My
wife Mercedes and I had been ministering and traveling in Europe
for two months already and were leaving the next day to Israel,
our next stop on a round-the-world trip, where we had a very unique
and powerful divine appointment take place as we came into the
Holy Land.
We were departing out of Athens, Greece and traveling to Tel Aviv,
Israel when we were notified of a sudden flight change. Our original
departure time of 8:00 a.m. was moved earlier to 4:00 a.m. that
same morning (El Al Airlines often does this kind of thing to
keep terrorists off track with their flights). We had to suddenly
leave our hotel and spend the whole night at the airport, all
the fun of a root canal without the drilling!
But God had a plan in it all, even the miserable flight delay
where we were stuck in the barren Athens airport all night long
with nothing to do.
That barren Athens airport posted two rules very clearly on signs
all over: “No Smoking” and “No sleeping on the
floor.” After hours of sitting around on hard plastic chairs
that were designed just right as to make sleep impossible—some
cruel, sadistic chair designer must have stayed up late nights
designing and testing these awful sweat-producing beasts—a
cement floor had never looked so good. It was like a cruel hoax,
you can’t sleep in these horrid torture chairs and you’re
not allowed to sleep on the floor, aagh!
Finally I couldn’t take it anymore and took a look around
and went down on the floor for some rest. I was almost asleep,
when I felt a kick on my side. I looked up, and saw a soldier
with a machine gun towering over me (Athens has long been notorious
as a terrorists transit point and thus soldiers are constantly
patrolling it). He apparently was there to enforce “some”
of the rules as he puffed away on a cigarette and pointed at the
sign about sleeping on the floor. “Doesn’t that sign
say something about smoking too?” I was about to blurt out
in my agitated, just pulled back from the brink of sleep, state.
But a good rule of travel is not to argue with a soldier with
a machine gun in a foreign country, so I buttoned my lip and got
up.
After some more hours of sweating and waiting around it was finally
time to check in for our flight. We went over to the counter to
now be abused by El Al Airlines, who must have taken interrogation
lessons from the Mossad: You are guilty until proven innocent
and must be exonerated before you can board their flight. They
prod into every aspect of your life and what you are doing until
they know more about you than you do! We had it coming hard at
us, as we had been traveling for over two months already, all
over every part of Europe, which set off red flags with them and
they really gave us the third degree. Every part of our stuff
was disassembled, every past ticket and place we’d been
was checked out to see if it was true, question after question,
it went on for almost two hours. They even went so far as to read
Mercedes’ diary and then test her on it to see if it wasn’t
just some fabricated fantasy made up by a terrorist who could
finally get on board and blow up the plane.
We were extremely exhausted, dazed, and a little rattled once
we were finally cleared of being international terrorists and
allowed to board our plane. I dropped like a rock down into my
seat, and in my state of exhaustion and jangled nerves I prayed
the craziest of prayers: “Lord I am so worn out I need to
do something fun. It would be so great to go surfing in Israel.”
It was a crazy prayer because I didn’t even have a surfboard
with me and the surf conditions in Israel, being that it is on
the Mediterranean Sea, rarely get over one foot. But God is greater
than our circumstances.
We needed a battery recharge with some recreation involved after
too many trains, planes and automobiles during our travels the
past two months, and this night in the torture chamber of the
Athen’s airport and the El Al grilling was the straw breaking
the camels back. God knew our weariness and was about to answer
in a miraculous way.
After landing in Israel we disembarked, glad to be done with flying
and airports for the moment, and began to make our way through
the terminal when Mercedes noticed something very strange: the
theme song to the famous surf movie “Endless Summer”
was playing over the terminal loudspeakers. We both looked at
each other and laughed and thought how strange, to hear that in
Israel of all places, especially in the airport over the loudspeaker.
I’ve never even heard that song on the radio in the States.
In spite of the jet lag that was fogging my brain, it suddenly
dawned on me: “I believe this is a sign from God, I prayed
on the plane to go surfing while we are in Israel and I think
God is going to answer that prayer somehow.”
We rented a car and were on our way out of the airport parking
lot about to head straight toward Jerusalem to check into our
youth hostel—the only thing in Jerusalem that would fit
our missionary budget—and then go see some of the city,
when, sensing an impression from the Holy Spirit, I suddenly pulled
over and told Mercedes: “Listen, I believe the Holy Spirit
is prompting us to go straight to the beach at Tel Aviv right
now instead of going to Jerusalem.” It seemed kind of wild
but she agreed we should step out on faith in what the Holy Spirit
was leading. After that sign from God in the airport with the
Endless Summer song it seemed like we should go for it and completely
change our plans at the last moment, though we had no idea what,
if anything, might be in store. We made our way toward Tel Aviv
with the destination of Hilton Beach in mind, the one surf spot
I had heard of in Israel.
When we pulled up to Hilton Beach I was blown away by what I saw:
peeling, 4- to 6-foot waves breaking right in front of my eyes
in Israel! The flight delay had caused us to arrive in perfect
time with a swell that had blown in from a storm in the Mediterranean
Sea the night before. This was something miraculous in an of itself,
as Israel rarely ever gets good surf, rarely even getting surf
over one foot as previously mentioned.
The only thing I needed now was a surfboard! I went around to
a few surf shops in the area to see about renting a board but
they wouldn’t rent surfboards. “You have to buy one
for 800 dollars” was their answer “That’s twice
as much as in the U.S. No thanks!” was my response, since
there was no way I could afford that much money at that moment.
We headed back to the Hilton Beach parking lot and I stood there
watching the surf, a bit bummed out thinking, “I have to
stand here and I only get to watch these waves now.”
I stood there lamenting my plight, now feeling tortured and disappointed;
there’s nothing worse for a surfer than to see good waves
right in front of him and not to be able to ride them, it’s
like a dog on a chain who can’t reach far enough to eat
a bowl of food in front of him. As I stood there salivating over
the waves, but becoming increasingly bummed out that I wasn’t
riding them, I noticed a small black Nissan Sentra with a young
Israeli surfer guy in it pulling up next to me to check out the
surf. As I began talking with him, I found out that he had just
come back from a surf trip to California and had visited Huntington
Beach, which is only 5 miles from where we lived in Newport. This
was an amazing set of circumstances to meet an Israeli who had
just come back from a town right next to ours in California; it
caused us to hit it off immediately and we spent some time talking.
About twenty minutes into the conversation I noticed something:
“Hey, you’ve got two surfboards in your car here!”
I exclaimed. He responded with an incredible statement: “Yes,
and it is very strange. I never bring two surfboards with me to
the beach, but for some reason today I put my board in the car
and I don’t know why but I went into the house and grabbed
my other board and put it in the car too.” “Wow!”
I responded. “You know I was just standing here looking
at these waves without a board and praying that I could surf here
today somehow. How about you let me use your extra board and we
go surfing together?”
He paused a moment and said that he normally doesn’t loan
out his equipment, but then stated that he would make an exception
today as he felt these were unique circumstances and that he could
trust me. “Praise God!
This is an answer to the prayer I was just praying.”
How miraculous it all was: This guy bringing an extra board like
this when he never brings an extra one to the beach, then meeting
him after being led right here by the Holy Spirit down to this
beach in Tel Aviv, the fact that he had just returned from Huntington
Beach, California, the music at the airport, the prayer on the
plane, the change of the departure time by El Al Airlines that
made us be right on time this morning for this divine appointment,
and for the swell that just now hit, and it was all happening
here in the Holy Land!
We surfed a couple hours and had a blast in those unusual Israeli-Mediterranean
waves. As I was paddling back out from a wave I thanked God that
I was getting to surf in Israel and reflected on how incredibly
God had answered my prayer. At that point the Holy Spirit spoke
into my heart once again: “Invite him to lunch to thank
him for loaning you the board.” To which I responded with
a vigorous “Yes, Lord!”
After we were done surfing we went out to a really cool and very
authentic Israeli restaurant. As we were sitting there enjoying
our Israeli meal, I felt led to share the Gospel with him.
He had the most flabbergasted response: “You are a normal
person, you are a surfer, AND you are religious?” I explained
that I wasn’t really religious, but that I just had a relationship
with Jesus Christ.
Living in Israel his whole life he associated religion with fanaticism
and dour servitude to religious rituals, and thus was unprepared
to meet someone who had an authentic relationship with God, yet
still was normal and did fun things like going surfing and enjoying
the beach. It was very apparent that surfing, and eating, and
just hanging out with him and then naturally sharing the Gospel
had had a major impact on him regarding the reality of who and
what Jesus Christ and the Gospel are all about.
We were able to spend time there that day with this young surfer
guy and share the good news of Christ with him. This is a person
who in no way would have ever listened to a presentation of the
Gospel in any other format whatsoever for he was a committed atheistic
Jew who hated religion—not unlike so many in Israel, which
a lot of American Christians are surprised to find when they visit
the Holy Land on tours.
The leading of the Holy Spirit had brought forth a divine appointment
that helped us to recharge our batteries. I got to surf incredible
waves in Israel of all places, while Mercedes got to enjoy the
warm Mediterranean sun on the beach. More importantly however,
was the fact that the seeds of the Gospel were effectively planted
in the life of a closed-off, hard-hearted, religion-hating Jew
who never, ever, would have listened to a thing anyone said about
Christianity and salvation had I not first connected with him
on a friendship level with surfing and having fun. He was so impressed
he invited us to come to stay at his home if we came back through
his area, something he said he doesn’t normally do.
It was incredible to reflect at the end of it all how God used
our airline change to bring me to exhaustion and cause me to pray
to go surfing in Israel. That along with it causing us to come
into Israel at just the right time when there was an unusual swell—swells
in the Mediterranean are rare and only last one day because they’re
so localized—which meant we came at just the exact right
moment.
To think how the music from Endless Summer played in the Airport
terminal right as we walked through and then the Holy Spirit led
us down to the beach in Tel Aviv where we had this incredible
divine appointment with this young Israeli who just returned from
California and “just happened” to bring two surfboards
to the beach—something he never does. Then we got to surf
together in some great Israeli waves, another miracle in itself.
Then as we ate our Israeli lunch we had the glorious opportunity
to effectively share the Gospel with him in a powerful way that
touched his heart to the point where he was significantly impacted
by the reality of the message. Not only were our own batteries
recharged but our faith was incredibly buoyed by the miraculous
outstretched hand of God in all these circumstances!
It was an incredible divine appointment where God showed that
not only does He work everything for good, but He also knows our
hearts’ desires and prayers, and answers them in ways that
work together to bless us and glorify Him and His name as we follow
the leading of His powerful Holy Spirit. To God be the Glory!!!
Check out the Holy Ghost Surf Stories: Israeli Connections video:https://youtu.be/UbyPVslmUTg |
