PRAYER VALLEY

Our first prayer room was a bomb shelter. 

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I was reminiscing on the major renovation project we began over six years ago, which garnered the partnership of the Jewish Agency. There was a retired boarding school on the edge of the first ever kibbutz with about 10 run down buildings. It was empty and abandoned. Surrounding, and inside the buildings were layers of dead leaves and grass. The place was in dire need of lots of loving! 

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Slowly, building by building, over about a six year period we restored, fixed up, and breathed new life into these old buildings. The first building was a place for volunteers to stay in. Then came a building that was renovated and restored for a pre army program that helps Jews and Arabs to connect and get to know each other, then a Lone Soldier building,  And so on. 

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Where once there was no life and activity, the place came alive! There were many helping hands from the nations and several programs began to run in the different buildings. There were pre army programs, post army programs, new Jewish immigrant families, agriculture training, lone soldiers programs, and much more. 

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There were also some old run down filthy bomb shelters on the property. We decided to clean out some of them, one in particular we decorated, and filled with instruments to be a place for worship and prayer. Every Friday we had a night watch till the morning and there in the depths of the earth in the Jordan Valley worship and many prayers were lifted up! 

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From the beginning,  I felt that God spoke to my heart about the importance of prayer and worship, and admiring Return Ministries night watch faithfulness, we made it a priority to have groups come alongside our team and the volunteers that came through, to spend time in prayer and worship together. This was the beginning of the vision for building a place of worship in the Galilee area.

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The Bomb shelter where we had prayer and worship gatherings began to become too crowded. 

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Thus naturally, the hearts of many of people from our team and myself included dreamed for a bigger location. On the Beit Zera project, there were about 15 buildings. And one by one, the buildings were being designated to different projects and then renovated accordingly. 

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One day, some of the people from our team beckoned me to come and see one of the abandoned buildings on the property, and pray there. They were excited to share with me how they envisioned this falling apart building with its busted out windows, becoming a center for prayer, worship, and hospitality. I looked around and  I began to think of King David, and how he focused on ministering to the Lord, and that this likewise needed to be our core. 

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To see this vision come to life would be a big expensive, project to take on, along with everything else we were doing. So we placed the vision in God’s hands. 

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It wasn’t too long afterward that we were introduced to a couple that also had a similar vision of establishing a prayer and worship center in the Galilee. The set up for this meeting was a divine match from heaven! 

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Before long, our partners on the Beit Zera project all approved the building of a worship center for Christians traveling from abroad. And it would be established in the very building that we prayed over. So what started off as a prayer, began to move forward! It was around the fall of 2019 when construction plans began to be set in motion, interior designs were created, and this fallen apart building began its restoration process. 

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Little did we anticipate the opposition we would face as a result of this project…

THE VERTICAL GALILEE HOUSE OF PRAYER NEVER CLOSED DOWN AS RESULT OF THE PERSECUTION.

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It simply moved nearby, and of course, the other bless Israel initiatives are still running in the other buildings that we renovated.  We had a separate building within Kibbutz Beit Zera (Just outside the fence of the retired boarding school section like before) which we had also renovated and had been renting for a while. This became our NEW hub of action. We dedicated one of the rooms as the Vertical Galilee House of Prayer. We also made rooms available for studio, offices and hospitality in this building. 

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However, due to COVID, the visitors stopped coming, and the volunteers slowly dwindled away. Thankfully the local believers and the ARC team, the place was filled with praises and prayers. 

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It was during this season that the Altar of Prayer (an online prayer for Israel platform) was launched. We took 12 stones from in the Jordan River waters, we made an altar, and lit a small fire on top, and we knew a new season had begun. People from around the world committed to 3 hour watches online to worship the Lord and pray for Israel. I personally have a watch every Tuesday morning (registration details below). And  since that first moment I have continued in this worldwide prayer for Aliyah and Israel  platform, for about 4 years till this day. 

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In the Spring of 2022, Israels borders opened up, and groups from the nations once again joined us in worshiping the Lord together in our little prayer room! We have a deck outside the building where many flags hang from our partners: leaders from many nations, that have come prayed, supported, and represent God’s heart for the restoration of Israel in their nation. 

This prayer and worship center is near and dear to my heart, and as it continues to grow, and you schedule your alabaster “Vertical” GHOP time here in Galilee, with the Lord in the near future, I believe fully that this is such an important part of the coming redemption that we are all a part of. 

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