OUR TRIP TO ISRAEL – November 11-22, 1991

I never imagined that we would ever have the opportunity to go to Israel; to see for ourselves, the country and the places where Jesus walked and taught; where He lived and died; where He was resurrected and taken up to heaven.

Israel is also the country where Abraham and Jacob lived; the country to which Joshua brought the Israelites back to. It is the land where Deborah and Ruth lived… Elijah and Isaiah, Jeremiah, David, Solomon, Hezekiah and so many many more, of whom we read in the Bible. It is a country where almost every place has Biblical memories.

We were really looking forward to this trip and we are very thankful to those who helped make it possible. I have tried to write down, as much as possible, of what we saw so that our children, friends and relatives would also receive some enjoyment of our trip.

We knew that a lot of things would have changed since the time that Jesus lived. In 2000 years, many changes would have taken place, especially because of the mass destruction that resulted from Israel’s many wars. But the idea that the Lord Jesus walked, in the same places that we hoped to walk in, was quite exciting.

I still remember quite clearly, 40 years ago while I was serving in Indonesia in the army; we were very impressed when we passed Malta, the Island in the Mediterranean where Paul landed after his shipwreck. I remember clearly, that on a cool but sunny Sunday morning on the boat, the minister, standing on the lower middle deck of our boat, preached from Acts 27, the story of Paul’s shipwreck. Late on Saturday, we had passed the island Crete, and early Monday morning, we were expected to pass the island Malita. We were thus exactly at the same place as their boat had been and that impressed us very much. The sea was still quite rough from a previous storm. While we listened to the sermon and looked at those big waves, it was easy to get an idea of the condition Paul and his shipmates must have been in. Their boat was likely much, much smaller than the one we were on.       

Later, when we were in the harbour of Port Said, some Egyptian magicians came on board. We thought that they were very clever and handy tricksters. However, when we saw what they were able to perform, we realized that they were really magicians who worked with the powers of Satan. It was quite scary. They still have those powers which they had in the time when Moses went to Pharaoh.

When we went through the Suez canal, we could see from the upper decks, far over the desert, the endless waving sand hills. Twice we saw an oasis. There were palm trees and some grass. There were even nomads with their camels and sheep. We saw Arabs riding on camels and donkeys, exactly as we imagined it had been in Bible times.

When we went through the Red Sea, we thought how the Lord had stopped those waters so that Moses, with the Israelites, could get through while all those Egyptians drowned.

Still further, we saw vaguely, the tops of Mount Horeb.

Those things deeply impress you, because of what happened there before. The Red Sea itself, is not much different from other seas. Some people told me that in the evening at sundown, the water looks quite red, but I didn’t notice this. Both times, we passed the Red Sea, it was winter, which could have something to do with this.

When I think of the Red Sea, the first thing that comes to my mind is sharks. I had seen sharks before and some very big ones, but I never saw so many together as in the gulf of Suez, at the end of the Red Sea. Quite often we counted more than 30 at a time, and these were only the ones who swam close to the surface. You could see the triangle backfins above the water.

After 40 years I clearly remember the impact of seeing these places and I believed the same thing would happen when we would tour across Israel. That is why we were really looking forward to this trip.