Founders (5 page)

His parents never spoke to him again.

As two of the oldest members of the Youth Group and designated “staff,” Ben and Rebecca joined Tikvat’s group trip to Israel for a combined one-month missionary trip and celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem with the International Christian Embassy. After the feast, the Youth Group traveled to Tel Aviv and assisted a couple of the Messianic Jewish congregations in a joint broadsiding campaign on the Tayelet—a boardwalk along the shore of the Mediterranean that continues for about five miles from the north of Tel Aviv south to Jaffa. There are many restaurants and hotels along this stretch of sandy beaches and rocky outcroppings.

Four large Messianic Jewish congregations and outreach organizations of Tel Aviv and Jaffa (Adonai Roi, Trumpet of Salvation, Beit Immanuel, and Tiferet Yeshua) would, on a regular basis, go out together on the Tayelet to witness and to hand out tracts and Bibles in many languages—not just Hebrew. They also put on street dramas which included worship and dance that depicted the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Afterward they would sing praise and modern Christian worship songs in Hebrew, hand out tracts, and talk to and pray with individuals who had questions about Yeshua Messiah.

One morning later in the Israel trip, Ben had woken up early and, as was his practice while in Israel, he went out for a brisk walk on the beach for his prayer time. Some of his prayers had been asking God for a godly wife. Ever since meeting Rebecca, he had been asking in his prayers if she was the one for him and when it would be appropriate to ask for her hand in marriage. He greatly enjoyed her friendship. He felt incredibly alive in her presence. She had become precious to him, but he had been biding his time, patiently waiting for the Lord to confirm if she was to be his bride.

This particular morning, Ben felt a special need to fervently pray about and for Rebecca, asking that God give him a sign that she was the wife that He had chosen for him. As he walked and prayed he looked down at the sand. Suddenly, he saw a small pearly white donut-shaped seashell fragment that had been worn smooth by the tides. He picked up the ring-shaped shell and slipped it onto his pinky finger. It fit perfectly, stopping at just above the knuckle. Just then he heard God’s quiet voice in his heart say that this shell was for Rebecca’s engagement ring and that he was to ask Rebecca to marry him that night.

That afternoon, the tour group leader unexpectedly told the Youth Group that their evening plans had been canceled and that this would be a free night for everyone. Ben realized this was the open door to ask Rebecca to go for a walk with him. As the group broke up, Ben approached Rebecca. Looking at her clear face, bright hazel eyes, and slim form, his heart swelled with a very protective love. When he stepped into her space, she looked up at him with a warm smile. Ben smiled in return, leaned over slightly, and whispered, “I’d like to talk with you this evening. Could you meet me down in the lobby at seven o’clock?”

Rebecca looked up at him with a twinkle in her eye and answered him, “Okay, I’ll come down.” Immediately after this, Ben walked down to the lobby and nervously called Rebecca’s father, back in Virginia, using his international calling card. Ron answered
the phone. When he heard that it was Ben calling from Israel, Ron was alarmed that something had happened to Rebecca. Ben reassured him that she and everybody with their group was fine and spoke briefly about all that the Youth Group had been doing.

Then Ben took a deep audible breath and told Ron how much he had come to love Rebecca over the past months and that he had been praying, asking God if she was to be his wife. He told him about that morning’s prayer time and the donut-shaped shell he had found and the small still voice of the Lord saying that the shell was for Rebecca. Ben then asked Ron if he could have permission to ask for Rebecca’s hand in marriage and, if so, he felt that he would ask her that very night.

When Ben finished, Ron was quiet on the other end. Ben began to get nervous, wondering if the phone connection had been interrupted. Suddenly, Ron began to speak in his familiar clipped style. Sounding a bit choked up, Ron shared with Ben stories about Rebecca’s life: her birth, toddlerhood, elementary years, and of the most funny and touching things she said and did. He described the uncanny wisdom and knowledge she possessed as a young girl. He told Ben about what he knew of her dreams and aspirations for life. He told of her personality and idiosyncrasies, her weaknesses, their challenges and joys in training and raising her, and how proud they were of her. He told him how often his wife and he had prayed for a godly, righteous young man to marry their daughter.

Then Ron said that he had been observing Ben and asking people about his character, kindness, generosity, honesty, work ethic, self-control and self-governance, health, love for the Lord, and dedication to the Word. He had been watching Rebecca interacting with him and listening to her praise him to her family. Ron told Ben that he was very impressed with his character and attitudes. He said that their family had come to love and respect Ben
and that they could see that God had made him and Rebecca a match and that the Emersons would love to have him as a member of their family. Ron finished by saying, “You have my blessing.” He then prayed for them.

When Ben got off the phone he felt relieved and exhilarated. The phone call had lasted for more than an hour, burning up more than half the minutes on the calling card.

Ben raced up the stairs to his hotel room. After pacing for a minute, he lay down on his bed to praise and thank the Lord. He spent some time praying and reading the Word before a late afternoon meal. After dinner he showered, shaved, and dressed in a white linen short-sleeved shirt and light khaki pants and went down to the lobby to await Rebecca. He prayed and nervously rolled the ring-shaped shell in the palm of his hand.

A few minutes later she appeared on the stairs. Ben’s heart flip-flopped for a moment at the sight of her. Quickly, he pocketed the ring, while he observed Rebecca’s jaunty descent of the last few steps. She was wearing a green light cotton dress and Teva sandals. Her curly hair looked darker than usual, because she had just taken a shower.

Ben smiled and greeted Rebecca, and her eyes sparkled back as she asked where they were going. Ben whispered mysteriously, “We are going for a walk, because I wish to talk to you and show you something.” Ben had said this twice before to Rebecca, so she happily thought it would be another interesting sightseeing adventure. He had seen a lot of the city during his early morning walks and would tell Rebecca of them. She hadn’t yet seen as much of Jaffa as Ben had.

Ben lightly guided Rebecca with his fingers barely touching her elbow, out of the main door of the lobby of the hotel, into the parking lot, around the corner, and down the alleyway to Auerbach Street. From there, they turned left onto the dirty, dingy, “concrete jungle” of Eilat Street. Rebecca disliked this street that often
smelled like urine. She preferred grass and yards to only buildings and concrete and always walked quickly, looking forward to reaching the sea. Along Eilat Street there were large Mylar-backed glass storefront windows that reflected like mirrors. As Rebecca and Ben would pass them she would surreptitiously look at herself and Ben and size up whether they looked like a matching couple, and she liked what she saw. Later, she learned that Ben was also sizing them up in those same windows.

They reached the point where Eilat Street Ts off with Professor Yehezkel Kaufman Street. There, they turned right and walked west to the grassy parks of the Tayelet along the Mediterranean. Here the street opened up, with buildings on one side and open lawns on the other, the Tayelet, the beach, and sea. Rebecca loved this part of Tel Aviv–Jaffa. Looking north one could sea the beach curving around the edge of the city of Tel Aviv and its skyline. Looking south one could see the little hill on which Old Jaffa sits and its fishing port. She had read that this was the town where Peter the Apostle visited Cornelius, the God-fearing Gentile who wanted to learn of the way of Salvation after his vision of the sheet and a command allowing the eating of unclean beasts.

The sun was near setting when they reached the sea. The sky was a golden hazy blue, the wind had just reversed its normal flow and was now coming in off of the mainland. It had a lovely warm caress and wonderfully fresh salty smell.

Ben turned Rebecca to the south and they walked the Tayelet toward Old Jaffa. They walked to Retsif HaAliyah HaShniya Street, where they cut back inland until they reached the Clock Tower on Nahum Goldman Street. Walking around the
kikar
(a traffic circle), they continued walking south until they reached Mifratz Shlomo Promenade. A bit up the promenade, Ben veered off onto the grass and took Rebecca up to the top of the hill to show her the Statue of Faith, a square arch. He pointed out to her how the left side shows Jacob’s Dream; the right, the Sacrifice of Isaac;
and the top, the fall of Jericho. Rebecca was fascinated. They walked around some of the ruins on top of the hill of Old Jaffa, then walked down to the Church of Saint Peter. Next, Ben took Rebecca to the restaurant behind the minaret. (Jaffa is mainly an Arab Israeli–Muslim town.)

At Ben’s request, they were given a table out on the balcony overlooking the sea. It was now twilight. They could see the lights of Tel Aviv. They ordered hummus, pita, and mixed salads for their appetizers. Ben and Rebecca loved the many vegetables in the mixed salads: tomato, cucumber, peppers, radishes, lettuce, eggplant, olives, cabbage, and onions. Ben loved to sprinkle zatar on his hummus. For their main course they ordered lamb kabobs on the stick with “
cheeptz
”—the local name for French fries.

Over dinner, Ben and Rebecca talked of all they had seen and what they had been doing with the Youth Group, their successes in witnessing, how the trip was turning out, and about the things they wanted to do with the Youth Group when they returned home. Ben also talked about what he was planning for his future with his law career, and missionary work, later in life.

After dinner, Ben took Rebecca back out onto the promenade and they walked back up the hill toward the Statue of Faith where it overlooked the sea. He found a private bench, away from the streetlights, where they could have a good view without distracting lights. He invited Rebecca to sit down. They sat quietly together for a few minutes enjoying the view of the city lights, the Mediterranean, and the light breeze. As they looked out to sea, they could also see the navigational lights of airliners stacked up for their approach to Ben Gurion Airport, not far to the south.

As they looked out at the lights, Ben said, “I called your dad this afternoon, and we had a long talk before he went to work. It was nine in the morning his time.”

“A long talk?” asked Rebecca quizzically.

“Yes.”

“And so?”

“So, I asked him for his blessing, and he said yes.”

“That’s kind of a roundabout way of asking me . . .”

“Yes, but I was getting to that. I mean, I
am
asking you, I mean . . .”

Rebecca gave a nod and gently urged, “So what exactly are you asking?”

“You are a gift from the Lord, Rebecca. You’ve become my best friend. I find myself constantly thinking about you. I have thoroughly enjoyed working beside you with the Youth Group and the service projects that we’ve done. I love the way you think! I love communicating with you and can’t wait to ask you questions, getting your opinion and hearing your insights. I have come to love you with all my heart and soul. I would be incredibly blessed if you would become my wife. I believe that the two of us together will be a strong team for furthering Adonai’s Kingdom.”

Ben then reached into his pocket and pulled out the ring, saying deliberately, “I want to give you something that I found on the beach this morning during my quiet time. I have been praying for you and about you for more than a year now. I’ve been asking Adonai for the timing and the confirmation. And seeing how much you love God’s creation and enjoy finding perfectly created natural objects, I believe this find is a gift to us, a gift to you from the Lord. It is His confirmation for us to marry.”

He held out the seashell, clutched between his thumb and forefinger.

Unexpectedly, Rebecca extended her ring finger, and Ben slid it on. She gave a gentle laugh, as she carefully turned the ring around on her finger and murmured, “It’s beautiful, Ben! So perfectly shaped and such a pure unblemished white! You really just found this on the beach this morning? It’s a miracle. I believe it
is
confirmation and I say ‘Yes.’ Yes, Benjamin, I will be your wife! I love you and I’ve been praying and hoping, too, that you were
the one and that you would choose me!” She smiled and laughed out loud, shouting “Hallelujah,” and began dancing around. Ben stood up and Rebecca ran into his arms and gave him a warm hug and a kiss on the cheek. Ben lifted Rebecca and swung her around, laughing, praising Adonai and telling of his love for her.

They stopped dancing and Ben took both of Rebecca’s hands in his and facing her he said, “I will always protect you.”