THE PROMISED AWAKENING
IN ISRAEL IS JUST BEGINNING
It will bring “life from the dead” to the world
(Romans 11)
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Lola sounded warm and joyful on the line, in spite of the hard life she’s been through. Born 40 years ago in Colombia to a poor family, she went through things it’s difficult for many of us to even imagine. Men abused her and exploited her, and her own mother beat her, leaving her feeling that she was worthless.
“I felt I wanted to die,” she said. Lola tried to commit suicide three times and on her last attempt she took pills and lost consciousness.
She had an out-of-body experience, apparently in heaven, where she felt true peace and saw a lion by a river. Then a voice called out to her, “You need to go back.” She said, “I don’t want to go back!” But the voice called out three times and she ultimately returned to her body. Because of this experience, Lola knew that God exists.
But at the age of 15, because of her financial problems, she started to work as a prostitute together with her sister, and she also started taking drugs. She understood that it was a big mistake to choose this lifestyle, and she carried a weight of shame for decades.
She has a special connection with Israel: The father of one of her children is Israeli, she’s here in the Land regularly, and she speaks Hebrew.
About a year ago, God stirred her heart to begin a journey to know Him. She encountered one of our evangelistic videos. She had a hunger to discover the truth and experience the fullness of God, and started devouring the Scriptures.
Then a month ago she called our evangelistic hotline while visiting a friend near Haifa. “I want to give my whole life to Yeshua. He deserves it all,” she said while tears streamed down her face. “He saved me from the deepest, darkest pit. He heard my cry, and I owe Him everything.”
Just like the prostitute in the Bible who broke her alabaster jar, washed Jesus’ feet with her tears, kissed His feet and anointed Him, Lola also understood how great her sin was, but understood how great Jesus’ love is for her, shown at the cross. She was forgiven much and now she loves much!
She decided to get baptized! Kim, Yoni and I met with her, prayed for her, explained about what it means to be baptized and to truly follow Yeshua.
We led her in a prayer of repentance for all her sins, closing the door on all spiritual darkness and sexual immorality. She also forgave all those who had abused her. During the prayer, she couldn’t hold herself back from weeping in between almost every sentence, and you could feel the magnitude of what was happening. We were in awe of the privilege to be a part of this holy moment. Praise God!
Then we headed out to the Mediterranean Sea for the baptism! The weeping was replaced with overflowing joy that only the Lord can give!
After the baptism, we prayed for her and encouraged her. She started asking questions about how to live a holy life for God, and admitted, “I have a real difficulty with saying ‘No’ to people.”
I encouraged her, “But now you have the Lion of the tribe of Judah living inside you.” She just looked at me with a confused face and said, “Who’s that?” We showed her the verse from Revelation 5:5 that says that Yeshua is the Lion.
She was shocked when she suddenly had an epiphany, “You mean the Lion I saw all those years ago was Yeshua?!” She was overwhelmed at the thought, and understood that Yeshua had been with her even in her darkest moments.
She’s continuing to pursue God with all her heart: She’s been attending our congregation and a Spanish-speaking home group here, and meeting for discipleship with a local believer. She even brought an Israeli non-believing friend to the congregation recently.
Please pray for Lola, as she’s very nervous about going back to Colombia soon because of the connections from her past there. Let’s pray that the enemy will not be able to steal the seed in her heart, that God will give her strength and courage to walk in holiness, and that she’ll always walk together with the Lion of Judah!
Omer was in the midst of a divorce and also pregnant at the same time. She’s a religious Jewish girl, living in an extremist ultra-Orthodox town. When she called our hotline she told our counselor Rene that she already had two abortions, and now she’s raising a three-year-old son.
“Why do I need another one?” she said tersely. Rene, a bit shocked from her attitude, asked: “What week are you?” Omer said: “Week 24.” Rene said to her: “Omer, your husband left you, but your child is already fully formed. He wants to live. God gave you this gift.” Omer replied: “Soon I’ll be a divorced woman – I can’t imagine myself doing all this alone.”
Rene asked, “Do you know if you are expecting a boy or a girl?” And then something stirred inside of Omer. “I have a girl,” she answered in a broken voice. After she said this, she started to realize it was an actual person in her womb. She suddenly understood that she was about to abort a girl, her own daughter. It broke her heart, and she barely held herself back from crying.
A few months later an actual cry was heard – it was the cry of a newborn, a new arrival on planet earth. A beautiful baby girl. The name she gave her, Tohar, means “Purity.”
Today, like we’ve seen over and over when people choose life, Omer doesn’t regret having Tohar. “Even though I’m raising my two children alone, I’m very glad that I kept my baby girl.”
Our team member Rachel and another believer, Sharona, visited Omer to congratulate her and give our gift package. Omer listened to Sharona’s full testimony, and Rachel explained that Yeshua is Jewish and didn’t come to start a separate religion, that our religious works cannot save us, and that only Yeshua can save us because of what He accomplished on the cross. She agreed for them to pray for her at the end as well. Please pray that the seed that was sown will come to life and grow, just like little Tohar.
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