Yom Ha-Atzmaut (pronounced 'ahtzma-oot') is a national holiday in Israel commemorating the signing of Israel's Declaration of Independence. The document, officially dated to coincide with the termination of the British Mandate on May 15, 1948, was proclaimed by the Israeli government on the fourteenth because the fifteenth was a Sabbath day.

I stood next to the radio, listening to news about the Persian Gulf War. Scud missiles had just landed in Tel Aviv. My heart began to pound and my mind raced as I tried to absorb the facts. I had taken part in a recent month-long evangelistic campaign in Israel. The sights and sounds of the Land were still fresh in my mind, as were the faces of the people I had met. I recalled a sea of faces on the beaches of Eilat and in the streets of Tel Aviv, Haifa and Jerusalem—a multicolored fabric of people from many lands around the world, all of them Jewish, and all of them secure" within the borders of the Jewish homeland.

What a remarkable ending to a fifteen-year story! When I joined Jews for Jesus back in 1976, I wanted everyone to know about Y'shua. But of course like any Jewish believer, I had an even deeper desire to see my own family come to faith.

Let your guard down and you'll begin to see He loves you as much as
     HE loves me
Over and over again I need to remind myself, no matter what,
     HE loves me
Very often I think now I've done it! How could he ever forgive me, but
     HE still loves me
Every time I feel lonely or brokenhearted I just remember,
     HE loves me
Some day when I see Him face to face I will just melt, because
     HE loves me