Yochanan Matthews

I heard about WBZ online. It was probably hearing about people who had been active in their love for Jews when they needed it most and the hope of doing something similar, that caught my interest. I had allowed my own activism, at the time of the Gush Katif expulsions, to get quashed by a fatalism that waits passively for a miracle.

I am in my final year at Sunderland University finishing a BA in Fine Art, and therefore struggled with taking time off and with financing a trip. From what I had heard I knew this was important and that if I could I would go, YHWH willing. I arrived late on the tour as I couldn’t take more than a week off studies. I had missed meetings with key communities on the frontline.

Tired, out of my comfort zone and at odds with the way something had been done on the tour, I began to regret going. Things said and done did not fit my picture of how YHWH would work. But the Father met with me in such a merciful way and showed me to work with these people. I went to a Shabbat meeting in the hotel bomb-shelter that I had been planning to avoid. It was an encounter with The Most High. It was news to me that He had politicians, sales people and business people in His service!

Hearing Sagiv, Joel and his brother Peter tell some of their story gave me much confidence in YHWH. My picture was smashed and I spent the rest of the tour and since then letting the Father show me a much bigger reality and level of trust. How great He is. He loves to surprise. I am delighted that He smashed my 'spiritual' picture of how He works in the affairs of men. “Get on with what I have shown you but work with whoever I tell you” is sort of what I think He is saying.

While traveling back from Tzfat in the north, where we had been on the Shabbat, I had some time to begin to digest some of what I was having to adjust to. I talked with others on the tour about how our relationship with various communities in Israel may develop, including the Druze that we had met on the day I had joined the tour. Many of us swapped details and talked about how we saw our personal journeys might unfold.

We arrived in Yerushalayim with a few hours to prepare for the posh evening finale ‘do’. Some of us had not worn a suit and tie in years. I sensed this public ceremony was important even if I felt like a fish out of water. If I couldn’t have come for anything else this was the one event I had planned to attend. We arrived at the venue and relaxed quickly into the evening with wave after wave of delicacies brought to us long before being led to our tables. The inauguration Gala was going well: wonderful food, good atmosphere, singing from a Sde’rot choir, a few speeches, etc. But then Sagiv Assulin started his speech by calling us 'Ephraimites', brothers. This was fantastic....a Jew calling me brother.... and then he read Ezekiel 37 with understanding and history was made.

I longed for everyone to be there and share our joy. As the evening closed, late into the night, I was staggering like a drunk with awe at what had just happened! Praising Elohim and slipping into something like what Peter and John must have experienced on the mount with Moshe, Eliyah and Yeshua, ie wanting to do something physical because the experience was just so big. To think I nearly missed out on this! We traveled back on the coach to the hotel praising YHWH and wondering what all this would mean.

The remaining few days, now that the tour had finished officially, I spent with others talking more in detail about some of the practicalities of what is at hand. There were many valuable moments: going to Hevron, erev Shabbat spent in a politician’s house, a study on Shabbat with such love…..

Now I'm back in the north of England with the joyful news of how a door is opening for us to serve and to go home. There is so much we can do wherever we are. The opportunities to help those who are still homeless from the Gush Katif expulsion. Getting ready to join other projects WBZ have on the go (including Military involvement). To be the fulfillment of prophecy, coming to the aid of Judah.

B'Ahavat Yisrael.  Praise YHWH.

Yochanan MattitYahu (UK)