November 13, 2008

Dear Friend of Israel,

Earlier this week, 122 participants in The Fellowship's Journey Home Tour to Israel boarded flights at Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv to return to their homes after an extraordinary 10 days in the Holy Land.

Visiting Israel can be a life-changing experience. Journey Home Tour participants walked in the footsteps of the patriarchs, prophets, and apostles. As they visited sites like the Mount of Beatitudes, Mount Carmel, and the Garden of Gethsemane, they felt the Bible come to life. Many were first-time visitors to the Holy Land who said that reading Scripture will never be the same for them. If you too want to share in this one of a kind experience, I urge you to visit the Journey Home Tour section of our website. There you can read a daily journal of each day of the tour, see pictures of the tour, and sign up to receive email updates on the 2009 Journey Home Tour when plans are finalized.

Besides seeing biblical and historical sites, tour participants also visited Fellowship-sponsored projects. At an absorption center in Jerusalem they met Jewish immigrants from, quite literally, "the four corners of the earth" – Russia, Belarus, Iran, Serbia, France, Venezuela, Argentina, South Africa, and elsewhere – who have finally realized their dream of living in their biblical homeland and are now being equipped to become productive and successful citizens of Israel through Hebrew language classes, vocational training, and more. They received a warm welcome from the beautiful Jewish children at Migdal Ohr, an orphanage where thousands of boys and girls who might otherwise have ended up on the streets are given a warm, loving home, as well as education and religious instruction that will help them grow in their faith. They visited Lifeline for the Elderly, where elderly residents of Jerusalem are given meaningful work and companionship that renews their sense of purpose and helps them live their later years with a measure of comfort and peace.

They also received heartfelt and spontaneous words of thanks from ordinary Israelis. As they visited a bomb shelter in Tiberius that was rehabbed by The Fellowship's Guardians of Israel program, an elderly resident of a nearby apartment approached simply to say "thank you" to those who have helped make her safe by supporting this critical project. During a stop at a gift shop, the owner of the shop, a resident of one of the towns struck by terrorist rockets during the 2006 Lebanon War, thanked tour members for helping to protect his family by securing the bomb shelter in his building. Even in the airport in Newark, as the first planeload of pilgrims prepared to leave for Tel Aviv, a Fellowship staff member told of being approached by an elderly Israeli who wanted to say "thank you" because it was Christian tourists who kept his son's business alive during the dark days of the Second Intifada, when Israel was torn apart by repeated terrorist attacks and tourism was at an all time low. Clearly, Israelis and Jews everywhere are coming to greatly appreciate the support they receive from Christians, and to understand that it comes with no strings attached. Now, that is something Journey Home Tour members know and have experienced firsthand.

Just as Israel thanks Christians for their support, I want to thank all of our tour participants who took this extraordinary journey with us, as well as everyone who so generously supports The Fellowship's programs that do so much to better the lives of poor and suffering Israelis and Jews around the world. Your support means more than you can possibly imagine. I invite you to come on next year's Journey Home Tour with us, and see for yourself just how much good your help is doing. Again, I encourage you to sign up at our website to receive email updates with information about the 2009 Journey Home Tour as plans are finalized. I hope to see you "next year in Jerusalem!"

With prayers for shalom, peace,