Well, we were ready to work and see God move. On day one we approached people, got a feel of the idiosyncrasy of Jerusalem, and dared to cross some lines. Nevertheless we were still curious about what God would do today, and were looking forward to it. I know that usually the videos and stories published are about the miracles, radical conversions, signs and wonders, and even though that happened, I would like to show you that most of the times to get that we must go through frustration, prayer, patience, and hard work.

The young Muslim who was prayed for the day before made an appointment with Torben, and brought a friend with him. They went away to talk, and some of us decided to take another path and leave Torben alone with them. Wonderful things happened there, words of knowledge, healings, and so on. I didn’t witness it but heard the story after they were gone. In between, I was still asking God why he had called me to go there. I wanted to see something happen, and was approaching people here and there, seeing some healings, but I knew it was not yet why I was there for.

Then Torben shared with us that God had put in his heart to go to Bethlehem. Our guide, Lars, told us that is a Palestinian territory and that there the tensions are high.

Israel has no control inside there, and no Jews are allowed there, neither Christians that preach to Muslims. Both are there illegal activities. But we really needed a way in.

Weird enough, 5 months ago I had met in Caceres (which is my next destination in our journey through Spain) a group of Palestinian Muslim missionaries who were traveling around announcing that Islam is a religion of peace and not of terror. We tried to pray for them, and ended up at their Mosque preaching Jesus. It went so well that the Imam (the Muslim teacher that leads the Mosque) translated into Arabic the stories we were telling about Jesus and also our testimonies, while all the Muslims there would shout “Allah Akbar,” which means “Praise God” in Arabic. Me and the YWAM students that I was kickstarting glorified God for such an event.

One of them kept contact with me, and guess where he lived? In Bethlehem. I contacted him again, and through many issues and miscomunications we could finally meet at our hotel (to the uncomfortability of the security guards, since radical Arabs are not very welcome in Israeli territory). He brought a translator with him, and we spend the day together. We went to Bethlehem, and talked a lot about God. Now you would expect that he got saved and turned out to be a person of peace, right? But sadly, no. That was not the case. He just wanted to be friendly, but I found no door to get him to faith in Jesus.

That very day, as I was gone, Torben and team kept themselves busy and ended up in an international prayer meeting. Many stories in between, leading of the Holy Spirit full in action, they allowed them in, prayed for them and prophesied upon them. You will hear impressive stories about it probably on the next TLR movie. But as you can guess, I was still trying to find out why I was there and apparently missing the good action moments so far.

I must confess that it didn’t really bother me to be away at those key moments, because this is not about what “Fabian” can do, or what God tells “Fabian” to do. I knew I was in His will and I was there in obedience, trying to find his voice and do what He expected me to do. Not finding out the big WHY of my journey was what was bothering me, and wondering if those first two days had been what the Lord had planned for me. Good time of prayer every night and spending time with God helped me to stay sharp and stay open to His guidance.

That afternoon however, a couple of messages came in that would give us a lot of action for the next day, and important lessons that gave (at least to my understanding) meaning to the journey so far.