Today is Yom Kippur–one of the holiest days of the Jewish year. It is a wonderful time of year in any nation where there is a high population of Jewish people, but to be in Israel on this day is something very special.

This year we find ourselves in Ethiopia. In a couple of hours we will fly to Gondar where some of the poorest Jews in the world live–some that know Him and some that do not. The Lord has been gracious to give us opportunity to love these… to give to these on this day of the year.

We travel extensively, and mostly it’s okay. But today I woke up tired and really homesick for the familiar… my home in the states, daughter, friends, dog, cat… you know what home means to you… and I am here in Addis Ababa getting ready to board another plane that will take me even farther away from home.

I am travel weary today, and I have “miles to go before I sleep.”

But I am reminded of two things that keep me going:  We are told in the Tenach that one day the Jewish people “will mourn him whom they pierced.” They will see him for who he is. And in that day a fountain of cleansing will open up for them to be reunited to their God and Redeemer Messiah. Here in Ethiopia I am seeing with my own eyes part of the restoration of Israel. This is a great privilege.

The second thing is that as a believer I must not look back but press forward to the “mark of the high calling in Jesus Christ.”

But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone (Hebrew 2:9).