I received a call in September 2021.

It was a surprise call. ” Would you like to go to Israel…, all expenses paid?“, a friend of mine asked. I thought he was kidding! No one would offer someone an all-expenses paid 10-day trip to Israel, especially, I haven’t heard from him for a while.

It was for real!

After exchanging phone calls with my friend, I knew it was for real. However, I tried not to be too excited because it was too good to be true. In spite of my feelings, I went ahead and prepared everything for the trip in December – my passport, my credentials and everything. However, just 2 weeks before we were to depart, the COVID restriction did not allow us to leave.

This is not going to happen

“I was right“, I said to myself affirming that this trip was not going to happen. I was bummed out nonetheless. Then right after Christmas, my wife and I contracted Covid. Then in late January, my hope was renewed when I received an email from the sponsoring ministry – @IsraelCollective that we are going to Israel on Feb. 7th!

My hopes suddenly raised up to higher expectations!

On Feb. 7th, 2022, I found myself in an airplane en route to New York on to Israel.

At Mt. Of Beatitudes overlooking the Sea of Galilee, the Jordan Riven and Bethsaida.

Days later, I was taking pictures of the Sea of Galilee, the Jordan River, Jerusalem, the Temple walls, Bethlehem, etc.

Perhaps I will share with you more of the details of my trip but this blog is not about my trip…

… it is about what God is doing in our lives.

It was not solely about the journey

I believe in popular saying to enjoy the journey. However, after my wonderful journey to the Holy Land, I found out it was not so much about the trip…

… it was about God’s message to me. It was not about the location but about the condition of my heart… about my personal relationship with Jesus. Although I can say that I walked where Jesus walked and proved to myself that there is a Dead Sea and the Mt. of Olives, what hit me the most was “the Jesus in flesh” – the people who chose to be in a land where most people thought it was a peaceful place, a holy place in the earth.

On contrary

Most of us thought Israel is a peaceful place to live. It is not! While I was there, Syrians launched missile to Israel but they intercepted it. We visited the borders of Lebanon, Syria, West Bank and the Gaza Strip… I can tell you from what I gathered, Israel is in turmoil more than the US. As Steve Khoury, a second generation Pastor of the largest Arab Evangelical church in east Jerusalem and the Palestinian territories, wrote in his book, “It the Backyard of Jesus” Close encounters with death haunt me everyday, keeping me in touch with the reality that without Christ my battle is already lost.

However, I felt safe walking alone at night in the small and dark streets of Jerusalem or Tel Aviv than the streets of Indianapolis, the surrounding countries are at war against them. Somehow, the rich history of Israel, mainly the Jews in the Old Testament, the birth of Jesus and the expansion of Christianity, the Muslim conquest of the Levant that led to the submission of Jerusalem in 637-638 AD, the series of religious wars or the Crusade that started in 1099 AD and countless religious, political and cultural interactions, the inhabitants learned to live in diversity.

Our lives

There are random things that happen to our lives and we try our best to fit them in our small boxes. Sometimes we make our judgment based on our limited perception and experience. We live a world where ourselves come first before others. However, the Scripture says we should honor others – It is better to give than to receive, to be first, you have to be the last, treat others as you would want to be treated…

God is the center of the universe, not us.

So in this short  message, I hope that you saw what God is doing in our midst. He is omnipresent and knows what we are going through in our lives. You and I are not the center of the universe… it is God!