One Friday a few weeks ago, I was on my way to stay with my brother in Los Angeles and to teach at a Messianic congregation. At first the plane ride was appearing to be uneventful so I picked up the only book I had which was Messianic Foundations (a good read!).

Eventually my restlessness took over and I started to look around, noticing various people on the plane. A man behind me was reading a novel with the word “Salvation” in the title. The couple beside me, a young couple from Boston, were absorbed in their plans for the weekend. A man directly in front of me would walk up several rows occasionally to talk to what appeared to be his kids. A few minutes later the kids started making their way back down the aisle to talk to their father seated a row ahead of me. I couldn’t believe my ears when they started speaking to their father in Hebrew. I couldn’t make out everything except that they something about going to the sherutim (“bathroom”).

I prayed that I would have a good opportunity to talk to him, though he was a row up. After about a minute, I just decided to go for it in Hebrew. “Sleicha, atah midaber ivrit?” (Excuse me - you speak Hebrew?). He nodded and we proceeded to talk. Udi and his family were Ethiopian Jews from the Hertziliya area, and they were on a tiul (trip) going all over the United States, from New York to Florida to California.

He asked if I also lived in Israel and what I was up to in Los Angeles, I explained that it was my faith in Yeshua that was bringing me to LA just as being Jewish led me to live in Israel for a year. He stood up and turned around to face me. He was naturally surprised to hear that I was a believer in Yeshua. I asked him about his beliefs and struggled to understand as he rapidly talked in Hebrew about his ideas. As if on cue, a girl seated across the aisle turned to “shush” us, interrupting our chat. She was trying to watch Kung Fu Panda on her I-pad.

At that point I remembered that the Messianic service where I would be speaking would include a Hebrew prayer service and a complete reading of the Hebrew portions from the Scriptures. So I asked if he had plans for the coming Shabbat. At his openness I invited him to services, writing down all of my information as well as the websites for Word of Messiah and the congregation. He said he wanted to keep in touch and would see about visiting at the services. Just when you think a plane ride is going to be uninteresting…