~ Going Deeper ~

This has been difficult.  Writing and rewriting several times struggling to phrase without somehow leaving limp the spiritual depths that were touched.  I knew it was coming when the Lord directed prior to leaving Israel and I wondered if I would be able to put this into words.  I will tell you in part, but not in whole, because I just cannot. 

Last spring, the Lord put upon my heart to retrace the steps of the Jews during WWII ~ it took me quite by surprise, but I felt Him confirming that it would ultimately help in the outreach to Israel.  And though I already had read, studied, seen documentaries, visited a holocaust museum, and heard from holocaust survivors, still He pressed that I needed to go to make this a part of my life.

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Leaving Israel early July, I stayed with friends in The Netherlands.  During this time I visited the Ten Boom Home  and Anne Frank’s place of hiding.  My friends also took me to their church, shared much of their ministry work, and introduced me to many who help with and who receive the blessings of the outreaches.

Still working on my itinerary, I left for Poland where the Lord provided friends of friends of friends (!) who with great care and concern escorted me from: the Jewish Quarter in Krakow's Kazimierz District to the KrakowGhetto where Nazis had forced the Jews to relocate ~ stopping also to visit the Oskar Schindlar’s Factory in the ghetto. Afterward, we passed briefly by the Plazow Concentration Camp ~ a forced labor and death camp near Krakow which has since been torn down. A testimony of one of the survivors is here.

Gate to Auschwitz I

It was a rare blessing to share morning devotions for several days at the homeless shelter ministry of my new friends.  They insisted on showing me many places around town and watching over my travel needs (their care was over the top!) and when it was time to leave, took me to the train station where I left to the next location: Oswiecim (Osh-vee eh tcheem) ~  a small town, where prior to WWII the citizen majority was Jewish.  It is where Nazi Germany determined the sites and buildings of what is called in German Auschwitz I, Auschwitz II – Birkenau, and Auschwitz III Manowitz

After first arriving in Oswiecim there were more friends of friends who met me at the train station and took me to my lodgings.  That day I took the tours available for Auschwitz I & II ~ there was no tour for III. A survivor’s testimony of Birkenau is here.

The next day Sunday, my friends insisted on escorting me; to their evangelical church for service, on a tour the town of Oswiecim, to visit the last remaining synagogue (19 destroyed in the war), and to just spend time together for the remainder of the day getting to know one another.  The day was topped with a traditional Polish Sunday evening meal.  I thank the Lord for the fellowship as I was really needing it at this time.  That night when alone in my room I could hear the local train in the distance clickity clacking down the tracks with its rolling wheels and screeching brakes.  Unable to sleep, I was haunted by the sound as I envisioned what it would have been like for both the townspeople as well as for the terrified Jews carried to this place 70 years ago.  So wretchedly heartbreaking.

Boxcar Transport - Birkenau

Taking a train from Poland, I then went to Czech Republic to visit Terezin, (or Teresienstadt) a 1790 fortress used by the Nazis to receive and transfer Jews from all over Europe to send them to concentration and extermination camps.  At that time this fort was itself transformed into a concentration camp and ghetto where nearly all prisoners sent off on trains to be ‘relocated’, perished.  

The Red Cross, once allowed to visit was shown Jewish prisoners dressed in normal street clothes play acting a lifestyle that would distract the viewer from seeing the real life horrors going on behind the scenes.  Store fronts and bank facades, worthless money tendered, a soccer game, women knitting, men sharing coffee at cafe and carrying on of a simple life were put on for show.  There were also a number of talented Jewish symphony musicians and composers imprisoned who performed.  The Red Cross believed this was how they indeed lived not knowing the Jews were forced to act and 'play along' in fear for their lives.  Recorded on film for propaganda, the world was conned into believing the Jews were being treated well. Nearly all those in these films, including the ghetto children were sent to the gas chambers at Auschwitz-Birkenau shortly after the Red Cross left.

I could not help but wonder if the train tracks I road on from Poland to Czech were the same tracks the prisoners were on from Terezin to Auschwitz.

Conference Rest

The Lord is mindful of our frailties. It was at this time in planning that I thought a time of fellowship, Bible messages and worship would refuel my heart to complete the journey.  Two Calvary Chapel Bible Colleges; one in Hungary and the other in Austria were hosting conferences back-to-back. With these countries in relatively close proximity I took advantage of the opportunities (and the trains).  After the second conference I was blessed to accompany a wonderful missionary couple, who had also attended the conference, as they returned to their home in Italy, staying there for a few days. 


There was the blessing of shared fellowship, Sunday service and a concert in the park by a Christian worship band!  My hostess also made note two additional Jewish ghettos nearby ~ one in Padova and the other in Venice, both of which I visited.

Sachsenhausen, Berlin, Germany

“Go, therefore make disciples of the all nations” Matthew 28:19 ~ a sweet friend I had mentored in Biblical discipleship in the US two years ago while she was an international student had since returned to her homeland in Germany.  Early in this trip she learned I was in Europe and invited me to visit her if possible and to stay with her. She was in need of fellowship, encouragement, friendship and prayer.   A short flight north brought me to Berlin. While there I was also able to meet her parents who are not Believers.  My friend and I visited her church and spent that day seeing a few historical locations around the city.  On my own I went to Sachsenhausen (‘Youtube’ part 1, part2) another concentration and extermination camp located in the north of Berlin.  A visit to the JewishMuseum and Checkpoint Charlie was made on another day. 

From Berlin, another train returned me to my friends in The Netherlands where we shared; a few days of fellowship, a Shabbat dinner with many others who also support Israel, and where I caught my return flight to Israel.   

Throughout all of these encounters the Lord opened many, many doors to tell others of Jesus Christ;

§         ~ Waiting in line to Anne Frank’s Museum the Lord put a Jewish couple from Jerusalem right behind me.  We talked of the Jewish Tanakh and the fulfillment of Scriptures by Jesus Christ for nearly an hour. 

§         ~ In downtown Amsterdam the Lord led me to witness to street performers, one of whom appeared quite convicted

§         ~ Bible tracks were handed out to homeless in Krakow and Prague

§         ~ Witnessing and opportunities to sing worship at a homeless shelter also in Krakow

§         ~ A beggar approached me at the train station in Budapest and before the conversation was over I had given him a Gospel of John.  When I told him how much the Lord loved him and that this book was priceless, he seemed truly touched as though his heart was melting and his eyes lit up “Priceless?” he asked.  When I affirmed he happily assured me he would read it and gently tucked it into his bag as a treasure

§         ~ Two beggars in Venice, sadly both missing portions of their feet and legs responded as I tried my best in letting them know Jesus Christ had not forgotten them and that He loved them very much.  They were interested and seemed to understand.

§         ~ Praying with a beggar in Berlin who was missing much of his hands and unable to control bodily movements. He knows the Lord and welcomed prayer. 

§         ~ The Lord led me to dine with a man who ministers to Romanian Gypsies, a very interesting person and am praying for his work. 

§         ~ Praying for so many that I have seen on the trains and in the stations ~ many other encounters as well along the way.  Shaved heads, rainbow hair, multi face piercings and ‘tats’, pants with Nazi iron crosses embossed, fear and uncertainty, alcoholics and the broken, the lofty, the proud, the humble, the meek, struggling parents, lost young people, business men and women, the elderly struggling to get around, tourists, so many different languages, so many searching, to reach that place of peace ~ a peace that only comes from the Lord.

Father gave me so many assurances that He was with me.  Through the train and airport stations as though a red carpet had been laid out, the moment I felt lost there would be someone beside me to help or what I needed would just ‘be there’.  He brought so many who were lights along the way even before I asked they stepped in to guide.  It has been so amazing, so, so, so amazing!

It has been a life changing two months and I am forever grateful to God Almighty who held me close, soothed my stunned heart and gave constant assurance of His great love for mankind.

I humbly ask your prayers for the Lord to use this in me to minister to the Jews that they would come to know Yeshua HaMashiach, their Messiah and ours, the One they have been waiting for. 

• He was born in Bethlehem as foretold by Micah 5:2

"But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, [Though] you are little among the thousands of Judah, [Yet] out of you shall come forth to Me The One to be Ruler in Israel, Whose goings forth [are] from of old, From everlasting."

• May their eyes be opened to the B'rit Chadashah (New Testament), the new covenant spoken by the Jewish Prophet Jeremiah in chapter 31, vs 31.

• Ezekiel 36:27  says

"I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do [them].”

               May they repent and ask to receive His Holy Spirit so that they will know His ways and be saved.

•  Salvation comes only from the Lord and beside Him there is no Savior (Isaiah 43:11, Hosea 13:4)  

• That Yeshua is the suffering servant of Isaiah 53. 

• That Yeshua calls out the Trinity in Isaiah 48:16 ~

“Come near to Me, hear this: I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; From the time that it was, I [was] there. And now the Lord GOD and His Spirit Have sent Me."

• That the Messiah is called out as the Son of God in Psalm 2

• For anyone who desires to have Christ take away their sins and to be able to walk with God, all they need do is ask Jesus Christ to come into their lives.      

The Lord bless you in all you do to "Go, and make disciples" or to help those who do go and may you receive the many blessings and promises of the Lord.

Please do not hesitate to let me know how I may be praying for you.  

Love and blessings ~ Pamela