Living in Israel then became so normal to me. Instead of feeling like a martyr, I feel just like a student, a training graduate who is going back to school for her master’s degree, living in ordinary days under the divine dispensing.
Since a few years ago, I somehow began to have a feeling to come to Israel, not as a tourist, but to live there a normal Christian life. Naturally speaking, adventure is in my blood; but I dared not come to this God-promised land out of my natural zeal. I need His calling, for only He can bear the responsibility. But I was afraid to open to the Lord concerning this matter, thinking that living in Israel would be so dramatic and that I had to have a spirit of martyrdom in order to qualify. So I put this feeling aside and not even prayed about it. Meanwhile the Lord arranged two of my housemates at the FTTA to go on a SSoT in Israel in 2013, then for a couple weeks I was seated with a sister from the middle-age training who had twice migrated to Israel. From them I learned about the life in Israel. As the feeling became inescapable, I joined the Middle East prayer group at the training. One Monday morning while we were praying for Israel, the atmosphere touched me in a definite way. Hardly did I know about the prayer burdens, but as we were uttering our prayer one by one, it was as if God was there praying with us and through us. Deep within I had a clear sense that God was delighted, simply because we were praying for His move in Israel. For the first time I began to realize that Israel was so much on God’s heart. So our prayer touched His heart.
However, the mere thought of coming to Israel still caused panic and I still questioned the source of that feeling: Is it of me or of Him? In the back of my mind, I was waiting for a miraculous calling from the Lord, which – of course – never happened.
In the beginning of my 4th term at the FTTA, I was unexpectedly diagnosed with prediabetes. My first thought upon learning of this was, “I wish I have studied nutrition!” A few weeks later, I once again looked up the international programs on the website of Hebrew University. Prior to that I never found a program that interested me and hence never saw myself applying to this school. But this time, lo and behold, I found “M.Sc. in Nutritional Science for international students!” So I emailed the program coordinator and received a quick and positive response. Then things began to fall into place one after another. The Lord did take His time to let me pray and fellowship during my one-year full-time service after the training, until I saw that it IS His will for me to move to Israel. Living in Israel then became so normal to me. Instead of feeling like a martyr, I feel just like a student, a training graduate who is going back to school for her master’s degree, living in ordinary days under the divine dispensing.
It has been two months since I moved to Israel. And I absolutely enjoy my life here and am so grateful for being a student at Hebrew University. Most of my classmates and dorm-mates – from Jewish to Arabic, from African to American – are very sweet and genuine; the teachers here really care about the students and do their best to make the learning experience full of fun. And spiritually it is heaven. The saints from all the different localities are so bound together that every blending time is like a family reunion. Here the Lord is gaining His testimony of the one new man, where there cannot be Arab and Jew, Chinese and American, but Christ is all and in all!
It is not just normal to live in Israel, but fun and meaningful also.
(AX, 2015)
Since a few years ago, I somehow began to have a feeling to come to Israel, not as a tourist, but to live there a normal Christian life. Naturally speaking, adventure is in my blood; but I dared not come to this God-promised land out of my natural zeal. I need His calling, for only He can bear the responsibility. But I was afraid to open to the Lord concerning this matter, thinking that living in Israel would be so dramatic and that I had to have a spirit of martyrdom in order to qualify. So I put this feeling aside and not even prayed about it. Meanwhile the Lord arranged two of my housemates at the FTTA to go on a SSoT in Israel in 2013, then for a couple weeks I was seated with a sister from the middle-age training who had twice migrated to Israel. From them I learned about the life in Israel. As the feeling became inescapable, I joined the Middle East prayer group at the training. One Monday morning while we were praying for Israel, the atmosphere touched me in a definite way. Hardly did I know about the prayer burdens, but as we were uttering our prayer one by one, it was as if God was there praying with us and through us. Deep within I had a clear sense that God was delighted, simply because we were praying for His move in Israel. For the first time I began to realize that Israel was so much on God’s heart. So our prayer touched His heart.
However, the mere thought of coming to Israel still caused panic and I still questioned the source of that feeling: Is it of me or of Him? In the back of my mind, I was waiting for a miraculous calling from the Lord, which – of course – never happened.
In the beginning of my 4th term at the FTTA, I was unexpectedly diagnosed with prediabetes. My first thought upon learning of this was, “I wish I have studied nutrition!” A few weeks later, I once again looked up the international programs on the website of Hebrew University. Prior to that I never found a program that interested me and hence never saw myself applying to this school. But this time, lo and behold, I found “M.Sc. in Nutritional Science for international students!” So I emailed the program coordinator and received a quick and positive response. Then things began to fall into place one after another. The Lord did take His time to let me pray and fellowship during my one-year full-time service after the training, until I saw that it IS His will for me to move to Israel. Living in Israel then became so normal to me. Instead of feeling like a martyr, I feel just like a student, a training graduate who is going back to school for her master’s degree, living in ordinary days under the divine dispensing.
It has been two months since I moved to Israel. And I absolutely enjoy my life here and am so grateful for being a student at Hebrew University. Most of my classmates and dorm-mates – from Jewish to Arabic, from African to American – are very sweet and genuine; the teachers here really care about the students and do their best to make the learning experience full of fun. And spiritually it is heaven. The saints from all the different localities are so bound together that every blending time is like a family reunion. Here the Lord is gaining His testimony of the one new man, where there cannot be Arab and Jew, Chinese and American, but Christ is all and in all!
It is not just normal to live in Israel, but fun and meaningful also.
(AX, 2015)