After many years of thinking about participating in Sar-El Janice and I finally committed to volunteering for a 3 week period this past March.
What Janice didn’t know was that I also had another motive for going to Israel. I was going to propose to her after knowing her for 50 years with a 40 year interlude!
A bit of background for you:
Janice and I met at a Jewish youth club in North London UK when we were 14/15. Our friendship blossomed and we both fell in love. Unfortunately our plans were derailed as my parents had decided to immigrate to Canada in 1974. I had just turned 16 and didn’t really have any option but to go with my family. We wrote to each other for a few years but we both got on with our individual lives and ended up meeting other partners.
About 10 years ago I found Janice via the web. Both our marriages at that time had run their courses. In 2016 we crossed the Atlantic 6 times to get to know each other and in 2017 I convinced Janice to come and live with me in Canada.)
We had a week to ourselves in Tel Aviv before starting Sar-El and on the 1st of March (Janice’s birthday) we took a tour to Masada and that’s where I popped the question. Luckily she said yes otherwise it would have been a long walk down!
We had the most wonderful time in Israel with the proposal being the highlight but there were so many other wonderful things that happened. We both loved Israel and can’t wait to get back. Supporting Israel through Sar-El was an amazing experience. Working there with like minded volunteers from all over the world with different backgrounds and all of us having a huge passion for Israel was actually quite unexpected. We highly recommend this life changing experience. We can’t wait till go back.
Read more volunteer’s stories here.