GERMAN CHRISTIANS ENCOUNTER MODERN ISRAEL

BY KARIN LORENZ, ICEJ-GERMANY STAFF

The ICEJ’s German branch recently brought a group of faithful supporters on a 10-day tour of Israel that focused on encountering the people of Israel today. Participants visited some of our key projects around the Land and got to know Israel from a side rarely seen by regular tourists. The highlights included meeting Holocaust survivors at the ICEJ’s Haifa Home and an artists’ workshop for the elderly in Jerusalem. In Rishon LeZion, the group distributed food to the needy in the parking area of a shopping mall and came to understand better the growing gap between rich and poor in Israel. They planted trees in the Galilee, visited a secret underground ammunitions factory from the 1948 War of Independence, and spent time in a bomb shelter along the Gaza border donated by the ICEJ. They also spoke with new Jewish immigrants from Russia and Ukraine about their challenges and joined a traditional Shabbat dinner with a Messianic Jewish family in Jerusalem. “There were many moments and places where you felt very clearly that God is here”, Kathrin Kirsch said of the tour.