Prayers, Passports, Packages...

I start this trip with mixed emotions.  It's been a crazy few weeks..  Our son just graduated, we await word of his plans for the fall, we are all coming and going this summer from one mission trip to another, work has been incredibly stressful...  My brain is tired, my body exhausted, and I find myself with fairly raw emotions.  Normally the night before a trip I'm really excited.  But today I am a bit melancholy.  However, when things get really overwhelming, it really helps for me to focus on the most important things and keep it simple: today it's prayers, passports and packages.

Prayers...We are taking the prayer requests that have been inserted into the Riverside prayer wall for the past four years to the Western Wall.  The prayer requests from the Western Wall are gathered and buried on the Mount of Olives just as old Torah scrolls and prayer books in the Jewish tradition.  It is a weighty beautiful privilege to carry these prayers.  It is a bit of holy ground.  Each paper is a praise or a cry to God for heaven to invade earth.  (God, we ask You to bring heaven to earth in each of these circumstances and shower each one with Your goodness and love.  To You be the honor, the power and the glory forever.  In Jesus' name, amen.)  And without the faith filled prayers of friends, family and my personal intercessors I could not put one foot in front of the other right now.  I am grateful for prayer.

Passports...Our flight plan takes us to Madrid for a lay over (not long enough for an excursion) and then to Tel Aviv where we will transport to our apartment in Jerusalem - our temporary home away from home for the week. My passport reminds me that earth is not my home, nor is this aging body. In the earth I must have permission to cross boundaries.  But by the Spirit I am free because I am HIS and He is free.  So I choose freedom in Jesus.  No borders or boundaries can contain or limit the love of God who speaks things into being.   I am grateful that today I can say yes again to love without borders.

Packages...Each of us will carry a simple "package" pf prayer requests to the wall and insert them into the crags.  We are carrying packages to our host for Shabbat next week, Daniel.  It has been two years since I have seen him and I look forward to seeing him again. We are carriers, deliverers of packages. We go because He called us. These simple packages make me think of the power of the package we carry every day, the Holy Spirit, dwelling in us. We have the honor of carrying His Presence wherever we go.  This week we carry Him to His chosen people.  We walk as Gentiles among Jews and Arabs.  This week specifically we partner with Him to find out what our role is in the restoration of Israel and the healing of the nations. God's heart is full for his people Israel and increasingly so is ours.

So tonight I will have dinner with my family, do some final packing, pay a couple of bills, and sleep (God, please let me sleep!!).  Tomorrow we go...remaining expectant through it all

Sharon