Israel, Day 4, Oct 29 Two Hospitals and Efrat Soldiers

First stop today was at the Lowenstein Hospital, Israel's largest and leading rehabilitation hospital for all ages, in Ra'anana (which is north of Tel Aviv and Herzliya).  Here are a couple of pictures:



By the way, photo credits for these shots in today's post go to our team leader, Dr. Barri Cae Seif.
Many of the patients at Loewenstein are there because of traumatic brain injury or because of a brain-related illness.  One of those is the husband of the woman in the light green shirt, pictured with Jeff and Barri on the left.  Her husband was for many years an outspoken Messianic voice in Israel.  A very vigorous man, he contracted a powerful virus which has caused him extensive health problems.  At present he is in sort of a comatose state.  Our entire team prayed with E., his wife.  We had no idea they would be there.  It was a divine appointment!  A young Jewish man overheard us praying and asked us to come to his wife's room and pray over her.  We do not believe this young man knows the Lord, but that he was desperate to "cover all the bases" as far as his wife's healing is concerned.  She was involved in a car accident which left her comatose for an extended period of time.  So very sad.  But, we were able to share the love of Yeshua with him as well.  Planting seeds.

From there, we went on to the town of Efrat, which is in the West Bank, the section of it that is south of Jerusalem.  It is a Jewish settlement that was established in 1983, but because it is in the West Bank, non-Jews (I am mainly referring to Muslims here) are also allowed to be there.  The area has seen its share of unrest over the years, and it is heavily patrolled by the Israeli Defense Force, both conscripted and reservists.

We had gone to Efrat to visit with IDF soldiers at a volunteer-run canteen called Pina Chana (which means "Warm Corner").  It is a place where the soldiers can come in for a warm beverage and a sweet - - a piece of cake, or a brownie, or another baked good.  The canteen's volunteers are called "The Aunts" by the soldiers, because they treated the soldiers like a loving aunt would.  The baked goods are also baked by Jewish volunteer bakers in the area.  At Pina Chana, we interacted with soldiers who stopped by and also gave them "goodie bags" of donated items.  We thanked them for their hard work, protecting Israel and keeping the peace.

Pina Chana is located adjacent to a small shopping center.  We walked up there to use "the facilities".
Some of my readers will remember when I posted on Facebook recently about the cold-blooded murder of Zionist Ari Fuld.  His family and friends are continuing his work, and you can learn more about that on "Ari Fuld's Israel Defense Page" on Facebook.
The mini-mall is pretty modern, not a place you would expect such a murder to have occurred.  But, so it did.  At the time I learned about this horrific killing, I had no earthly idea I'd be standing in the place where the murder occurred.  Yet, there we stood, and prayed for the peace of Israel, and for God's continuing comfort on the Fuld family.  I am still so heartbroken...

Upon leaving Efrat, we went to the Herzog hospital in Jerusalem.  We were given a tour of Herzog by Jerry Solomon, who did a fantastic job telling us about this wonderful hospital.  It is over 120 years old, and was named after the wife of Rabbi Herzog.  His wife was the head of the hospital for something like....40 years?  Anyway, the patients here mainly have either severe respiratory ailments, or some sort of psychiatric disorders.  We visited a women's ward and gave them new pairs of socks.  We also visited a children's respiratory ward.  Both were incredibly heartbreaking scenarios.  Here are some of us at Herzog.  Mr. Solomon is on the right.



Let me share from my heart:  this trip is hard.  My trip to Israel in January of this year was all about fun and history and relaxation.  This trip breaks the heart, and it's all about witnessing and loving the hard-to-love, and heartbreak and woundedness.  It takes a lot out of each of us.

Moving on....After Herzog, we were pretty exhausted.  We came into Jerusalem's Jewish "downtown" and checked into our hotel here, the Montefiori.  Then, we walked up to the corner restaurant and had a bite of dinner.  (I tried a dish called shakshuka, with a juice drink, containing beet juice, ginger, carrot juice and apple juice.)  It is in a wonderful, lively area, filled with character.
So funny....tonight, in the room adjacent to ours, the occupants were having what sounded like the equivalent of a Jewish disco party!  Loud music, singing, etc.  Fortunately, they piped down by 9:30 or so, lol!