Sid: I’ve got two people that are red-hot for the Messiah; they’re Mishpochah in the flesh they’re my brother-in-law and my sister, Marc and Shirley. They have recently made Aliyah 3 years ago. That means they immigrated to Israel at the height of the Intifada, the suicide bombers and everything else that’s going on there. If you knew my sister you would know no one short of God Himself could have called her to leave her family. She’s so family oriented; she’s got two sons that are married with children. And she’s so family centered there should have been no reason short of a dream from God. They knew that they knew, that they knew that God was calling them to Israel. And I must I have my sister Shirley on the phone, but I really believe what you said on yesterday’s broadcast after having that dream you believe that God was showing you Jeremiah 16. You know I remember you said in that dream that you said that you got on the last plane to Israel. I believe that prophetically speaking we’re about ready to see the last plane for Jewish people to get to Israel right now. I believe that God is using this broadcast to speak to people but I want… Shirley in the natural you walk into this “War zone.” You leave your family, you’re in good health you and your husband, you’re in good shape financially. You get to Israel you feel tremendous peace and here you are now in a land that you don’t even speak the language. Tell me some of your most fond experiences over the last 3 years.
Shirley: Oh, there’s so many, we have seen God’s grace and love for us every single day we’re there. It’s just amazing to us; for example we walk into a bakery; it’s Marc’s birthday and I’m looking for some goodies to serve some company that are coming over that evening. And we’ve never been in this bakery before and the little clerk; young lady behind the counter. We start talking to her and say “We’re new Ohleem and we say “We don’t speak the language, do you speak English?” And she says “Oh, yes I speak English.” and we start talking and she said “You want some coffee?” And I thought she wanted to sell us some coffee; and she said “No, no it’s a gift.” And I said “You want to give us coffee?” And she said “Yes.” And I said “Well, thank you.” So we go sit down and she’s bringing the coffee cups towards us and I get up to get them from there. And she says “Oh, no I want to serve you.” This is a complete stranger, then Marc and I are sitting there sipping the coffee looking at each other saying “Boy, this is nice and she comes over with this big pastry.” And I said “No thank you we don’t want any pastry right now.” And she said “No, no this is a gift from me to you.” And I said “A gift…” Well, I said “Thank you,” You know you don’t turn down a gift and so this young lady she has become like a daughter to us. Every time we come into this bakery she comes around the counter and gives us a big hug and says “How have you been, why have you stayed away so long?” She’s like family to us; and this has not happened to us just one time. We’re sitting in a restaurant having coffee and the waiter by the time we’re ready to leave the restaurant is inviting us to his house for an evening. The people are unbelievably warm and they just take you into their lives like their long lost relatives. We just love Israel.
Sid: How fearful are you when you get up in the morning and when you get your coffee. What is that Hebrew word for coffee that you get?
Shirley: Ah Café Afuq, different.
Sid: Okay. Watch your language okay I’m just teasing go ahead. But how do you feel really? When you open the newspaper, when you see TV and suicide bombers all over the place and surrounded by people that hate you. Europe hates Israel with a passion. I mean the whole world outside the United States hates Israel and is favoring the Palestinians for a state. How do you feel?
Shirley: You are 100% in what you said. I feel safer in Israel then I do in the United States to tell you the truth. They know what they’re doing, they know how to take care of situations immediately; not 20 minutes or 15 minutes down the road. They have security guards all around the mall every entrance. So even though there’s a large crowd there I feel so safe; everybody that’s gone into that mall has been checked. And they’re belongings have been checked. I feel very safe there; but the bottom line is you are in the safest place if you are where God want you to be. And we know with all our hearts that that is where God wants us to be and in the natural it doesn’t make sense that we’re there. Because we’re not doing a big ministry for God or anything. We’re just being obedient to God and He is opening up doors for us as we walk with relationships with different people. I’ll tell you; in Israel it’s so exciting because like in the United States all our friends were believers. But in Israel like it’s 50% believers 50% nonbelievers now.
Sid: Are many Jewish people coming to the Lord?
Shirley: They’re coming but not many, not in 100’s in like 10, 12, you know small numbers they’re coming. But they’re very open; our friends that don’t know the Lord yet; we believe that they’re our friends because I believe there was that connection there to make us friends because God wants them to come to know Him. And we are talking to them and they are so open to listening to what we have to say. They’re interested in our testimony; they’re interested why we’re in the land. Many of the Russians there especially ask us “Why are you here, we had to come here but you had a choice?” It’s a testimony in itself just us being there.
Sid: Let me ask you a question; you’ve like myself we learned how to read Hebrew and Marc the same. We didn’t understand many words at all; you knew zilch really. And you and your husband are in Ulpan, that’s where you’re studying the language. How old are you you know I’m told not to ask this question. How old is your husband how’s that.
Shirley: My husband’s much older than me; not really; 67…
Sid: Alright 67.
Shirley: Yes.
Sid: How are you and your husband learning Hebrew at these ages?
Shirley: I’ll tell you it’s hard but God has given us such a love for the language. I never like languages going through college and I was never a scholar in languages. But in Israel we both love studying Hebrew. And we are now at the point that we can speak Hebrew. We can have a short conversation; we can tell people our needs or our wants but it’s something God has given us. We just love learning Hebrew and our teacher and the students in our class have become like a family to us. We love them; they love us.
Sid: Shirley speak to that Jewish person that’s listening to us right now and that says “I wonder God are you calling us to Israel?”
Shirley: (Laughing) First of all I’d like to say don’t believe everything you hear in the news. The news is definitely prejudice. I’d say if God speaking to you be obedient; we have never been happier in our lives. And we’ve had a wonderful life; but we feel like we’re on the biggest adventure with the Lord than we’ve ever had before. So all I can say is if you feel God is telling you something be obedient to what He says.
Sid: Well, I’m going to tell you something right now. I am going to tell you that the one thing you know, that you know; that you know; that you know is that this is the set time to favor Zion. And God wants desperately Jewish people to come to know Him.
