April 24, 2006

26 Nisan 5766

Dear Praying Friends,

We’re sending out this special update just one day after the last one to say…

GLORY TO GOD!!!  THAT WHICH WAS STOLEN – OUR CAR -- HAS BEEN RETURNED TO US!!!

Yes, it’s true!  One week after it disappeared, it was found!  One day after we asked you all to pray!  Here’s the whole strange story….

Last Monday night after our regular worship watch at Succat Hallel in Jerusalem, the team went out to pack up the van and discovered that the Golf was gone.  Brian and Kari had come in separately to shop for the upcoming picnic, so the missing car was packed with food, including meat for fifty people.  So our son Jon called the city to find out if it had been towed, and they said they haven’t done that for the last eight months.  He then called the police, and they said they didn’t tow it either.  He actually called both agencies twice, just to make sure.  So when we discovered it had not been towed, he filed a police report that the car had been stolen.  We turned all the keys in to the insurance company, and picked up a rental car that the insurance would cover for three weeks until we (hopefully) would obtain another vehicle (or ours would be recovered).

Jon called us in France, just as we were getting our meal at a cafeteria restaurant with about twenty of the saints from the congregation where we had just finished some wonderful meetings.  We were determined that the enemy was not going to steal our joy and victory, and we all held hands and prayed for the return of the car.  (We joined in with their faith, we must admit!).  We forgave the thieves and blessed them, prayed the food would be used to feed the poor, and prayed for salvation for them…there were Bibles and our testimony books in Hebrew in the car.

One of our friends saw a car similar to ours for sale in his neighborhood and we were going to call about it, but we knew we would not be able to secure it until the insurance money would come in.  So we just continued to pray that God would be glorified and the enemy would be NOT.

So this morning, right in the middle of our daily team prayer meeting, Jon received a call from the police that he should come quickly to the station.  A series of phone calls ensued in which the whole story gradually opened up.  The story actually reveals a little more about how to pray for Israel!

It seems that the Traffic Police towed the car, dropped it off in a small dirt area next to a gas station elsewhere in Jerusalem (not a police lot for towed cars, since the police don’t tow cars, according to what Jon was told twice), and neglected to enter it into the computer, so that the regular police would know about it. 

In any case, the regular police noticed our car in the lot and grew suspicious about it, since it hadn’t been moved in a week.  So the bomb squad was called in and was going to break into the car to see if it contained a bomb!  They also noticed that a bad smell was coming from the car – raw chicken was in the trunk cooking in the hot sun for the last week, along with produce for 50.  (I thought they might even have thought there was a body in the trunk, but maybe I’ve been watching too many movies).  I know, I know, this is a movie.  No, just normal daily life of mild-mannered believers in the most contested place on the face of the earth.  Even as I (yonit) write this, I am bursting with laughter!

So, to continue the tale…Laurel and Hardy, move over…it was at this point that a policeman called Jon and told him to come ASAP.  Then someone from the police station told him to wait, and she would call him back with more details.  A short while later a man from the bomb squad called and asked if he was on the way, which he was not, because the lady had forgotten to call him back.  The man whose job it was to break in to check for bombs noticed that it was a Golf, and knew they are difficult to break into and that there was no visible sign that the car had been vandalized.  So he wanted to wait for Jon to arrive with the keys, but his superior was pressing for him to break in right away.  He told Jon he would wait as long as he could, but he couldn’t promise anything.  (Meanwhile, since we turned in all the keys to the insurance company, Jon and Arni had to stop by and pick up the keys).  You should know, too, that breaking in might not have been the worst thing they would do; if they saw the cooler in the back, they just might think a bomb was inside and engineer a controlled detonation!  (Once upon a time in another Israeli movie I was in, the bomb squad blew up a cashbox that was accidentally left in the street by a friend who put it down to find her keys in her purse to lock her car).  Understand, please, these things are comic relief to the day-in, day-out real troubles of life here in the Promised Land.  His joy is our strength, so we laugh whenever we can. 

So by the time they reached the car, there were no police there at all, since by this time they knew the car had not been stolen and so didn’t need to be checked for a bomb.  There was no ticket on the car or anything out of the ordinary at all…except of course this awful smell!

They then noticed that the car had a flat tire from riding over a screw, and went to the gas station next door.  Two men appeared from the back, took the spare tire out (from under all that bad food in the trunk) and changed the tire.  They also washed out the two coolers with soap and water, disposed of the food, and told Arni to pay them whatever he felt.  They really could have been ministering angels!

Here is a bona fide miracle, which we all love to hear about.  A sign and a wonder indeed.  The cucumbers, peppers, oranges and potatoes that baked in plastic bags in the hot sun for a week (two days were 93 Fahrenheit) were still good!  Cucumbers don’t even survive a week in the refrigerator!  I think the Lord loves to do these things, yes, because He loves us, but He also knows we’ll appreciate it! 

There remains but one thing to pray for in all this zany story, and that is that since the car wasn’t stolen, we may have to pay for the rental car!  So we pray that whomever the poor clerk is who has to write up the insurance report will know how to report it so the full story gets told.  It was stolen, for a week!

I’ve gone into all this detail for a few reasons:  to bless you for praying, to encourage you that God really does answer prayer and do more than we ask or think, and to give you a glimpse of real life here in the trenches.  And to encourage you that God really does want us to laugh in the midst of it all!

There is yet one more encouraging detail.  Two days ago, we received a call from a friend here in Israel, who told us that another friend felt when she heard about the theft that the car might have been towed and wanted to make sure we had checked.  Since Jon had already called twice and they said there was nothing in the computer, he didn’t call again.  But God knew, and laid it on this sister’s heart to call us!  He is an awesome God, and His way is perfect.  We praise Him!

Thank you for praying for us.  We are encouraged now to press in for the restoration of all that has been stolen by the enemy, with interest.   May God bless you from Zion! 

Your servants…

For the Glory of His Name,  

   Arni and Yonit