So, my friend Kathryn Miller is a supporting lead actor in 'The Covenant' in Jerusalem: a musical production that covers the History of the Hebrew people from Abraham until the Modern State of Israel.  I told Kathryn I would go this Thurday night.  PROBLEM... I was out late the night before and had about 5 hours of sleep, so when I got home from school, I decided to take a nap and accidently set my alarm clock for the wrong time.  I woke up naturally at 6:43pm... The Covenant started at 8pm... and the theatre in Jerusalem is about 1 1/2 hours away (door-to-door).  I almost canceled, but I don't like going back on my word, so... I bit the bullet and hired a cab to take me to the bus station, got on the first bus, then hired another cab to take me to the theatre.  IT WAS SOOO WORTH IT!!! I showed only about 20 minutes late, and had to sneak into the theatre (don't worry, I paid afterwards).  I was so impressed with the production.  Kathryn and the rest of the cast were incredible!  The music, story-line, script, costumes... everything was spectacular.  Afterward, Kathryn invited me to hang out with her and some of the crew at the Blue Hole, the oldest Pub in Jerusalem.  I ordered a pizza because I hadn't eaten since lunch... BAD IDEA!  The Blue Hole, but the pizza tasted like it was just as old as the building.  I will never eat there again!  YUCK!!!  Oh well, I had an amazing time, and I am so glad everything worked out.

(For more information about The Covenant, visit: http://www.thecovenant.com)

 
 

This week has been alot of fun at the University.  The undergraduates arrived this week, so the campus is more crowded, which is a new experience for me.  The comunity businesses (primarily banks, phone companies, etc.) have been holding an expo in the commons at school... At any given time hundreds of students could be seen snagging free frozen yogurts or other gifts for registering for bank accounts, etc.  It was alot of fun.  On Mondays and Tuesdays, I basically have class from 8:30 to 6pm, so needless to say, I am tired.  I wanted to post some pictures and update everyone.
I also turned in my ballot again today... I got an email from the election office in El Dorado County saying they received my original ballot but that I didn't sign it, so they needed me to resubmit it to them.  It was half relieving and half frustrating.  On the one hand, I knew they would count my vote, but on the other, my longest break today was taken-up by running to different places around campus trying to print, sign, fax, and then mail my ballot to El Dorado County... BUT... I performed my duty, and I can proudly claim that: I VOTED TODAY!!!!

 
 

So this weekend was very interesting, to say the least.  On Shabbat, I went, with my roommates, to a messianic congregation in Tel Aviv for a very nice and VERY HEBREW service.  Infact, I could only understand about 1/4th to 1/3rd of the what the speaker was saying, but I got the point: he was speaking about the power of the name of Yeshua.  On Sunday (though it was still my weekend, this is the first day of the workweek in Israel), I slept in and decided to take the bus to Jerusalem.  I seem to have made a habit of this, and I absolutely love Jerusalem.  There is no place like it on earth.  I was able to visit the Shuk in the center-city and get a nice taste of the mundane and yet colorful life of everyday Jerusalem.  After that, I went to King of Kings - Jerusalem for yet another service, but this one was 80% English... I say 75% because, though the speaking is done in English, about half of the music is sung in Hebrew with the translations available on powerpoint.  I absolutely love this!  There is just something about praising God in His language of revelation that I love.  A world-renown Messianic Praise and Worship leader was there: Paul Wilbur.  I have included a little video so you can see what the service looked like.  It was powerful.  Everyone was really into praising God, and Paul was very enthusiastic about praying for Jerusalem.  He was unapologetic about speaking out against Obama.  He didn't use his name but he claimed that one of the candidates was a long-time supporter of Israel, and the other was caught on video as saying "the Israel experiment was a mistake!"  (I have included a news brief highlighting Obama's connection with Rashid Kalidi - a former PLO spokesperson to show that Paul Wilbur wasn't off in saying such things).  Paul asked us to petition for Israel in this hard time, and to pray for American leaders who stand with Israel.
Afterward, a lady-friend invited me to dinner with her family at a fantastic (and posh) italian place called "Spagettim." The 'im' is the masculine-plural suffix ending in Hebrew.  Overall, it was a brilliant weekend.

 
Facing My Giants 11/01/2008
 

So, for Halloween, Omer invited me to go play a game of soccer with some of his friends... after I said yes, he informed me that, like him, many of the people playing were immigrants from Latin-America.  Omer is from Peru and made Aliyah (immigrated to Israel) several years ago with his family.  Part of being Latin-American is eating, drinking and breathing Futbol... SO... needless, to say, I was a bit intimidated.
For the first couple of hours, I did well... I almost scored a goal and I played even better defense/mid-field... But after a couple of hours, my lack of rest from the night before (from working on the blog) caught up with me, and the Latin-Americans were crushing me.  Actually, I 'got schooled!'  I think the worst was when I was put in the goal, called 'shoar' in Hebrew... I think I only blocked 1 ball... the rest I failed.  
The moral of the story:  If underdogs (especially the ones named David) never went up against the bigger and the badder, I wouldn't be living in ISRAEL right now... Because Goliath would have defeated King Saul's army for the Philistines... So... I fight, even when I don't have the confidence of a King... Or rather... I play!