The Most Expensive Trip We Never Took!

As many of you know, Gloria and I, along with four other believers, took a 15 day trip to Israel.  We found Israel and the Israeli people to be warm and endearing.  Our Israeli guide was extremely
knowledgeable with a great sense of humor.

The first week of our trip was exciting and fun!  We had excellent weather, food and wine.  Walking in the footsteps of Jesus was awe inspiring and surreal.  My favorite part of the tour was to stand where Jesus gave His “Sermon on the Mount” overlooking the Sea of
Galilee.  Being baptized in the Jordan River was amazing except for a school of tiny fish that kept biting my legs and arms!  Only one other
person was having that problem so there were several that found it
very amusing.

I can’t say enough about how fascinating our tour had been until Friday, the 6th of October.  After we heard the blowing of the rams horn at sundown, we knew that it indicated the start of Shabot.  The streets cleared and the stores and restaurants closed their doors.  We heard rumor that there was some unrest in the southern part of Jerusalem (close to our hotel) and in Tel Aviv.  Soon after that we heard a few explosions in the distance that sounded more like fireworks.  No one was too excited and we really didn’t give it a lot
of thought until Saturday morning.  We were having some breakfast when
suddenly we were interrupted by an air raid siren.  We were led to a
bomb shelter where, again, people were not too excited.  It wasn’t
until the second and third time being shuffled off to the shelter and
hearing loud explosions that we truly realized what was going on.

The report on the television was that Hamas was attacking Israel and
that all foreigners should try to leave as soon as possible.  After
hours of trying to get a flight out of the area, we finally secured a
plane from Ethiopia.  (I didn’t even know they had an airline!)  After
several nervous hours in the airport we boarded our plane at 1:30 a.m.
After 24 hours, including 18 in the air, we were on U.S. soil.  God
bless America!!

There were several frightening situations but my point in this blog is
that through those trying times, God introduced us to many wonderful,
caring people.  We had people join our “prayer group”  that were
clearly unbelievers until that time.  Our church family, many of which
I didn’t know well, were praying for us!   We all had a wonderful
sensation of calm come over us.  We knew God had this!  We were going
to be ok!  With all the horror going on around us, God had placed His
loving caring arms around us and comforted us beyond words.  Isn’t
that just like our God?!  He takes the worst situations and somehow
shows us His glory!

Though saddened by the fact that we couldn’t complete our trip, and that
we missed so many special and important sights as a Christian, all we
can do is give glory to God that we made it out unharmed.  We have the
most amazing church family and even more amazing country!!  What a
friend we have in Jesus!  Always there, just a prayer away.

Blessings to all of you, my friends!

—
Kent Patton
Operations Manager