You, Too, Can Host Israeli Travellers in Your Home
I’m Israeli! I was born in Israel, and even though I’ve lived outside of Israel for parts of my life, it’s still the nationality I go by and a nation I feel so blessed to belong to (you can read much more about me here).
Besides being Israeli, I am also Jewish. If you would like to know the difference between an Israeli and a Jew, it’s very simple.
A Jew is a descendent of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. In order to be a citizen of modern day Israel, one must be Jewish (it’s the Jewish homeland). So everyone who has an Israeli passport is both Jewish and Israeli (unless you’re Arab, in which case one is an Israeli Arab – but they’re the minority in Israel).
But, not all Jews live in Israel. Many Jews live elsewhere around the globe. They are Jewish, but they’re not Israeli unless they’ve lived in Israel and have an Israeli passport.
So, now that we’ve clarified that, let’s move on…
We Israelis are adventurous people and we love to travel! In fact, after our compulsory military service, the first thing the vast majority of us do is book a ticket to as far a destination as we can afford to go.
Another trait that Israelis have is that we are often hungry to know more about God. Having been raised in a religion that has the Old Testament of the Bible at its core, we have an innate awareness that God exists. While the religious Jews try tirelessly to appease the Creator by following hundreds of man-made laws, the secular Jews in Israel and beyond, for the most part, don’t quite know how to reach Him. And both missed the coming of the Jewish Messiah, Yeshua (Jesus), over 2,000 years ago.
The Jewish people are an unreached people group!
This means there are less than 2% who are believers in the Gospel. When I was saved in Israel in the early 1990’s there were a total of 150 believers in the entire population of five million people in Israel! There are now about ten thousand, which is an astronomical growth, but still a tiny minority.
Ironically, even though the Saviour, Yeshua, dwelt in our very midst, was foretold in our Scriptures, and was Himself Jewish, Israelis have not heard a clear presentation of who He is, nor of the Gospel and what it could mean to them. My people understand Jesus to be a Catholic religious figure who started Christianity, rather than the Jewish Messiah (Saviour) sent to the Jews. The Good News needs to be shared with these precious people, clearly presented, and revealed to them by God’s Holy Spirit.
This is where you come in 🙂
You, too, can Host Israeli Travellers in Your Home
If you have a love for Israel, for the Jews, for sharing the Gospel of Jesus, or all of the above, there’s a fantastic opportunity that you can be a part of!
Presenting YESH! which in Hebrew means Yay!
Yesh! is a travel app that’s meant for hosting Israeli travellers all around the world.
The Yesh! App offers you an easy way to place your name out there for Israeli travellers to find when they’re heading to your area. It’s kind of like AirBnB but for those who want to host Israeli travellers.
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
Romans 1:16
The following features will make this super easy for you:
- A calendar for you to block out days that you are unable to host.
- The ability to choose preferences of those you would like to host, for example only couples who are married, only males/females, etc.
- Most hosts have Israelis stay at their place at no cost, however, the possibility exists to request a donation from the guests before they arrive if you so wish (to help cover costs).
- You can choose to accept or deny a traveller, no questions asked, with the tap of a button.
- You can rest assured that your personal details will not be visible for anyone to see. The travellers will only be notified of your address 48 hours prior to their arrival date. As a host you will have a messaging system which allows you to communicate directly with the accepted travellers before they arrive.
In the event that you choose to host Israelis, but don’t feel confident to use an app, or prefer not to, Yesh! has you covered! They can manage your hosting account. This is a great bonus service that they offer for those who are not comfortable with using the app. They can upload your information for you, answer all your travellers’ calls for you, and they will personally contact you if someone wants to stay at your place.
With the current pandemic the whole world is facing, sadly there will most likely not be any travellers in the foreseeable future. But the travellers will return and when they do, be ready to open your home and heart to share God’s love and Word with them.
And just in case you were expecting this to be a big sales pitch, the Yesh! App is 100% free to use! So you have nothing to lose, only rewards in Heaven to gain 🙂
Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.
Hebrews 13:2
There really is no better way of blessing the Jewish people than hosting them in your home, allowing them to see how you ‘do life’ as a follower of their Jewish Messiah, and declaring the truth of believing in Yeshua with them!
