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In 1998 the Lord spoke to my wife Ruby and myself
that we were to establish a business in Israel and live there
for a season. I had been in the golf industry in Waco, Texas since
the mid 80's and after much prayer and seeking the Lord we moved
to Ariel, Israel in 2000 and began to build a miniature golf course
and deli.
Anybody with any business sense would tell you that to have a successful
miniature golf facility you must have at least 75,000 people and naturally
they should know something about golf. Ariel is a small city of 18,000 Jews
in the Hills of Samaria and most of them had never seen a golf ball. It
seems that the Lord loves to challenge us to believe for the impossible to
happen. I am thankful that He tells us that nothing is too hard for Him., and if we are in Him then we are able to believe
for the impossible to happen.
"The foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God
is stronger than men. For consider your calling, brethren, that there were
not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but
God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God
has chosen the weak things of the world to shame things which are strong,
and the base things of the world and the despised, God has chosen, the
things that are not, that He might nullify the things that are, that no man
should boast before God." (1 Corinthians 1:25-29)
At the time of this writing (2007) we have been open for seven years and
have watched the Lord do mighty things in and through us. We stand amazed
at His faithfulness to watch over the work of our hands. We have many
birthday parties for all ages. It is a real joy to see Russian Jews come
and celebrate all sorts of special occasions. I remember a party where they
were celebrating the birthday of an eighty five year old woman and five
generations were represented.
The mini golf is next to three schools and every afternoon you will see the
children coming into the mini golf to get a drink of water. The mini golf
is the only place in Ariel that has an ice machine and for the first several
years we poured thousands of cups of ice water for youngsters. We now have
a 5 gallon water dispenser that makes the water cold.
Yes, one of the main ministries of the mini golf is to provide a cup of
water in the name of Jesus.
 "For I tell you truly, whoever gives you a
cup of water to drink because you belong to and bear the name
of Christ, will by no means fail to get his reward." (Mark
9:41)
Jesus tells us that when He returns in all of His glory He will determine
if we are sheep or goats by what we have done to His brothers. We are told
that if we have fed, given a drink, clothed, housed, visited those who are
sick and those who are in prison we will be called sheep and will possess
our inheritance in His kingdom. (Matthew 25:31-36)
I had seen this passage of scripture many years before we found ourselves
in Israel doing these things and especially giving out water to His chosen people.
Jesus went ahead in this passage of scripture and tells us that when we do
these things to the least of His brethren we are really doing it to Him.
Ruby and I feel tremendously blessed that we have had the opportunity to
live among these people and to do what Jesus has encouraged us to do.
As we prepared our hearts to move to Israel the Lord spoke to me that He
was sending us to uncap Jacob's well. Amazingly we found ourselves living
less than 20 minutes away from Jacob's well in Sychar.
I prayed and sought the heart of God for several years about what this
meant. I read and reread the fourth chapter of John where we find Jesus
stopping one day at this well and meeting the Samaritan woman.
We all know John 3:16 and are thankful that God did in fact send His Son to
live and die for us so that we might have eternal life. The next chapter of
John we find Christ explaining to the Samaritan woman that He is living
water and if she would drink of Him she would never thirst again. He used
the natural water from the well to give her a revelation of who He is and
she became the first gentile to accept Him as her savior.
Jesus explained to this woman that God is a Spirit and that those who
worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and truth. This is what the Lord was
working to make very clear in my life, that we must worship the Father
first in Spirit and then in Truth. Jesus told us that He was going to the
Father to receive the Spirit and send Him back to
earth and that He, the Spirit of Truth would lead us into all Truth. This
is uncapping Jacob's well.
We discovered a spring on the side of Mt.Gerzim which is Mt.of
Blessingin English.
We began to bottle this water and give it out to folks and as I prayed
about this project the Lord spoke to me to go to Jericho. I did some research and found a
water bottling plant in Jericho and they were bottling water from a similar spring with very pure and great
tasting water. I began to negotiate with this plant but before we could
reach a working agreement they informed me that the plant was being sold
and they were told not to make any new agreements.
Instead of waiting on the new owners of this plant I decided to go ahead
and bottle the water from the spring on the Mt.of Blessing.
It is extremely difficult to get all of the health requirements met in
Israel that are required to get permission from the FDA to allow us to import
water into the U.S. I ran into some very frustrating days and basically
finally just threw my arms up and essentially gave up on the vision the
Lord had given me to give a drink of water to folks from a spring in Israel and
tell them about Jesus being Living Water.
The following message comes with each
bottle of water that will introduce a person to Jesus.
It is a pleasure to furnish this bottle of water to you, that
came from a natural spring in the hills of Israel where Jesus lived and
walked 2,000 years ago. This water has been tested to be pure and you will
love the taste. The Gospel of John in the New Testament tells us in Chapter
4 that Jesus stopped at Jacob's well in Sychar
one day and asked a local Samaritan woman for a drink. She did not know Him
as this woman gave Jesus a drink, they began to
talk with each other about spiritual matters.
Jesus, being a prophet, told the woman that He knew she had been married
several times and the man she was living with now, was not her husband.
Jesus was letting her know that He knew everything about her life and He
had come that day to invite her to drink "Living Water" in order
to satisfy the thirsting (emptiness and longing for satisfaction) of her
heart. Jesus knows everything you have ever done and still wants you, and
in the same way as the Samaritan woman, is offering Himself, as Living
Water, to satisfy your inner thirst for satisfaction. All you have to do is
call upon Him with an honest desire to have Him lead you to Himself and
give you the living water that will satisfy your every need.
God is love. He loves you so much that he sent Jesus into this world to
live a perfect life for you and then die on your behalf, not only to
satisfy God, and allow Him to forgive you because of all your sins, but to
satisfy your desire for Him. As you drink this water, also drink deeply of
the Living Water from heaven. You will be blessed as you read the complete
story in John 4.
For further help in your spiritual walk today call the number below.
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