The Price for Saying Yes
I just felt compelled to put down on paper what I have experienced (new book), what I have learned, what I have hopefully understood in a greater way. To me it has taken time to understand a lot of the nuances here and there are many between different peoples and different groups and the different ways of looking at the whole situation here.
So it took years I guess to develop my own what’s right and wrong, or what’s true or not. Why I came here, I just felt like the Lord just opened that door to us, I mean my wife and I, we said yes. And gladly did, it has been an amazing adventure and opportunity, met some amazing people and I just didn’t want to say no. Even though if it means there’s a price for saying yes, but rewards are far greater.
The Call
I went into a meeting by Derek Prince and he talked about Jerusalem. He was relating a story back in 1948 just after he left the British army and he was talking to an elderly Jewish woman about his desire to move here.
And she said to him, “Derek, you don’t choose Jerusalem, Jerusalem choses you”.
When he said that, it put chills in me because I felt maybe the Lord is choosing me for Jerusalem. And one year later, my boss put up an appeal to start a news bureau in Jerusalem. I volunteered--I was the only one actually to volunteer.
So, we thought of coming here in 1999, but we finally moved here in August of 2000. Five weeks later the second intifada began. So nearly the city of Jerusalem, as well as the whole nation of Israel was consumed in terror attacks, suicide bombings and bus bombings. That was part of our lives for seven years, but through it all, not only for Liz [wife] and I, but for our children as well, He [God] protected us.