Israel October 2023 Update and Praise Report
God bless you. I’m here with my good friend Charles Watson from the Haiti Bible Training Center. Bless you guys. He was in one of our first classes. God called me over here to Haiti to make disciples; identify young leaders, bring them in, make disciples, and then go out and do the work of the ministry.
Charles Watson was one of our first students. He’s helping us out now as the Haiti Bible Training Center director. We wanted to take a minute to talk to you about Israel. We just had the amazing privilege of going over to Israel. Yes. And it was such a blessing.
We teach our students here to be pro-Israel because God says, I’ll bless those who bless Israel. Do you want to prosper? Pray for the peace of Jerusalem and God says that you will prosper. We teach them how important Israel is and how it is in theology and proper doctrine. We were so grateful that Watson could go with us to Israel.
It was a miracle because they rarely let a Haitian out of the country. Usually, you have to go through the U.S. But somehow, he was able to get a visa to Canada. We were able to take him from Canada back to Tel Aviv. So that was a big blessing and essential for the school because he’s the one who disciples and teaches the students, and we want to ensure they’re pro-Israel. We want to make sure that they know that that’s the land that God gave to Abraham, that everlasting covenant.
It was a privilege. We were scheduled to go to Israel for over a year and a half. We had the dates. The day we were leaving, October 7th, we woke up to the news that Israel is at war. My phone was ringing off the hook. “Are you canceling your trip? Are you canceling your trip?” The first thing I did is I started to look at who we were flying in with from the States, because I knew the United States airlines would cancel flights. Delta, American Airlines, United, everybody canceled.
But by the grace of God, we were booked in at El Al Airlines from the States. That’s the Israeli airlines. They’re not going to cancel. They’re very active in time of war, bringing troops back in and moving supplies around.
We were able to go in. We went in on the day Israel declared war. It was a blessing.
I’ll tell you, it was exciting. When we go to Israel, we want to preach the gospel to the Jews. But it’s very difficult because the rabbis tell the Jews, don’t take any tracks from them because they’re trying to steal your soul or something. They won’t take tracks. So God gave us wisdom and we made a Bible track. It’s a postcard with an Israeli flag on the front, and on the back it’s the gospel from their Bible copied and pasted in Hebrew. You hand them one. They love it. They love the Israeli flag. A lot of times they kiss it and put it in their jackets. They don’t realize that what’s written on the back of that track in Hebrew is the gospel from the Old Testament. They can get saved. So we brought in thousands of those.
We had thousands of Arabic tracks for the Muslims. Everybody on our team was packing tracks. We’ve been asked by the IDF, “why do you bring in gospel message tracks for the Muslims?” “It’s simple. If they get saved they will love the Jews and Israel instead of want to kill you.” We had tons of tracks and it was the perfect time because I don’t think we’ve ever seen anybody that open in Israel.
Usually, they’re a little open. But when we were in the north under attack and we were in the bomb shelters with all these soldiers in there, we started passing out the tracks. Every one of them was taking it and putting it in their cargo pants to read later. It was a blessing.
It was amazing how we moved through the land and God divinely protected us. When we were down in the Dead Sea, the travel agency called us and said, We have some bad news. I hope this isn’t going to affect your itinerary, but the hotel you’re staying is hosting all the refugees from the Jewish villages around Gaza that were attacked. They’re traumatized. Some ladies have lost their husbands. Husbands have lost their wives and children. And they’re going to be staying at the hotel where you are.
It was interesting seeing it was a Bible tour. But the Lord gave us a ministry opportunity. We had four worship leaders in our team. That night from 9 p.m. all the way to 12 midnight, we were able to worship with them. The Spirit of God was there with us and we were able to worship with them, we ministered to them and they come by and was so thankful. They said, thank you.
Think about it. They just lost close ones. Then God was there to minister to those people. It was such a blessing. You know, it’s amazing. We had four worship leaders on this team. Our wires got crossed when we were planning the team with Steve Greenberg. He goes, Do we have a worship leader? I said, No. And he goes, I’ll get some. And I forgot Watson was coming. He’s a worship leader. Then at the last minute, another pastor signed on who is the worship leader. So we literally had four worship leaders.
In Judges one, they said who shall be first to go fight against the Canaanites. And they said, Judah shall be first because Judah means praise.
It was amazing because the worship leaders set up in the lobby of the hotel and started worshiping. That’s where the hotel looked like 911. They had all the resources there for these people. Then everybody from the music started gathering in, crying. We had amazing conversations. They downloaded Google Translator. We were able to preach the gospel with many of them. It was amazing.
I’ll tell you a cool story. One of the girls, Emily, was ministering to a lady who just lost her husband. At the end, she gave the lady a cross the light shirt and on the t shirt, it had a cross. Her mom said, You can’t bring that shirt into the house because it’s sacrilege. It’s an offense to our religion. She said, But mom, I’ve never felt so good in the last four days. They ministered, they were worshiping, they held me, whatever they had they gave.
The Bible tells us that we as Gentiles will provoke them to jealousy. They were diffusing the fragrance of the knowledge of Christ in that lobby. She was trying to explain to her, Mom, please, mom, it means so much to me. She posted on her Instagram page all the worship that was going on in the lobby. Her mom in the end said, you know what? This means so much to you. You can go ahead and bring the cross into our house.
The enemy says, the Bible says, honor your parents. If your mom doesn’t want it, don’t let it get in the way. But her mom at the last minute called and said, it means so much. Go ahead and bring the cross in. That’s exactly what they need is the cross of Jesus Christ, Yeshua, Hama Shia who died on the cross and rose again.
We are so grateful all the tracks went out. So many people were open to the gospel. It was the Lord’s timing. Planned a year in advance. The day we’re going, October 7th, is the day that the war broke out. What a privilege to stand by the nation of Israel at their greatest hour of need. People are saying, are you going? Of course we’re going. Are you kidding? I love Brandy, who helps us in the ministry. She says, hey, this just turned from a tour to a mission trip. Isn’t it what we’re all about is being on the mission and preaching the gospel for the Lord Jesus?
We were able to go into the old city of Jerusalem, where it was a complete lock down, and we had some recon teams that were able to leave at night with the Bible tracts and blanket East Jerusalem, that is all Muslim. They were open too. God loves them.
He specially loves the Jews. They’re the apple of His eye. Their His first born, His own special people. But God so love the world that He gave His only begotten Son. There’s stuff going on. But God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked.
He’s hoping that people in their affliction will cry out to the Lord. The minute they do, the minute they call on the name of the Lord, the minute they believe that Jesus died for their sins and rose again three days later and they receive that free gift. Just repent and turn from your ways and come to God, Come to the Light,
They can be saved, just as many of us did many years ago. We wanted to give you an update, a major praise report. Continue to pray for Israel. Pray. The Bible says in Daniel 12 that Michael, that great prince stands watch over Israel. We want to continue to pray for them because if you pray, especially for the peace of Jerusalem, God will prosper you.
