Home in Kharkov

After over ten days of travel to Kiev, then all around Israel, I landed back home in Kharkov last night.....more tired than I've been in a long time, but glad to sleep in my own bed. It was a VERY fast-paced tour, with little time to be still in one place long enough to allow the Holy Spirit to speak to my heart what I saw with my eyes. We often said to one another that we were desperate for more time in those significant places like the Mount of Olives, the Garden of Gethsemane, and the Wailing Wall to "soak" in the Lord! But I would not have wanted to miss one place we saw!

This morning, as I write this, I am listening to believers who have gathered in the indoor pool behind my building to worship. I'm not certain what denomination rents the pool every few months on a Saturday morning for special services, but I feel like today is a gift from the Lord! Their voices are lifting up to my 12th floor windows, above all the noises of everyday life in Ukraine!

In my mind, I am transported back to some of the stone churches and synagogues we visited in our travels around Israel. Whenever possible, we would read a Scripture pertaining to the place, pray, then sing together, the sound reverberating off the stone walls! Occasionally, if there were other groups there, we would hear them join us in whatever their native language might be - Korean, Chinese, Russian, German (and others I didn't know!) - and we were transported briefly to the Throne of the King!

As I've begun looking at some of the multitudes of pictures I took, my heart finally has time to spiritually experience what I am seeing....the garden, Via Delarosa, the Mount of Olives, the dungeon they believe Christ may have been kept in the night before His crucifixion, and I realize that I am going to be "experiencing Israel" for a very long time!

I pray this is only the beginning of the Lord bringing to my heart what my eyes have seen and my ears have heard! And I hope to be able to put that experience into words that you might walk alongside me on the rocky paths of Israel!