Paul Calvert spoke with David Ross, a teenager growing up in Israel

David Ross

David Ross is a teenager growing up in Jerusalem. Originally from England he's lived in Israel for many years. I spoke with him about what the transition was like in moving to the Holy Land and why his family chose to emigrate.

David: I am 15 years old and I have lived in Israel since I was 5 years old and have been here ever since. I'm originally from England and we visit every so often but this has been our home for the past 10 years.

Paul: Was it easy to move to Israel - a new land and a new culture?

David: I can say that it certainly wasn't easy! I know a lot of Christians that have come and moved to the land and have found it more difficult than I have personally though. As a child I found it easier to readjust to things here...we've had various problems but I think for me apart from leaving family and friends I adjusted fairly well and by God's grace I managed to readjust. What helped was the fact that I was accepted in the various circles that I was put into.

I was accepted into a Messianic school called Maccor Hatikva which at the time was only 16 children in the school. It was a sheltered environment which allowed me to pick up the language quite easily without having to be put into a public school, which would have been a lot more difficult for me.

Paul: What was the hardest part of coming to the land?

David: I think for me it was leaving all the family and friends behind and having to build friendships with new people; although I was very well accepted in my church congregation which is King of Kings and at the school. My father is now a part of the management team of the school and the school has grown from 16 to 100.

Paul: So why did you and your family move to Israel?

David: Well my father is Jewish. There's a bit of a story to it. My parents married about 25 years ago and about 5 years into the marriage my mother felt this deep calling from the Lord to come to Israel. She isn't Jewish but she had been to Israel a few times before and this was where she had accepted Jesus as her Saviour. This has always been a special place for her and she felt that our whole family was being called to come to Israel. It took my father another 10 years to really pick this up; he's the Jewish one but he didn't have the calling.

We came here a year before we decided to move here and he was asking the Lord or really telling the Lord that he didn't want to come to the country, but if God wanted him to come then he had to change his heart. God changed his heart; so our whole family came here a few months later.

Paul: What difficulties have you faced moving here?

David: We have found our story of coming here compared to others has been not necessarily easier, but more peaceful. The Lord has really brought us through it well. The main difficulties we have faced have been related to the Government. This is because my father is a Messianic Jew, (a Jew who believes in Jesus) and the orthodox Jewish community often see that as a threat.

They don't have so much of a problem with regular Christians, but to have a Jew who believes in Jesus - they see it as a threat to the rest of the Jews! They think that if one person comes to the Lord, then more people could too.

The SHAS party which is a political religious party were in charge of the Ministry of Interior so they gave us quite a lot of problems. After 8 years in Israel we got proper long term legal status. Many times we were here illegally or we were asking for some sort of Visa; when they turned us down we'd ask for something new. A couple of times we were asked to leave, but we decided to stay with the support of our local church community. We believed it was right to stay here and 3 years ago we got our first legal status, which was as Temporary Residents. It was quite a miracle for that to occur. There were quite a few answers to prayer.

But now we are here and God has blessed us in the land.