Valeries Orchard^tm

But is it OK to dream? - I’m not talking about wishful thinking - like l would love to win the lottery type dreams- but seeing something invisible actually materialise?

Well these thoughts certainly resonate with me, especially in relation to the vision that inspired the planting of Valerie’s Orchard, a vision that incidentally started life as believe it or not an imagination. It happened late one night when I was winding down for the day, when quite unexpectedly without any prompting I add. I began to visualise a single olive being held in a little girls hand; she dug a hole in the ground buried the olive watered it- immediately the olive grew into a tender sapling then straight away into a mature olive tree that had the potential to become a huge Orchard.

Freaked out by this sight I shared this inspiration with my friends Ronen and Melanie Shalom who had been having their own dreams to procure land for agriculture purposes in the Negev desert; Shorty after our conversation they acquired forty acres of land near Israel’s Egyptian border, where they planted a quarter of the land with Olive trees.

There was such a sense that the Lord was wanting to share his dreams with us, one that had been spoken of in distant millennia by the prophet Isaiah who said of this specific desert “one day it would become green… like a garden”….or was he just dreaming?

This also reminds me of another conversation I had with a good friend of mine who is an orthodox Jew, we were discussing the question regarding our capacity to hear God speak to us, my friend Moshe said he had been disturbed by some comments he had heard over the years by some Christians who had claimed that God had recently spoken to them!.....at first I thought where is he going with this…. Is he trying to say that mere humans cannot hear from the divine? 

No he replied….. These statements suggest that God speaks rarely...

When in fact the opposite is true - God is actually speaking all the time...more the case that we are either not listening or are misunderstanding the language he chooses to speak in, through nature, the seasons, dreams, the arts, visions, olives-olives even olives?, in fact what ever creative medium he chooses to employ, his purpose is clear he wants to imaginatively engage with his creation.

Getting our attention by whatever means necessary so that we know that he knows that we have acknowledged that he knows ……d`you know what I mean?                              

 Face to face

This is when you know that you and he knows that something is about to happen!

The place of the spark!

These are like little Big bangs - Creatively bringing new life into being

 Progress report - life down in the Orchard

From that first imagination – seeing a little girl hold a single olive in her hand then planting it.

This vision grew into a reality and was joined by one thousand  olive trees, and they continue to thrive.

Saying in a bountiful way let us give honour to a person and a people who once where shown such dishonour as human beings.

Be encouraged be REALISTIC ……………….DREAM!

Shalom Nick

If you would like to contribute financially towards the on going work at Valerie’s Orchard> please e-mail us at: -   <grc4grc@actcom.co.il>