Some Lessons from a Year with FOI

“So, when are you moving to Israel?”
That is definitely the most frequently asked question we have encountered in our year-and-a-quarter of service with The Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry.
And we have encountered lots of questions!
I have spoken in more than 50 different churches in four states during this time, and I have discovered that when people know you’re from The Friends of Israel—whether they understand what that means or not—they presume that you will be an expert on some things.
Those would include things such as: the value of Israeli currency; the population centers of Jewish people in the United States; the meaning of the passage of Scripture they have been pondering recently; the credibility of another group they saw on TV that supports Israel; the history of someone who worked for The Friends of Israel in years past; the status of Israeli politics; and the list goes on.
Some of the questions are trite, some are profound, and some are unanswerable. All of them cause my wife (who usually oversees our display table, and gets lots of them herself) and me to realize the expectations that people have for someone in the position I hold with The Friends of Israel, and move me to want to study further and be better prepared for anything that I might encounter.
There have been lots of surprises on our journey as well—many of them being wonderful blessings from the Lord.