I was born and raised in South America to very traditional Jewish parents. In fact, my father was raised in a yeshiva and became a prominent cantor of a synagogue in our capital city. My mother’s grandfather was a rabbi and there were other rabbis in the family as well. Being raised Jewish was not always easy in a predominantly Catholic nation, but it was what I knew.
At age 18, I had the opportunity to visit Israel and study for a year, but I had never considered living here, so once I returned home, I finished my studies, got married and began a family. Sadly, my marriage did not work out, and so needing to make a change, I eventually moved to France. However, once there, I was unable to find work, and the small savings I’d managed to bring with me began to dwindle, and it wasn’t long before I began to worry about my future and that of my only son.
To make matters worse, I began to experience health problems and was almost sure that I would require surgery. It was due to those circumstances that I decided to turn to God and ask Him to heal me. That very night, I had a dream which was the beginning of a process that would dramatically change my life. In the dream, I actually saw Yeshua who came as a light from the heavens. He walked over to me, laid his hands on me and then I woke up.
I remember feeling totally bewildered and asking God how it was possible that Jesus was in this dream, after all, he wasn’t someone I believed in, but I always had respect for him and thought he was a Jew, the Jew who changed the history of humanity.
Amazingly, three days later I was completely healed. I could feel it in my body. However, it was difficult for me, because being supernaturally healed likely meant that God had sent Yeshua to me to show me that this was His way to touch me.
It took yet another year before a second set of unusual circumstances occurred. One day, a woman knocked on the door and said, “Someone told me there was a Jewish family in this house. I came to show you your Jewish Messiah in your Jewish Bible.” I couldn’t believe it. It was just amazing, and immediately the dream I’d had a year before, where Yeshua came to me and touched me, returned to my mind, as she began to speak about Yeshua.
Over the course of the next four months, she would come and read the Tanach and New Covenant with me. When I came to Zechariah 12:10, it was then that my eyes were opened, and I realized that God, in the form of Yeshua, paid the price for my sins on the cross. I think I cried non-stop for hours. Even as I relate this story, I still shed tears over it. Quite miraculously, my son also became a believer just seven months later.
I remained in France, and attended a conference which took place around the time of Passover. There, I met a Jewish believer from Israel. He began to stir a desire in me about immigrating to Israel, and, as time went on, it just grew stronger and stronger. I simply prayed about it but said nothing to my teenage son who was still in school, not wanting to upset him.
But then I attended another conference where the speaker said that he had a burden and wanted to pray for individuals who had been praying for an answer to specific questions. I didn’t rush to join the line of people, until I felt the still small voice of the Lord saying, “Aren’t you asking for a confirmation?” I was the last person on the line.
Finally, it was my turn, and the man who had been praying over all the people called his wife over who had been playing the piano. He said the Holy Spirit had told him I was Jewish and then the word “Aliyah” came out of his mouth. It was a shock to hear that, but he informed me that I was going to make Aliyah.
I kept praying about it, because my son needed to finish high school. But a year later, I remember speaking to an Israeli Jewish believer, and we both felt that God was leading me to a specific location where I should go in Israel. Up until then, I still hadn’t mentioned any of this to my son, so I had a dilemma in how to tell him.
Yet, God took care of that too, because the next morning my son woke up and told me he had had an unusual dream. He said, “God told me that I have to make Aliyah and go into the army.” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. It was amazing, because he had known nothing about my prayers or considerations. He continued, “I will understand if you don’t want to go with me, but I know it’s something I must do, so I’ll go myself.”
I couldn’t have been happier, and surely God could not have confirmed it in a clearer way. I told him about my own prayers and thoughts and assured him I would go with him. Of course, he was shocked to hear I’d been praying about this for so long.
In 2008, we made Aliyah, and we were able to find a wonderful place to live, and I was able to secure good work in a company. My son went into the army and served for 6 years, became a true Israeli and married another believing Israeli he met in the army.
God has been so good. Today, we all live closer to the center of the country, and I love being here, the place where the Lord directed us. I’m so grateful for everything. My advice to anyone thinking about making Aliyah would be to trust in the faithfulness of God, because I, myself, didn’t do anything to make it happen. He did it all.