There is something about spending an entire day with people that changes a relationship. Somewhere along the road, the small talk begins to disappear. Stories are shared. Questions are asked. People begin speaking about the things they are really carrying. And sometimes, in those ordinary conversations, God opens doors that we could never open ourselves.
That is what happened this past Saturday when six families joined our team for their first Jerusalem outreach day. Some had arrived in Israel only weeks earlier. Others came carrying grief, uncertainty, and the challenges of rebuilding their lives. We planned a meaningful day together in Jerusalem, but God gave us something much more valuable: time. Time to listen, build friendships, speak about faith, open the Scriptures, and pray together.
For us as believers in Israel, this is one of the most important parts of evangelism. We cannot force a spiritual conversation or manufacture a response. We can love people, walk with them, listen to them, and be ready when God opens the door.
During the day, Sergey, one of our ministry team members, began talking with a father whose family had arrived in Israel only a month earlier. Their conversation turned to the promises of God concerning the Jewish people and their return to the land of Israel. Sergey shared from Isaiah about the Lord gathering His people from the nations.
Think about what those words must sound like to someone who has just left one country, packed up his family’s life, and arrived in Israel. Prophecies written thousands of years ago were suddenly touching something this man was experiencing personally. The Bible was no longer speaking only about ancient history. He could look around him and realize that he and his family were now living in the land those prophets had spoken about.
This is one of the remarkable things about sharing the Word of God here in Israel.
The places, the people, and the promises of Scripture are all around us. Yet our desire is not simply for people to recognize biblical prophecy being fulfilled. We want them to know the God who gave those promises and ultimately to recognize the hope He has given us in Yeshua.
Elsewhere, Olga listened as Chaim, another member of our team, shared his personal testimony of what God had done in his life and his faith in Yeshua. He opened the Scriptures with the group and later invited anyone who wanted to pray with him. Some prayed aloud while others quietly joined in.
Nothing was staged. There was no pressure. The moment grew naturally from the relationships and conversations of the day. As we prepared to leave, Olga told us how deeply the warmth she had experienced had touched her. She wanted to remain connected with us.
Another woman almost did not come at all. An accident had left her with ongoing problems in her leg, and she was unsure whether she could manage a full day of walking through Jerusalem. But she decided to come. Step by step, she stayed with the group throughout the entire day.
When it was finally time to say goodbye, she hugged members of our team with tears in her eyes. Being able to complete the whole day, she said, felt like a miracle to her. Then she told us something else that encouraged us deeply: she wanted to visit the congregation with her family.
Mira and her husband had also hesitated about coming. Their family was grieving the recent loss of their father, and they were not sure they were ready for a long day away. The August heat was another concern.
Then something completely unexpected happened. In the middle of an August day in Jerusalem, the sky opened and rain began to fall. For nearly an hour, it poured. Our plans had to change, but Mira and her husband hardly seemed concerned about that.
“This is God’s mercy!” they kept saying. “Glory to God!”
It became one of the moments we will remember most from the entire day. Here was a couple carrying genuine grief, standing in unexpected rain over Jerusalem and receiving it with joy. We prayed together, walked together, talked, and laughed. Later they told us that the day had felt like a time of healing for them.
By evening, they were smiling again.
Jerusalem itself provided an unforgettable setting. We stood at the Western Wall, walked through the Old City, looked across Jerusalem from the rooftop of the Austrian Hospice, and finished the evening at Armon HaNatziv. For families who had only recently made Israel their home, seeing Jerusalem this way carried special meaning. But when we look back, it is not the places we remember first. We remember the people.
We remember Olga listening as someone shared openly about Yeshua. We remember a new immigrant father discovering that the promises of Scripture spoke directly into the story his family was now living. We remember the tears of a woman who had wondered whether she could even complete the walk. And we remember Mira and her husband standing beneath the Jerusalem rain and calling it the mercy of God.
For our friends and partners around the world, this is what your prayers and partnership help make possible. Evangelism in Israel does not always happen behind a pulpit or at a large event. Often it happens one conversation at a time, as trust grows and people begin asking questions about God. It happens when someone opens the Bible with a new immigrant, when a testimony about Yeshua is shared over the course of a day, or when a hurting family allows us to pray with them.
Six families came with us to Jerusalem for the first time on Saturday. By the time we said goodbye, the relationships were different than they had been that morning. Now the important work of staying connected, continuing those conversations, and walking alongside them begins.
Would you pray with us for these families? Pray especially for those who are beginning new lives in Israel, for Mira and her husband as they continue through their grief, for Olga and her family, and for every spiritual conversation that began during this day. Pray that God will continue opening hearts to His Word and that each person will come to know the hope and salvation found in Yeshua.
We thank God for every conversation, every prayer, and every relationship that grew in Jerusalem that day. And we pray that what began quietly along the road will continue long after the journey itself has ended.