It is said that you don’t just go to Israel; instead, you’re invited to Israel by God. I heard this during the tour and was amazed, and felt honored, that God himself had invited me to experience the Promised Land. Reasons why I wanted to go to Israel are that, firstly, I wanted to understand the Israeli-Arab conflict. Secondly, I wanted to meet people from different cultures and backgrounds. Thirdly, I wanted to learn a new language. Let me say that God had a lot more in store for me. I did meet and make great friends. As far as the language is concerned, Hebrew is not an easy language to learn but I do know how to say Shalom and what it
means.
The most asked question I get is, “What did this experience mean to you and what did you take out of it?” There is a particular point that stood out for me throughout the tour. Growing up, I knew that God was my fortress and my strength. I never really gave much thought about what a fortress really looked like until I saw
Nimrod’s fortress. Nimrod’s fortress was strategically built on a mountain top to serve as a refuge against enemy attacks. It was when we had gone into one of the chambers that I realised how safe I am in God. The chambers in that fortress are so secure and built using massive rocks that I assure you, you would feel very safe in them. But as God’s children, we have a far much stronger and indestructible fortress in him.
Our tour was planned in such a way that we spent the first five days traveling around Israel and for the remaining five days, we were based in Jerusalem. There is a lot that one can learn about Israel and our tour guide was generous in sharing with us as much as he could about Israel. During our five days of travelling, we went to places like Masada, the Dead Sea, the first century village in Nazareth, the Bedouin desert, Tel Dan, Ein Gedi and the site where the prophet Elijah slew the prophets of Baal. While in Jerusalem, we went to many places like The Mount of Olives, The Garden Tomb, The Old city, The City of David and the holocaust
memorial called Yad Vashem.
The Yad Vashem memorial has a lot of information about the holocaust such that you need, in my opinion, at least a week to go through all the material in it. It was a very sad moment for me going through all that history and seeing how God’s people had been subject to such injustice and prejudice. I pray that nothing like that ever happens to our roots, God’s chosen nation. Now that I’m a zealot, I’m passionate about standing up and speaking up against such injustices.
During that week, we also had teachings in the evenings. On one night we were taught on our Hebraic roots. On another, we had one of the Zealous leaders, Barry, share his life testimony with us about how he came to know the Lord, becoming a messianic Jew. We also had an insightful lecture from the David project. The David project provided the answers to my questions about the Israeli-Arab conflict. We had the CEO of Bridges for Peace, Rebecca Brimmer, talk to us and explain what Bridges for Peace was all about. We also visited the Bridges for Peace food bank, which is their food distribution centre. During the last two days of the tour, we renovated two houses and a community centre in the Ethiopian community. Bridges for Peace is indeed supporting Israel through practical ways and that is what pleases the Lord because, “Religion that God our father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress….” (James 1:27).
Something wonderful happened on the afternoon of our last day. Sean, from Japan; Joseph, from USA, and I went for a walk around Jerusalem. We stumbled upon a park where a group of young orthodox Jewish students were playing around with a ball. They invited us to a game of soccer, five a side. Joseph, Sean and I had two of their guys play on our side. I really thought that we would win over them very easily, considering that they were wearing shirts and formal pants. Boy was I wrong; they thumped us and the score was something like 5-1. I liked the fact that we could relate as brothers and have fun together. Mrs Wiese and Mrs Eden told me that I would have lots of fun in Israel but the truth is that I had more than lots of fun in Israel; I had a super awesome experience and in the process became a zealot for Israel.
I would like to thank Bridges for Peace for affording me this opportunity; Mrs Wiese and Mr and Mrs Eden for helping me prepare for the tour; Barry, Peter Fast and Theuno (T-Piano) Swart and the whole zealous team for planning such a wonderful tour. I thank you from the bottom of my heart and may the Lord bless you. Shalom.
Nduna Mpofu
