An upper room experience - in the upper room!

[Deba]

I was on holiday in Israel fo most of the month of November (then enjoyed the beach at TelAviv so much I stay for the 1st week of Dec also.)

The holiday was overdue, I hadn't had a break in about 2 years, I was tired, burnt out and totally without energy or interest in anything to do with God and I had long since stopped talking to Him, afraid He would ask me to do something more - not proud of that, but... I was hurting and in a self-defensive mode, because His comfort to me had seemed nonexistent.

So I went on holiday wanting a second honeymoon - I needed to fall in love with Jesus all over again. My relationship with Him had become lost in work and care of others.

For a week or so I was with my church group, whom I joined when they flew in from the states. My roommate for the tour dates was my best friend. I shared my miserable spiritual condition with her.

When the 26 of us went to tour the upper room in Jerusalem at dusk, the pastor started to pray. My best friend pushed me to the front and told the pastor I needed refilled. So he prayed for me.

I started weeping, I felt so dirty and I wanted Jesus to cleanse more than my feet so I could be with Him again. Then there was singing. It was my lifesong, the song I sing that brings me back to center. I had not heard it sung in over seven years - I didn't even know that my church knew it!

I cried even more - now from joy. God gave me a second honeymoon.

Later when I asked the worship leader why he chose that song, he said it was the only one he could think of.

Turns out that all in the upper room shared in the upper room experience with me. That's nice.

 

[irenemcg]

How wonderful! Isn't it great how the Lord makes himself so real to us just when we need to come to the life giving fountain, which you found there in the Upper room.

 

[Deba]

Yeah it was wonderful. I had not experienced His manifest presence in over four years and had no expectation of such a loving gift so lovingly bestowed.

The song is a little ditty that goes:

All honor
All glory
All power to You.
Holy Father we worship You
Precious Jesus our Savior
Holy Spirit we wait on You - for the fire.

Seems my home church had sang it once several months before.

Want to hear about the Jewish taxi driver that wanted to take me to get a hotel room (with him)? I said no thanks, I belong to God. He said, so do I so it's ok.

 

[jeolmstead]

God is so good.....

John O.

 

[Alpine]

That's pretty neat!!

 

[STRICTLY SCRIPTURE]

Thanks for that..really wonderful.

 

[SharonL]

Amazing Debra - when we think God has forgotten us, He always pulls something up that only you would know the meaning of and that would make it so special.

You are a wonderful witness and knowing that someone who dedicates their entire life to God's work can have down days, makes those of us that don't seem to play a very big part know that it's ok to have a down day.

 

[Seeking Him]

That is a beautiful confirmation of God's love for you that they sang your lifesong. I love when God confirms things to us, it's like an intimate message to us, straight from the throne!

 

[map4]

Amen! Praise God!

What an awesome testimony Deba! You are faithful to do what He called you to do even when you maybe don't feel like it or don't understand or see the big picture. You have sacrificed much that many would not and God has seen that and He has not forgotten. What a wonderful way for Him to remind you of His great love for you!

PS...glad to see you back. I always enjoy reading your posts!

 

[Deba]

Aw thanks guys, you shouldn't encourage me. I'm home sick today with nothing but CF or CNN to amuse me. So CF it is.

About seven or eight years ago, I felt that God asked me to be willing to go and say 'give them back'. among other thiings. I was so overwhelmed by the scope of His request that I asked for a sign. I asked that the assignment be confirmed though the mouth of the pastor.

That night after Wed bible study the pastor prayed a blessing over us and referenced some bible verses. When I went home I looked up the verses. They were the confirmation I was looking for. (But the pastor was still outside of the Debra-God circle that God wanted to keep closed - I realize now that made me stong in Him.)

In the upper room last month the tour guide - whom did not know me - came to me quietly with an open bible and spoke those same verses again. And I knew my mission was to continue.

This was very important to me to hear because I had started and given away a nursery, that opened the door for om.org to get into the country, when all previous attempts by them to enter here had been denied.

The sewing girls have not gone well. They are pretty much completely unschooled. Teaching only a vocation is not enough, I am going to have to add a general education component and raise up a few leaders who can work more closely with the girls. There is no GED type options in the country, so I guess I will have to start something like that.

And I feel the pressure of time. A lot of the farmlands surrounding the town have been sold to the Chinese to build resorts and a landing strip that will accomodate airbuses and 767s. The Chinese have preferred male children for decades so they are now experiencing a woman shortage.

Currently there is no real sex industry here, but I feel that will change in a few years - unless I can do something about it first.

All of this so you can share with me how important that time in the uppper room was.

 

[Deba]

Want to hear about being given drugged tea on the back streets of Cairo or about having my passport checked and being removed from a busload of people before I could cross the border and being stuck between borders with only Jordanian police and a desert landscape for company?

 

[map4]

Sounds like you had quite an experience in many ways.

Tell us all about your trip!

 

[Deba]

I flew into Jordan and took 4 days to get to Tel Aviv and meet the church group tour. We had a young Jewish woman who was our guide for most days, until we got to Jerusalem, then our guides were Americans who live and work in Jerusalem at the 24hr houses of praise and worship.

Two things really struck me. First was the quietness at the place of the sermon on the mount. And second was the small scale of the Mt of Olives and the large size of the temple area and how close together the two are.

After the tour left I went to Mt Carmel and spent a couple of days sitting on top of the mountain - this was the one time I splurged and got a room on the 18th floor. I openned the window (couldn't believe it opened at that height) and rearranged the furniture to sit in the arm chair in front of the window for two days. I didn't leave the hotel. I spent some QTwith Jesus.

Then I signed up for a tour in Egypt. Long van ride south through the Judean desert to Eilat then across the Sinai to Cairo. Turned out I was only person signed up for the tour and my tour guide was Christian! So we did the requisite pyramids, papyrus making etc but we blew off a lot of the itinerary and he took me to (Coptic) Christian places.

There was a place were he said that the holy family fled to when they left Israel, it was a Roman fortress during that time. I really don't think that is where they would have went for safety...but maybe.

I did like the old mosaics - their art work for centuries past. Very interesting to see Chrisitan faith interpreted through other cultures. Mark had evanglized much of the city, but under threat of death many converted to Islam in the 700's.

It was a two day tour. Siince it was shortened, I was by myself in the afternoons and twice the first afternoon as I was wondering around Cairo, very helpful friendly men approached me and offered help, and both times I had to go with them to their shop to receive the help. Heavy-handed 'Egyptian hospitality' required that I drink they tea they insisted on serving me. So I did.

The first man was older and made me uncomfortable so I left immediately and soon bumped in to 20-year-old Aladdin. As I drank the tea we discussed his future. He said he had no plans. He had an open life. I tried not to preach too much and he did let me pray for him before I left with no ill effects from the tea.

The next day my guide told me the tea was drugged to make me sleepy so they could rob me, but just as the Bible says - drinking poison won't bother me.

All in all I didn't like Cairo. But on the return drive across the Sinai, I was struck by the harshness of the desert. No shelter from the sun or the wind or the cold. After 40 years there it is easy to understand why the Jews are still bound together as a people.

 

[GrapeGirl]

It sounds like you had a really wonderful time. I am glad that you were blessed and refreshed. I pray that your infilling grows stronger and overflows in your surroundings at home and with your girls too.

 

[Deba]

Thanks GG, I can't reach them without Him.

There is one more part of the vacation where God showed His hand that I want to share. After leaving Egypt earlier than planned, I spent 5 days in a seedy hotel on the beach at TelAviv.

My fllight back to Bangkok left from Jordon at night, so early that morning I stated making my way across Israel. (They have great cheap public transportation) By noon I was out of Israel and headed to Jordon. At the Jordanian border they made me get off the bus, and didn't tell me why for about 30 minutes. After an hour they sent me back to Israel.

Because I had gone to Egypt from Israel, I could not re-enter Jordan from that checkpoint near the Dead Sea. I had to go to the northern checkpoint. Only way to get there was a taxi and once through the border, the only way to get back south to the Jordan airport was taxi. I had to make some creative stops and travels along the way due to lack of funds, but I arrived at the airport in time for my flight with ONE Dinar in my possession. So I bought a bottle of water, because after scooting around the desert all day I was getting sick from lack of water.

I arrived in Bangkok flat broke. The terminal was still under seige so I was sent out to the road. I was walking along - clueless as to what to do - when a female taxi driver stopped. I told her I had no money and didn't know where to go anyway. She put me in her taxi, took me to the bus station, gave me food, water and 100 baht (about $3).

I sat in the bus station all night and the next morning a lady bus driver gave me more food and water. When the bank opened at 8:30 I went in to see if I could call Laos to have money sent to me Western Union. None of the phones were international. The bank clerk handed me her cell phone!

When I have told this story to other (non-Christian) travelers since, the typical response is, "God really does take care of you."

YES HE DOES!

 

[map4]

Wow Deba, that is awesome! Praise God for His provisions and protection!

 

[Deba]

It's really strange. I'm 53 years old and have an MBA. Until God took me hand about a decade ago, I had always made a pretty good living, but I could never have afforded to take vacations like I do now.

I spent close to half a years salary on that 5 week trip, yet every month I give away between 60 to 95 percent of my pay. I have no credit cards and my income comes only from my salary. It logically does not add up.

I am tremendously grateful to my Lord for the adventurous exhilarating wonderful holiday He took with me.

And I pray for peace in Israel and Gaza. The IDF is very young: At 18 boys serve three years, girls serve two.

 

[zaksmummy]

Want to hear about the Jewish taxi driver that wanted to take me to get a hotel room (with him)? I said no thanks, I belong to God. He said, so do I so it's ok.

Got to love the Jewish sense of humour