Jewish / Christians Ride for Israel

RIDING FOR ISRAEL

Mission:M25 is rejoicing for the doors of opportunity that are swinging wide in 2017! The newest territory for us is a ride across Europe with some Jewish brothers to make a visible statement of Jewish and Christian people standing together for Israel and to remember the sufferings of the Holocaust. A ride for peace, a ride for life, a ride for hope in the face of terrorism. 

There will be six USA, Mission:M25 Riders join Jewish riders from six different countries, Germany, Hungary, Romania, Israel, Italy, Switzerland  across Europe, from London to Lavrio, Greece and then fly to Tel Aviv where we will ride across Israel. This is not a 'joy' ride, while it will be exciting and adventurous, as Mission:M25's protocol, it has a cause. The stops will represent our purpose.

The emotions and value of this ride will be greatly impacted by the real life experience of Nathan Peled of his wife, Ruth Peled and 15 month old granddaughter, Sinai. They were murdered, in 2002, in a terrorist attack committed by a Palestinian suicide terrorist in a major mall near Tel Aviv. It is no longer a 'story' but a real life experience that we will be given the opportunity to remember, hopefully to assist in the healing of this tragedy. 

On June 11, 2017, M25 will lead a fund raiser for charities supporting Israel in London carrying a torch. We are really excited about the opportunity to show our support as Evangelicals for Israel in front of this expected crowd of 5,000 people. For more information visit, www.communityfunrun.org

Adv. Jonathan Arkush, President of the Deputies Board of British Jewry, will lead us from our rally point to the 'chunnel' as we embark on this adventure. It is an extreme honor to have a man of such
status get on his motorcycle and take us from the city.

On day four, we will make a visit to Dachau Nazi Death Camp, being built in 1933 it was the first of the death camps built by the Nazi's during WWII. There was approximately 188,000 men, women and children were held and 31,951 were killed during this terrible time in our history. There will be a ceremony that will include a Jewish and Christian Prayer and a moment of silence. 

We will then journey to Munchen, Germany (Munich) to visit the coliseum where eleven Jews were killed by terrorist during the 1972 Olympic Games. We will leave a poster with their pictures displayed after having a Jewish Prayer, a Christian Prayer and a moment of silence. As you can see, the flags representing the countries of our riders are displayed with their names listed under their country.

Our visit to the  Mauthausen-Gusen Death Camp in A
\ustria should be another somber moment on our ride. At Mauthausen-Gusen, while the death toll remains unknown, most sources place it between 122,766 and 320,000 for the entire complex. We will once again participate in a ceremony consisting of a Jewish Prayer, Christian Prayer and a moment of silence. 

Upon arrival in Lavrio, we will place our bikes on a ferry and ship them to Haifa. While we take time to visit some of the places we have studied in the Bible of the Apostle Paul. 

We are looking forward to our time in Israel, approximately two weeks in all. We, of course, will be taking trips to see the sites of our Sacred Text, where the scriptures come to life, living color, instead of ink on pages. We plan on visiting historical sites and military bases as well. There will be time to visit our churches in Israel plus Living Israel Ministries which reaches out to those suffering from addiction and has a coffee house in Tel Aviv. 

A repeat! In 2011 M25 led a ride from Tel Aviv to the Western Wall (Run To The Wall) in honor of the IDF (Israeli Defense Force). It was a very moving experience, as Jewish people, Orthodox and Secular joined with Christians in 'breaking of bread' and again, a Jewish Prayer and Christian Prayer in front of the great Western Wall. We anticipate a great crowd of riders and a great time of fellowship with all who attend. We welcome all the riders of Israel to join us at Latrun and ride in with us on July 3, 2017. We are so thankful for Coral Travel and Tours for all their hard labor in making this happen for us again. 

The finale will be escorting the torch in for the Maccabiah Games, the games were played the last time in 2013. The Jewish Olympic Games will be held in the coliseum located in Jerusalem. On July 6, we will ride into the coliseum as Ride For Solidarity ends it's mission having left London almost a month before. 

If you would like to know more information, please check out the website, www.ride4solidarity.com or you can follow us on FaceBook at Mission M25 Network or GIVE A DAMN #Ride4Solidarity.

You can support Carolyn and I by texting ISR to 71777
Or all the riders at: www.jewcer.org/project/ride4solidarity

A Football Stadium - yes!

TEAM '17

Pastor Rick Haug, Senior Pastor of Living Water Pentecostal Holiness Church (LWPHC) caught fire to reach his community of Maiden, NC and designed an outreach called To Evangelize All Maiden in 2017 (TEAM '17). He brought in the Matt Bartlett Band to fire everyone up, had free hamburgers and hot dogs, inflatibles and games for the kids, padded cushions for the participants to sit on and invited Carolyn and I to attend for me to speak. 

Matt Bartlett Band

Honesty has always been something of high premium to me, therefore, confession is good, 'I really didn't think it was a great idea'. The days of Billy Graham are behind us and my conviction was, 'spend the money to serve or help someone' and 'earn' the right
to speak to them. With ministerial respect on the downturn, it appears 'singing and preaching' have gone by the wayside. 

There are no words for me to express my respect and appreciation for Pastor Rick and the fantastic staff and people of LWPHC. They walked and prayed over every street in the city. Yes, this makes waves in heaven but as they witnessed, it made them more aware of the needs of the city and opened a new sensitivity for the pains of their community. 

The money spent on sound, promotion and actually providing all of the 'free' items was huge. We were reminded on RFTW 2016, 'there is nothing free, someone had to pay for it'. The church spared no perceivable expense. If ever there was a local event done 'right', this was it. 

In the book, 'Reaching Generation Z', Jerry writes of the 'squish' middle 50% of our population in the USA. They have no deep convictions or moorings. They can be influenced either way by the loudest voice. It dawned on me, this is what happened in Maiden, NC, there was a voice raised by a local church that said 'we care about you and we are not about to let things evil go on without a fight'. Can you hear their voice, 'we are not going to let four percent of our population be the only voice'. Did you see any condemnation in the statement? No, everything that projected from this body of believers was positive. We don't need to stand up and stand out yelling condemnation at the hurting, we need to just give a positive message and take it OUTSIDE THE FOUR WALLS. 

The Saturday night crowd

While we had a great turnout, it was not like the previous days of great crusades. There was no mass of people 'coming forward' for the altar call of acceptance of Jesus Christ. Again, in 'Reaching Generation Z', we learn the sensitivity of community to the Gospel has changed over the past forty years or so. Where they once were 'ready' due to the 'seed' of the Gospel being planted and the overall Christian society we lived in, many were ready to make a life changing decision. In our 'Post-Christian Society', seedless society, there will need to be new approaches, and non of them plastic without the broken heart, to change our world.  

While we must adjust our expectations, we must play to one of the strengths the church has, preaching of the Word of God and filling the air waves with something besides the liberal message being broadcast by our media outlets. We must reclaim the territory and stop retreating to the building. This was never God's plan and it is not His plan today. His commission, command is still, "Go Ye", not 'Draw Ye". We must put a premium on outreaches such as this and the methods M25 uses of service. We cannot afford to give up any more territory. 

Finally, M25 at the time of this writing, is preparing to go on it's thirteenth trip across America with hundreds of veterans and patriots to bring our National Leaders into account for the POW/MIA (Prisoners of War and Missing In Action) on a ride called Run For The Wall. It is a ride where local communities come out by the thousands and welcome the soldiers home that never received a welcome during the Vietnam War. One thing that is very obvious, it is the small town, the 'grass roots' that comes out and makes the noise. It is the grassroots that has Patriotism in it's grasp. 

May we learn from what we have seen on RFTW, the grassroots is what will change America. God has the International Pentecostal Holiness Church in rural areas for a reason. Oh, we may have a few, but it is a 'few' big churches in good sized cities but our strength is in the rural towns. Do you think we should be ashamed? ABSOLUTELY NOT! God has positioned us to revive the rural, grassroots of our nation! It appears to me that Pastor Haug and LWPHC has opened an idea for the IPHC to reach out and grab. Could you consider using your football stadium?