One extra month in Israel

As you probably read in my last blog, I have suffered from Appendicitis and underwent surgery in Israel. All went well and if you have not read the blog, I can really encourage you. It is full of God’s presence! After the surgery I received the advice not to carry more than 3 kg in the first month or to fly during that time. So I cancelled my flight that I was supposed to take 2 weeks after the operation and remained until after my check-up visit 6 weeks after the surgery. This gave me a month longer in Israel than planned. This time has mainly been a time of recovery and resting, but some significant things happened, that I would like to share.

The first things is that we had an international TJCII gathering in Jerusalem. This started just a few days after my surgery and I was not sure if I would be able to attend. But God gave me the grace and for the first days a bed 😉. Yes, a bed! A dear friend living in the place where the meeting took place, offered me her bed to take a nap when needed. That meant that the first day I slept there twice for an hour. The second day and the third day only once. But that was an amazing blessing and God’s provision, once again! The gathering itself was very special. There were people from the four corners of the world gathered in unity, searching for God’s heart. This is not my first international TJCII gathering, even though it was the largest internationally speaking. The thing that I found different to other meetings, is that we were able to address really delicate and painful subjects in an open way, more open than ever before. I think this was possible because of the intense preparation that many of us had with fasting and praying for a longer period of time. And now, about 2 months later, we are trying to walk and work this out. This will still be a process, but I am confident that just being on the way (the Way = Yeshua 😉) is the best place to be and that God Himself will work it out in and through us.

Because of this month extra in Israel I was able to be there for another event. The event itself is very sad: the passing of a good friend of mine, Dilia, only 39 years old. But I am SO grateful, that I was still here. We have known each other from 2010 on but have become friends over time only in the past few years. We had quiet some things in common, but the most visible one was our Dutch/international background. Because of this we shared many similar experiences and often had fun sharing stories. From the moment she got the diagnosis of cancer I obviously started to pray for her. But as she said it herself: “Of course, I would like to be healed, but more important is God’s will to be done in my life and for me to be able to take this one day at a time”. So I prayed for and with her for the strength to face this illness and for God’s will to be done (and may that be healing!). I think the most important thing I learned in this process in a new and deeper way, is that our life belongs to the Lord and our time is really in God’s hand.

I was able to visit Dilia for the last time five weeks before she passed away. I knew chances were big, this would be the last time. She was already struggling a lot and had just had a very though week. That Sunday morning she was feeling rather well and we sat outside on her porch. We talked about life and death and enjoyed the birds that came to visit trees in her garden and in the garden of the neighbors. These were beautiful birds: The Palestine sunbird Palestine sunbird - Wikipedia and the European bee-eater European bee-eater - Wikipedia. Three weeks later we still talked on the phone for twenty minutes. And then the Sunday morning that she passed, I was sitting in Arad eating breakfast. And for no apparent reason the image of a Palestine sunbird came into my mind. Of course I thought of my last visit to Dilia and thought of how birds and butterflies are symbols that children who are about to die use often. Shortly afterwards I received the news of her passing. I believe God gave me a sign…

I am so grateful, that I was here in Israel. That I could go to the funeral and also go to sit shiva, the Jewish custom of mourning, and spend some time with her parents and other friends that stood around her. Yes, there is the pain of loss. And yes, there is the comfort of hope in messiah Yeshua. I am grateful that she was in my life and that I was able to be there until the end. May she dwell in the house of the Lord (Ps 27:4).

Already three weeks ago I left Israel, after having received a clean health bill at my post-surgery check-up. I traveled to Poland to be at the Fountain of Tears in Brzezinka, Oświęcim, at just 300 meters of the entrance gates of the concentration camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau. About my time here I will write in another blog, hopefully soon 😉.

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