Refine

"See that no one leads you astray. For many will come in my name, saying, 'I am the Christ,' and they will lead many astray. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are but the beginning of the birth pains." -Matthew 24:4-8

These past couple days, our team was in Haifa, staying up on Mt. Carmel where Elijah once called down fire on the prophets of Baal. As soon as we arrived on thursday, we noticed a thick cloud of smoke hovering over the city. In the midst of it all, we recognize the beauty of the sun protruding through the thick clouds, creating a beautiful site to look at. We then found out that the fire was right up on Mt. Carmel where we were staying. As we went up, we get settled in and headed back down to get some dinner in two separate cars, five of us in each. There were ambulances and chaos all throughout the mountain. We saw some sparks and remnants of the fire on the side of the mountain. But it looked like it was being tamed.

We finally got down to the city, got some dinner. As we were leaving, my car waited for the other car...and nothing. They weren't anywhere. We drove around the parking garage a few times, and still found no trace of them.

"Well, let's just drive up to our place, they will be there too."

Too bad the roads were closed because the fire has now gone out of control, killing 40 people. We saw the side of the mountain, but this time, the flames were out of control, spreading even higher up and deeper down the mountain. The team found a way to write a facebook message to us, we just needed to find Wi-Fi here and there.

"Great, we lost our team with no communication in the midst of Israel's worst fire yet...what are we going to do?"

Well, after 7 hours of driving around aimlessly, rummaging through people's backyards thinking they were guest houses, and searching hotel after hotel, we finally found our team at 3am at a guest house in Haifa. Praise the Lord

Reading Matthew, it is crazy to think that this fire here in Israel, His chosen nation, was necessary, yet it is not the end of the age. These are just the beginning of the birth pains. What is to come? Personally, I think that this generation is going to see some of the most terrifyingly brilliant things that no one has seen yet. Aslan is on the move, and we better be ready to embrace His refining fire that will cause us to depend on Him, no matter what the circumstance is.

If some of you are wondering, my whole ticket situation is worked out. I found a ticket back to Kona on the 12th for staff training. Praise the Lord. But now, I just need a few hundred dollars to be able to pay for the ticket! Thanks for all your prayers and support thus far! If you do feel led to help support me and get me on my way to Kona to staff the DTS, that would be incredible. Just click the "East Coast/Israel" tab above!

One more week here in Israel!

Thanks everyone who made it possible.

It has been more than I could ask for!

-Daniel

--York