Jewish backpackers find a welcome in Christian homes.

A unique travel programme aimed at providing cheap accommodation for young Israeli backpackers is quite literally becoming an international hit!

Host Israeli Travellers (HIT) offers the hand of love and welcome to the many youngsters touring the world after their demanding stints in the Israeli Defence Forces. It is seen as an opportunity for Christians to express their indebtedness to Israel for the Bible, salvation and, above all, their Saviour – the Jewish Messiah Yeshua (Hebrew for Jesus).

Beginnings in New Zealand

The scheme began in New Zealand, which has become a favourite destination for young Israelis travelling abroad following their IDF service. This has now been made more attractive by the HIT programme, offering inexpensive rooms in a friendly home environment and used by more than 15,000 young travellers over the past 15 years. Having expanded to Australia, over 1,000 homes in the two countries are now participating in the project, which has also been introduced to Fiji and Hong Kong.

Founder Omri Jaakobovich, who came to faith in Yeshua while backpacking in New Zealand, has just completed a speaking tour of Britain and Ireland to help launch the project on this side of the world.

HIT offers the hand of love and welcome to the many Israeli youngsters touring the world after demanding stints in the IDF.

Accommodation and RelationshipOmri Jaakobovich, HIT Founder

HIT membership cards are available for a nominal fee and most hosts make only a small charge of up to £5 a night to cover overheads, though many still prefer to offer rooms free, explains Susette, who organised Omri's tour: "The young travellers were ecstatic at the money they were able to save and the hosts were equally happy to have them."

The minimum requirement from hosts is the provision of bed, bathroom and cooking facilities, with the young people usually preparing their own meals.

One of the most significant developments over the years has been the ever-increasing openness of these young people to spiritual matters. Their questions, with special interest in knowing why they should be made so welcome, often begin over the very first meal together...Learning their host's personal belief that Yeshua is the Jewish Messiah leads to endless discussion – examining the completeness with which Yeshua's life fulfilled prophecy, for example, and discovering that the New Covenant was made with them and not the Gentiles.

Every believer taking part has testimonies of God's personal intervention, direction and provision in their life and it is these evidences of personal relationship and assurance of salvation that speak the loudest.

Fantastic Opportunity for the Church

Omri is encouraging the Church to take up its calling to provoke the Jews to jealousy by sharing the Gospel with them (Rom 11:11-14). "How can they believe if they have not heard?" he asks, quoting Romans 10:14. "And how can they hear if we do not tell them?"

Hosting these travellers often opens up opportunities for sharing the Gospel.

Susette, a teacher who has been involved with the ministry since its inception in 2001, says HIT's launch in Britain last week is a fulfilment of a word God spoke to her during a visit here two years ago when she attended the CMJ (Church's Ministry among the Jewish people) UK Conference and the London CWI (Christian Witness to Israel) Summer School on Jewish Evangelism. She also served as a missionary to Indonesia for 15 years, ten with Asian Outreach and five with Derek Prince Ministries.

To learn more, or to sign up, visit www.hitinternational.net.

Why pilgrimage to the Holy Land is of such paramount importance.

I was thinking about the Feast of Tabernacles when I booked my train ticket to London and was rather tickled by the Virgin Trains slogan 'Be bound for glory', obviously based on the traditional gospel hit This Train. If it means Virgin boss Richard Branson is spreading the good news, who's complaining?

Why Visit Jerusalem?

I was making a pilgrimage to see my mother, but I was also mindful of Sukkot, one of three festivals for which the ancient Israelites were required to visit Jerusalem (Lev 23) and which, in the millennial reign of Messiah, every nation will be required to make (Zech 14:16). I was particularly thinking about pilgrimage at the time because of reports of a downturn in Israel tour bookings from the UK due to the pound's drop in value against the dollar.

Many Christians I have known over the years have taken the view: "God can meet me here, where I am. Why should I go over there where God is apparently pouring out his Spirit in a special way?" Yet there is a great emphasis in the Bible on places that are made special by God's extraordinary presence. Jerusalem is obviously the best earthly example. Even atheist TV documentary maker Simon Reeve, on arriving in the city, said it took his breath away.1 It did that for this journalist too and I can well understand the exiled psalmist's feelings as he considered Jerusalem his "highest joy" (Ps 137:6).

By the way, UNESCO's denial of Jewish ties to what another psalm referred to as "the joy of the whole earth" (Ps 48:2) would be laughable were it not so tragic. But my 'train of thought' is getting off track...

Even the Wise Men of the nativity story travelled some 1,000 miles to worship the Christ-child. The pioneers of the modern-day Pentecostal movement travelled halfway round the world back in 1906 to catch something of what God was doing at Azusa Street, Los Angeles. And I regularly took a 210-mile round trip for evening services in Sunderland when fresh stirrings of the Holy Spirit broke out there in 1994.

Seeking to Meet with God

There is no doubt that tours of the Holy Land bring the Bible to life and, though of course I understand that economic, security and other considerations will adversely affect bookings, there is clearly a need for a sharper focus on the important nature of such pilgrimage, which should be seen as a further expression of our Christian journey, of reaching deeper into God's wells of salvation and unearthing the treasures of His precious land.

In celebrating God's bountiful harvest and, in building temporary shelters, we are reminded how He provided for his people in the desert. We are also reminded of how we are only temporary sojourners here on earth and that our real destiny is "the city that is to come" (Heb 13:14). And we remember how Yeshua came to 'tabernacle' with us (John 1:14).

As with all discipleship, there is sacrifice – in terms of cost and effort – in pilgrimage. And we should surely take heed of Solomon's wisdom, that "whoever watches the wind will not plant; whoever looks at the clouds will not reap" (Ecc 11:4). In other words, don't wait until all the conditions are in perfect alignment. If pilgrimage is a passport to meet with God in a deeper way, it will surely be well worth it. Be bound for glory!

References

1 Pilgrimage with Simon Reeve, Episode 3. First broadcast on 16 May 2016, BBC2.