Israel: the land of the princes of God

Oh how to even begin with this one. I have been longing to go to Israel for many years, but have always somehow known it was a "not yet."

But by the grace and kindness of God, Israel was one of our location options, and my heart leaped when I saw it. We were there for the month of April and I loved it. We spent time in a couple of different areas, just blessing people, doing practical acts of service and sight-seeing and praying in the land.

One of my favourite moments was getting to worship in a mixed Jewish and Christian congregation. There was everything heavenly and wonderful that you could imagine present: shofars, massive iridescent flags, marble floors, gold and white, a circular layout, Hebrew worship, dancing, the presence of God so thick, it was like paradise for me! I just got to dance and worship, singing in Hebrew, free as a bird!

Another memorable moment was on the Sea of Galilee. We had a party worshipping God together on the boat and doing crazy Jewish dancing. It was just so fun and joyful. I had a dream the night before that I would encounter Jesus in a special way on this day which made it even more significant.

Staying in Jerusalem was a treat too - getting to wake up every morning to this stunning view and worship God from that place was super significant. I loved the sights, smells, colours, tastes, vibrancy, seeing the families of all different nationalities wearing their cultural and religious dress. Just walking around Jerusalem was one of my favourite things - so much to take in!

We did a couple of days of street ministry - with the aim of loving and blessing the people in the land. My little group had a child-friendly focus so we got some balloons and bubbles, and raised the joy level! We also got some singing and dancing in there and I was able to look people in the eye, smile at them and verbally bless them, their families, their businesses etc. The language of blessing is ingrained within the Jewish culture, so it makes these conversations much easier and less awkward than it can be in the UK!

We grew much closer as a team during this time too, which resulted in deeper levels of conversation, prayer and doing life together. For a couple of weeks, about 12-15 of us shared a massive dorm room made of bunk beds. Although there was a lot of snoring from the men's half (!!) it was SO MUCH fun. We had a lot of laughs together - all ages, singles, couples, all just jumbled into this room. We had singing, praying, crying, snoring and lots of giggling. And, of course, a few of the men decided to make themselves "man caves" by hanging blankets from the top bunk to give them an enclosed space on the bottom - much to my amusement as an extreme extrovert! (maybe that's why some of them needed the man cave.. haha!)

I have learnt a lot over this time - if you asked me to tell you in a nutshell, I would probably say that the worship and prayer times in the congregation and at the Houses of Prayer were some of the closest to Heaven moments I have ever had. I would also say that I have now walked where Jesus walked, had my eyes opened to the Bible in a new way by physically being in those places, and spent cherished time with people of many ages, faiths and backgrounds.