Life in the desert

I am already in my sixth week at the Fountain of Tears in Arad, Israel and of course I have enough things to share with you. It has been a time of taking care of the house, the garden, the Fountain of Tears and trying to catch up with backlog. I have started each day with a time of work in the garden or the house. From this I have some weeding wisdom to share with you 😉. Then after my morning sports and breakfast I would go about with my normal routine (if ever I have one…) of times of prayer and work (mostly writing), but I also planned time with friends to meet up virtually or in person. And then there are my evening walks. I try to go for a walk three times a week, if possible out in the desert. Even though the area surrounding Arad is not as spectacular as for example Nahal Zin, in the area of Sde Boker, I still am really enjoying the walks. The desert is for me a place that speaks of God’s majesty: the silence, the rocks, their colors, textures and shapes. The continuous change in scenery and in all of this dry and arid land the small signs of life that you encounter: a flower here, a bird there, sometimes even a butterfly and here around Arad regularly a camel herd. I drink it all in and it is a balm for my soul.

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At the Fountain I have had an average of 2 visits a week, which is not bad at all for summer and war time! About one visit I would like to share a bit. This visit was of a young German lady and a generation older Israeli lady. They had met in Germany in December 2023, so after the start of the war. The Israeli lady was visiting her son, who lives in Germany. At some point she came across from a Christmas tree with a Menorah next to it, and the German young woman sitting next to it. This combination of a Christmas tree and the Menorah was such an unusual sight for the Israeli lady, that she started to talk to the German lady. This young woman is a believer, a Christian, who loves Israel. For the Israeli lady this was new and unimaginable: that there are Christians, who love Israel. She was so deeply moved, that she invited the German young woman to stay with her next time she would visit Israel. Since then they have developed a friendship and the German lady had come once again on a visit. The contrast between them couldn’t be more obvious: German gentile versus Israeli jew, a believer with a living relationship with God versus someone claiming not to believe in God (but having heard His voice once…), plus the age difference. But the friendship between them was very obvious and beautiful. The visit to the Fountain touched both deeply. The Israeli woman, not believing in God, even talked about this being a holy place, and that next time the young woman would visit, they would come again!

Besides one trip at the beginning of my stay to the north of Israel, I haven’t moved around much. But this one trip was memorable. Of course it included a visit to my dear friends in Hadera, he is a holocaust survivor from Eindhoven, my city in the Netherlands. This is always a sweet time. The timing of the visit was motivated by something else though. My German friend from the galilee organized again with her team a barbeque for soldiers. Last year I helped out at one of those barbeques, then close to the Gaza strip. This time it was on the Lebanese border. It was for a unit of reservists, so aged 25-55. The atmosphere was very different from last year’s, where the soldiers were younger, in their regular military service. Also, last year the soldiers just came out of Gaza (not even two hours before!) and this time they were just before another tour. But the gratitude and honor with which we were received was the same! And that is exactly what we wanted to express to them: gratitude and honor. We tried to express it through a lot of meat, French fries, sweet desserts, water melon and small gifts to take home to their wives / girls friends / mothers. I have had some really beautiful conversations with some of the soldiers and feel very privileged to have been able to participate!

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  Alleen in Israel, Ps 137:5 in de supermarkt

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But, let’s return to some desert talk. Sitting outside every morning with a view over the desert, I enjoy the view, especially when our backyard camels walk by. A friend of mine asked me, if the desert is not every day more of the same. In some way it is, but at the same time it is different every time. Especially on my walks through the desert, there is always something new to discover: a new path, another flower, different lighting that gives a different view or just seeing things from a different angle. So, until now I have not grown tired of the desert (and I don’t think I will anytime soon 😉). Walking in the desert God showed me also some walking wisdom, that I would like to share with you.

• Go to the end: if you are walking on a road, it might look like it is a dead end road. You will only see if there is a road continuing, if you come to the end. This might feel uncomfortable, because maybe you are on a dead end road and it feels like you are wasting your time and energy. But you will never know where the road will lead you, unless you follow it all the way to the end. And honestly, I haven’t found a dead end road in the desert yet.

• Following the signs: If you are on a signed hiking path, you’ll not see the next sign, until you passed the first one. And even then you sometimes will have to continue “blind” in the direction of the last sign, before a new sign will be seen. This can also be applied to our walk with God. We might know what the next step is to be, but already want to know step two, three and four. In my experience it is rare, that God shows you those following steps. It doesn’t say for nothing in Psalm 119, verse 105 Your word is a lamp to my … Often here it is translated in plural, to my feet, but in Hebrew it is singular: to my foot. This means one step at the time.

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And as promised also some weeding wisdom:

• You often have to clear dead weeds, that don’t seem to have life in them anymore, in order to see and be able to clear the living weeds, that grow underneath them. You might be tempted to just leave the dead weeds, since they will not grow anymore and they might not bother you really, but then you also don’t see the weeds that are growing underneath.

• Weeds can be beautiful and have nice little flowers. The danger of leaving them is in how these weeds often behave: they will take over your whole garden. So, even if something seems to be nice when it is still small, think of the behavior if you do not tend to it. It might infest everything.

• It can be tempting to tear of bad weeds and let the roots stay. But then a new plant might grow from it. In order to take out the roots, the best way here in the desert is to plant a knife

in the earth and loosen the earth around the roots. If we transport this picture to our inner lives, we can see the earth as our hearts. In order to take something out with roots and all, often first a knife needs to be planted, something painful needs to happen that touches on this bad herb. And then we are able to take the thing out with root and all.

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To wrap things up, I’d like to share two more beautiful things with you. The first is an interview that a fellow participant in the IFnT course—which I wrote about in my previous blog post—conducted with me. She wrote about it on her blog. For those who’d like to read it, here’s her blog; it’s in German. And last but not least, my participation in a biweekly women’s group, with Jewish and international believers and Bedouin ladies. This is a recent initiative of Barnaba Israel. It is beautiful to meet these vulnerable women that are getting empowered. Each one has her own story and background, but we are all rejoicing in the encounter with the other. The meeting will evolve around a biblical theme or biblical story and this makes the sharing life giving for all. It is a place that gives me a lot of joy and hope.

It seems that my time in Israel is coming to an end. At this moment I have planned to fly out on August 7th to France, to participate at the Messianic Hope conference in Gagnières. That gives me about two weeks remaining, of which coming week I will be participating at the intercession during the summer camp for teenagers from Streams in the Desert ministry. But, as I say to my friends in Israel, when they ask me, when I am coming back: I don’t know when I am coming back, but I always do!

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