EARLY MORNING MANNA

 
Shalom Friends,

It’s no joke or typo…it is for real.  I have been selected to compete for the two most grueling and popular Olympic sporting events of our modern generation.  The Olympic Cycling Time Trial and the Olympic Distance Triathlon competitions for the 3rd largest sporting event in the world!.  If you are wondering where did all this come from when the bulk of our communiqués this last year have been centered around spiritual warfare against Islamic jihad…well let me fill you in on one of our many secret projects we have been working on here.

(It is amazing how interested Israeli’s are in endurance sports)

Last July I began training with a special elite counter terrorism unit and found myself surrounded by a bunch of young men who could run like deer and swim like porpoises (LOL).  I was carrying a lot of excess weight (near 40 lbs.) and would return from these night training ops just worn out and nothing left in the tank to give to help my family.  So one night after eating some really horrible pizza, I began to ask the pizza delivery man about exercising (so ironic isn’t it), and he referred me immediately to his cousin who had just taken up the endurance sport of triathlon (swim, bike, run), and was ecstatic about the results he was seeing.  I knew of the sport from the races in Kona Hawaii on TV, but had no idea how popular it had become here in Israel.  So I called the phone number and was subsequently warmly invited to participate in some early morning training sessions with the local college triathlon team. 

(Look at the drive in these Israeli’s!)

I arrived at this team the next morning and noticed right away that not only was I over my head and was the oldest person there, but all these young bucks were outpacing me just like the special forces I was hanging with!  I was so embarrassed and disappointed that I just wanted to quit and go home.  Over the course of the next few weeks they became rather amused at my lack of cycling skills (did not know how to shift gears on the bike), and the way I ran (or should I say rumbled and shuffled).  But never once did they look down with disdain or reject me for being so overweight and out of shape.  The only thing they wanted to see was that I would not give up and that I would be more Israeli than another soft Westerner in their eyes.

(Last year’s race in Eilat, Israel with many of the ladies going for it!)

  After about 4 months of early morning pain, suffering, and lots of inward weeping, I finally began to see why so many Israeli’s young/old and male/female have taken a great interest in these types of endurance sports.  Not only does the positive health benefits of exercise attract people into triathlon, but it is without a doubt the ethnos of what being Israeli’ is all about.  It is to have endurance and survival in the midst of insurmountable odds and pressure of the anti-Semitic Middle East!  While other sporting activities identify a nation’s ethnos (i.e. Brazil and soccer), I have found that endurance sports have triggered a hidden key here that makes up the entire fabric of Israeli society…endure, overcome, and prevail!

(Many past IDF warriors (age groupers) still love to compete against the elements.  Here it is against the big waves hammering the Tel Aviv beach last month.)

(Endurance is in this tiny Nations’ ethnos!)

I was just training with this team a few mornings a week to get back in shape when something totally unexpected happened.  The local Israeli Triathlon coach of this team (who I would later find out is a legend here in this sport), took me aside and said I had the ability and race times to compete in this Summer’s Maccabiah Olympic Games.  I was shocked but shortly later began to notice in the training sessions a supernatural empowerment of the Holy Spirit to swim, cycle, and run at distances and speeds I never dreamed possible before!  I literally at times can feel the hand of Abba come upon me to go fast!  It is like a mysterious tailwind that manifests suddenly!  Not only was the excess weight the last few months melting off (so far I have lost 37 lbs), but my endurance and strength is at levels I have never seen before even when I was 18 years old playing collegiate soccer!  The members of the team, the special forces community, and others who know me are shocked at how fast Abba has propelled me into this international stage.  In just a few days will begin the opening Ceremonies of the 18th Maccabiah Olympics with the largest record of over 9,000 athletes from over 60 nations!  This is the 3rd largest Olympic sporting event in the world after the Summer Olympics and the Asian games!

(A Mysterious Holy Ghost wind propels me past the competition at the Jordan River Triathlon in May 2009)

Be encouraged this day!  If Abba can stir me out of being a overweight middle-aged progressing to be couch-potato (who will turn 48 years old this week on July 14th), into a unheard of out of nowhere Olympic athlete, then how much more can He do something new for those who also persevere and believe?!  I want this testimony to not be about myself but rather a springboard to help you who are also reading these communiqués into becoming all that He wants to do in your life…if you will only believe and persevere!  I had no idea this door of favor into the Olympics would open up for me in one of the most grueling endurance events in the Games!  If you would have told me 11 months ago I would be on the USA Olympic team for Triathlon and Cycling then I would have chuckled in disbelief!  But look at what Abba has done and I believe you can draft behind this same anointing that is all over this testimony to also have an unknown and new thing spring forth in your life this season!

(Despite having a injured ankle I was able to run and finish the race next to the shoreline of the Sea of Galilee)

OK…here is the plan.  Please intercede for these Olympic games for security against terrorism and protection for the hundreds of thousands of athletes, families, and spectators now traveling into Israel.  Let us also agree that further mysterious doors will open for me to share the agape of Abba with so many potential warriors on the scale of David’s mighty men (and women)!  I will be this week involved in the 39K Cycling Time Trial race and the Triathlon race and need supernatural strength and miracles for the 1.5K swim, 40K bike, and 10K run.  It has happened before in training and other past races this year (this mysterious tail wind)…so Abba’s will be done how He chooses this week.  In April, I was able to win a Silver medal in my first race ever in the USA while also holding Holy Ghost meetings and it stunned not only the race organizers but also me (LOL)!

(Cruising in for my first Silver medal April 2009!) (Here I’m climbing a very difficult mountain called “God is my Strength” in the Sinai wilderness area.  This was the race that supernatural miracles began to erupt from….)

The second thing we need right now is an over and above offering to come in to help us at this time.  We are very short on money for food, gas, travel expenses, ministry overhead, etc…  How many of our friends and partners would prayerfully consider sponsoring me in these Olympic Games?!  We need immediate funds and your love gifts of $20, $50, $100, or even $1000 helps us tremendously now! The Jewish people require a sign and so far those who know me here are amazed how fast and fit God has made me in such a short time!  So believe with me now for more folks to be amazed thru His sovereign hand moving mysteriously in this huge Olympic gathering!  When they light the Olympic torch on this Monday…I’m going to instead sound the shofar to prepare His way!

(Who would like to sponsor me in the Maccabiah Olympics that start this week?!)

Stay tuned for more reports to come soon!  Let us hear from you soon!

In His love and service,

Scott and Dalit