This day was the first day in Rama and our first day of experiencing the amazing hospitality of the Arab culture (I came to love this aspect of our time in Rama!). It is not every day that a person is welcomed in to a home and offered all sorts of treats, just because we speak English and they want to sit with us!
So as we are sitting with this family they invite us to attend church with them that evening a few villages over. We had to politely decline because we already had plans and our teams were expecting us back soon, but said that we would try to go the following week (I forgot about this commitment almost instantly….my memory is not the best). They said we could stop by whenever we were walking by to pick oranges or have a coffee, which we did a few times early in the week.
Fast forward to Friday when Brandy and I were walking up Mount Everest again and ran into the same man. He invited us to get in the car and go with him to Haifa (about 1.5 hours away!) to visit his mom in the hospital….but his English was not good so we didn’t really understand. We decided to decline because we weren’t comfortable getting in the car without really knowing was was going on (Don’t worry, Dad…we are using wisdom ;-).
Now it’s the following Monday and we realize that we haven’t been back to visit since we found out that the mom was in the hospital and we wanted to check on her and pray for them before we left the village. So, we knock on the door and his mom answers (turns out that it was her daughter in the hospital and she is fine now, but the misunderstanding is what brought us back for a last visit, so we are grateful!). She greats us and says, “Are you coming to church tonight?!” Brandy and I have a moment of panic because we had totally forgotten about their offer the week before and so we had made plans to blog, catch up on emails, pack and clean before we left the village. But we quickly recovered and said, yes, of course we will come! We both felt that this was totally a God thing and, really, what blog or email could be more important than building relationships and learning more about the culture here?
So next thing we know, we squeeze into the back of this tiny car and start the drive to Shefar’am, which ends up being about an hour away. One of the sons (not the one who caught us climbing Mount Everest both times, but the younger one who speaks English really well) drives his mom each week, but normally sits outside during the service. He told us at the beginning that church was not for him. We made small talk for the drive there, mostly about Facebook’s Farmville, life in America, what it’s like to be Arab in Israel, and how his mom wants him to get married.
We arrived at the small church about an hour early and sat down for arabic coffee with Adham and his mother. The conversation quickly turned to Christianity and we found out that Adham only came to drive his mother, but normally sits outside during service. He said that he believes in God, but doesn’t think that he is good enough to be a Christian. He thinks that because he gets angry, has lots of girlfriends, etc, that God won’t love him. It broke my heart. If only he understood how messed up everyone is, and that Christ came to show his love to all!
I believe that Adham is the reason that I was in Rama that week. He needed to hear what Brandy and I said, he needs our prayers, and he needs your prayers.
And I needed to learn a lesson of trust and surrender on my last night in Rama. Sometimes I have to be more willing to let go of my plans and be open to where God is leading me. Brandy and I didn’t feel like going to church again, but we knew that it was where God was calling us to be and He gave us an opportunity to share his love.
