A personal story of Gods involvement in our lives.

Rod Valentine

The question often arises as we talk with others or in our own hearts and minds "Does God get involved in our lives, does He really guide us"? I believe the answer is yes as we move forward in the way we believe we should go. Let me share a testimony of a happening in my own life.

My wife Penny and I were on our way to Israel to take up volunteer positions with Christian Friends of Israel. We had travelled from South Africa where we had been living and working as CFI Reps for Africa for some years. The crazy thing was that we left there just as the Intifada (Palestinian uprising) started, but we believed that the Lord was directing us, so we pushed through. Yet there was a certain nervousness, which was certainly not helped by family and friends pointing out the dangers of going to Israel at this time. We had worked there before so knew a little of what we were going into! It would perhaps have been easy to comply with their wishes in our natural mind, but we both had a deep conviction of our calling, to stand with the Jewish people.

The pressure built as we stayed with friends just north of London the night before we flew out. "This is ridiculous", we said. "Who in their right mind would do this? Was God really wanting us to do what in the eyes of the world was quite stupid?" Yes, you're right, that was the answer - we do not walk in the way of the world but in the way of the Spirit. If God wanted us there He would be our guide and protector. As if to confirm our thoughts, the Lord confirmed it to Penny through the next morning's reading in the UCB "Word for Today" booklet; "Don't let fear rob you of your destiny". The Bible verse Obedience is better than sacrifice comes to mind - it's our obedience to His word that the Lord is looking for not sacrifice.

We had booked to fly Air Malta to go to Israel, it was the cheapest one year ticket we could get, and we spent a lovely time having dinner at the water's edge in Malta while we waited for our onward flight. That proved to be quite interesting, as we took off with a good number of passengers but as we called in at Cyprus they all proceeded to leave! Just three of us continued on in this enormous jet plane, one Israeli and Penny and I. Uh Uh! What is going on here? At Tel Aviv the Israeli went inside and disappeared, and we were confronted by at least 15 security personnel, well, they had nothing else to do. "Are you going to Eilat?" they asked, (that's a holiday area). "No," we said. "Oh! to Tel Aviv then," they suggested. "No we are going to Jerusalem," we told them. They were shocked and could not believe we would go there by choice, what with suicide bombers etc. Then, on to collect our luggage, just us and eventually our two little cases in an international airport, it was bizarre, we just hung on to the word the Lord had given us.

But more was to come. On arrival at our friends with whom we were to stay we had a short kip to catch up on a night of lost sleep, never have been able to sleep on planes. We had been invited to join in with a prayer meeting they were to have in their home that evening. First we had a bring and share meal and fellowship then down to prayer. As the leader opened his mouth to pray, machine gun fire started across the valley - welcome to Israel. It was the Palestinian Tanzim gunmen firing on Gilo on the outskirts of Jerusalem, from the Christian village of Beit Sahour by Bethlehem, followed by the slightly deeper sound of the Israeli response. I learnt later the terrible effect this was having on the Christian families in the Bethlehem area. The majority of the faces in the room drained to a sort of grey/white hue, but the firing continued and so did the prayer - as we stopped praying after about an hour or so the firing stopped also. Fear not for I am with you says the Lord is a good scripture to hang on to in such circumstances, don't you agree? I was to get much more first hand experience over the next couple of years, seeing more fire fights, talking with and helping Christians from the Bethlehem area and working with many Messianic Jewish congregations. But we had had our baptism, now there was work to do.

We called our little home that we eventually moved into "Rechavot" meaning "The Lord has made a place for us and we will be fruitful in the land". Gen 26: 22 Our God and Father had truly gone before us, to bring us into the place He wanted us for this time.