Cyprus

I'm back from my little trip to Cyprus for the worship conference and despite a little chest congestion, I think I made it through fine. Actually the conference was really great. We were pretty wiped out by the time we got there because we had to leave at 3:00 am and neither Sandra, Jon Mark or I slept at all that night before.


The hotel was really nice and we had great little balconies with a beautiful view of the Mediterranean. I must say that it would be hard to get used to living around Cypreans, though. They seem to be so easily offended and get into yelling matches way worse than any I've seen in Jerusalem. I thought Jon Mark was going to come to blows with a taxi driver at the airport who didn't want to wait for Sandra and the boys, he just wanted to leave without them. So we unloaded everything from that taxi and took another one. We won't talk about my little run-in with the little old man bussing tables in the food court.

So the conference. Wow. God really did some things in my heart. The ministry hosting the conference is based on Isaiah 19:23-25:

"In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria. The Assyrians will go to Egypt and the Egyptians to Assyria. The Egyptians and Assyrians will worship together. In that day Israel will be the third, along with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing on the earth. The LORD Almighty will bless them, saying, "Blessed be Egypt my people, Assyria my handiwork, and Israel my inheritance."

There were people there from Egypt, Israel and Assyria (Lebanon) as well as America and Scotland, all praying and worshipping the Lord together in unity. Arabs and Palestinians side by side with me and my heart for the Jewish people. And I loved them. These people captured my heart and God used them to open my eyes to some things. I have to confess that in general I have had a major dislike and mistrust for both Arabs and Palestinians. But God in His mercy allowed me to see a different perspective through the eyes of Steve, a Palestinian living in the Gaza Strip.

Steve, who is a friend of Jon Mark's, was on our flight from Tel Aviv to Larnaca and he and Andrew and I ended up taking a taxi to the hotel together. I politely asked a few questions about Gaza and the recent pull out of Israelis, and I just as politely listened to him tell how much easier life was for the Gaza Palestinians. All the while I listened, I was still thinking that the whole thing had been evil and cruel to the Israelis who lived there. But over the course of the conference, I got to know Steve and his heart, and God opened my eyes a bit. In the past I have been guilty of totally associating all Palestinians with terrorism. I would think that they're all just a bunch of evil radicals who want nothing more than to kill innocent people because they are Jews. The reality is that the radicals are actually a minority of the whole; it's just that we only see the actions of the radicals in the press, not the actions of the everyday Palestinian.

I asked Steve, "Do you love Gaza?" He said, "Yes I love Gaza. Nobody else loves Gaza, but I love Gaza. And God loves Gaza. And God can fix Gaza. No one else can." During the conference we had many conversations about loving one people group but not the other. And we came to the conclusion that we can love both; we can open our hearts a little more. And God can totally cause Palestinians and Israelis to live side by side in peace. I didn't believe that before. I believe it now. Reality is that nobody wants the Palestinians. Israelis say, "Why won't the other Arab countries take them in?" Other Arab countries don't want them either. Can you imagine the hurt and rejection these people must feel? I can't. But I can do what God allows me to do by not being one of the ones to persecute and reject them as well.


I was also blown away by the team that came from Lebanon (see picture) and by the Egyptians as well. There were such tender hearts there and a connectedness that I haven't really felt before with total strangers. I can't describe it. I wish I could.

One evening we started to pray over people in the arts and of course, I went to be prayed for. Not knowing of my crying out to God on Daddy's birthday to heal my shattered heart, a man named Michael looked straight at me and started praying over shattered hearts. Then Sandra started praying over me that God would give beauty for ashes, and suddenly it hit me. I've read that verse so many times and it never clicked before that when people were in mourning, they covered themselves in ashes. Beauty for ashes; beauty coming out of mourning. That's where the anointing on my artwork will come from; the ashes of my mourning.

It wasn an incredible time. I was really sorry to say goodbye. But my heart has been enlarged, my vision expanded, and that is a very good thing!