As heavy monsoon storms hit Flagstaff, flooding many streets, a monsoon of Israelis flooded the homes of our hosts in Northern Arizona. Eleven Israelis came in one week to the Grand Canyon after wrapping up their time at Jewish summer camps in California! Many of them stayed with our host family in Grand Canyon Village, but there were too many to host all at the same time.

This is why we are building Chesed Canyon (formerly known as Camp Zula)! New name, same vision: a haven of hope where we can reach Israeli travelers with the love of Jesus through free hospitality, shared meals, and Bible-centered adventures in and around the Grand Canyon. Currently, Chesed Canyon is located at our rental home in Flagstaff, and we are fundraising to purchase a property where we will be able to say “Yes!” to opportunities like hosting eleven Israelis all at the same time. We want them to experience God’s chesed – His lovingkindness and enduring faithfulness (Jeremiah 31:3).

This summer, I (BJ) made six trips up to Grand Canyon for evangelism and tour guide training. Carissa had the idea for my outreach table to hand out “free water with Living Water.” One morning, as I was setting up the sign at our outreach table, my volunteer for the day asked what the Hebrew words on the sign read. I replied, “Mayim chaim” (meaning “living water”) pretty loudly, and when I looked up, an Orthodox Jewish couple was standing there listening to me and looking at the sign. I was able to tell them about how Jesus gives us living water and what that means. Afterwards, six other Jewish families or couples approached our table curious about what we were offering!

Perhaps the highlight of the summer was the opportunity we had to take five young Israeli pre-believers on a Canyon Ministries tour. It was AMAZING!! One of the Israelis, *Elan, was a soft atheist and believes in evolution. Elan and his four friends got to hear a very persuasive argument for Creation with strong evidence for the global flood. They heard a clear and powerful gospel presentation throughout the four-hour tour!

After the tour, we ate lunch together (prepared by Carissa and her mom) before the guys returned to the home of our friends and hosts Emir and Ashley. There they had great follow up conversations and each received a New Testament in Hebrew. These young men were all blown away by the love of Jesus they experienced through this tour, lunch, and hospitality network which was all a free gift to them because of the generous donations from our partners like you.

Please continue to pray for Elan and friends as they continue their travels, stay with more hosts in our network, and hear the gospel again and again. Pray also that more Israelis will come our way… but not all at once! Thank you, as always, for your faithful prayers and support.

With love,

BJ, Carissa, Ari, Aviya, and Ashira

*name changed for privacy