Ilene on the Lord...

During one of my first weeks Israel, I went to the book store at Christ Church, the only Protestant church in the Old City. Megan and I stopped to ask a lady there about some devotional books and she gladly showed us the section. Then I proceeded to ask her where she was from, her name, and just some trivial questions. She boldly replied with "my name is Ilene, you can remember that because 'I lean on the Lord'!" She cracked me up. Then we got to talking about why she was here in Israel. She felt God telling her to come to Jerusalem for this time in her life, and she obeyed. In 2005 her daughter passed away after going through a bout with an illness. As Ilene explained the situation to me, her eyes began to well up with tears and her voice quivered but you could see this hope that she had behind all of it. She had been carrying her daughter's ashes with her since she passed. She never let go. I can not even imagine how difficult something like that would be. She proceeded to tell me that she knew it was something for her to let go of, but she did not know how to. She did not think she ever could let go of it. She was torn until she went to the garden tomb North of the Old City. She was there, with her daughter's ashes, looked around, praying. A woman walked up to her and told her, "I feel pressed by God to tell you something." Ilene, knowing full well that her heart was in turmoil broke down in tears. The woman told her, "you are carrying something with you... and God wants you to know that it is okay to let it go". It is okay to let it go... those words as Ilene tole her story to me really hit me. I could relate. Hurts and frustrations... its okay.. God, the God of the universe says it is okay to let them go. Jesus wants to take them and release you from them. I started to tear up as Ilene continued. Right then as the woman spoke to her she brought out the ashes and spread them at the Garden Tomb. When she did there was a release that she had not felt in three years. Three years of pain, bondage, were being released in one cathartic experience. When Ilene delineated this part of her story she looked into my eyes and smiled. She gave a little giggle of freedom and knew that everything was already taken care of. God was in charge and everything was going to be ok. Ilene then went on to tell me more about her experiences here, the crankiness of the Muslim men during the days of Ramadan because of their fasting, her crazy roommate experiences in the hostels... all with such joy and delight. I got lost in her stories... she is such an incredibly beauiful woman. From then on, whenever I would go into the Old City I would stop by the book store to see her, give her a hug and hear more about her love for God and people. She blew my mind! :) Then, we started to run into eachother in other places too. Yesterday, my roommates and I went to the garden tomb and walked around the gardens. It is definitely not the place where Jesus was buried, but its foliage is incredible! Bright beautiful flowers, thick beautiful trees. A glimpse of Eden. We walked around and I took pictures, and as I went to one end, there was Ilene! We talked about the latest crazy hostel roommmates she had and she shared a vivid vision of the passion of the Christ to me, which made me well up with tears. I have learned so much from her, about caring for people, about passion, about love and freedom. Definitely a divine appointment, no other explanation.