Susan, Richard & Mitchell Knudson

After many years of anticipation, prayer, longing, and desire it was finally our turn to visit Eretz Isra’el in November 2008! As YHWH would have it we were granted His open door of travel to The Land with the Worldwide Biblical Zionist organization. We had met Joel Bell and Sagiv Assulin, our contacts to this organization, at the Restoration of the Kingdom conference in July of this year. It was such an encouragement there to hear Sagiv, a representative of our Brother Judah, invite us to visit Israel! We made plans for the exciting tour that WBZ was hosting for people like ourselves who love YHWH, His Land and His people.

The experience was life-changing. Pamela and Joel Bell organized a full two weeks for the 60-some members of the tour. We had our seven-year-old son with us who was welcomed and cared for, especially by Pamela, and many others on the tour. We were provided with lovely accommodations and delicious fare typical of the varieties common in Israel.

Our impression of the The Land and People was greatly benefitted by the tour Pamela and Joel designed. We were given opportunities not many tours afford. Because of their lives in Israel, Pamela and Joel were able to introduce us to people at different levels in society’s strata. We met gentle people, who were formerly from Gush Katif, who have suffered displacement by their own government. We spoke with leaders of towns who have sought to prevent harm to their residents coming from nearby Arab cities in the form of gunfire, rockets, and rock throwing. We were blessed with the gift of planting olive trees at the organic farm of Shlomo Azuli, who was also moved out of Gush Katif and has gone to the Negev and is making it bloom by the hand of YHWH. We heard from leaders and activists who are seeking to secure what remains Israel’s territory, and who recognize the need for change in current government policies. We shared Sabbath time with Sagiv and his lovely wife, Keren, hearing his heart for preserving The Land and sharing it with his Brother Ephraim. We mingled with Likud party members, and potential party members, witnessing firsthand the yearning for support from Ephraim to help build Zion. We were warmly and dearly welcomed by every introduction on the tour. This was Divinely blessed, and we are grateful.

As well as being provided such significant heart-to-heart encounters, Pamela and Joel managed to get us to a few of the ancient and biblical sites in The Land. We walked to the site at Tel Shiloh where the Tabernacle stood. One afternoon we visited Machpelah, the burial site of our fathers Avraham, Yitzchak, and Ya’acov, in the disputed city of Hevron. We rode the gondola up to Masada and experienced huge blessings as we learned about the Zealots’ stand through our sweet guide, who seemed to receive as much from us as we did from her. We saw the desolation of the Dead Sea and the loneliness of the desert where David traversed; we saw the greenery of pine trees and the bountiful date palms, bananas, and wineries north of Jerusalem near the Galilee. Some on the tour made it to the Syrian and Lebanese borders to visually identify with the threats from those countries that we hear about in the news so commonly.

We had waited for our Heavenly Father to guide us to the right time to visit Eretz Isra’el. The tour that the Bells arranged through Worldwide Biblical Zionists was unmatched. We met our “family” there - Bothers from Judah and Ephraim. We participated with, and observed, The Holy One of Israel moving to bring restoration to His whole House. May it be so, in our day ~ “Next year in Yerushalayim!”

Richard, Mitchell & Pam Bell Planting Olive Trees