and a greeting from underneath the mighty oaks, that overshadow the trailer site of lüneburg, germany (..and are more like a shelter from the rain these days!)- a good reason to skip back time a bit, to let you guys know about the last days in the holy land, the way back, as all things come to an end some time- and is just the door to new adventures with god, in fact.

anyway- israel. palestine. people, shared moments, talks we had, times of prayer that we could spend together and with others:
that´s what our last days were about, and yet so much more…
for some of us these days meant also to spend some time on their own, for emma, who went saying good bye to her friends while others went to the palestinian cities of nablus and ramallah or spent another couple of days on the land of the tent of nations project to support them in practical ways, too-
and hanging out with the people on zion square, what is the nightlife focus of downtown jerusalem.
chatting and sharing with the punx and the freaks hanging out there every night, listening to their stories and sharing about what had brought us into the scenery of the night, doing some worship with them or spontaneous a-capella freestyle sessions, that were as unique as each of these amazing people..

and still: being astonished at the surprises, god comes up with again and again-
like our last afternoon on the mount of zion, when our beautiful host ibrahim showed up with a couple he picked up in the old town by simply talking to them and inviting them for a tea at his home-
and who turned out to be al and tina from the states, with whom we had stayed in contact before and just knew, that they were about to come to israel these days- and in his generous kind of arabic hospitality, ibrahim brought us together just on the day we wanted to leave..

..and spent our last night all together and with some of the friends we got to know in israel, the more or less accidently ending up in a celebration of the jewish jom kippur day that was held before the actual day already-
sitting on the steps with the punx, behind us chanting the head rabbies of jerusalem, in front of us hundreds of praying orthodox jews- sometimes it´s quite amazing to see where you end up, when you lay everything into the guidance of gods spirit.

then, finally, it were lina from france, maren from the jf berlin, till from lüneburg ( and thanx sooooooo much for the three of you!!!!!!!!!) and me who, started the way back to the north, boarding a cargo ship from haifa that could take the van, and made within one week the way from pireas/ greece thru macedonia. serbia, croatia, slovenia, austria to lüneburg, having the towing service to pick us up standing next to us for the fourth and final time just 150 km from lüneburg- and decided in the end to go with the van instead of taking the rental car they offered us, since the problems with the transmission that occured finally had started in croatia already-
and god somehow completed the circle by carrying us and the ford until lüneburg, while i had doubted already, that it could make the way to the first garage we went to back in croatia…

it´s an amazing god, who´s sharing our lives.

who sent us out without anything but his promise, that he would take care of us on this outreach-
provide us with everything we might need when there was no sign of any kind of financial foundation for a trip like this one-
bring us to the place he called us to when we spent more time under the cars than within them-
use us to build his kingdom and to touch his children when we had no concept at all and felt more like a bunch of random freaks than the mighty warriors of the almighty, and israel was still thousands of kilometers away-

it´s the story of god´s faithfulness, that enlightens every moment of the convoy.

and as well the growing into his likeness, to be more and more able to see people with god´s own eyes:
seeing them beyond the borders of the conflict, beyond their ethnical or religious backgrounds, and being able to share the beauty of a god-given moment with jews, muslims and us christians together:
to build bridges and platforms of sometimes the first communication between neighbours:
to serve people, but way more often: to let them serve us, invite us, share the few they have with us- that we can tell the stories of them, open doors and hearts for understanding, and continue this mission here to overcome the fears and predjudices, that often enough just result from a lack of communication and knowledge about `the other´…

this time definitely blessed us. and i truly believe, that god used us to bless others, too, and that he is about to continue this work he started with us- to change people´s lifes,
but as well to keep constantly changing our lifes as well, transforming us more and more, and: to let us feel, how much everyone of us needs it.

to seek god´s voice more and more, seek to listen to him and his heart, going out into the world with him, and to step out in faith into the darkness that lays over the water-
and to experience the ability to walk on it, as long as we keep holding jesus hand.

what is left…..
……..more than words could ever express. gratefulness, especially FOR ALL OF YOU WHO STOOD BEHIND US IN PRAYER; SUPPORTED US FINANCIALLY; CARRIED THE VISION WITH US- you guys are the real heros!!!!!
toda, shukran + dankeschön to all of you!!

keep praying for god´s peace in this region, a revelation of him to the main figures in the conflict like ehud olmert or hassan nasrullah, for the unity of the christians down there, who are our brothers and sisters, and never refrain from praising the god who´s with us all the time!!

truly love you!

hope 2 c u, keep in touch, go with more people next time- inshallah

for the i/p- convoy, matthias (back in the cold and grey..)

P.S: for those of you, who didn´t receive the sixth update (there were some technical problems, and for some reason not everyone got it), just write us, and we´ll forward it to you!!

and, finally, who wants to carry some of our last expenses (we´re still a bit in debts)- thanx

…I don’t know how to start - since You got the last mail a lot of things happened, and if I should tell all the stories that happened I couldn’t finish the next two weeks… - and I think You don’t like to read ten thousands of pages - so I will keep this mail short - maybe only ten pages, o.k.? )

…o.k.. let’s start two weeks ago…

While travelling from palmyra to Hama we passed huge desert areas full of military actions.
the syrian army practiced, and we saw lots of soldiers, tanks, airports and rocket bases. Drones (that are automatically flying jet fighters without pilots) started only several 100 metres away into the sky…
Evening came, and the night began and we could see the lightnings of the rockets and the grenades in the sky.
we knew against which enemy these technics of war were practiced…

On the road drove trucks carrying mobile rocket starter bases with direction to lebanon. We wondered if they were only on the road because of the army manoeuvre, or if their destination were Hisbollah - Bases in Lebanon.

when we left the desert and drove on the highway from hama to damaskus - only twelfe km away from the lebanese border we suddenly saw quite a lot of lightnings that came from lebanese terrritory. We wondered - what about the signed ceasefire? The war in Lebanon should have stopped!
Was it only a thunderstorm with natural lightnings?
Some lightnings seemed to be natural - others looked war-made. Later we read in a newspaper that the Israeli Army attacked some Hisbollah bases in this region - but 24 hours before we passed this region. What did we see??? A lebanese couple told us that the Israelis bombed the whole weekend - and that there was not only this single attack described in the newspaper.
we don’t know what it was until now -
- but we know that the walls between people are rising with every shot that is fired -
and this is why we are here, this is why God wants us to build bridges and to overcome walls and canyons of fear and hatred.

Finally we arrived in ma’alullah, an old christian village north of damaskus.
A village that was founded because of saint teklah. Saint teklah lived long time ago and was persecuted and was protected by a rock that opened a canyon for her just in the moment her persecutors tried to capture her.
Here it was again, like in Goereme in Turkey, persecuted christians who were protected by god.
A lot of monestaries all around.
And here we met iraqi christians who fled as result of the war and the persecution they had to suffer from islamists.
Strange, but true. A christian president once said that he wanted to bring democracy to Iraq - but instead of democracy he meant oil - and the result of this lie is right now 100.000 killed Iraqis, continuing torture and continuing terrorism.
And even growing Islamism and growing persecution for the Iraqi christians there…
We meet a guy that was taken as a hostage some months ago. His family paid 120.000 $ to liberate him, and after his liberation he fled to syria.
In ma’alullah we walked on some mountains, and there Till told me that he had the vision that we would be able to fly across the huge valleys between the mountains.
That we would be able to build bridges. - Bridges between cultures and denominations, I thought…

We continued our route to damaskus, spending one day there.
Walking through the old city and the souks was beautiful.
But I got just the same feelings I described in my last mail. Hisbollah soldiers stood in the city centre trying to get more new soldiers for their “holy war” against Israel.
God, will this hatred ever stop, and when will this take place???

A day later we arrived in jordan.
We decided to go to a little hotel in the mountains just to rest for some days.
And there we met ayman and mohammed - two angels - and we felt like in heaven…
They both are Egyptians.
Ayman is a protestant christian, Mohammed is a muslim.
Ayman told us that the christians in Egypt get a tattoo after being baptized. So everyone knows that they are christians and no christian can hide his belief anymore.
And he told that the situation for christians in Egypt is more easy right now, but a lot of christians still have their weapons hidden in the house in fear of islamist attacks.
But instead of mistrust between them, ayman and mohammed are the best friends I ever met. A christian and a muslim, both with wide open hearts, with hearts full of love, full of joy, full of serving others.
They served us, prepared meals for us, made their hotel our home - for free, joked with us, even did crazy water battles in their hotel with us (after that the whole hotel was full flooded with water ).
All of us thought we knew each other since we were children.
I think the aim of our next trip might be Egypt…

Then at Friday, one week ago, Stuffi and Ivonna decided to stay in Jordan, and the rest of us started to enter Israel…
At the Israeli Border station we went through a heavy security check.
we arrived at 8.00 a.m.
we had to put all the stuff out of the Ford Transit, and we, our stuff and the transit were totally checked and scanned…
the procedure ended at 15.30 p.m. …
…and after 7 1/2 hours the Israeli border police suddenly found out that my father and no one of us is the owner of the Ford Transit - so they decided that we need a special permission from my father to drive the car, authenticated by a lawyer.
we got crazy: we had already passed 9 countries without any border problems, had all kind of papers with us, but not a “lawyer-approved” permission from my father.
we telefoned my parents - it was my fathers birthday, and I hate to destroy my fathers birthday, but I did… You know, my parents are those kind of persons who always do everything they can for others, and there are always others who want something to get from my parents.
And now I destroyed his birthday - I asked him to send a lawyer-approved permission by fax. But it was Friday evening - there was no lawyer working anymore in Germany. Finally a good friend found a lawyer in Goettingen who still worked. And my family did everything they could. Finally the lawyer in Goettingen was not able to send a fax to the Israeli border police.

… At 19.00 o’clock we had to turn back to jordan.
we drove to the south-eastern side of the dead sea - and felt totally wrecked.
we knew our next attempt would be not before monday - three long days in the desert.
In a visible and in an invisible, spiritual desert.

You know, on the one hand we really saw a lot of miracles happen during the convoy.
But on the other hand the whole convoy was a heavy fight. And we all were totally drained - drained to death. And 2 weeks ago my intestine illness started again and became worse - so I felt totally weak and like a burden for my sisters and brothers.
You know, we could see the lights of Jerusalem shining in the night, we could see the holy city, but we couldn’t enter it - after having travelled for nearly six weeks and passed quite a lot of difficulties.
we felt exactly like the Israeli people 3000 years ago, not being allowed to enter the promised land. When we saw the sign for mount Nebo we thought about Moses who sat on the mount Nebo and looked in the promised land, but wasn’t allowed to enter it.
And we asked God: “God, what is wrong, what do You think about us? Which sin detains You to work with us?”
But we didn’t hear any answer from god. Only desert, a hot and merciless sun.
Suddenly we remembered the prophecy we got for the convoy. Several people had the same. This prophecy told that the convoy would constantly go down, down, down all the way until the deepest point - but then catapulted up into the sky!
We never had the idea that the deepest possible point in this prophecy was also meant to be the geographical deepest point
I think You know - the dead sea really is the deepest point on earth - about 400 m below the mean sea level.
When we discovered this, we thaught that might be right here was the turning point of the convoy. We asked: God, please help us!
We suddenly could enjoy the beautiful desert nature around us. The dead sea, where You can lay and walk on / in the water without sinking. And I remembered: God solved every problem we had on our journey, he carried us. He told the ravens to provide us, and they did…
On Monday we did quite a long time of worship and decided to show God our love no matter what will happen, no matter if we ever would get into Israel or not. God longs for our true love!
Then my mother telephoned and told me that finally the lawyer from Goettingen sent the fax to the Israeli border police.
I have wonderful and hard fighting parents!!!

And after another 8 hours of security check on the Israeli border
WE FINALLY GOT IT - GOD, MY PARENTS AND MY BROTHER IN LAW TOGETHER OPENED THE WAY!!! We arrived in Israel.

The next day we met the other “half” of the convoy. You know, Emma, Maren, Barbara, Judith and Lena were waiting for us for already 2 1/2 weeks in Israel. After freakstock they went to Israel by plane.
It was a real great party and a lot of laughing when we met each other again!!!

In the evening Emma brought us to a peace camp in the north of israel, 15 km away from the lebanese border. It was a miracle what happened there!
Young israelis and young arabs, young jews, christians and muslims came together, celebrating forgiveness, only some weeks after the end of the war!!! …dancing together, laughing together, loving each other… INCREDIBLE!!!!
The following two days we spent time with the peacemaker team, joining them into different towns and villages.
I just felt like being catapulted a little bit tooo fast into heaven…
This peacekeeper organisation is built up by jews, muslims and christians.
They are working since a couple of years, organizing camps with jewish, muslim and christian children, teenagers and young adults.

After that we went with some jewish peacekeepers to the lake kinnereth.
We had a very good time together, just being together and talking about God, the love of God and the Messiah as result of this love. I tried to walk on the lake kinnereth like Jesus did, but I didn’t manage it - maybe I need some belief practice or I ate too much at the peace camp, I didn’t find out yet )

going to the north 15 km away from the lebanese border - arriving in the peace project

Thursday we drove through the west bank to Jerusalem. Mistrust, fear and hatred could be seen again everywhere. Weapons, military, security zones and high protected jewish settlements everywhere, and palestineans and jews living in constant fear.

In the night we arrived in Jerusalem at the Mount of Olives at Ibrahim.
Ibrahim is an angel. He is an old man, a peacekeeper, and travelled all over the world in order to strengthen peace between jews, christians and muslims in the middle east and all over the world.
He himself is a muslim, but he has very strong and good relationships with a lot of jews and christians in jerusalem. He is known everywhere in Jerusalem, and almost everywhere all over the world, I think.
He has a wide open house for everyone and prepares everything for his guests - for free, that’s sure.
And he knows how to handle people - we found out yesterday…
…yesterday afternoon we found one window of the Ford Transit wide open and broken. The whole caravan was a huge chaos. Someone burglarized the caravan right in the afternoon and found one portemonnaie and some other stuff from us with little value and stole all.
When we told Ibrahim he just disappeared with another man in the streets…
…15 minutes later he came back, carrying the portemonnaie and giving it back to us. Everything was inside, except some shekel. Another 15 minutes later some teenagers arrived, bringing back every single missed piece.
Ibrahim told us with a smile: “We don’t need a government, we are our own government…”
Today Anne and me visited the old town of Jerusalem.
Our heart was touched when we saw the crying jews standing at the west wall longing for the Messiah! God, reveal Yourself to Your people, reveal Your love!!!
In the church of the holy sepulchry we watched a procession of munks.
A lot of people were there, just kissing the place where the body of Jesus probably lied. I hope they knew he died for them and loves them…

…o.k., Thanks for Your attention, You finally reached the end of my mail )

We only have one last request:
we need urgently money to get back to Germany.
There seems to be no possibility to leave the Ford Transit in Israel, so the Transit will probably go by ferry from Haifa to Greece. The price for the ferry is between 1000,- and 1500,- Euro, and we don’t have the money yet!
Thank You!

Let’s thank God for every miracle he did!!!
And please pray for our next steps. The next week we will spend in Hebron and other places of conflict.
May God bless all of You so much!!!!! ))

Jonathan

P.S.:
Our bank account for donations
(We finally have the IBAN and the Swift-Code for international transfers!)

Account-owner / Kontoinhaber: Clemens Rabe

German Account-No. / Konto-Nr.: 145 099 901
International bank account no. (IBAN): DE94240900410145099901

German Institute-Code / BLZ: 240 900 41
International Institute-Code = SWIFT-Code: GENODEF1LUE

Institute: Volksbank Lüneburg

Two days ago we finally reached Syria. The Convoy is crossing slowly the last distance to the promised land because the heat is too much for our old cars and their engines and cooling systems…
Most of the time we drive in the night…

We are right now in Hama, a town between Aleppo and Damaskus.

The Border Turkey/Syria
We had little problems at the border, but God solved it very elegantly )
it took us only about 4 hours to cross the border, our cars inclusive. We saw quite a lot of people who must have stayed at the border since some days… The whole border looked like a huge camping place.
a turkish guy helped us to overcome the turkish border bureaucracy and showed us ways how to surround the difficult border points - he wanted 40 Euro for this job, but finally he was happy about the 10 Dollar (= 8-9 Euro) he received from us.
At the Syrian border we had little difficulties because we had not enough dollars, but some very nice guys helped us to get it done.

The Syrians - amazing people … but dark sides are there, too!
Syria is an amazing country. I think I never met people like the Syrian - they are very, very friendly - You know, not because of the money we (don’t) have, but because of true love.
They helped us already quite a lot of times - for free…
Always inviting us for tea, quite a lot of contacts…
They have true love, without any prejudices, they ‘re giving everything they have.
During our trip across turkey, I thought this country must be the country with the most friendly people in the world - but now it seems to me that syria has even more love.
The arabic world is quite phantastic, friendly, coloured, miraculous…
…imagine, only one of thousand examples, yesterday our Ford Transit was not able to “climb” a hill, so we started to get off the car - and I couldn’t believe what I saw… there were already at least 10 Syrian guys pushing the Ford - they recognized in seconds what happened with the Ford, and the whole community came to help us - faster than the german rescue service…
But…
there is another side, a side I find hard to understand, a dark side…
…deep hatred, deep fear…
Everywhere You see the picture of Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbh-Allah (or Hisbollah, or however you pronounce it… - that means: God’s Party). He is the most popular guy in Syria. A lot of people who helped us had the picture of him in their cars and houses and adored him because of his resistance against the “zionist-jewish world conspiracy”.
He is more popular in Syria than all popstars together in the western countries. He is THE Heroe… Two french women told Anne, Stuffi and Ivonna that the international Jews are the biggest danger in the world and that is why they went with Hisbollah to Lebanon.
I think You know that I condemn all forms of Imperialism - especially western Imperialism - because I was born in the western hemisphere and want to see first of all our cultural sin, not the sins of the other cultures. I studied quite a lot of economics, geopolitics, geostrategy and the long-term plans that are made in Washington, Berlin, London and Paris to strengthen western influence in the whole world. And the true reasons for the wars in Afghanistan and Irak. The CIA-made destruction of the democracy in Iran in the early 1950ies and all this stuff.
The reason for Imperialism is fear - fear, that the opponent in the worldwide economic competition gets stronger and destroys my own economic existence - so everyone longs for total control…
So all big leaders in the world, George Bush, Vladimir Putin, Angela Merkel… are led and driven by this fear - they are not free.

For sure I understand that the arab people are full of hatred against western governments. We delivered colonialism and dictatorships instead of democracy - that’s the truth. That’s why the Islamists can increase their influence so very fast.
Western christianity never brought love to the muslim world - that is our sin.

I also understand that the fact that 1000 Arab people (most of them civilians) were killed by the Israel Defense Forces increases the hatred.
I want to say “Sorry” to my Arab brothers.

But the antisemitic propaganda in Syria is incredible.
I know all this types of antisemitic propaganda - for example that the holocaust is a lie, invented by the jewish world conspiracy, that the jews are the most dangerous imperialists, that they are the puppetmasters of the U.S. and the world policy, of every war in the world…
I know this propaganda because 11 years ago I was strongly influenced by antisemitic christians.

But I can’t hear it anymore!!!!
All this are lies!!!!!!
And the jewish people are NOT guilty for western imperialism!!!! They were also victims!!!! And they didn’t invade Palestine more than 100 years ago in order to drive away all Arabs!!! They wanted to live in peace TOGETHER WITH the arabs!!!

But the prejudices between jewish and arabs grew and grew, especially Haj Amin al Husseini supported Hitler and killed all the Arabs who wanted to live in peace with the Jewish and started to spread prejudices against the Jewish in the 1930ies in order to increase his personal influence.

And now EVERYONE hates the other.

The Christian Western World and the Jewish are in fear against the Arabic world. They have strong prejudices against the Arabs. This is why they throw bombs and kill innocent people.
And the Arabs are in fear against the western world, thinking the puppetmasters of the western world are the Jews. For them the war against Israel will never stop, they told us. They will continue. Every Israeli attempt for peace is in their point of view a sign of Israels weakness.

But all of them, Arabs, Jews and Christians are beautiful people, created by God’s amazing love…

I swear, the Arabs are the most friendly people I ever met in my life !!!!!!!!

So let’s overcome our western prejudices against the Arabs, and - of course - let’s also fight against antisemitism!!!!

But how to fight???

Let’s fight with God’s amazing love, let’s build bridges, let’s bring peace,
Let’s overcome prejudices and xenophobia!!!

Let us ask for Forgiveness. Let’s go to our arab and jewish sisters and brothers and ask for forgiveness for our western sins!
Maybe then they can believe us, that God is love, that Jesus died for all of us because of love.

The last two days we stayed in Palmyra in the syrian desert, 130 km away from Irak. We were invited to a very nice beduin family, sat together with them and had a got time. Another family joined us and we saw an old grandmother playing the drums very fast, very speedy….
very funny ))
They asked us to sing some songs.
Ivonna told that we are christians. we sang our worship songs. I think they didn’t understand the content of our songs.May God reveal himself to them.

Today we had a very good worship time, prayed for each other and felt spiritually refreshed. I think we all were totally down the last weeks. We always felt powerless and thought: God, does the convoy have a spiritual sense? We don’t know, God… we can’t tell people about Jesus - they don’t understand us.
But this morning we got refreshed…
Thank You God!!!

And thank You for all support!
God bless You!!!

Jonathan

P.S.:
Our bank account for donations
(We finally have the IBAN and the Swift-Code for international transfers!)

Account-owner / Kontoinhaber: Clemens Rabe

German Account-No. / Konto-Nr.: 145 099 901
International bank account no. (IBAN): DE94240900410145099901

German Institute-Code / BLZ: 240 900 41
International Institute-Code = SWIFT-Code: GENODEF1LUE

Institute: Volksbank Lüneburg

Yesterday we have reached Goereme near Nevsehir…

Sure You don’t know where this region is situated.
You will find it on a map in the south of turkey, half-way between Ankara and Adana, 250 km away from the syrian border.

Goereme is a cave -town.

A lot of caves and tunnles are here, situated in amazing Grand-Canyon-like mountains.
It is incredible beautiful here, the area looks like landscapes from the movie “Lord of the Rings”.

The first christians also came to this region in times of heavy persecution and were protected there.
They just lived in the same caves where we are right now.
They were protected in God’s amazing creation, in his beautiful mountains, in his strong arms. That’s just the same feeling I have right now.
The last time was pretty hard, and when we came to this place, I knew God prepared it for us. Now we stay in a very nice cave-”castle” in a very beautiful nature with a lot of fruits, protected by our heavenly father.
Time to recover…

O.k., now a short summary about what happened so far:

In Istanbul Tom, Karen and Emma left the Convoy.
Tom had to go back to the U.K. Emma and Karen went by train to Israel, because Karen has to be back in the U.K. at the 18. of August. If she had continued to go with the Convoy she would have been able to stay in Israel only for one day…
These three were a great blessing for all of us.
We will see Emma again in one or two weeks in Israel, I hope.

Abdessamad, a very nice guy from morocco we know since two years, since one year Ivonnas husband, started to join the Convoy in Istanbul.

We left Istanbul last Sunday.

On the road again, the cooling system of the engine of the Ford Transit stopped working because of a broken rubber part and we fixed it on our own. But that didn’t work properly, so we needed to find a workshop. Our God never is too late, and another turkish “angel” brought us to a workshop south of Ankara where the system was repaired FOR FREE! Thank You, God!!!

But then our other car had problems with the cooling system, so it had to be repaired too, but this also was very cheap.

So, after a lot of cooling problems for our engines we arrived in Goereme yesterday.

Now we have to decide which way to take and how to get to Israel.
Got a lot of reliable infomation today. Syria seems to be safe, a lot of people told us, even the german office for foreign affairs.
So I guess we will recover another day in Goereme and might reach the Syrian border in 3 or 4 days.

Please pray for God’s protection and guidance, for our ability to listen to his voice, but most of all for possibilities to talk with people about Jesus.
We prayed for all the regions we already passed and had some contact with people, but still had only few possibilities to tell about Jesus.

But because of all the attacks the Convoy already went through on the one hand and the miracles we experienced on the other hand I believe that the Convoy is significant for the spiritual world.

Thank You!!!
God bless You!!!!!

Jonathan

P.S.:
Our bank account for donations
(Sorry, but we neither have the IBAN for the account nor the swift-code for the bank but only the german numbers for both)

Account-owner / Kontoinhaber: Clemens Rabe
Account-No. / Konto-Nr.: 145 099 901
Institute-Code / BLZ: 240 900 41
Institute: Volksbank Lüneburg

Hello Everybody,

Last Thursday the Israel-Convoy reached Istanbul.
Right now we are at the frontier - or better: at the bridge between the western and the arabic world.

the bridge…
this is exactly what we want to be:
a bridge between people, between cultures.
But this is only possible, if people get in touch with the living god, with the god who sacrificed himself for us - he built the bridge already.
So we have to convince people that God is love and forgiveness.
And our testimony is only believeable, if people can see the love of jesus in us.
If we serve them.

o.k., what happenened the last days?

Thursday we arrived in Turkey.
The problems with the engine-starter of the Ford Transit continued… Right on the highway during a traffic jam the motor stopped… so while the Transit was still rolling, I jumped out, pushed the car - and fortunately the engine worked again.
it is a bad feeling to push a car on a highway during a traffic jam, but between cars that don’t stop and continue driving…

One hour later we arrived in Istanbul and the problems got stronger…
During another traffic jam, while driving the Transit I suddenly discovered that the foot-brakes had TOTALLY stopped to work!
So I had only a handbrake that worked not very well… most of the time I had to use the motor as a brake.
There was no chance to stop the Transit and to bring it into a workshop or garage…
And we had to hurry to get to the airport, where another friend hat just arrived in order to join the convoy.
…and it is hard to drive a little van with broken foot-brakes and a broken starter through the traffic jam in Istanbul in the evening…

So we prayed and continued driving to the airport, met our friend and stopped for the night in a quarter near the airport… I was full of sweat after having stopped the engine.

“…just before they call me, I will answer“, says our beautiful God, and exactly that happened…

Just a few minutes after having stopped a man came and told us that he will bring us to a workshop the next day…
In the morning the guy woke us up and brought us to a workshop. Two old and very experienced mechanics started to repair the Transit, and, unbelievable but true, after two hours we had a new car. A brillant working brake, a brillant working starter, a brillant working clutch… And they repaired also the starter from our other van - the VW-Bus.
For only 140 Euro altogether…
Remember:
In Germany we checked the brakes in a high-tech-workshop and they told us that the brakes are alright…
And the mechanics from the Ford-Garages in Luneburg (Germany), Sibiu and Bukarest (both Romania) couldn’t solve the problems, had no new parts to replace the old ones and knew actually nothing…
And in only 2 or 3 minutes two old and experienced mechanics from Istanbul found all problems and needed only 2 hours to get the new parts for the engine and to fix the stuff.

Yesterday we visited the famous huge blue mosque. Emma started to cry in the mosque and some muslim guys from this mosque came and asked for her needs. They were very concerned and really wanted to help her. They thaught she was a muslim woman. Emma said that she is a christian. The muslims stayed friendly !
Let’s pray for these muslims. May God let shine his beauty in their hearts. May they see that christians are not western Imperialists, that christians are here to serve them and to live with them, even to learn from them, not to dominate them. God’s Love is the strongest power against Islamic Jeehad, Antisemitism and western Imperialism and capitalism.

o.k., so far. The next 4-6 days we will cross turkey and arrive at the Syrian border.

Thank God for the amazing miracles:

-Emmas meeting in the blue mosque

-the protection God gave:
imagine what would have happened if the brakes had stopped working in the bulgarian mountains or on the highway- we would have been dead - but they stopped exactly in the 5 % of our way where there was no danger…

-his leading to these amazing mechanics

-the unity amongst us grows - thank You, Lord Jesus!!!

Please pray:

- that God shows us what to do: when to start to Syria and Israel, or, in case he doesn’t want us to leave turkey (because of the war) that he gives us a clear sign to stop us

-for the Jewish people, that they can see Jesus and his love

-for the Muslim world, that they can discover God’s amazing love he revealed in his son

-that god shows us people with open hearts

-that God’s love is shining through us and we can be significant for our environment

- for protection

- continue praying for unity

- for donations

Thank You!
God bless ya!

Jonathan

P.S.:
Thanx for all donations

- we still need them

Thanks for all Support to realize the convoy!!!

Yesterday we reached the romanian-bulgarian border one and a half week after we started at lueneburg.

here a short review of everything that happened so far.

we left lueneburg at friday the 21. of july.

First Stop at Slot Festival/Poland
our first stop was at slot-festival in poland near wroclaw. slot-festival is a christian festival where every visitor can be an artist and act, sing, dance, paint and worship our heavenly king in the way everyone likes to.
It was amazing!
we felt refreshed after the whole organizing stuff we did to realize the convoy. we had quite good prayer and worship times with our sisters and brothers from portugal, england, poland and germany there.

Second Stop: Auschwitz-Birkenau/Poland
our second stop was at the concentration camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau, where more than a million jews
were killed in gas-chambers by the german nazis.
felt totally knocked out while visiting the destroyed ruins of the gas chambers and crematories. How could this happen? and why did it happen? and why did the whole german nation support it or, at least, closed the eyes, unwilling to recognize what happened? i can’t believe that it was impossible to recognize it - millions of jews disappeared in only a few years…
why did no one ask where they all had gone??? it must have been easy to recognize what happened - millions of jews can t disappear in only a few years…
But on the other hand it is quite easy to judge others - would i have had the courage to oppose? and what kind of sin do i commit right now?
FATHER, FORGIVE ME AND ALL OF US! FORGIVE our fear,
our proud,our anger, our egoism, our ignoring!
JESUS,PLEASE GIVE US HEARTS INSTEAD OF STONES!!!
LET US BE TO YOU A SACRIFICE!!!
LET US BE PEOPLE WHO BRING YOUR LOVE AND YOUR PEACE TO
THIS LOST, TO THIS DARK AND FEARFUL WORLD!!!

Third Stop: High Tatra/Slovakia
our third stop was at high tatra mountains in slovakia, where we just walked for one day in the mountains, adoring our father and his beautiful creation.
and there, right in the middle of nowhere, we met an israeli couple right from jerusalem and shared our time with them!

Fourth Stop: the hungarian/romanian border.

in romania the problems became worse…
the starter of the ford transit stopped at midnight in the mountains. we pushed the car to get it started, drove to a workshop, but they couldn t repair it.
after two days without a rest we tried to find a quiet place to sleep but didn t manage it - on our search we drove through burning garbage hills, until the police stopped us, and - thank you father - showed us a place to rest instead of cheating us.
we stayed there for two days and then started on monday to another car workshop in bukarest to repair the starter of the ford.the people of this workshop were very gentle, showed us what to do (for free!) -
but the starter stayed broken - we found out a couple of hours later…
But right then we became WITNESSES OF A MIRACLE!
Emma met a priest from an armenian orthodox church - and he behaved as an angle! he gave us coffee, invited us and showed us his church - AND GAVE US COMMUNION!!!

i think everyone of You knows what that means - orthodox churches NEVER give communion to non/members of the church and often persecute born/again christians!!!
imagine the situation!!! the priest invited us, looking like dirty criminals, and two other romanian non/christian guys we met (drinking alcohol) into his church, a very old church with very strong rules and gave us communion!!!!!!!
we sang worship songs in his church, praising Jesus and started to cry…

You know, that was our vision for this convoy!!!
bringing god s heavenly love and bringing peace and unity! not a unity without god, but a unity that is possible BECAUSE OF GOD!!! overcoming fear and prejudices amongst people - and praying for unity of
christ s body!!!

and now we are at the black sea…

….all the visions and prophecies we got from people
who did not even know us and even those visions god
gave us are totally right…

people told us to figth for unity in our group during
problems, and that is really hard, when everyone is
broken…

we often had the dream that the convoy will have a difficult start and will continue to get into more and more trouble - and this is right… the problems get worse.
but the dream ended with a beautiful light and hope at the end of the tunnle - and yesterday we saw a little bit of this light in this orthodox church…

PLEASE PRAY FOR US.

thank god:
for the miracles he did!
- he repaired our accelerator and our brakes - they have been working for 2500 km since our start. Before this, in lueneburg the accelerator was broken and louder than the motor and we couldn t repair it
because we had no money - everything has disappeared and our old vehicles are working a lot and well.

for the protection he gave
- in romania it seems that all car drivers - also the lorry drivers - are willing to commit suicide - even those of us who know traffic jam from morocco or other arabic countries got panic in romania

- for the police guy who showed us a safe place right in the middle of a dangerous area with a lot of criminals (this experience was good for me, because in germany i made quite a lot of very bad experiences with the police)

- and for paul, the orthodox priest, and his amazing love and the unity god gave!!!

pray for us!!

- that we can hear God s voice and can do his will.
that he shows us where to go, which people to meet…
pray for meetings with Jewish, witk Muslims, with other Christians… we want to serve and to show Jesus through our life

- pray for unity amongst us!!! this is getting worse, because the problems are rising…

- pray for spiritual and physical protection!!!

- pray for the cars - especially that we will be able to repair the starter of the transit soon!

Thank You!!!
May God be with You and bless You!

Jonathan

Wird, die Schöpfung mit all ihren Menschen, Tieren, Pflanzen und aller Materie nicht doch irgendwann ganz und gar versöhnt, vollständig erlöst? Hat Gott nicht selbst den Traum einer vollkommenen Versöhnung aller Geschöpfe mit ihm und hat er nicht diese Sehnsucht auch in unsere Herzen gelegt?
Vollkommene Liebe wäre die Erlösung aller, ohne ihre Willensfreiheit einzuschränken, d.h. ohne zur Liebe und zur Erlösung zu zwingen. Der einzig vorstellbare Weg dazu wäre die uneingeschränkte Gotteserkenntnis, die uns dazu bewegt, Gott freiwillig und uneingeschränkt zu vertrauen.
Gibt es Zwischenwelten, nach dem Konzept des katholischen „Fegefeuers“, die es uns ermöglichen, Gott vollkommen in all seiner Schönheit und Liebe zu erkennen und existiert damit nach dem Tod eine Möglichkeit zur Entscheidung für Gott im vollen Besitz der Erkenntnis Gottes?
Und würden wir uns überhaupt für Gott entscheiden, wenn wir in die Lage versetzt wären, ihn ganz zu erkennen?…wahrscheinlich nicht, denn Glaube an Gott ist ja gerade „Vertrauen, und im Vertrauen bezeugt sich die Wirklichkeit dessen, worauf wir hoffen“ (Hebräer 11, 1)…Glaube ist demnach ein Akt des Vertrauens, ohne vollkommen zu wissen und zu erkennen.
Was denkt ihr dazu?

Dort werden wir am 24-7 Prayer-Trainingskurs CONVERS teilnehmen - eine Art Jüngerschaftsschule, eine Gemeinschaft von Menschen, die durch das gemeinsame Leben und einen gemeinsamen geistlichen Rhythmus verbunden sind. Dieser Rhythmus besteht aus verschiedenen Formen und Zeiten des Gebets, des Lernens, Studierens, der Arbeit und der Erholung.
CONVERS verfolgt u.a. das Ziel, Menschen für die Gründung ähnlicher Gemeinschaften auszurüsten. Inhaltliche Schwerpunkte sind neben der persönlichen Jesusbeziehung auch „Christentum in Zeiten der Globalisierung“, „Soziale Gerechtigkeit“ etc.
Wer uns kennt, weiß, dass dieses Konzept eigentlich alles zusammenfasst, was Gott uns in den letzten Jahren aufs Herz gelegt hat: Leben in Gemeinschaft über den sonntäglichen Gottesdienst hinaus und Ansätze zur Überwindung der Vereinzelung des Menschen durch die kapitalistische Logik der Konkurrenz, das Fragen nach der Verwirklichung von Gottes Liebe auch in politischen und gesamtgesellschaftlichen Strukturen und die konkrete Arbeit besonders mit den Menschen, die am stärksten durch die Folgen der neoliberalen Ökonomie benachteiligt sind.
Außerdem wird natürlich ein großer Teil unserer Arbeit in Ramsdorf darin bestehen, die Gebäude und die Teamstrukturen für CONVERS erst einmal auf- und auszubauen.
Wir glauben, dass Gott uns jetzt an diesen Ort stellt, um uns auszurüsten für das, was er danach mit uns vorhat…allein der Weg, der uns zu CONVERS geführt hat, ist schon gespickt mit Gottes Wundern an uns und mit seiner Geduld und Güte, die uns besonders im letzten Jahr noch einmal sehr verändert hat (dazu ein andermal mehr).
Jedenfalls werden wir ab Ende September 2006 mit ca. 18 Erwachsenen und einem Haufen Kindern für ein Jahr in Ramsdorf gemeinsam leben, beten, lernen, arbeiten und da sein für die Menschen, die Jesus noch nicht kennen. Unser Ziel ist es, davon ausgehend weitere christliche Gemeinschaften aufzubauen und diese Zeit zu nutzen, um sich gang konkret von Jesus führen zu lassen, ihn zu fragen, wie und wo konkret diese Vision umgesetzt werden kann…spannend
…wir gehen also los, irgendwohin, wo Gott uns hinführt, ohne auch nur einen einzigen Cent zu haben, von dem wir ab September leben können. Und wir machen einen Convoy mit einer Hand voll Habenichtsen und u.a. mit einem Ford Transit, der 24 Jahre alt ist und wahrscheinlich einen Getriebeschaden hat - ohne gesicherte Versorgung mit allem Lebensnotwendigen.
Von uns hatten schon Leute den Eindruck, dass, wie bei Elija und der Witwe, die ihm trotz eigener Hungersnot Brot gebacken hat (1.Könige 17,8-15), auch wir versorgt werden durch Menschen, die selbst nichts haben… whatever: Von den Versorgungswundern, die wir in näxter Zeit erleben werden, werden wir hier erzählen.
…wenn dein Herz von unserem Zukunftstraum und von unserem Israelconvoy berührt wird, dann frag Gott, ob du vielleicht auch so eine „Witwe“ sein sollst, die ihr weniges verschenkt und von Gott dafür gesegnet, versorgt und am Leben gehalten wird („Die Frau ging und tat, was Elija ihr aufgetragen hatte. Und wirklich hatten die drei jeden Tag zu essen. Der Mehltopf wurde nicht leer und das Öl im Krug versiegte nicht, wie Elija versprochen hatte.“ (1. Könige 17, 15-16))

unser Spendenkonto für CONVERS:
Kontoinhaber: Anne Rauhut
KTN.:575 388 86
BLZ: 240 501 10
Sparkasse Lüneburg
Verwendungszweck: SPENDE

Spendenkonto ISRAELCONVOY
Kontoinhaber: Clemens Rabe
KTN: 145 099 901
BLZ: 240 900 41
Volksbank Lüneburg
Verwendungszweck: SPENDE

Vielmehr erweisen sich beide Antworten auf die Frage nach der Erkenntnis Gottes als GOTTESBILDER. Gott selbst antwortet demnach auch Hiob und seinen Freuden ganz im Sinne vom Verbot, sich Götzenbilder - Idole - Id(e)ologien zu machen…er destruiert alle Gottesbilder durch Fragen… aber er distanziert sich von der irrationalen Spiritualität der Freunde Hiobs. Die Begrenztheit des menschlichen Vernunft legitimiert nicht die Dummheit und nicht den Mißbrauch des Namen Gottes.

Gott hingegen drückt auf krasse Art und Weise aus, was seine Liebe eigentlich bedeutet: Gott gibt sich an uns hin. Er macht sich trotz seiner Souveränität für uns einschätzbar. Er lässt sich, obwohl er das nicht ansatzweise nötig hätte, auf unsere Erkenntniskategorien ein…macht sich freiwillig kontrollierbar und bleibt dennoch souverän.

Dadurch ist die Ausgangsfrage nach der Qualität der Beziehung Gottes zu Hiob geklärt. Die Frage, ob Hiob nur ein christlicher Nutzenmaximierer ist, der aus einer egoistischen Motivation glaubt, ist nur eine Konsequenz der Frage, ob Gott sich uns erkenntlich macht. Wenn er das nämlich nicht tut, dann ist unsere Beziehung zu ihm zwangsläufig von der Trennung durch Herrschaft geprägt (entweder durch die irrationalistische Willkür Gottes oder umgekehrt: dass wir nur einen Gott anerkennen, der durch unsere Erkenntnis beweisbar und damit kontrollierbar ist).

Die Konsequenz: Satan hatte Unrecht. Gottes Liebe war kein Schwachsinn. Denn Gott hatte Hiob zuerst geliebt, sich ihm erkenntlich gemacht und ihn dadurch freigesetzt zur wirklichen Gottesliebe, die ihn selbst im schlimmsten Leid noch zu Gott hinführte…er konnte es einfach nicht lassen, mit Gott zu reden…vielleicht hat er