Through the Red Sea and the Desert

I was back in Israel just in time to celebrate Passover here. This year that was a very creative, non-traditional, but fully Biblical seder (the seder is the special Passover meal that begins the entire Passover celebration). I was with my Messianic friends in Ashalim, just south of Be'er Sheva. Here is a short video of our Seder table before the meal:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DIWlXFmivRg/?igsh=MW0yN3BmZnJ0cmYyZQ==

Around this Passover time, I heard someone speak about God's miracles. He said, that we actually never experience God's miracles as we are in them ourselves. Even if they are great miracles, like the passage through the Red Sea. There, too, everyone only saw the sweaty back of the person walking in front of him. Only when we look back do we see, that a miracle happened to us. I think, the Israelites did experience something of the miracle, but I think there is also truth in what this man said. And it's good to keep that in mind and look back regularly to recognize and remember the miracles in our lives!

During the days of Passover (the feast lasts 7 days), I went for 2 days on a hike in the desert with teenagers and youth leadership from Streams in the Desert. This is something, which I had wanted to do for a long time, but the opportunity had not presented itself like this before. So I joined in good spirits (and a little afraid that it would be too hard for me) and I had a fantastic time: the contacts with the teenagers and youth leaders (I had some really good conversations), breathtaking scenery in a part of the Negev where I hadn't hiked before, and the privilege of serving and encouraging this group of young Messianic Jews in the midst of the exhaustion of this war. It was also really challenging, but God was there. The very first day, the heels of my mountain hiking boots began to fall apart (rubber-rot) on the bus on the way to the hike. Halfway through the hike I still had small pieces of sole and at the end nothing left. But God foresaw: this day was not so much walking, but more climbing with iron steps up the mountain. And for descending, the stones were so smooth that I just slid down on my buttocks 😉 . The second day I already started with a lot of muscle pain and we did do a lot of miles this day and also descended and ascended quite a bit (luckily the descending was first, which is always much harder on my muscles). But I was able to do it all and it was really great!