Updates from July 08/19/2009
I suppose I have quite a few updates since I've posted last... July was a sort of transition month for me... I knew I would be heading to the states, and I had just returned from an amazing time in Romania, so I wasn't terribly active... I did, however, visit a Sudanese Refugee Center at the end of month and it gave me a renewed sense of blessing. These people have so much joy and thanksgiving in their hearts, even though they have nothing. Most of them are living in Israel illegally or on temporary visas, and cannot even work, and because they've been to Israel, the hostile Islamic Combatants in Sudan will execute them upon their return, so they are truly homeless. It really impacted me. That evening, we invited the director over to our home for a mixer with some of the donors of the project, and we had so much fun... I'll post some photos below of the mixer, but I won't post pictures of the refugees for security reasons.   Shavuot Holiday Weekend 06/10/2009
Shavuot is the holiday that reminds us of when God revealed to us His Torah. Because of the kosher laws that were established from that, Jews around the world eat only dairy (no meat), and many stay up all night reading from the Tanakh (the Bible), especially the book of Ruth. People also wear something white - which doesn't work out to well when you spill tomato sauce all over yourself. I spent Shavuot eve with my cousin Tuvya's in-laws, and then the next day we went up to Moshav Liman where my cousin Clarissa lives (Tuvya's parents). It was a great time. There were all sorts of activities for the children, and as always, good food!
PURIM 03/11/2009
Purim is a fun holiday commemorating the salvation of the jews from the wicked plot of Haman (boo) to kill the jews in the Persian empire, as found in the book of Esther. It has become something like the American Halloween - where everyone dresses up, there are parades... and lots of drinking. I am not one for the last part, but dressing up... SURE!!! I dressed up twice... once as a japanese tourist, complete with my camera - and another time as a cowboy. I even tried to go to the parade in Holon... little did I know that, though a suburb of Tel Aviv, Holon takes over 1 1/2 hours to get to on the bus - especially during the parade... SO - I missed out... Oh well. BUT - I got to see the relatives in the evening, and at night a bunch of friends went "BAWLING" (bowling). AND I ate way too many Oznei-Haman (hamantashen in yiddish - haman's ears/hats in english) - YUM!!!!  Joyce and I left from the Jaffa Gate of the Old City in Jerusalem and took a minibus to Rachel's Pass - the border crossing for Bethlehem. We befriended a really nice guy named Saed there who is a Palestinian Christian. We walked about 2 miles to the Manger Square - and all along the way, the town of Bethlehem had Christmas lights - EVERYWHERE. It was so festive. At the Manger Square, there were thousands of people (mostly Muslims and Christians) visiting for the holiday. There were musicians from all over the world performing on the stage, and food vendor outside of the gift shops selling hot Corn-on-the-Cob, Falafels and Shwarmas. Joyce and I walked around for a couple of hours, and then we thought we would try to get into the Church of the Nativity. It seemed impossible as tickets are rare and need to be arranged days in advance - and so I prayed. God answered with a yes. We met a man name Paul from Australia who was training to be a Roman Catholic priest. He asked a couple beside us if they could use two extra tickets to the church... they suprisingly said no, and so I piped up... "Joyce and I would love the tickets - How much?" "Nothing, I'm giving them away!" He said, and handed us the tickets. We were able to enter the church for the Midnight mass and we were there for a good portion of the festivities. We left at around 1:30 and went into the Orthodox section of the Church later - then caught a cab back to Tel Aviv. It was an unforgettable experience!
My friend Joyce and I went to a wonderful Christmas concert at the Jerusalem International YMCA. It was so well done. We were so thankful to hear about it. The man giving the message was the Executive Director of the YMCA and he shared the ties between the prophesies of Isaiah and Michah and the birth of Jesus. He also shared a verse I wasn't expecting... What does God expect of us, he asked? And he read one of my favorite passage
My friend Joyce (from the Netherlands) and I went to Jerusalem to meet up with some other friends in Bethlehem for Christmas Eve. Joyce and I wanted to go to the Christmas Caroling Concert at the International YMCA Jerusalem. Right across the street is the world-famous King David Hotel - the most luxurious hotel in Israel. We wanted to check it out. When we entered the lobby, we saw in the back there was a giant Chanukiyah (Chanukah Menorah) and below it was a table with dozens of small Chanukiyot, some lit and some waiting to be lit. Well... Joyce and I thought we should help light one, so I put on one of the Kippas (Yarmulkas) sang the blessing as quietly as I could (I am not that good and I didn't want anyone correcting me). It was really special. And four is one of my favorite numbers. I got to light the fourth night Chanukiyah in the KING DAVID HOTEL! So Cool!
Chanukah Time with Nolas Family 12/25/2008
A good family friend, Nola Moss, who has served as the tour guide for many of our family's trips to Israel, invited me to spend the first night of Chanukah with her family. It was my first Chanukah experience in Israel. It was filled with Zeviv'nim (Dreidels), Candle-light, laughter, music - and of course - lots of fried food. Chanukah is the celebration of the victory of the Jews over the Greek invaders when they were trying to desecrate the Holy Temple. They only had enough oil for 1 night, but a miracle happened... the oil lasted 8 nights! Well - we celebrate by eating oily things. Yum! Latka's, Sufganiot, Fried Apples... You name it! It was there!
Semester at Sea Spring 2005. I'm so thankful for God's hand of protection on me! Israeli Praise Music 2008 Concert 12/19/2008
About 1300 Israelis gathered (half at 6:00pm and half at 8:45pm) for an all-Hebrew Praise experience on Thursday night at the Pavilion Jerusalem. 18 songs that were written in 2008 were introduced to Israel and were recorded live for the new CD coming out in the spring. It was so exciting to see everyone praising God with such enthusiasm - and all of it was in Hebrew. I haven't learned alot of the Biblical words necessary to understand all of the songs, but I had a great time! Afterward, I was invited to a birthday party and I didn't get back to Tel Aviv until 4am! Yikes. I'm paying the consequences for it now - I'm SICK!!! Yuck!     A Weekend of Praise and Policy 11/04/2008
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.
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