Sunday at the Azmera ISRAEL Haven Retreat 2026 was filled with precious connections—through conversations, shared experiences, and moments of prayer. As women received care and encouragement, the stories shared from Israel offered glimpses of how personally God was meeting them. Janelle shares these reflections from the day:
Unhurried conversations made room for women to connect and support one another.
Imagine opening your Bible halfway around the world and seeing a document with the “Who I Am in Christ” statements and wondering, how did that get there? It’s not that you don’t remember it, but you don’t necessarily remember putting it in there recently. Oh, yeah—it was God. All you have to do is wait until He reveals who this is meant for and make sure you are ready. Of course, that happened today. One of the participants who is struggling with identity attended a One2One session and was finally ready to understand who she was in Christ. The document was delivered on time, halfway around the world in Israel. Go God.
In addition to this, during the morning Haven Highlights, one of the young ladies disclosed she had overcome gripping anxiety, and another has experienced healing. Yet another woman expressed the struggles that she overcame in the last few days to be able to attend and how hard it had been for her to persevere. But God showed her today that she would have missed all the love she’s received here and the beautiful sunrise with her friends this morning if she had let the darkness win.
One of our Care Crew volunteers met an attendee from Kyrgyzstan, which is the country that she served in when she was on the mission field. They are enjoying the familiarity of speaking simple Russian pleasantries to each other every day. In one of the Connection Circles, another Care Crew volunteer learned that her new friend’s aunt lives in the same town that she does. When asked where her friend’s aunt lives, the Care Crew volunteer said, “Oh, I think I know where that is.” Of course, everyone was skeptical until Google Maps revealed that the aunt lives only 11 minutes from her home in the States. We don’t believe it is a coincidence. Let’s see how God uses this.
Dinah opened her message this morning by beautifully singing Psalm 23. In the psalm, Jesus is our Shepherd and we are the sheep. She told us that sheep are not beasts of burden; they are not meant to carry a load. Sheep are fragile and need their Shepherd to watch over them. If only we can remember this when we want to strap on that large backpack with so many burdens. Then she asked the question, “Did my Shepherd ask me to carry this?” Wow, how do we begin to answer this?
The tone was a little lighter this afternoon as women gathered for breakout sessions and One2One sessions. In Tammy’s session, “From Manna to Challah,” we learned that for as many women as there are in the room, there are that many ways to make Shabbat dinner. There were small groups gathered around the complex, some enjoying deep conversations, others lighthearted laughter, and many enjoyed the Create Station and pedicures.
Connections continued around the table, with shared meals and time to get to know one another.
Those who chose to take advantage of the pedicure stations verbalize receiving much more than clean feet. Aside from beautiful feet, apparently the foot and leg massages are a whole body experience for some!
The Holy Spirit was with us tonight as Carol led us in worship. We sang “Holy, Holy, Holy,” and you could feel the reverence. Then tears followed and hearts were touched as we sang: “All my life You have been faithful, all my life You have been so, so good. With every breath that I am able, I will sing of the goodness of God.” As we broke the bread and drank the grape juice, tears continued to flow as we gave our sins, burdens, shame, and hurt over to God.
An extended time of worship before communion.
The extended worship time tonight allowed for people to lay down any further burdens or worries before receiving communion.
But tonight, the halls are overflowing with laughter as sisters in Christ are being set free and are a little lighter now that some burdens have been given to God.
Reflections by Janelle Hsia. Photographs and photo captions by Christine Mousel.