I've been slacking!

Hey there my friends and family!
I must apologize for my laziness in keeping up on this blog - I've been a slacker...
And now I would love to catch you up just a little on how things are going and what's new...

First of all - classes are going well. They're more challenging and also more focused in the New Testament than my classes were last semester, but they're still fun and I'm learning a LOT.
My new classes include: the gospel of Mark, 1st & 2nd Peter, Missions, Genesis, and Church History. I have several other classes, but they're just the required classes that I have to take each semester - like Lectures, and morning Devotions.

The students this semester are again very fun, and the Lord has blessed us with great unity and friendship. They're a very different group of people... and it's turning out to be very fun and I wouldn't change a thing! :)

In other news!
There is a Jewish lady, about 31 or 32 years old, living with us... and it's quite the adventure. Her name is Yafeet (Pronounced: yahFEET).
Some friends of the school met her about 3 weeks ago at the Coffee Bean Cafe across the street. After talking with her for a little while they found out she was in some kind of bad living situation and practically homeless. So she was brought over to the school, introduced to Pastor Mike, and it was decided she could stay with us for a few days (yes - that was THREE weeks ago... lol). She's a VERY interesting character, and it's giving us all a first hand experience to the Jewish/Israeli mindset and beliefs about the Bible (Old and New Testament), the prophets, Jesus, salvation, etc... Everything she say's is SO mixed up. Part of that is just her personality, but a lot of it is just bizarre ideas that she's been taught all her life.

By now it's turned into much more than just us being gracious hosts to a person in need. It looks like she'll be staying with us at least until the end of March, and it's required a lot of personal adjustments - especially for the girls at the dorm, but also for everyone in the school. She has funny cleaning habits, and inconsistent kosher eating rules, and a mysterious job that no one seems to understand (except it deals somehow with a charity).
She joins us for most of the classes and is presented with truth over and over and over. She asks questions and talks about what she thinks things mean... often taking classes off topic, but always bringing up interesting topics concerning facts and meanings/interpretations in the Bible.
I've lost track of the times we've sat down and told her why Jesus was the only sacrifice that covers our sin, and why we need a sacrifice... and by now we are all in a place torn between pleading with God that the veil would be lifted from her eyes, and being tired of presenting the gospel message to someone who doesn't actually want to listen. And no, she doesn't listen. She hears, but doesn't understand... and it's such a painful, yet prime example of the blindness of the Jews - and how Jesus truly is their stone of stumbling.

In America there is a completely different way of witnessing to people - there generally isn't 5000+ years of cultural history to deal with, or 2000 years of Rabbinical teachings to combat. It seems like there should be easy ways to simply explain that we are living in the new covenant - unlike the old one - that God promised in Jeremiah, or talk about how even Moses (their favorite prophet) said the prophet was coming who Israel should, but wouldn't want to, listen to, or to talk about Isaiah 53...
But since Jesus walked here there's been 2000 years of Rabbi's and Jewish leaders covering simple truth with layers and layers of optional interpretations and distractions that lead the people away from truth and toward uncertainty. There are many who don't even study the Tanach (Old Testament) but only ever study the Talmud ("Oral Law" viewed as equal, if not more important than the actual scriptures). You know what they say: "If there are 2 Jews there will be 3 opinions" but reality is more like "Where there are 2 Jews there will be 5 opinions."
And this is what Jewish people grow up learning - backward and forward - just as we study the Bible, they study the commentaries and are even encouraged to make their own interpretations.
And she has arrived at many of her own conclusions that add extra difficulties to our discussion. For example - she doesn't believe that people sin - sin is some abstract force that makes bad things happen to us, Moses was completely perfect and never sinned, and the sacrificial system wasn't significant/wanted/needed...

With all that said - be praying for us! That we continue to show her the unconditional love of Christ, and that her eyes/ears/heart would be open to understand and recieve the covering she needs of Jesus blood!




And now - the other exciting news is that I'll be spending about 6 days in Greece! Leaving March 19th and getting back March 25th. A few weeks after that I expect to be spending 4-5 days in Jordan helping with the same church in Karak as last semester.

This week is Purim! It is a celebration that stems from the story of Esther... but any more it resembles Halloween + New Years' Eve + Birthday party. There are concert stages set up all over the place, and everyone is invited to the mass party. Plus, it's the one day a year that Jews are "commanded" to get drunk.

Yes - life is exciting! Things are busy and time is flying! I'm back in the states in almost exactly 2 months now...
As always - I love you all VERY much, and am very thankful for all of you who are praying for me and thinking of me! :)
Shalom!

A much needed update

First of all – thank you for all of you who are praying for me! I can see God moving around me in amazing ways that certainly reflect the spiritual support I am receiving from home. Even in these past weeks I have felt great peace despite challenging situations and decisions… so – thank you, thank you, thank you!

Now Semester 1 at Calvary Chapel Bible College Jerusalem is officially finished. Last Friday was the last day of class and today marks the first day of a completely empty dorm and school. The last few weeks of the semester were certainly the crescendo and climax of the 4 months we’ve been here. All of the big projects and papers were due, and presentations and projects were happening all over the place… but we all survived!! Haha! Yes – it was crazy busy, but we all made it out the other side just fine... and I passed all my classes.

There are many things to reflect on looking back over this semester… I have certainly gained a lot of knowledge about scripture – especially in classes like Christ in Prophesy, Daniel, and Revelation.
I also have a great appreciation for all I have learned (and continue to learn) about the Jewish and Arab people… their cultures, traditions, beliefs, etc., and then also how to communicate what I believe with them. I am also very slowly picking up on Hebrew phrases – and even some Arab phrases! It’s tough because most everyone speaks some English and there is little necessity to learn the languages… but hopefully by the end of the school year I’ll have gained some kind of worth-while vocabulary.
I’ve also learned a lot about myself in all this process – being part of the school’s family, and learning to move inside this culture – and the Lord continues to mold me. It’s tough but a super sweet experience!
This past weekend was by far the hardest part of the semester. Within 3 days the entire student body went home – leaving just me and Bri holding down the fort. The semester was INCREDIBLY blessed with unity and friendship and watching everyone leave was painful… *sigh*
As for the break between semesters – the first few days just one another girl, Bri Garrett, and I are staying at the apartment and holding down. There are two other girls (“the Russians” – Anna and Alina) who will be returning on Thursday from a visa trip to Prague. The four of us get to be each other’s family for the next 5-ish weeks, over Christmas and New Year. Shannon – my sister – gets to join our little family from December 28 – January 10 :) and hopefully/most likely she, Bri, and I will take a visa trip to Rome!
Keep this in prayer for us please! We have to take a trip out of the country somewhere, and currently there are cheap deals to Rome… we’re all really excited for the opportunity – it would be VERY fun to go to Rome – but it’s difficult to make official plans just yet… probably not for a few more days then we’ll make the commitment and buy the tickets!

This next month will be an interesting time to say the least – certainly a different life season than anything I’ve ever experienced before. I can’t really believe that I have a month to spend in Jerusalem/Israel to do whatever I want! There is a budget to keep within, but still the possibilities seem endless!! I’m very, very blessed knowing there will be others here to share it with (otherwise it might become lonely or boring). We’re not completely sure what all we want to do with our time – but the list includes:
Getting on a bus to anywhere just to see where it goes
“Kidnap” the Russians to go see the “monster”
Seek out sweet new coffee shops and cafes
Get lost / go on adventures regularly
Draw and read at random places around town
Doing new things none of us have done in the city
Getting a head-start on school work (specifically Chuck-tracts)
Making Christmas stockings for each other
Bake amazing delicious goodness
Read a book or two just for fun
Knit and/or crochet something (or a few things)

I’m sure the list will increase as time goes by… and I’m excited to have more time to keep people posted now that there’s no class or homework.

One interesting thing I wasn’t expecting is the Christmas season here – or actually the lack of Christmas season. Knowing that the whole basis of Christmas is celebrating the birth of Christ – there simply is no celebration! There are some random decorations in the more touristy areas (in hotels especially) but for the most part there’s nothing special happening. Hannukah is coming up soon – still, there isn’t much as far as holiday atmosphere. I expect back in the states Christmas music has been playing since the beginning of December or even before Thanksgiving! There were a few students who played Christmas music during semester, but there just isn’t the same feeling of anticipation here as there is back at home. The four of us have some sweet plans though for Christmas day! We’re making stockings for each other to hang on the wall and put gifts into, and that night we plan to go out for a nice dinner together. It’s going to be different but still cozy and I’m looking forward to it :)

I hope and pray you are all have a blessed Christmas season too!
Much love to you all!

Holidays in the last month

Once again I realize it has been WAY TOO LONG since I’ve written a long and meaningful update! So – here we go! A novel dedicated for all of you back home – informing you of the goings-on and happenings since I got back from Jordan…
First of all was Yom Kippur – or Day of Atonement – was the day after I got back home, and it was also the day I got sick. Before that I hadn’t taken a nap or slept at all during the daytime… but Yom Kippur I slept for 3 hours and all through the night and felt pretty ill for about a week after that. I’m not sure if I caught a bug/virus, or it was simply due to the loss of adrenaline after the excitement of the trip… but it wasn’t fun. Today I still have sniffle but the sick feeling was gone after about a week…
Yom Kippur was very interesting though. It is the most holy day in the Jewish culture and its purpose is to become right with God – or receive “atonement” for your sins. Biblically this was the one day of the year the priest would enter the holy of holies, as well as make lots of sacrifices for the nation of Israel. Of course there hasn’t been a temple since 70AD… so today many orthodox Jew will sacrifice a chicken, but for the most part they simply try to be “better” people – and hope that by being better around the holiday, their good works will outweigh their bad, and God will look more favorably on them. It’s a little more complicated than that… but that’s the simple version of holiday as it is today…
The whole country closes in recognition of this day! It’s like a super-extreme Shabbot (Sabbath) – where it’s even illegal to drive in most all areas, and all street lights are turned off! It’s fun because people are free to walk down the middle of the roads without ever having to worry about a car coming.
Several of us went to synagogue that morning and watched as the priests and people all prayed and went through the holy day routine. It actually reminded me very much of the Catholic churches in the area – a very beautiful building, beautiful clothes on the priests, and lots of standing and sitting and praying… but the service was in Hebrew and we never really had any idea what was happening.
About a week later the Feast of Tabernacles began – and most of the Orthodox Jews (and many of the kosher shops/stores) build Sukkots (pronounced sue-coat). These are basically little temporary dwellings build in recognition of the tents the Israelites stayed in so many centuries ago in the wilderness. This holiday is a huge change from the somber mood of Yom Kippur – everything changes to celebration.
The sukkot itself generally has 3 or 4 walls (with a door) made of plywood and 2x4s, and a roof of palm branches. The holiday lasts a whole week – and the sukkots stay up the whole time. Families will use these to eat and sometimes sleep in, and cafes will generally use them to allow customers to eat outside.
In classes – things are going well… we’re coming in to the last leg of the semester though! Only about 1 month left! This means that it’s time to buckle down and finish up the big papers that will be due in a few weeks! …one due in Daniel class, and one in Revelation… as well as a few projects for the Study Tours class…
In other, more random news, I have learned to knit!! I’m pretty excited! J I haven’t made much yet – I really only know how to make a scarf… but I’m working on learning more! There’s a yarn shop nearby the apartment and I now own not only great yarn, but also knitting needles and a crochet hook! So I now have a brand new pass-time as I sit and listen to Chuck Tracts! Haha!

The Jordan Stories

The Jordan trip was an A-MAY-ZING experience. There is so much to say! This is a HUGE blog – so hang on tight and maybe read it in shifts…

First of all, there were 9 students who went – 8 others besides myself. We thought we were going to go to Karak, Jordan to help at a church’s medical clinic. However, we arrived and found out the medical clinic had been postponed until November. It happens that we’re sending another team sometime in November and they may be the ones to help at the clinic.
We were staying in Karak with Dirk (pronounced with a German accent it sounds more like the name Derek) and his family – wife Manuela, and 4 kids. They are an amazing family who God is using in tremendous ways to reach all kinds of people. From what I observed over the 6 days we stayed with them they seem to be willing to open their house to just about anyone in need. When we arrived there were already two Egyptian ladies and their very young children. One of them, her husband had died a while back leaving her with several children and not much else. I don’t know much else about where they came from or were going to, but the joy of the Lord was so obvious in their lives I would never have known the toughness of their circumstances if I was not told.
There were also several Arabs there when we arrived, and a couple of Iraqis came while we were there (a mother and son who ended up adding to our adventure – but more on that later…).
Dirk’s kids range from 2 to 7, the youngest is a boy, the two middle kids are girls and the oldest is a boy. They are all very brilliant and full of crazy amounts of energy! They are growing up in a house that speaks 3 fluent languages – German first, Arabic, and English. They are very well behaved kids, just rambunctious and full of energy.
From my understanding, Dirk’s main purpose in being in Jordan is to help the medical community – but he also spends a lot of energy in a youth pastor position at the church. It seems that the youth of the city (especially the Christian youth) don’t have places to hang-out together besides home. So every evening after school, instead of spending all their time at home, the youth begin to gather around six at the church where they play basketball or football/soccer or play guitar or sit and chat, as well as have Bible study time and worship. While we were there we got to lead in the English portion of worship, as well as Bible study time (which was translated for us by Dirk or one of the older kids).
A day-by-day of the trip…
The first day we left Jerusalem early in the morning (a little before 7am) and headed toward the Jordan River Border Crossing. This turned out to be a point of confusion for our hired shrute driver – who was told by his dispatch that we were going to the Jordan River. When we entered Tiberias we were finally able to communicate to him – No, we are going to Jordan the country, not the river, and we need to turn around! You’ll have to look at a map to understand where we were, and where we were supposed to be, but we were about an hour out of the way…
We got to border control and entered through the big intimidating gates – past the burly guards with aviator shades and large rifles – and in through the double doors to Line #1. We were told when going through border control to try not to look like such a large group – so we split up into multiple lines. The line I was in took forever! It so happens that we arrived just after a large tour group of Asian tourists… and I can only imagine that they didn’t speak any English because they were at the window for nearly ½ an hour. Altogether that line took about 45 minutes to an hour… and when we finally did get to the window we each spent less than 5 minutes at the window getting our exit-visa and exchanging money. Then next line – passport control – worked out much faster. We were able to by-pass the Asian tourist because a new window opened just before we walked up… praise the Lord!
Once we were all officially signed out of Israel we took the border control’s official bus to the Jordan side – where we had to be officially signed into Jordan. This side of the border was a little faster – but much more bizarre. There were no actual lines anywhere – more like mobs of people crowding around different windows. We kind of had to muscle our way through to finally reach the window… but that’s just the way the culture is – it seems to be very much a “me first” mentality – no “excuse me” or “I guess you where here first” – really it’s a “snooze and loose” mentality.
The greatest thing – not one person in our group was stopped and questioned on our way in! Not a thing! It seemed the most anyone was asked was their name and birth date, and maybe what they would be doing in Jordan – but we were given no trouble at all. Praise the Lord again!
Dirk was there to pick us up within 20 minutes and we were on our way to Karak. Along the way we stopped in a small random town for lunch. We had no idea what we were in for! At this place we ate rotisserie style chicken cooked with some unknown Jordanian spice. We each had nearly half a chicken put in front of us, along with fresh pita, hummus, and veggies – cucumber and tomato. This meal will be in my memory as some of the best chicken I have ever had in my life! It was AMAZING!! Very moist… mmmmm J SO GOOD!!
With Dirk was a young Jordanian man – Ashraf (pronounced Ashroff) – who has been a friend of Dirk’s for 6+ years. He is a Muslim man who lives in Amman, but while we were there we had a lot of opportunities to talk with him about Jesus and even to lay hands on him and pray for him! Originally he was only visiting Dirk for a day or two but he ended up staying to hang-out with us for 4 days! It was amazing how fast he became our friend, and he was a great help to us all too as he explained a lot about the Muslim culture and the lives of Jordanians. Another friend we met – Essa (pronounced EEssa) was very similar. Essa is Catholic, not Muslim, but he also became our friend quickly and helped to show us the ropes around Jordan…
Day 2-5 a lot happened and I’m going to just sum it up…
We spent every evening with the kids at the church – playing with them, talking, leading Bible study time and doing worship. The daytime we spent visiting with other local kids who were not a part of the church, visiting families in the area, sometimes shopping and sight-seeing.
The family visits were one of my favorite things! What happens: We would walk into a house and sit down and drinks would be brought in (normally some kind of soda – Pespsi or Sprite) and we would sit and drink for a little while. Soon some kind of food was brought in – cookies or fruit or whatever. We would keep chatting and generally play some music for them. Soon coffee and/or tea would be served. Culturally, when the coffee was served it was a sign that the meeting was over. As soon as the coffee/tea was finished it’s time to go. This is what happened at nearly every house we visited – and the amount of food we were eating began to become overwhelming! Looking back it feels like all we were did was eat and sleep and hang-out with people…
It was very “honoring” to the families for the special American group to come over. Generally the only Americans they see are looking at them from the inside of a tour bus – never people they talk to. So it was very special for us to be there just to be with the people. Jordanians are naturally very hospitable and open people, and it seemed no matter how hard we wanted to bless the people they always managed to top us and bless us 10x more! We knew that what we were doing was a ministry to the families of the area and truly was blessing them – but it seemed backward for us to be doing that simply by entering their house and fellowshipping/eating with them… but that’s what was important to them! I really like that about their culture.
We spent one day cleaning the church too. In the past there has been a person or two living at the church doing cleaning/maintenance work in exchange for the place to stay – but it was several months since anyone had lived there and the building had several big cleaning tasks… it was wonderful for us because not only did it turn out to be fun, but we also felt like we were finally DOING something besides eat.
A few other fun things we did include visit the Karak Castle and shopping… The castle is the same as the movie Kingdom of Heaven is based off of (for anyone who has watched it)… it was built by the crusaders and is an amazing place to climb around! There are tons of pictures coming from this place! Really, there were very few limitations to where we could go – only areas with obviously crumbling rocks had bars or fences around them… It was very, very fun to be free as we looked over the top of VERY high walls!! Some of them 200+ feet straight down!
Shopping in Karak was also something of an experience… if I was to ask any shop keeper a price he would quote me some number, but if a Jordanian were to ask the price would be considerably lower. This is for several reasons – 1) they see English speakers as ignorant, and 2) Tourist simply have more money than Jordanians.
Jordan is a place where people live off of very low incomes. It is strange because the Jordanian Dinar (JD) is worth about $1.40 but the average living wage is only about 200 JDs a month, the wealthier families have about 500 JDs a month. That’s the equivalent of about $300-$700 a month! So all of the prices are directly relative to the income of the people, but to us as Americans the prices were very, very cheap. I bought a ½ a kilo (about a pound) of cinnamon for 2 JDs = about $3. That is SO cheap to me as an American, but to the Jordanian people it is expensive. They only have 200 JDs to live off of each month, so spending 2 whole JDs on cinnamon would be ridiculous.
About day 4 of the trip, a mother (in her 60’s) and son (about 35) joined us at the house. The son has a tumor in his stomach and he is in very serious condition. He’d been receiving treatment in a hospital in Jordan for the past two years but they weren’t able to help him anymore – but there was suddenly promise for him in Israel. There’s a specialist who offered to help him if he could make here into the city. So it was presented to us to try to bring these two with us back over the border into Jerusalem! It would be risky for several reasons – 1) Both of them, the mother and son, were not in great travel condition – she’s old and he’s very sick; 2) Iraqis coming into Israel are often severely questioned and not always allowed in; 3) It could jeopardize the entry visas of us as their travel companions. On top of this – they would need to enter the country through a different crossing than we were planning. We would be going to the closer Allenby (pronounced Allenbee) crossing, but there is a special permit required for Iraqis to go through there – so they would need to go way far north to cross over. And even more exciting – they would need a place to stay for several days before there would be a place for them at the clinic so they would be staying with us in our dorms! After much prayer we were all confident this was a divine appointment and we would help them. Two of our guys, Jonathan and Daniel would travel with them up to the north border, through border control and bring them into Jerusalem. A shuttle took them up to the border, and there was a car waiting for them on the other side waiting to take them south to Jerusalem.
In the meantime the other 6 of us would go through at the Allenby crossing. A friend of Dirks from the church drove us to the crossing – and that was a very interesting car ride! He ended up stopping for directions several times… and we finally got the crossing around 9:30 or 10. That day held a little extra stress because it was the Eve of Yom Kippur – the most holy day of the Jewish calendar. On Yom Kippur everything stops moving – especially in the traditional and orthodox areas. In fact it’s even illegal to drive that day and all the street lights are turned off! Everything begins to close early the day before (it’s a sundown to sundown holiday) so we also knew the border would be closing early that day and lots of people were trying to push through.
There weren’t many people exiting Jordan, but tons of people waiting to get into Israel – but at least there were actual lines and not just mobs of people. And this time there was also no huge Asian tourist group. Getting out of Jordan was not a problem – no questioning, just a little confusing which windows to go to in which order, but hardly anyone in the buildings so there was no stress involved. The Israel side was just a matter of waiting in lines again for several hours. There was some minor questioning involved in receiving our visas – but nothing significant and we all made it back in with the 3 month tourist visas we need. We exited the building and were waiting for the shrute that would take us to Jerusalem – about ½ an hour past and we found out that everything inside was closing down. We had no idea how close we were to not making it though…
Jonathan and Daniel were also questioned some but were able to make it through just fine with the Mother and Son. They found their ride just fine and really didn’t have any significant problems…

There are several more stories to share – but this is quite long enough for now! So much has happened since we got back – we had the Iraqi Muslim lady – Nuria - living with us (living with 11 younger women in a small apartment with 1 bathroom!) and Yom Kippur happened too!
Those stories will come soon as well as pictures on photobucket!
Until then, Shalom!

Going to JORDAN!!

Here is some exciting news!
I leave in the morning for 6 days in Jordan!
At this moment there aren't a lot of details to share about the trip - but you can expect a full report sometime next weekend when I get back! :)
What there is to share:
I'll be gone from Friday morning until Wednesday afternoon...
We'll be in Jordan helping at a medical clinic being hosted at a church in Karak. We don't know much about what we'll be doing. The only thing we know is Saturday we'll spend with the kids/youth of the area. Other than that we do whatever they ask, whenever they need! Like I said - not a whole lot to it just now! Just go and see what happens!
But please be praying for much grace and favor over our trip! There are two specific things -
First - it can be hard sometimes getting over the boarder sometimes.
Second - Jordan is a Muslim country that is very closed to Christianity. Even though we wont be there specifically to share the gospel, we still hope that there will be opportunities!

So, until next weekend! Many blessings to you all!

One month gone!

I’ve been IN Israel now for a month and a few days!! And it’s really starting to gain a home-feel! I am happy to say that while I do miss the community and fellowship I was in back home in Oregon, I am not homesick (Praise the Lord!!). Several other students are dealing with this issue – so keep them in your prayers… I’ve also been slowly picking up little Hebrew phrases, but nothing to get too excited about yet. Just the super basics – hello, yes, no, thank you… etc. Hopefully 8 more months will teach me more!

Today for our Israel Study Tours class (which happens every Monday) we went to Yad Vashem – Jerusalem’s Holocaust Museum. It was certainly a very powerful experience. We were not allowed to take any pictures inside, but it was alright outside – so there will be a few pictures up in the next week… I don’t really know what to say about it honestly. It’s one of those places you have to see for yourself. I do wish we would have had longer to look around; it really could take several days to go through. But since I’ll be here through the December break I expect I’ll go back and make in an ALL day trip. If any of you ever have the chance to go to any such museum it is worth it (I know there is a big one in Washington DC some of you may have been to).

My favorite class has hit a speed bump – and that is our required reading: “All the Messianic Prophesies of the Bible” by Herbert Lockyer. It’s TOUGH to read through. It’s like a very dense text book – the kind filled with so much info on one page that getting through it is like wading through waste-deep mud in the middle of winter. It’s a VERY interesting book – but every time I pick it up it seems like I hit a brick wall after about 10 pages… and we were supposed to read 7 chapters this week = about 125 pages… hmmmm…. haha! Fortunately I know I’m not alone in my wading-through-mud feeling – most all of the other students I’ve talked to feel exactly the same way. It is still my favorite class for its topic… but pray for my diligence in getting through the reading.

Also in the area of school work – I’m working on a report about the Dead Sea Scrolls. We can choose to write about any aspect regarding the scrolls – and so far I’m researching the Copper Scroll… very interesting because it supposedly is a map to hidden temple treasure. But it can’t be found because so many of the sites referenced don’t exist anymore! Funny, eh?! :)

Another bit of news – I may be going on a trip to Jordan this semester! If I go I’ll be a part of a 9-person team of students from our school going to help a church sponsor a medical clinic happening October 3rd-8th. Most likely there wouldn’t be much opportunity for touristy-things (like Petra), but who knows?! Even still, it would be an amazing trip! There are only 9 seats available to go, and already 3 of them are assigned and about 12 more people who want to fill the last 6 seats. Haha! So please just pray that we are sensitive to the Lord’s leading and put together the perfect team that He has planned. Even if I don’t end up going – the team would certainly benefit from more prayer covering! I’ll keep you all posted when I know for sure if I’m going or not – most likely I’ll know by the end of this week…

Love, joy and peace to you all!

School and Travels

Yes – finally a new update!! This blog site isn’t allowing me to upload photos, so I’ve been working on uploading them to my photobucket.com site… so now you can go there anytime you want and look at my “Israel” photos – which are mostly home and Jerusalem photos, and the “Israel Travels” album – which has photos of trips the school has taken…

The link is:
http://s231.photobucket.com/albums/ee15/boldt25/

As for travels… wow! Lots to say!

First of all – a week and a half ago the school took a trip up to the Galilee area. It was a three day trip, and we visited several amazing historical/biblical sites!

The first day (Friday) we started by going up to Mount Carmel and looked over the Plain of Megiddo (where the battle of Armageddon will take place). From there we went down to stay the night in Tiberias.
The second day we stopped first at Nimrod’s Fortress – amazing ancient fortress ruins (lots of pictures of this place), followed by a trip to the temple to Pan (Greek goad god) at Caesarea Philippi in the area of Tel Dan. That day ended with us joining a messianic church service in Tiberias (the pastor is who we were staying with for the weekend), and outreach/worship downtown.

The last day started with an hour of sailing on the Sea of Galilee – VERY fun! The crew brought a bunch of drums and started a drum circle with us out on the water. After sailing we drove up to the top of the Mount of Beattitudes – this was a very interesting place because it is owned by the Roman Catholic Church, and the site is covered by a beautiful church and convent. Next stop that day was the high places at Bethsaida (I don’t remember to what god the high places/alter was built). The last stop that day was the Jordan River, where several people were baptized and we all went for a swim. It was funny because the water was generally only up to our knees… but it was very welcome on such a hot day. And that night we drove back to Jerusalem…

It was a really fun trip! We drove around in rented cars – which we packed to the max. It turned into a great bonding experience for us all too… it was SO HOT up there all weekend we were all sweaty and stinky and packed together into these cars – there was nothing to do but be friendly! I don’t know how, but being just as hot, sweaty and uncomfortable as those around you is great for bonding… haha! J

More recently, the Monday of this week we all went to the Shrine of the Book Museum where many of the Dead Sea Scrolls are kept. For those of you who aren’t completely familiar with why these are special – most of these scrolls are the oldest known copies of historical/biblical texts ever found. One of the most famous is the “Great Isaiah Scroll” which is the most complete of any scroll, as well as the longest scroll (something like 730 cm or just over 24 ft long!). These scrolls were written by the Essenes in Quamran. It’s a really long story to explain who these people were and what they did – so if you want to know more about them I recommend you Google it… it’s a pretty interesting history lesson…

A random funny thing – I’ve learned to eat pomegranates without making a huge mess!

I’m starting to miss a few things from home… it’s not homesickness - it's more like things that are very middle-eastern instead of American that I would change -
For example coffee. I enjoy a good cup of coffee, but it is SO expensive to buy a cup of coffee here! There is no such thing as “house coffee” – the closest is an americano – but the cheapest you can find it is about 12 shekels, equal to about $3.50 (for an americano!). More exciting drinks get into the $5-6 range… so I don’t drink coffee very often (not a huge inconvenience). You might suggest buying coffee grounds, but that is also pretty expensive…

Thank you all so much again for the love and prayers you continue to tell me about! It means a lot to know people are thinking of me back home! J
If any of you want specific prayer requests shoot me an e-mail (h_boldt@hotmail.com) and I’d be happy to give more detail…

Much love to you all!