Day -242 - How did I get to Israel?

So how did I end up making it to Israel anyway?

Well, it all started with a picture. A single picture was the spark necessary to lite my entire life on fire and nearly kill my soul forever. One picture put my marriage to the test and ultimately, the marriage wasn’t able to withstand. Now that it’s over with, I couldn’t be happier, but in the moment it was horrendous. A horror story for another day perhaps, and only for those closest to me who need to know the details, but I think I’ve decided not to parade it.

But it was shortly after I had sold my beautiful 4,000 square feet home and moved into a 800 square feet little place in Story City. I had paid off the debts between my ex and me, split the money and gave her her share of the money and then I was left alone. I had about $25,000 sitting in the bank and that was all that was left of the marriage. 6.5 years! My parents had finally gone home, the hard part they could help with was over, now the HARDEST part that they couldn’t help with was just beginning, I was finally alone. For the first time in my life I was truly alone, the silence echoed in my home like a non-stop clanging gong. I had to get out. I had to do anything to get me away from myself.

I decided to put $10,000 into a CD so I COULDN’T touch it until tax season, $10,000 went into my investment portfolio and the $5,000 was what I decided to set aside for myself. I moved all the money and finalized everything, with my $5,000 sitting in my account, on friday, September 16th. The church I was going to was having some Doctor dude showing up on Saturday evening. I’d never heard of the guy but people were going crazy they were so excited. I couldn’t look more forward to it, a chance to get out of the house on a Saturday and not be alone? Sign me up!

That whole Saturday, while I was waiting for the evening, I spent wondering what I’d spend my $5,000 on. I could buy that new Sig Sauer, I could buy a box of cigars, I could get that new graphics card I’d wanted so bad, maybe I could find some beautiful art pieces to hang up in my new little dump. I was so torn, what to do, what to do. As I was driving to the church, I was just north of Ada Haden and it hit me - I should use the money to go somewhere, not just somewhere local, but over seas…. I should use the money to make a memory that’ll last a lifetime instead of temporary “things” or worse, just eating the money away.

I arrived at the church maybe 5 minutes later and they were just getting started. The pastor introduced Dr. Michael Brown, a world renowned Messianic Jew. He stands up and the first thing he says is that he’s planning a trip to Israel in May of 2023, it’ll be the first trip they’ve had to Israel in years due to covid and other issues. Boom….. what!? Did God just throw this in my lap? No way. I bet it’ll cost like $12,000 or something outrageous.

I immediately got on my phone and followed the link he had up on the screen and the whole trip was $3,600 and that includes everything except lunches and the plane tickets. I spent the rest of the night hearing him talk but I have no idea what he talked about, I was totally fixated on “how is this happening?”.

I got home and looked up plane tickets and decent round-trip tickets were about $1,400. Are you serious?!?? This trip is going to cost $5,000. At this point in time I needed an adult and I also just needed to sleep on this. I consulted my brother about it, told him what was going on and he didn’t even try to hold me back, as far as I remember, I was basically harassed about not booking the ticket soon enough!!! Within the next week I had purchased my plane ticket as well as signed up, and paid for the group tour.

The rest is history! I’ve never been more proud of myself as a man. On October 31st I received the news that I was officially a single man. I cried on camera to my team as I told them I just needed a day. I spent most of that day outside pondering life.

God took me to Israel and He had a lot to show me. A lot to tell me. A lot to teach me. I’m still searching, listening, and learning and I have no intentions of stopping anytime soon. God is good and He has blessed me with an amazing story!