One of most powerful experiences for our youth was a discipleship camp – desert challenge they had a chance to experience.
Three days of sleeping under the stars in tents, right outside Massada, was a powerful experience for each and every one of them.
They had hikes that lasted 10 hours due to incredibly difficult desert obstacles, they were challenged beyond their natural abilities, with the goal being preparing them and training them to overcome obstacles in life, while helping and serving each other.
The whole concept was to go through all the challenges helping one another, whether to help their mates swim through rivers, hold someone’s rope knowing that their peer’s life is in their hands and you cannot let go when you feel weak.
We’ve seen so much laughter, tears, young people breaking down, then picking themselves up again and finishing. So much was revealed to them, about the kind of character God wants to form in them, how much their decisions influence their peers, how important it is to serve each other in order to finish the race together, leaving no one behind.
An amazing moment happened when one evening, during worship, an American young man who crossed the border from Egypt too Eilat and went up all the way to Massada, heard the praise through the speakers and came to our camp to see who was worshipping in the middle of the desert in Israel. It was such a beautiful moment for him to find fellow believers worshipping in the wilderness in Israel. He ended up spending the 3 days in the desert with our youth.
Later, we also were approached by a German couple who also heard our worship and were overjoyed to find fellow believers in the desert, exactly where they were themselves.
Talk about divine appointments!
The whole experience in the desert was so valuable for your youth, it brought them so much closer, helped prepare them for ministry and service in the congregation, it helped build trust in one another, after you hold someone’s rope while they are climbing and you realise you are literally holding their life in your hands – that builds trust and character, it deepens their love for their fellow man.
It was also all about shifting focus from themselves onto others, and realise they have the ab slitty to help sustain someone in their hardships along the way, despite themselves going through challenges in life.
Beit Hallel is a Messianic Jewish congregation in Ashdod, led by pastor Israel Pochtar, serving holocaust survivors and the poor and needy locally and throughout the nation of Israel, while building up the body of Messiah in the promised land of Israel.