Keeping It Israel
Keeping It Israel
YouTube Sensations Sergio & Rhoda in Israel
Jeff interviews Sergio and Rhoda in Israel, a young couple who for the last three years have been making and posting videos about sites and travel all over Israel. Their YouTube channel has over 222,000 subscribers and some of their videos have in the millions of views. You are going to love this great young couple and their heart to see people connect with God and His Word through their videos.
First Century Foundations is a Charity that supports ministries in Jerusalem and many other parts of the country of Israel. Our mission is to turn hearts around the world toward the land, people and God of Israel.
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Welcome to the 'Keeping at Israel' podcast with Jeff Futers. We're Jeff and his guests talk. Everything Israel as it relates to Christian faith and the church. If you are a Christian and you stand with Israel, you will be encouraged and challenged by this podcast. And if you're not so sure about the whole Israel thing, you need to learn how your faith connects with Israel, and why standing with Israel matters. Now, here's Jeff with today's guest.
Jeff Futers :Welcome to the podcast today. My name is Jeff and I will be your host. I'm excited about today's episode. Because a little while back, I was recommended by a couple of friends to watch some videos by a couple from Israel. And the YouTube channel was called Sergio and Rhoda in Israel. And so I checked them out and watched a few of these videos, they were so much fun. And it looked like they were having so much fun doing them. And the more that I looked into them, the more I realized that there was a faith connection here, they were actually believers. And so on a whim, I reached out to them. And they got back to me and said, Yes, we would love to be able to be interviewed and be a part of your podcast. So let's join me and my conversation with Sergio and Rhoda, in Israel. We are live. And I am excited today. This is an episode of our 'Keeping it Israel' podcast. But we wanted to offer it also as a live event. Because Sergio and Rhoda are famous, you guys are like, I called you in the advertising, 'YouTube sensations,' you know, so we'll, we'll build this up as much as we can. Very, very exciting to have you on the podcast today. And I want to just start first of all by saying thank you. I'm sure you guys get lots of emails, and lots of inquiries from lots of people all over the world. And I appreciate it that you got back to me. And that we're able to do this. And we just had a little conversation before we started. And we know some of the same people, which is like way cool, So tell us a little bit about yourselves first of all. Who are you? Where are you from? How'd you...How did you get together?
Sergio Voitenko :Oh, thanks so much, Jeff. Well, first of all, it's an honor to be here. When you reached out to us we were we were excited. You know, something inside of us felt right about this. And, you know, just following the Lord's leading on this. And we are you know, we have our YouTube channel. And we'll talk a little bit more about that. If you have any questions. From a personal background, I was born and Lithuania actually not in Israel. And, and in 92, my parents, they are Russian speaking parents, we moved as a family to Israel, we did the aliyah, the repatriation. And so I grew up basically I was seven back at the time in 92. And we but we went to school here went to college, you know, went to the military and and then in around 2008 there was a joint meeting between Arab and Jewish believers in here in Nazareth. And that's how I met Rhoda and a voice way more local than I am to Israel, wouldn't you say?
Rhoda Voitenko :Well, I was born and raised in Nazareth, actually, and to believing Christian parents, very devout parents, they love the Lord. They've been active in ministry, all of our lives. My dad today is a pastor of a small local church here. And as Sergio said we have met at this meeting that our churches did, which is awesome, because they just wanted to bring the youth to worship together and fellowship together in the name of Jesus and you know, cross these some political barriers that might leave a stain even on the younger generation. And so we got married, and then we left to the states for work. And the rest is history, I guess.
Jeff Futers :Yeah. I read a little bit on your, your website and your YouTube channel. You were in the states for seven years. And tell us a little bit about that journey. What, What did you do? What are your occupations?
Sergio Voitenko :Yeah, so after we got married, we kind of immediately went to the United States. I had a job offer. I was working as a subcontractor for Hewlett Packard, and I'm an IT software developer and lead the development department. And so Rhoda agreed to come with me. And we lived there for seven years, I think it was the biggest blessing of our lives because we, when we got married, we weren't following the Lord immediately. And so somehow the Lord put us in a path with some very special people in United States Who, who shone the light into our lives and and that changed everything. Um, so yeah, we lived there seven years. And we got back three
Rhoda Voitenko :years ago?
Sergio Voitenko :Three and a half years ago, to Israel after my work is done there. And we said, we're going to start your own business here. And so we start our own IT business in Israel a startup, it was our primary goal as we came back here, right and somehow in the process, a YouTube channel started.
Jeff Futers :So what the what the YouTube channel was just accidental?
Rhoda Voitenko :Yeah. So I, my eldest brother, he lives in Italy, he studied there and he lives he's married there. And so the first time he brought his wife over, we were taking them sightseeing around. And we had just gotten back. It's been like maybe a few months since we have gotten back from the States. And so we thought, why not take a few videos and just show our church in the US that we attended there, and just send them because most of the people, either for poverty or age or whatever, they couldn't come here. And so we started, we showed the first video and we opened a YouTube channel, because it was just the easiest like, platform to send the videos over. And then they asked for another one. And then they asked for another one. And since my brother and sister in law, were here for a couple of weeks, we were filming a lot with them. And so we started sending them. And that's how it just continued.
Sergio Voitenko :That was the start.
Jeff Futers :Wow. Yeah. So I mean, I, I've watched your videos. I can't say that. I've watched them all yet, but I'm working through them. There's only so many hours in the day, I'm finding. But here's the thing. I come, we do a small little television show here in Canada, it's a half hour show that that we come and do on location in Israel. So I know, I know what is involved in getting to sites getting permission, doing the doing the shooting, coming home, doing the editing, putting it all together. How do you have time to do all of that? And your IT business as well?
Sergio Voitenko :That's really good question. The answer is we don't. I mean, that's the honestly, if I told you how many times, you know, I wanted to give up and quit the channel. It was I don't know how many times it would happen. And every time we Yeah, almost every time the first few years, we were really struggling to keep it up saying there's just not enough hours in the day. You know, one episode can take over 100 hours to edit 160 sometimes, it's just not enough time for anything to sleep or so every time we get an email from somebody saying, you know how this particular subject or somebody who spoke maybe a guest on our show or something that got them closer to get them to pick up the Bible and read and as a result closer to the Lord. And we said, well, if that's the fact got to keep going, we've got to get going. And so we kept going until like a year ago, we said okay, now we just have to be more mindful of planning ahead, and just making this work. And so this past year, has been just working on that being able to squeeze everything together. But yeah, it takes a lot of time.
Jeff Futers :Yeah, yeah. Now you guys, you look like you're having a lot of fun, though, when you're doing it.
Rhoda Voitenko :He's a good editor.
Sergio Voitenko :We are Yeah, there is Yeah, there's a lot of good time to it. And there are times when it's difficult and, and tell you what, nothing that a prayer cannot take away. You know, what, what do you call those moments? Not not? bloopers, bloopers, grumpers grumpers. It's, it's, it's, you know what, you have to think the same take, maybe 30 times, and it takes the fun out of it. And then when we see that we're, it's no longer fun. We've got a no longer a joyful, we have to get on our knees and pray and say, Lord, we can't do it. And he helps every time.
Jeff Futers :I completely understand I do. Yeah, some of our very fun times have been in you know, crowded areas where, you know, you're trying to get a shot, like a bit of a walk and talk or just a bit of an intro or an outro and people keep walking through the shot, or they walk in behind and make goofy faces and drives me crazy. And you know, I have to be I have to be a Christian in those moments. I have to be a pastor-like Christ-like and it's it's not easy sometimes. You You can, you can get a little annoyed after about the fifth time somebody walks through your shot. I get it. Well, listen. So you you go you start your IT business, I'm, I'm hoping that's going well that, you know that everything is good on that front. But then this YouTube channel takes off. And I mean really takes off, I've looked at some of your your numbers. And as someone else, you know, our ministry has a YouTube channel, you guys have like in the millions of views on some of your videos? What does that kind of exposure do and what kind of I guess pressure is there that comes from that as you're as you're making new videos?
Sergio Voitenko :It's a really good question. I think in the beginning, we were more at liberty to not think so much what we're going to say it was just sending a video to our friends as a link. And so when one day YouTube, put one of our videos, Capernaum, we didn't know exactly how and why it happened. All we know it just happened then overnight. It's like 150,000 views and then towards million in the first month. All it took is for YouTube to put it on the homepage. And then he kept on going since then. And that happened a year ago. So when that happened, and I was like, wow. We need to be there's an opportunity here. I mean, when you have an audience, that in a large audience, you're thinking while they first of all, quitting is no longer a question because we cannot let go the opportunity to to make somebody's day better who you know, who yearns to see where Jesus has walked or to tell somebody about Jesus who have never heard about him before. We consider it as a, yeah as a ministry. And so so yeah, it did make a big difference in terms of what we do, and also put more effort. More prayer into it and take it more seriously, and upgrade the equipment. We started with an iPhone.
Jeff Futers :Yeah. Wow, just an iPhone, eh? Incredible
Sergio Voitenko :Just an iPhone, nothing else.
Jeff Futers :I ah...that that is amazing. That is amazing. And you know, YouTube, putting it on the homepage, you have no control over that. It's just something that happened one day. And and now you're, I mean, literally people from all over the world are watching I'm, I know you're watching your analytics, I know you're seeing where some of those numbers are coming from. And I just think that's, that's phenomenal. And I love that you have sort of branded this in your minds and hearts as a ministry. I think that's so amazing, because a lot of people would would run with that sort of notoriety, and think about how much money can we make? And how can we, you know, how can we get more, you know, more seen and all those kind of things know, you're thinking about, How can people experience the love of Jesus, you know, how can people come to know more about the Bible? And I just, I really, I really am proud of you for that. You know, I, I encourage you that I think that's amazing.
Sergio Voitenko :That wasn't that was an interesting moment that kind of opened our eyes towards that, because we didn't see it with... First we always saw that just a way for people to experience the land, who can't come here. But then there was this one video, it was Lot's wife. We went to the south. And we showed people what you know, where the monument... the traditional Israeli place for Lot's wife, which we don't believe that the place and we spoken in the video that we don't think that's exact spot, but we still showed it what's in Israel. And it was a very simple video, maybe seven or eight minutes. And then it got 2 million views. And most of them are not Christians. Most of them were Muslim. And we're like, I don't understand how that's impossible. And then we realize that Lot's wife and the story is written in the Quran as well. And so that's a big topic for them. And they want to see where it's at. And they Google and they subscribe to the channel, and they watch other videos, and we have some other people saying Hey, we watch all your videos, we're thinking that means they heard the gospel. We didn't know what their spiritual state is, but just the fact that they were able to speak they were exposed to it. Or he says, Hey, okay, so this is greater than what we thought it is. And it's it's not about us. There's actually ministry here. So yeah, that was an eye-opener kind of moment for us.
Jeff Futers :Oh, that's amazing. I think this really is, could be a bit of a God connection for us here because you know, One of one of our hearts is to come alongside people in Israel who are in ministry who are, you know, actively sharing, about God, about Jesus about the message of the gospel. And we, we will just pick you up and start to pray for you along with all of the rest. And, you know, when I first started watching your videos, I think maybe I saw some of the early fun, fun ones. And, you know, I was like, man, these are really amazing. My dad, actually my, my 83 year old dad told me about some of your videos. And and then so did, so did another friend of mine, a pastor that I worked with actually in Mississauga, he had seen some, and so, so yeah, I wasn't really sure at the beginning, like, what you guys were all about, and all that kind of thing. And then I watched a few more, and I thought, Man, they there's some there's some sort of faith connection here. And so it's been really, it's been really great to kind of discover who you are, and now today to be able to actually meet you, although we're not, you know, together together. But it's, it's, and by the way, it's nice to be, you know, in Israel, because I haven't been there since November. And with this whole COVID thing. I don't know when I'll get back. I really don't know you guys. Let's talk a little bit about that. I mean, Lately, I've been trying to steer away from COVID as much as possible, because it gets depressing after a while. But you're in, you're in Nazareth, which I understand from a couple of my friends in Nazareth. You're in a red zone right now. Is that? Is that still the case?
Rhoda Voitenko :Yeah, we are actually on a full lockdown in all of Israel right now. Oh, wait. Yeah, because there are holidays now. We just passed Rosh Hashanah, there's going to be Yom Kippur and then what is the one after it? It's Sukkot. Yeah, yeah. So we're gonna have like, we're gonna have a lockdown. Because I think they think that the holidays and the wedding season in the summer, that's when a lot of people gather and they and get more exposed, and they haven't been listening to the rules as much as they should have. And so we've had a spread. And that's the situation.
Sergio Voitenko :Yeah, so we're on lockdown. And now that affects a bit of our of our planning and filming. But, but for the most part, the Israeli government does have some sense in terms of, you know, if if you're not sick, and if you're not having symptoms, and you have work that does not require you to, you know, like, host people or have crowds gathering, you are allowed to go. So practically legally Rhoda and I can leave the city to go and film a location if we need to. And we were able to film a few sites like this during us on these times. And that's how we were able to keep going with our last season. And not stop.
Jeff Futers :Okay, good. So you've, you've enjoyed what it's like to actually shoot video without a bunch of people in the background.
Rhoda Voitenko :Yeah, yeah.
Jeff Futers :I'm a photographer too. And that's always my that's always my sort of pet peeve is everywhere you go to these beautiful places, but you cannot get a single shot without a person in it, you know? Yeah. So I suppose there's some small blessing in in lockdown for that reason.
Sergio Voitenko :Yeah, there's always something positive, we can draw.
Jeff Futers :Yeah, for sure. For sure. Well, this is great. And I look forward, you know, to other videos that that will be coming and we are just, I'm, I'm really excited to be able to make this connection and to meet you guys. And I know that because of some of the similarities in what we've done maybe maybe we'll have some opportunities together in the future too, I think that would be really really cool. And you know, for us we're the same we're not looking to become famous. What we're looking to is to make is to make Jesus famous and to do that especially in the land of Israel. I mean, that's my my vision my heart my call is is for the for the people of Israel to come to to faith in in Jesus in Yeshua so it would be just awesome if we can do some things together and maybe we'll talk about that a little bit off camera but I just think this is a phenomenal phenomenal opportunity. Now behind you that's not a window right that's a TV screen?
Sergio Voitenko :That is yeah,
Jeff Futers :Okay...At first I thought maybe we were getting the view of Nazareth out your window but...
Sergio Voitenko :It is it is the view of Nazareth. I put it on here. So we're looking at the view and as it's what you're seeing there is what we're looking at right now but if we reverse the camera you know, the lights will be behind it see terrible Yeah. Absolutely, that's what that's out of our window. Yeah, that's the Nazareth.
Jeff Futers :I get it, I get it. Hey, something I'm excited about, we just finished, will not finish we're half finished a documentary series called the "Miraculous Victories of Israel." And we have, we've filmed six, one hour episodes, walking with some archaeologists, some theologians, some pastors just kind of talking about, you know, how is it that God always shows up on behalf of, you know, on behalf of Israel, and and these things that have occurred? So I, we just started actually making the first three episodes available. And I always throw it into the podcast a little bit. So I can put a little bit of information on the bottom of the screen when I edit and, and hopefully people will go and check that out. But it's, it's going to be I hope, you know, I hope it'll be something that that gets us some exposure in the US as well, because we're, we're a brand new charity in the United States, also 501 C3 there. And just starting to build a little bit of a base and and hoping that maybe we'll even start putting the show on television down there. Although that's very expensive, so pray with us about that.
Sergio Voitenko :Absolutely...we would love to see them, actually, because when we did the Syria episode, we went up to the border. And, you know, we could even see, at the time, Hamas' driving right in front of us. And so, and we did the Syria...Syria episode and spoke about them when we made the research, it was unbelievable. And but we just, you know, we just barely scratched the surface there. So I know there is a few videos out there, but there's not that much information. We're trying to find those. Yeah, accurate stories. It was a it was you could see bits and pieces here and there. But nothing collected in a series and well documented. And I remember from my military days, our general sharing one miraculous story. And that was absolutely fascinating. So we can't wait to see those.
Jeff Futers :Oh, I the the one on the modern the modern wars of Israel. We struggled as well to get good, really good. You know, testimonials and things like that. But we're pulling it together now. That's that'll be Episode Five. I think. So. We've got one two and three done. So we did we did.
Sergio Voitenko :You're starting from the biblical wars in Israel. That's right. All the way. Wow.
Jeff Futers :We did the best we did the conquest in Jericho. And then we... not just Jericho the conquest over the promised land kind of thing. Hazor was was a big piece of that because there's so much physical evidence to prove the biblical story. Hazor is... is amazing. And we actually went there with with an archaeologist and interviewed interviewed him and so we did Hazor then we did the next one was David and Goliath, which I saw you guys videos on David and Goliath Man, I wish I could have had you as part of our doc series. It was you guys made it so much fun. But we went we went with Yossi Garfinkel, the archaeologists up to up to Khierbet Qeiyafa. We did some some shots in the valley of Elah and the whole thing. So then the David and Goliath was the second one. And then we also did the siege of Jerusalem with King Sennacherib and King Hezekiah and the prophet Isaiah. Interviewed Dr. Eilat Mazar, and some others about some of the discoveries that sort of put Hezekiah and Isaiah together, you know, with the bullae that they found. So it's been a lot of fun. And it's really, I think, just an encouragement for believers. We want believers to be encouraged that sort of no matter what battle we face, you know, God's got this you know, he's he's got our back and he's had his hand on, on the children of Israel for all these years. So, so yeah, it's it's gonna be a lot of fun. I'll ah...when we get off camera. Well, miraculousvictories.com is the website. We'll, we'll chat a little bit more about it when we're done. Anyhow, this has been fantastic you guys. I ah, now tell me before before we sort of get to a point of wrapping up. Tell me what sort of ministry involvement and connection that you have in the community where you live, what are you guys doing with regard to sort of faith community and and some of that kind of stuff?
Sergio Voitenko :That's a good question.
Rhoda Voitenko :And we attend that church that my dad pastors, it's right next door. So we just walk ten steps and we're there. I do translations there. You know before COVID There, we got a lot of groups and sometimes individuals or volunteers that come from the US or Canada or the English speaking world, and so I'd be the translator for them. So that's my little ministry in the church. And sometimes we visit with Sergio's church where he can help them out on the piano and ah...
Sergio Voitenko :Yeah, so yeah, and the reason why Rhoda says my church her church is actually it's, I guess it's not exactly like it but from historical perspective. So we grew up literally across you know, I grew up in Nazareth Illit, which is the Jewish Nazareth, and Rhoda grew up in Nazareth, the Arab town, Nazareth. So her church has Arab speakers and it's an Arabic language. And ours it would be in English sometimes or in Hebrew or Russian. So that's the population that mostly Hebrew and Russian speakers and ohters will come from the Netherlands or America and so forth. So that's how we got my church your church but now we both visit Rhoda's Dad's church and and still are in close relationship and fellowship with the church in Nazareth Illit. And so, you know, if if you if you come to this area next time, I would love to do something together. At least go and have the best Arabic coffee with sweets, if you like that. And...
Jeff Futers :Oh, so I like sweets, but but I'm more of a savory guy. So so let's actually go do like Arab food because, you know, sweets are good, but give me some of the some of that, that good...There's an Arab dish that's like, that's like rice and chicken and like, it's all together. You know what I'm talking about Yeah, I can never remember the name of it. It's amazing. I don't
Rhoda Voitenko :no not ? it's ?
Jeff Futers :Ah, yes. Yes. All right. Well, so So let's do that. We'll have sweets after We'll, have sweets after...
Rhoda Voitenko :Yeah, yeah. Come on over and we'll do a few of those dishes and get some sweets over too.
Jeff Futers :That'd be fantastic. Well, listen, this has been this has been really great. And here's something I just picked up on while you were talking and I'll just confirm my suspicion. So you're Lithuanian, but you're a Lithuanian Jew. Is that correct?
Sergio Voitenko :Well, you know, I'm, not sure...I was born Lithuania. But back at the time, it was USSR and my Russian's have more, My parents are more Russian descent. Okay, in Russia, so actually, I don't even have Lithuanian citizenship. So I was just born there as a location, my grandma's there and we visit her. But I don't know if qualify me as Lithuanian Jew. It's I guess from a Russian heritage. Russian Jew. That's what that's what I've been referred to me in Israel Russian true.
Jeff Futers :Okay. So this is beautiful. Because I, this is I'm looking at the one new man right in front of me, you know, Jew and Arab together, believing in Jesus. And to me, that's one of the one of the greatest miracles that I witness in Israel. Is that is that those barriers are being overcome through through Yeshua through Jesus.
Sergio Voitenko :Yes, yeah. That's the only way to peace and reconciliation. That's that's what we believe we've seen it. I've seen it happen with people only through Christ. Sure. Yeah.
Jeff Futers :Well, that's awesome. Yeah, you know, what I see I watch what's been happening, you know, Washington, DC, last couple of weeks with peace between Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, and, and these normalized relations and all that kind of stuff. I'm watching watching for a video from you guys on on that, you know, maybe there's a challenge I can throw out. But But I think that that what we're seeing, you know, it's it's going to make a lot of people sort of feel warm and fuzzy inside. But, you know, my opinion at least, and I don't want to sound Doomsday-ish. But but but peace in the Middle East, is still a long ways off, if I'm not mistaken. All this seems to have done is to have angered other Arab factions, you know, to the point where, where this was going to be, you know, maybe a little uncomfortable for Israel for a while still, but I don't know. What's your opinion on that?
Sergio Voitenko :Good question. I, you know, we, we've kind of made a choice to, when we realized, like, what the videos would do is, is a ministry that and its goal and purpose is to bring people to the Lord and those who already know the Lord to get them pick up their Bibles and be more excited about hey, this are not fiction stories, these are true events that happened and so we kind of make a conscioius decision, especially because of our background as well to to leave out the peace and keep our opinions as As as suppressed as possible in terms of, you know, we want to want to live out the message of Christ. And, and try to be cautious about expressing our opinions too much this at this point, especially when there's so much we don't know and haven't made the research about when it comes to the peace agreements and everything we didn't know there, like you said, there could be a warm, fuzzy feeling. And it's some there's definitely good in this. But we do know that truly, there is no peace, except that is in Christ. We believe that in our personal lives, we've seen that in, in, in our surroundings. And that's what the Bible teaches us. And so we truly look forward to that. And that's kind of our goal. And aim is to, is to focus on that.
Jeff Futers :That's great. You know what I and I commend you for that. I think that that's, that is tremendous. And I'm just trying to find here our live event. So it, you guys have time to answer questions if we have anybody live that, that wants to ask you something?
Sergio Voitenko :Absolutely, yeah.
Jeff Futers :All right. Well, let's just find here where we're at. And if you are on Facebook Live, and you have a question for... Oh, that's not gonna be good. How am I gonna mute that? Okay, can you still hear me? Yes. Okay, good. I just had to mute the Facebook Live because of the delay. I could hear myself saying the same thing I just said. I thought I was having a bit of a medical event there, but apparently, I'm okay. Yeah, we've got some, if there's anybody on Facebook Live right now that would like to ask a question. I'll get you. I probably should have said this earlier, because they're because of this delay. But we'll see if anybody jumps in here and has anything they want to ask you guys. And in the meantime, what's what's the name of your dad's church, Rhoda?
Rhoda Voitenko :It's called New Life Baptist Church, Nazareth. I think something. Okay. Yeah.
Jeff Futers :Okay, great. Well, we'll look, we'll look for that the next time we're there. I we have a few connections, a few connections in Nazareth, probably a couple at least. And one would be Nazar and Katie Touma, over at the Nazarene church. Yes. And I'm trying to think where else there are other ministries there as well. And if anybody from Nazareth is watching, and I'm forgetting who you are, I apologize. That's, that's just it's a lot. It's a lot to keep up here.
Sergio Voitenko :Yeah it's tough, especially when you're when you're put on the spot.
Jeff Futers :Exactly, exactly.
Sergio Voitenko :You are thinking now about Facebook and questions. And...
Jeff Futers :Yeah. Well, so far, we've got nobody chiming in here. And so we'll give it another minute or so and see if anybody asks a question.
Sergio Voitenko :Jeff have you everhad a chance? Sorry? Do you want to ask something?
Jeff Futers :No, go ahead.
Sergio Voitenko :I want to ask have you ever had the chance to actually visit the Temple Mount in any of your videos guided tour that you're doing in a series The the site where the you know, the the Waqfa is?
Jeff Futers :We have not videotaped up there it is. We go occasionally. But to take cameras and actually do a shoot up there, as I'm sure you've discovered, is a little bit problematic. And so, in my, in my predecessors time, he and his cameraman actually did get up there once and it was kind of with, with a small camera, were able to do a bit of an interview kind of over by the Eastern Gate. Kind of incognito. But But yeah, we, we've tried to do everything that we do, officially, you know what I mean? Right? Like we try to get the proper permissions and do what we can on the sites. And so it's um, it's been interesting. How about you guys? Have you been able to?
Sergio Voitenko :Yeah so? Yeah, that's why I'm asking because we, I mean, we lived here, Rhoda her entire life and me since I was seven. And we never had a chance to go there until a couple of weeks ago. Right. And it was. So you know, you get in and you already know this. And there's the they do a briefing to foreigners or they immediately do it like through the tour guide or something. But for us because we're locals, the police officer stops us and says, is this your first time? Yes. So let me take you aside and give you a briefing like 5-10 minute briefing, what we're allowed to do what we're not, we can't hold hands against, you know, pat each other on the shoulder, touch nothing, where we can walk where we cannot walk, and after like 10 minutes of briefing we're so thankful for this opportunity. We're smiling. We're excited. We have no camera gear on us because we know it's not allowed. And then without through the gate, and then like, hold on, hold on. And I go back to the officer and I say, excuse me officer. What about videos and photos? Is that something I can do with with my iPhone. He goes, come on, of course go and film as much as you want. Knock yourself out. And I go, really? He's like, Yes, go. I was like, OK. So we took our iPhone, and we didn't do any interviews or talk to each other. But we just took the iPhone and filmed the entire experience of walking on the gate, on the bridge, walk through the gate, and walk through the whole area, and then see the Golden Gate where you know where they were supposed to open. And, yeah, and then went out and we filmed the whole thing as an experience. And we can't wait, we're gonna release this video in a couple of weeks, not as a interview kind of a thing. Like, we usually have a different just experience of what it would be like to visit it if you were there as well. So we just, we just can't wait. It was it was quite a, quite an experience. So it was tough to explain.
Rhoda Voitenko :Even though I was wondering about like having a permission to bring a bigger camera, because when we were up there, there was like a photographer with I think a newlywed couple. They were Muslim because the woman had the covering on but they were taking like wedding pictures or, or some sort of pictures together. And so I was surprised. I was like, maybe they would allow having some sort of something out there. I don't know. Or maybe it's just for them, that its allowed...
Jeff Futers :Very interesting. Well, we will, you know, we'll be we'll be looking into that. We hope to get back next year, we need to shoot 13 more episodes of our show, because the ones that are airing right now are getting old, you know, like we're just doing kind of reruns every week on the airtime that we have. Hey, we have a question for you guys. Sally McGregor is asking if if the country opens up for tourism, Would you guys ever host a tour together?
Sergio Voitenko :That's a good question. You know what we'll be praying about it. We never thought to do it. Whenever you know, we were like I said before, it's just so much to do from editing to to our daily jobs, that we can't even imagine how we're going to fit it a tour into the schedule. However, with the Lord. If it's his will, everything's possible. And so we'll we'll we'll be praying about it. Right now. I have nothing planned or scheduled for that.
Jeff Futers :Yeah, yeah. All right. Well, that was that was the only question that we had up till now. And I don't want to keep you guys unduly. We ah...we'll chat a little bit here when we're finished. But thank you so much for coming on today. And for talking to me, who you've never met before and didn't know. And I just this has been, for me at least, just a great experience. I really appreciate getting to know you guys a little better, and love the work that you're doing. But more than that, I mean, the videos are fantastic. But hearing you talk today. I just love your heart for what you're doing and why you're doing it. And I commend you and and God bless you for that.
Sergio Voitenko :Thank you so much Jeff, it has been our honor and privilege. Thanks so much.
Jeff Futers :Well, thank you for joining my guests and I on the podcast today. What a great interview with Sergio and Rhoda. And wow, what great people, I just loved getting to know them, along with all of you as you were listening into our conversation together. And I believe that we will have many connections together in the future, with this wonderful couple and some of the ministries that they're involved in there in the land of Israel. I want to encourage you please go to their channel, their YouTube channel, Sergio and Rhoda in Israel, and click Subscribe, but they would love to have you following their videos and you're going to enjoy them. They are absolutely phenomenal, phenomenal videos. And while I'm talking about YouTube, I would encourage you to go to our YouTube channel as well. We post many videos up there, ministry updates from Israel, personal communications from myself, our podcasts are posted on our YouTube channel as well. And also the television show First Century Foundations that we air here in Canada on Christian television, you can get those episodes once they've aired, we post them up on the YouTube channel as well. So please subscribe to our channel also, we would love for you to do that. Don't forget we are a Registered Charity here in Canada, and a registered 501C3 in the United States. If you would like to help ministries in Israel, could I just say to you from the bottom of my heart, we would appreciate so much your partnership with First Century Foundations as we partner with over 70 ministries in the land of Israel, helping them to do the work that God has called them to do there in the land and so God bless you as you as you engage with us in that way. Our website is firstcenturyfoundations.com/donate, if you would like to donate, you can do so there. And there are options to do so both in Canada and the United States. Well God bless you today. I am so grateful that you joined us and hope that you will continue to listen in. Thank you for joining us for 'The Keeping it Israel' podcast and remember, as Christians, we stand with Israel.