In May 2001, more than 550 Canadians traveled to Israel for a 10-day prophetic
journey. On this trip they met with key Jewish religious and political
leaders to publicly repent on behalf of the Canadian church for the sin
of anti-Semitism. They also visited ancient Biblical sites where God’s
power had been displayed and, in agreement with Habakkuk 3:2, prophetically
“called forth ancient anointings for God’s end-time purposes”
in Canada.
The following is a diary entry from one day of the tour.
SUNDAY, MAY 27, 2001
We began our day with a visit to Yad Vashem, the Jewish Holocaust Memorial
Centre. We knew it was going to be hard and so we took time to pray and
reflect and prepare our spirits as we headed out on the buses.
Probably the hardest part was walking through the children’s memorial.
You go through an open “hallway” and just before you enter the
memorial you see the face of a little boy named Uziel engraved in the wall.
He died in the Holocaust and his parents built the children’s memorial
in his honour. Then you turn the corner and suddenly you are in darkness.
You move along slowly, holding onto a hand rail because all you can see
is thousands of little points of light shining in the darkness, each one
representing a child who perished in the holocaust. And their names
are being read, one at a time 24 hours a day, every day. It’s
overwhelming. A lot of people in our group were weeping and travailing.
It drove home to me in a whole new way the journey of repentance we did
and the Winnipeg Gathering
Then it was time to meet with the Chief Rabbi of Israel, Rabbi Yisrael Lau,
who himself is a survivor of Buchenwald.
David Mainse opened the ceremony by reading the Declaration we made in November
2000 to the St. Louis survivors. Three Canadian children laid wreaths in
memory of the six million Jews that perished in the Holocaust. Written on
the wreaths were the words: Your People Shall Be My People.
David Demian shared about the journey of reconciliation and repentance that
the church in Canada has been on for the last four years. David said, "We
are not just repenting for the past, but also we want to establish a new
bridge of relationship in the present and for the future. Our hearts are
with you."
All the Jewish people were asked to come forward. With David Mainse leading
us everyone raised their hands toward the Jewish people and repeated the
words that Ruth, the Gentile, spoke to Naomi, the Jewess. (Ruth 1:16).
Then the Chief Rabbi addressed us. "I appreciate very much you
came here, “he said. "I tell you, we are all born of the
same Father. The Almighty is the Father of each of us. We are equal. We
have to be brothers and sisters. No more war, no more bloodshed, no more
hatred. No more anger. "Long friendship and life. Thank-you."
After this, we laid twelve stones that came from Winnipeg and represented
the Canadian church’s repentance for anti-Semitism in July 1999.
Plaques made of Canadian maple wood were also presented to the Chief Rabbi
and a representative of Yad Vashem. Inscribed on each plaque were the following
words:
"As Canadian Christians, we pledge to take a leading role in ensuring
that such atrocities as the Holocaust will never again happen to our friends
the Jewish people. As Ruth said to Naomi, "Your people will be my people."
We pray Jews and Gentiles will find true peace in the God of Abraham, Isaac
and Jacob."
The Chief Rabbi responded, "I promise, I will never forget you. Thank-you.
I promise I will put this in our headquarters and this will be for generations
to come."
We left Yad Vashem with a deep sense of awe of all that God did.
To watch a clip of Rabbi Lau’s speech, click
here to visit the Altar of Thankfulness video gallery.
In the early afternoon, we headed to the Garden of Gethsemane. David Mainse
reminded us of the story of Jesus wrestling to the point of sweating blood
to ensure that the will of God would be accomplished on earth. David
Demian then shared a message with us aboutperseverance. He talked
about King Joash and how the prophet had asked him to strike the ground,
which he did. But he stopped after only a few strikes and the prophet
was angry because if he hadn’t stopped striking, he would have seen
a full victory. And he encouraged us, as a representation of the church,
to not stop persevering and “striking the ground”, through our
acts of obedience, until we see the full victory of all that the Lord has
intended.
One of the intercessors shared a word that she had received yesterday at
the Shepherd’s field about God calling Christian men into intercession
and travailing prayer. David talked about how we see this dedication
to prayer among both the Muslim and Jewish men but in Christianity, it seems
the enemy has stolen this place from men.
The men were called to gather in the center of the Garden, the very place
where Jesus had challenged his disciples "Can you not tarry with Me
one hour?" and to cry out for this impartation. Then one of the female
leaders asked us women to encircle the men and declare over them 7 times:
"Men of God, arise!” We believe that God has begun something
new in the men of Canada – another ancient anointing has been released
for His end-time purposes in Canada.
More tomorrow….
Stephanie Muzyka, who has produced a number of videos for Watchmen, created
a special video montage of the Journey of Hope. She explains how the
idea for this video came to her.
“Scripture tells us that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal
but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. But I think when
we’re praying or doing prophetic acts it’s sometimes hard to
remember that what we’re doing is having a lasting eternal impact
because we don’t see results in the natural – or at least not
right away. But if we could see in the spiritual realm, we’d
be amazed at the battles being fought and won by what might seem to us to
be simple or even silly acts of obedience. One day I was reflecting
on the Journey of Hope, which was a trip filled with prophetic acts of intercession
and declaration and I started to wonder how the tour appeared for say, the
great cloud of witnesses that is always surrounding us. And I imagined
them sitting in front of their big plasma TVs in heaven, watching our lives
much in the way we might watch Survivor or the Amazing Race. And I
thought “I wonder if there’s music playing while they’re
watching just like there is when we watch a movie or TV show?” And
suddenly I started to hear a song in my spirit called Freedom, that was
composed by Michael W Smith and I just knew I was supposed to make this
video. I like to call it Heaven’s perspective on the Journey
of Hope!”
To watch this music video, click
here to visit the Altar of Thankfulness video gallery
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The entire Journey of Hope was produced into a 2-hour documentary. For more
information about how you can order The Journey of Hope, please email
resources@watchmen.org or write Watchmen Resources, PO Box 23125 Kelowna,
BC V1X 7K7.
