Iris After Hours - Episode 110 - Karen Davis & Rita Tsukahira (Israel Series)

guys welcome back to our s after hours we are still on the highest point of Mount Carmel and we are here with our amazing guest Karen Davis Karen you and your husband and and Peter and read up and a whole team of people you built this amazing building here at Carmel yes tell us how did happen you were in New York yes as actors on Broadway my husband was an actor my husband was an actor director professor of theatre worked with some very well-known people and was at like the height of his career as an actor and went home after having this big breakthrough and went home and started to cry and said this doesn't what does my life mean this doesn't mean anything and he began to search for God and in the meantime I'm from a Jewish family my husband was not Jewish and I was in New York studying music I had also studied art so I was there because you know New York is the art capital of the world our music my brother lived in New York as a jazz musician and I just but I was totally into the New Age and I one technique after another just kept failing and finally I came to the end of myself and one day I just I had no answers and this name of one friend came to me she was an actress she was on sesame seeds the funniest girl I ever met she worked on Sesame Street made Muppet characters yeah and so that day I woke up and I just thought and her name came to my mind and I thought oh but she has some advice for me oh my god that guard it's already well I knew her for a couple years and occasionally I saw her with a Bible but she was like broke every stereotype that I had of a Christian and I'm a Jewish girl you know I did everything except Jesus because Jesus is not of course Jewish people and we think of the and Christians really is our enemies so it was the last place I would think but I saw something in her she had a joy you know we sang about the joy today there's a river that makes glad the City of God and she didn't even have a boyfriend and she had this joy and that like really got my attention it provoked me to jealousy which is what Romans 11 says provoked me to jealousy with this joy that she had and it was so different from my Buddhist friends you know my meditating friends like you can't manufacture it it was over and so I just I knocked on her door she lived in my building I lived at 72nd and Columbus Avenue and and and so I poured out my troubles and and then she said to me would you like to pray and I said okay I've never done that before and she led me in a prayer and the first word was Jesus so I said Jesus I closed my eyes and gulped hard Jesus and then next line was I invite you into my heart so I said I invite you into my heart I ask you to forgive me for my sins I had no idea what my sins were I mean and and I said I asked you to save me and when I finished saying the prayer I turned to my friend and I said Camille that this couldn't be the only way and she looked me in the eye she said it is and it was absolutely spirit of Revelation you know I Peter the Lord said to Peter flesh and blood did not reveal this to you because you cannot walk up to a Jew Jewish person and say Jesus is your answer even Jesus loves you makes no sense at all to us you know yeah and and so but I knew I was in the presence of truth she puts a New Testament in my hand and I had never opened it never even considered opening it and she said he's in this book and you take this book home you pray in your own words he knows everything about you he will know how to let you know this is without a shadow of a death I doubt so I took that book home and I could not stop I'm reading Matthew 1 the genealogy of Jesus so how about goes back to David and Jesse as by the Jews and oh and but as I start reading and I couldn't put the book down I would take it to work I used to work I was a shoe model company you know me in New York tonight yeah so let me just finish this part of the story yeah so so I the love of God began to stream into my life yeah as I as I was reading the word and my friend took me to this revival that was taking place on Broadway that's where I met Diane vanora and my husband was there because an actor friend of his it was all dancers singers musicians it was a yeah oh you hadn't met him it I hadn't met him yet and but I I I was all during the Lord I was six months older Lord he hadn't saved yet I remember some one actor friend bringing him there you know and so he already knew Diane professionally and they were kind of you know in the same circles and and so but the love of God began to streamed well I went I started to read the Old Testament realize this is one book this is one story this is what it means to be Jewish I never had any idea what it meant to be Jewish because I did not experience God in the synagogue how ironic that you read the New Testament and then putting them all together made you fulfilled as a Jew absolutely absolutely and in fact for me New York was the center of the universe I never had any desire to live in Israel I'd never even visited I was a New York or the energy of New York the creativity I mean that was my life and that was my husband's life and and in those early days I discovered the Song of Solomon and I fell in love with the Lord and his love just washed over me and healed me from every broken relationship all the wages of sin and just and I became this single woman who was so happy I really lord set me free from having to be in a relationship and and it was like such a Liberty I'd never known before and then he brings this man named David into my life it given me a black spiritual mother I mean it was like the Lord sets the solitary and Families in my store and my husband's story from the beginning is it's the reality of the family of God you know of the Lord putting together the one new man and and you know so this congregation I was in was multiracial and I looked around and I thought where where are the Jews and my heart began to break and in one of those we had all-night prayer meetings and in one of those meetings I remember being in three o'clock in the morning Olsson I'm starting to sing the shimma shimma he's like out of the very depths of my being and God started to me the grief of the Jewish people and I'm experiencing the joy of the Lord you know I got baptized in the Holy Spirit speaking in tongues and the joy but you know knowing the Lord it's it's the power of his resurrection and sharing the fellowship with the sufferings so he started to release to me that grief and and in that prayer meeting he put a promise in my heart I'm gonna take you to the land of your inheritance and allow you to share this gift of my love with your people and that was a promise I had no idea how it was gonna happen the Lord brings this Gentile man named David Davis into my life this is a whole nother love story that I don't have time in this little city it's a great story totally miraculous how the Lord put us together we weren't interested at all we'll have to do another sequel mm but and so God had told him what he meant the Lord get on a plane and go to Israel he didn't know why he had grown up in huh it's anti-semitic family so God started to easily very sovereign in his life he got on a plane goes to Israel and all but supernatural experiences the fire of God coming down on his in his car and and he was utterly chained undone by the time he got back to New York he had no idea that like just a few months later he was gonna need this Jewish girl and marry her you know and spend the rest of his life in Israel God sits is God just want to say to any single woman out there just wait on the Lord because the Lord has something in store you can't even imagine and he doesn't disappoint no yeah yeah so then we moved over when David Wilkerson came back to New York City in 1987 and we my husband who was like really in theater it was his whole life he starts going out with teams on the streets of New York praying for drug addicts and homeless people and he would come home every Saturday he did this and he'd come home smelling like the you know the the dirt of the street and he was crying and God was changing his heart and he couldn't little by little he could not bear actually to keep working in the theater because he was and that we started going to time score church which was meeting in a Broadway theater which is where he had actually gone there for the Tony Awards and and so he's seeing people come down the aisle that had just been on the streets getting their lives changed in a Broadway theater and and then we did and then we did a production David Wilkerson felt to do a drama in it was a theater so why not use it you know and we did this incredible drama called El Shaddai that one song was their theme song it was a big drama he played Abraham and he directed it my husband and I remember he at the end of the play he stood came out in the character as Abraham and he began to preach to the audience and he wasn't acting anymore and I I was on the platform in the choir and I'm seeing it's like the actor died and the preacher was born it was like this you know I really believe that performance gifts are men yes god yes the ministry I mean you were a ballerina and you're still dancing for the Lord you know but it's it's all to glorify the Lord and so the Lord bit by bit started to take him out of show business completely and then we came to Israel for vacation we heard about the drug problem problem and the Lord really gave us a vision to open a house for drug addicts it would be Jews and Arabs together yeah that's not that's that's that's where the congregation was birthed yeah and we had I mean the guy I just introduced Heidi our bass player today oh yeah he's still in the program he was a heroin addict for 20 years took himself off of methadone saw the power of God and he's a new creature he's learning to worship now he prayed played professional you know as a musician for 25 years and God is just restoring him and teaching him to be a worshiper like we had the 12 stones around the I was saying to Heidi it's it's those are the those are the living stones that God's restoring and he's taking these broken people and making them into worshipers and so the concrete started a Bible study in the in the rehab center in the early days and it started to grow and grow read it and Peter came and Peter started teaching and we saw that God was birthing accommodation we had no idea did people get a bit confused that you had Arabs and Jews together no I think people were drawn to that people you know people want it's a the Lord had said to us this is going to be a testimony to who I am because we were seeing drug addicts and living together in the same house getting saved meeting the love of God and then being able to love each other and incredible really be brothers in the Lord supernaturally yeah yeah and and I people that that were drawn to this also we came wanting the power of the Spirit come on and the holiness of God those were like the foundations of you know what was imparted to us from David Wilkerson and the the gifts of the Spirit and and there was a real hunger for this in - there didn't exist at that time early nineties irk even a congregation like that in this area and so you know the rest of the story about getting this building but now and the Lord you know our mandate really is the restoration of worship on this mountain and so we've really become a house of prayer it's really yeah we're it we're moving toward 24/7 the Lord is calling teams of musicians and worshipers and intercessors from the nation's to join us here and we're pushing back the darkness you know I mean the power of the Lord said to me he gave me a word when we realized where we were positioned you know position yourself stand still and see the salvation of the Lord and he gave me a word from Isaiah 42 10 that says sing to the Lord a new song shout from the top of the mountains we did that today so we're saying it out shout to the Lord where the voice of tribe Lord said and that that as we we shout and declare his victory he will go forth as a warrior and he will prevail over his enemies and so this is we this is how we're pushing back the darkness and we've been doing this you know running the race with endurance and persisting and pressing in and proclaiming and and God is opening the heavens we just the rain is coming my husband passed away a year and a half ago but he held the vision he heard the sound of the abundance of rain he preached that message all across Galilee that all the Jewish and Arab congregations for years saying we need to hear God is going to move in northern Israel and so you know we've been feeling the rain and the drops and he died a year and a half ago and you know the Lord says if a grain goes down it needs to go falls to the ground and dies it will bear much fruit and and if the you know it's like he he died with the promise and and they but the fruit is coming forth come on and it's it's there's an anointing really over the whole congregation that's being released on everybody and to carry it forth you know and Sarah sang with me today and it's the two generations together you know that's also the my husband's message was the Elijah legacy of the Elijah Elisha working the transgenerational you know working together yes so that was my five minutes also what we saw with the kids here and Rita come on just run on in we we don't we're not a formal Bunch yeah no we want to hear from you together because I feel like with two Jewish girls from New York yes and you really when I when I look at you and I just look at this work over I mean over decades yeah it's seeing just your heart for him for God and your heart for the poor and and to see that you don't just care about the Arabs and the Jews you care about whoever the Lord puts in front of you right and you you just carry God's heart and I saw that I felt I felt really at home first for the worship you know we're we're so blessed but also when I saw you had these beautiful children so tell us just how both of you like how did that happen how these beautiful children there when we started house of victory the foundational six seven eight about what is the true fast is it not to you know take the poor into your house to clothe the naked and feed the hungry and so it's it's been a core value of our community from the very beginning and and so when we but it was for men and it's still for men I mean that program is really still very much thriving but we never had a place for women and so when we acquired this property Rita was carrying the burden to to minister to women and children it was totally a god burden because honestly it wasn't something I ever dreamed about I ever thought oh lord give me women you just put it there he said from Isaiah from psalm 46 the Lord is my refuge of my hope very present help in time of trouble and he was just speaking to my heart that he is their refuge and then we acquired these old buildings and me who never did anything in social work or caring for I was teaching in university communication before it came and and he just care for the women we never hung out the shingle and so we're doing it one by one different women were playing it wasn't originally Africans it was originally Jewish and Arab women exactly crisis situations exactly and we became known to some of the NGOs we took a woman in it was a really a test case here in modern slavery and they just were here and people knew we were doing this but it was so low-key and it was just you know God's Way of bringing people one by one and then suddenly in a moment the whole world changed for us and in that moment I got a phone call from the immigration police saying the first Sudanese woman across the border from Egypt and if we didn't take her they would take her child and put the child in the institution and the mother in prison this is 2006 when the Darfurian genocide was raging and they said if you don't take care some of our kids watching up if he wants to grab a shot they're coming but he said to the Lord spoke to me and the Lord just said this is gonna be something and it changed all of our lives they brought them late at night from the border the army would bring them to us no nobody in the country knew that we were taking in the I was working with the UN I said but how long we're gonna be here don't know six months running the UNHCR here and the United Nations High Commissioner for Jews I said six months well they kept coming and coming and finally it did get out to the rest of the country about a year later that this was happening because in each there was no more hope there was some things going on and the Sudanese who were living there who had fled the civil war that had been going on for 20 years said there's no more hope and some of them said to me even some of the ones who came from Muslim backgrounds they said we looked around us and where do we go especially those who came from from the Christian backgrounds they said we we just looked to the promised land they actually said this Wow they crossed the border and they came into Israel now I can't say this story was an easy one it's still not all these years later Israel as a country has many challenges and here's some of our kids now and they're still dealing with what to do with these asylum seekers these women are from Eritrea in Ethiopia during the mid about 2010 2012 the bedouin smugglers began to take women into their camps in the Sinai and using them for terrible reasons that I don't torturing rape extorting 35 40 thousand dollars from them and it really was an issue of human trafficking some of these women came out of that scarred and just you know torn into pieces by what had happened to them and by the grace of God we could take them in we had wit girls who who were crossing the border young girls who lost their mother shot at the border and so this was something we never imagined you love Jesus and whom I Heidi I have to tell you a quick story this is your fete yup it's mama we got a phone call about two years ago but they had no place to live and yeah fred is a really smart boy aren't you and we just knew that we could find him it took a long time to get him into it right school he's in a wonderful kindergarten and you know they need to tell you the mothers with depression because they're single moms these are fatherless kids and what greater gift than to show them the father come on so in our first year we were dealing with a lot of violence because there is a spiritual aspect women who've lost hope and even from their own backgrounds they saw so much violence they saw the religious burned they saw things that unspeakable and we had quite a situation here one one day and one woman actually came after me and and it was a very violent situation and I heard that Heidi Baker was in Jerusalem and I said there's one person who's gonna understand what we're dealing with and I just needed to come and get some prayer so I go into this place and they said it's only for young people they said you have to be under 35 or so he's way over 35 I said I don't care and I'm pushing these kids inside I said pray for me and it's all about hope it's all about hope enlarging the 10 today you prayed because we look around and we know there's no hope outside of him who said I've given you a future and a hope Jeremih way back and that's actually the code I'm telling the whole world the code on our doors it's cuz that is the future in the home and some can be resettled in other countries but some may not and all we can do is pray and they they know that it's only here whether they come to us as Muslims or traditional Christians or ones who have found the real source of life and the real source of hope they all know that he this is his house yeah and he is the one was provided the shelter in the home for our little yeah well we came as the the rockets were falling there are a few in August she was pregnant we got a call from the social worker can you take her she came to us and had where's your baby a four-team oh good she just had a baby with us we've had over a hundred babies born here not only one in my car the rest of them were born on the way the hospital are there but but women who've come either pregnant or victims of of situations that were were ones they didn't ask for or ones that had no other place to go so so we've seen a lot of City of Hope it's a words are cheap words are so and he said if you have given them to the least of them you have lived that you have been our inspiration and sometimes you know you just you just say Lord I need I just need a download of that love that has to be the basis of everything we do it can't be just we do it because you tell us we have to love ya increase they keep you keep giving you more had more more people to help for wherever they are whether they come from this ruler any other place they'll come because it's goods harm and we have loved when iris comes we've had several groups from iris and they they come with the love they don't have to like find it because they have learned love come on thank you Jesus love you and all I can say is we're just a little tiny grain in the midst of this this huge work that yeah just a little little and we just need so many people praying all over for all the parts of this this work he's given us and then we'll will commit to it I mean work we feel like the tiniest droids but yeah we're gonna pray because we need each other I'm back carry carry come back and we are just parts of it and we're so thrilled that you came and celebrated today and this guy he's just come on nuts in that alley asleep as we close I mean we could just spend days days when wanted to lead it somehow we got a little card we're squished in there with the suitcases so somehow we got to stay behind but today it was the worship like nobody wanted to leave they were completely undone and I I don't know did all of this flow out of this anima see that you have with him that you have did did this somehow this heart for for the hungry for the broken the despised you know that I guess it does I mean Ezekiel 47 talks about the waters that flow from the sanctuary and it and it says and then along the banks of the of the river are the trees that have the healing for the nation's and it says because they are all drinking from the water for that comes from the sanctuary this is the source the worship is the source of the living water and our service has to flow from that that is the foundation of ministry to the Lord it is that intimacy we don't just do works you know we it does it's where we God releases his heart I mean I stumbled on what's now called harps and bowls because worship is becomes intercessory yeah you know and so I like to call it instead of saying harps and poles I usually refer to it as intercessory worship and and the gut you mean come into the presence of the Lord and then as we you know you sang out with the mic today and we all sang out look you know we want to touch your heart you want to you want to feel the things that you're feeling and that happens when we draw close to the Lord in worship and we have to continue to make this the foundation like the center of it all we just draw absolutely weird right we can't keep loving with unless it's it's oil it's all about the oil people say how can you do this or how like their look they're learning how to but it's it's seriously he's the source of everything and as we love him it's not hard to do what he asks us to do is it I mean it can be painful but there's some kind of joy in the obedience just saying you're worthy what else would I want to do yeah but care for for those you love wherever they are we just love because He first let us worship he's loving God a worship is saying yes to the Lord worship is like we Sarah sang out today stretched me out like Isaac on and and and so that it's saying yes to the Lord and then we can do anything for him and I I mean just because we were all flat out and that point but hearing that I mean the literal presence of God just broke in yeah the room stretch me out yeah and stretch me out and I was almost taken aback by some felt this joy but it was this joy of laying their life down and others were sobbing and others were silent but it was just stretching me out god whatever it takes whatever the cost is there I just I want to completely die to myself right and that's not a such a popular message but you know I'm gonna die to myself and I'm gonna live to you and it is stretch yeah you know I want to show because you know you know David and he was just an amazing man I was a blessed woman to be married to him for 30 years and when he became ill I I became his primary caregiver for 18 months this was just a couple of years ago a year and a half ago actually and and it was like I it was just suddenly public ministry stopped and this was my my 24/7 worship you know was serving David and and just going deeper into the Crucified life you know and and being and saying yes an even deeper level no and but that's what brings forth life so I've learned you know I learned what it is to worship when it's not about singing a song you know I mean I but but you know when I was I couldn't get to my keyboard I was too tired to sing a song I was exhausted you know but I was worshiping Lord every hour saying yes Lord I don't know if I can do this another you're gonna give me the strength and I'm gonna serve my husband and and that's you know you you this I'm I married him because you asked me to marry him you know I mean it was out of my first love for the Lord I'm gonna serve this man yes you know and and we do that to the end of our days you know whatever it is yeah it is it is and you know the Lord showed me in the midst of that I was at the keyboard one day and it was very close to the end of David's life he was really not doing well and and he was shut in he would stay sit in this recliner that looks out at this panorama that we have of the Carmel I was at my keyboard in our living room I was playing some chords and he's sitting in the chair and he suddenly had a vision and he said I see the Lord coming down from his throne and dancing with someone and then he saw all this multitude of people and he said well Lord are you gonna dance with everybody and the Lord said yes and as what he shared this week the hand of God came on me at the keyboard and I just I wept and wept and I said thank you Lord you have allowed me to go through this crushing because you're preparing me the wedding supper of the Lamb you're refining me you're polishing me this is like the the final preparations and I said you know and I literally thank the Lord for the suffering of those days I mean it was the worst time of my life you know but it was like Lord if you allowed this you know and I say yes and but the reality of that is our destination and everything as we embrace the trials it is this the bride making herself ready you know one of our favorite t-shirt embrace the trials we need to make get a t-shirt yeah yeah yeah yeah because it produces life you know it's it's like hard pressed but not destroyed yeah always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus it the life of the Lord will be manifest that's what I and from that season of my life and I may I never may I continue to learn that you know I'm so glad I could share that because I really wanted to give hope to people that you know if if we don't just complain and resist and we yield to everything that comes our way the Lord has allowed it you know it doesn't mean God gave my husband cancer doesn't mean I liked it it was a horrible thing yes that we were going through you know and and yet every day he was showing us goodness and mercy was following us yes even though you know and I was testing absolutely everything I've ever son you know we sang today ho doula at night kitto Kela alum crusto give thanks to the Lord for he is good and His mercies and then I remember us sitting in our little kitchen table you know about a month before a couple months before he passed away and we say can we really say this right now can we say God is good can we say his mercy into it we don't see the answer to our prayer you know we were believing up her hand all people praying all over the world prophesying over us and over him and and we really you know he's got a prophetic voice we need the voice and and and yet that's not what God did you know and and God so ministered to me his goodness you know he is a good good father he's perfect in all his ways that became such a reality to me it to Eternity Israel and that's why I'm making a new album now that's called cheering that's a songs of eternity oh my last album was called songs in the night okay and it was most of the songs I've written had been songs in the night the night seasons the trials never end right but songs of eternity there's no night into people you know it's been it's drawn close to me you know as I've released my husband also just that that reality and and so I'm just praying that the music is just totally infused with the sound of eternity that reality will bring comfort and hope because it's not about this world it is yes in any way you know you've been on the verge of many times you know actually you might have heard this very very dear brother ditch for the body mark two Penske passed away two days ago I actually made my yeah but you know what I heard when I heard the news and everyone was shocked because it wasn't like my husband where he was ill for a long time and you know cancer kills so you kind of have to prepare yourself for this if it God doesn't heal him he's gonna die you know but but in Leah's case Mark's wife it was it was so sudden and so shocking but when I heard the news and I wish we were all shocked I thought wow I'm a little bit jealous wow he got to go yeah really my husband's passing is like provoking me to jealousy you know it's like I want to get that prize we were running the race together we're on the upward climb you know and and really and so I I just I feel a new passion to run that race come on because it's about the joy that's yeah absolutely no we're just part of it and that's the beauty of working together as you said so many we're part of this huge family I know and when we come we feel welcome see the kids around I was missing our children thank you thank you for encouraging us and just just being a part of one heart one spirits it really is we'll put your contacts down Podcast they could find you and when social journey to Israel yeah come to Carmel congregation nations we our doors are open I say day and night night and day I mean we are really we had a Korean team that was here for 40 days Yom Kippur they prayed in our Elijah prayer cave 12 hours a day and then they stepped it up to 24 hours and and people are hearing the call to come up to the top of Carmel you know it's a very strategic look this is the highest point the high place God has this place God has you what has ask God has you thank you so much for listening I hope you enjoyed this podcast this has been amazing these women Karen and momma Rita and Mama Heidi oh my god I'm with the generals of faith right here unbelievable no mamas did you enjoy this podcast right oh come on little mamas doing such amazing work yes come on just saying yes that's key just keep saying yes you don't quit you win come on leave some comments below we're gonna head down to Jerusalem now so we're gonna get some more podcasts coming your way from some other amazing believers down there so keep tuned in and I hope you enjoy this episode of iris after hours love you guys ciao this podcast is presented by Iris global for more information or to support the work of iris level please visit us online at iris global you can also text to give simply text the amount you'd like to donate three zero three three eight three eight three seven or to speak to someone at iris global call our office at five three zero two five five two zero seven seven iris global is an international Christian mission and relief organization with a focus on working amongst the poorest of the poor and those most in need we hope this podcast has inspired your journey thanks for joining us for iris after hours

Channel: Iris Global

Views: 8,790

Rating: 4.9039998 out of 5

Keywords: Iris After Hours, Podcast, Iris Global, Heidi Baker, Rolland Baker, Nathan Kotzur, Crystalyn Human, Christian, Missions, Iris Ministries, NGO, Free, Encouraging, Inspiring, Testimony, Stop for the One, israel

Id: ULQH7yCSOy8

Length: 41min 17sec (2477 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 02 2019