After years of running a hostel in Eilat, the author and her husband felt the need for renewal. In their fifties they decided to walk the 600-mile Israel National Trail. Judith describes their 42-day trek through spectacular scenery, Arab towns and villages, past Jewish, Muslim, Druze, and Christian holy sites. They discover sights seldom seen by tourists, physical challenges and spiritual tests, cultural encounters and historical insights, and lessons about peace, faith, and endurance.

True stories of five refugees who escaped from genocide in south Sudan and Darfur, made their way through Egypt and were smuggled into Israel, the only country their Islamic government prohibited them from entering. In desperation they fled across the border anyway, with nothing but the clothes on their backs. No food. No money. No papers. No possessions. Just thankful to be alive. When hundreds of these tall, dark Africans showed up in Eilat, Israel, John and Judy Pex, who own a hostel there, befriended the refugees. Most of these refugees are Christian and one is Muslim. Their stories will...

The story of John and Judy Pex and their conversion to faith in Yeshua (Jesus) as hippies roaming the world in the 1970s, to their immigration to Israel, and how the door opened for them to open a hostel near the Red Sea. The book follows the various people groups who have come to the hostel during the past thirty years: backpackers, African pilgrims, Arabs from surrounding areas, Russian immigrants, Chinese and Romanian construction workers, Israel Trail hikers, and Sudanese refugees - told through touching and humorous vignettes. For thirty years, the Shelter Hostel has provided a beacon of...