Rafi Ben-Hur. Rafi is concerned about the consequences this will bring upon tourism amongst those who claim to be Christians, yet do not support Israel as the Eternally-Covenanted People of God. Therefore, he has asked us to help him set up meetings for the Minister of Tourism of Israel to come and speak to pastors about committing to stand with Israel and not abandon Israel during this vital time when Israel needs friends.

Please pray for us as we minister to these dear, precious grieving parents. I have already done a lot of singing, and will continue to try to comfort God’s people.

I will write another update soon with more pictures.

David