Ok so i am pretty sure i left off before we left for Eilat (pronounced eh-lat). We left Thursday after having class in the morning and eating lunch. We were told it was going to be a 4 hour journey on our tour bus, but instead took a scenic route and arrived 6 hours later. It was a long bus ride, I thought some of us were going to lose it. At one point in the journey we stopped at a coffee shop and got a drink called glasspresso. A combination of the words Glida (ice cream) and espresso. It was really good, I finished mine and proceeded to sample from everyone else's as well. We arrived at like 7 pm at night and walked into to town for schwarma. It was good, but the outside temperature was much colder than everyone had expected. I got a little nervous because I was afraid it was going to maintain this temperature, but fortunately it did not. That night we realized just how small the rooms at the hostel were. 8 girls were placed in one room with only one bathroom, I saw that disaster coming.
The next morning we were up early for a "hike" and some volunteer work. We went to a national park in the desert called Timna park. The bus pulled up to a replica Tabernacle and we were given a quick debrief and sent to work on the Tabernacle. Some people were re-doing the back of the outer fence, some were washing the temple, some were wiring some poles to their original positions. I was using wire on a gutter like thing that hid the wires that gave the holy of holies air conditioning. So basically the entire time we are here, I am laughing to myself. I mean, air conditioning in the holy of holies (a tent)? While we were being debriefed a dog wandered up and sat at the feet of the manequin high priest, I thought it was funny. Not only that but when I finished my job, I went to help clean the tabernacle, they had "We are Never Getting Back Together" by taylor Swift playing, but not just playing, they had the phone sitting on the altar of incense in the blood bowl to amplify the sound, so funny! I just couldn't get over all the funnies. What once was a very holy thing, is now a wood replica which holds only the symbolism of today's temple (our bodies).
After we finished desecrating the Tabernacle we got a cheap lunch at the restaurant there. Then we headed out for a "hike." Why do I keep putting hike in parentheses? Because Sigler doesn't know what a hike is. He thinks that short walks down sidewalks are hikes, so we never know what to expect when he says "hike" to us. This theory rang true when our hike consisted of driving up to Solomon's pillars (just a rock formation) climbing up to the top and going back to the bus. I was bored and offerred to race people back to the bus, hoping to get some actual exercise in. Once we were back on the bus, we headed back to the shelter to change into swimsuits for snorkeling. we spent a couple of hours on the shore of the Red Sea snorkeling. I had never snorkeled before besides in our pool for pennies, and was sooo excited about this. It was super fun, even though the water was kind of cold. And we even saw the poisonous fish that we were told to avoid, the Lion Fish. That night we went back to the shelter for a little service and some quick fellowship (which in the south means we ate together :) Afterwards, a bunch of us escaped to the park and sat and talked for a while.
The next morning we went to church in a little Jewish church, and sang in Spanish, hebrew, and russian. It was pretty fun, but I was so tired I was struggling to enjoy it to the utmost. Afterwards we went and bought some meat, whcih everyone was excited about since the Hostel/Shelter is Kosher. After that we went to the beach for an over the fire lunch. It was super yummy, and we got to snorkel again until 5 that afternoon. This day, the water was freezing and when I got out I had the shivers for at least another hour. after that we went back to the hostel to get ready for the Purim party. Purim is a Jewish holiday that celebrates when Esther saved the Jews from annihilation. For some reason they dress up like halloween (I didn't catch why they do that, sorry). We threw some last minute costumes together and headed to the party. The church had a group put on a skit, and two of our guys put on a skit, it was pretty funny. Afterwards, me and my friends once again slipped away to walk around Eilat and enjoy our small amount of freedom.
The next morning we went to the Red Canyon for a "hike" but this time it was a hike. We walked out on top of the rocks and came back through or underneath the rocks, it was fun because we got to climb and goof off and burn some energy. After that we went straight to the beach for just one more trip out snorkeling. This time we saw bigger fish, it was pretty fun, but I got out early because I had volunteered to help with lunch, and wouldn't have time to shower or dry off. It was so nice to spend some time in the sun, even if it was only a little bit of time. Afterwards we went to the hostel to pack up and have lunch. This time when we headed out we told four hours, we knew to expect more. This time we stopped at the Best Ice cream place in israel. I got chocolate and cherry, and it was so yummy :) We finally got back after 5 hours of traveling adn were actually happy to be back in a familiar and bigger place. Afterwards we all got to looking at how much homework we have and I personally freaked out a little. While everyone else skyped their parents, i was trying to do as much homework as possible before it got too late. Needless to say I am beginning to doubt the worth of that trip after getting up at 8am monday morning for 10 hours of class. It is hard to pay attention and get something out of class when I have so much to do and I am so tired. But we must go on, and so we do.
This week I am asking for prayer, I have the jerusalem 10k on Friday and we haven't been able to run as often because of how busy we have been. Pray for patience for everyone and stamina for those of us running. Love you guys, hopefully more info later this week. I believer we are leaving Sunday for our 10 day spring break trip/tour. Unless the bus has it we might have to go without good internet for a while. hasta luego!
Monday, February 25, 2013
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Taking the plunge
Ok guys, so I haven't written in a while because we haven't done a lot. Everyone had papers and projects due over the weekend so we really haven't done much worth blogging about.
On a personal and not just Israel note, I got word Tuesday that my great grandmother had died. I knew it was coming, but what I didn't know was how much it would effect me. The morning I got the facebook message, it hit me kind of hard. I had a feeling it was going to be a rough day. I don't usually share things like that until after, I like to deal with things before I can talk about it. Knowing my mom was on a mission trip in guatemala and I was here, and we would both miss the funeral, and my precious Grandmother would be upset, and I couldn't be there, and just all of this weighing down on me. But I got to go running twice that day (and we all know what that does for me :) It ended up being a good day, and I thank God for that, because my emotional state would not have been healthy if it hadn't of changed.
Later on thursday, I received an email telling me that I had gotten my dream job which I had earnestly applied for about 2 months ago. I have been waiting and waiting to hear from them. I sat down and cired (not sobbing but shed a few tears) simply because I had begged God for this job, unashamedly BEGGED him to give it to me. I applied two places and he gave me both. As of now, I am praying and seeking His will in what job to take, reguardless of what I want, I need to do what God wants me to, I'll update you on that later.
Friday night we had our own personal church service. Which I found very precious. Sunday we went to King David City on Mt. Mariah, (Zion) and walked through Hezekiah's tunnel. I have posted videos and pictures on facebook. We were told to wear shorts and water shoes, but we weren't told that we would be touring before we went into the tunnel so those of us in very little clothing were freezing in the 50 degree weather. Once we started descending into the tunnel we got really excited though.
On a personal and not just Israel note, I got word Tuesday that my great grandmother had died. I knew it was coming, but what I didn't know was how much it would effect me. The morning I got the facebook message, it hit me kind of hard. I had a feeling it was going to be a rough day. I don't usually share things like that until after, I like to deal with things before I can talk about it. Knowing my mom was on a mission trip in guatemala and I was here, and we would both miss the funeral, and my precious Grandmother would be upset, and I couldn't be there, and just all of this weighing down on me. But I got to go running twice that day (and we all know what that does for me :) It ended up being a good day, and I thank God for that, because my emotional state would not have been healthy if it hadn't of changed.
Later on thursday, I received an email telling me that I had gotten my dream job which I had earnestly applied for about 2 months ago. I have been waiting and waiting to hear from them. I sat down and cired (not sobbing but shed a few tears) simply because I had begged God for this job, unashamedly BEGGED him to give it to me. I applied two places and he gave me both. As of now, I am praying and seeking His will in what job to take, reguardless of what I want, I need to do what God wants me to, I'll update you on that later.
Friday night we had our own personal church service. Which I found very precious. Sunday we went to King David City on Mt. Mariah, (Zion) and walked through Hezekiah's tunnel. I have posted videos and pictures on facebook. We were told to wear shorts and water shoes, but we weren't told that we would be touring before we went into the tunnel so those of us in very little clothing were freezing in the 50 degree weather. Once we started descending into the tunnel we got really excited though.
It was a shockingly long walk but we made it, and then we explored around the remains of the pool of Siloam, it is sad that the Greek Orthodox church will not let the IAA (israeli antiquity authority) dig up the rest of what is there. But that is really the story of almost all of the Biblical locations, there is probably really cool stuff there, but no one will let them dig it up!
We are going to some sort of Museum today and Thursday we leave to go to our snorkeling spot. I am really looking forward to some 80 degree weather and some beach! Really cannot wait. Talk to you guys soon!
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Not so Holy places
2 Chronicles 6 Solomon’s Dedication
Then Solomon said,
“The Lord has said that He would dwell in the thick cloud.
2 “I have built You a lofty house,
And a place for Your dwelling forever.”
2 “I have built You a lofty house,
And a place for Your dwelling forever.”
3 Then the king [a]faced about and blessed all the assembly of Israel, while all the assembly of Israel was standing. 4 He said, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who spoke with His mouth to my father David and has fulfilled it with His hands, saying...."
The Shekinah Glory
7:1 Now when Solomon had finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the house. 2 The priests could not enter into the house of the Lord because the glory of the Lord filled the Lord’s house. 3 All the sons of Israel, seeing the fire come down and the glory of the Lordupon the house, bowed down on the pavement with their faces to the ground, and they worshiped and gave praise to the Lord,saying, “Truly He is good, truly His lovingkindness is everlasting.”
Holy, is the Lord God Almighty that he would leave his place in heaven and become a man, suffer, die, rise again, ascend, and send his Spirit to dwell in us!
Guys, I know I just wrote but we did my favorite thing today and I have to tell you about it!
This morning we started out for the Temple Mount, but it was closed when we got there so we ended up learning about the "Western Wall" and going to that. My Prof doesn't want us to call it the wailing wall, because WE aren't suppose to be wailing about anything. I think its ok to say what I am about to though. Just to get into the wailing wall, one must go through a metal detector and have their bag rummaged through. When I was walking up, my first thought was, "Is that really it?" In my head, the western wall shined and shimmered with God's glory, and it held a sort of awe. But in the wise words of my professor, "Its just blocks stacked up to make a wall that was a retaining wall for the temple, many many years ago, we don't worship it." So true, but still.
As we stood in front of the wailing wall and heard the chapters above, chills ran up and down my spine, and tears filled my eyes, not because I was mourning the loss of this place, but because I mourned for those who stood here and had no idea about the "big picture." I was sad for the people who worked here and lived here in this once holy spot, and did not even remotely know the sweet merciful God, that had once dwelt here!
In FIRE! He came to this place in FIRE! Can you even begin to imagine the awe and fear that one would feel, standing there? My knees would have hit the ground so fast, surgery wouldn't have healed it. The king of Kings showed a tiny peice of his power and allowed HIS PRESENCE to DWELL here! Can you imagine?!
Anyways you can understand my awe as I stepped up to the wailing wall (above). Lord! Your OWN people don't even know! Oh GOD! Bring them to you! Deliver your people! As a space cleared and stepped closer and placed a shaking hand on the wall. PEACE. His timing is perfect. He knows who will call on His name, HE knows. And yet He still loves.
We got to put a prayer on a piece of paper in the wall. What did mine say?
"Hear O Israel the Lord our God the Lord is One. Take my life Lord and let it be consecrated to You. Lord, Deliver your people! Intervene and save your people! Take me for whatever I may be worth and help me reach your people! Love, Maribeth"
There is NOTHING like standing before that wall and thinking of my God is so vast a way....It was very precious and I wished to have stood there for the whole day. But alas, I had to move on.
To the Dome of the Rock. Here I didn't know what to expect, until I went through security. Outside the little mobile home which held the security scanners, lay BIBLES. A few of us were puzzled as to why, but I instantly got it..NO BIBLES ON THE TEMPLE MOUNT. Can you imagine? What would Solomon say? The Holy writ thrown out of a building as people attempted to enter the temple mount. I was immediately overwhelmed. This is the place where God dwelt, this is OUR place, OUR history. But no, the Muslims have taken over. there was a small corner of the larger mount where there were pillars left over from the 2nd temple era, and i felt that this was the only thing left to Jesus followers! How humbling, it is hard to believe that God's presence EVER dwelt here. a mosque and the Dome of the Rock, nothing Christian there. how sad to imagine it!
Well thats about all I got. People in our group got their Bibles back, it was still sad. thanks for listening to my vent, I guess it just really disturbed my spirit, idk. See you guys later!
Sunday, February 10, 2013
Praise the Lord and pass the Pita
Holy Smokes guys. the holy land is so cool! Ok so where I left off....The next day we had EIGHT HOURS of class...why? Because you can't tour when it rains, and it rained ALL DAY. So now, we all HATE rain with a passion!
The next day we left early to tour all day I got to go on top of the wall of Jerusalem and walk around! So cool right? We got to see the Christian Quarter and the Muslim quarter. It was so cool to see all around Jerusalem! At the end we came back down at the Damascus Gate which is Arab/ Muslim area. We were instructed to pull out our modesty kit (in regular terms: scarves) and cover our necks and shoulders as much as possible. The guys in our group were instructed to surround the women and this is how we were to walk through the "Shuk" or Arab open air market. I was fine until someone asked why we were to do this. Apparently last year, on this trip, a girl was minding her own business, but not covered up (without scarf) and an arab man walked up and gave her a bear hug and started speaking to her in Arabic. Apparently he thought she was a hooker. YAY.
We made it through the Shuk fine, of course there was that occassional creepy stare at our ankles that we got for those of us wearing capris but the guys were careful to surround and watch out for us. My nick name in the group is MBI (oh, haha like our school!) (I dont like it), but I am trying to get Mcbeth to catch on since the guys are determined to give everyone a brand new nick name. Anyways, during this escapade through the Shuk one of the guys steps up to my left side and says "Don't worry MBI, I will protect you" haha thank you, thank you very much!
After the Shuk, we had lunch at Beit yehuda and then..Surprise! 2 hours of class, so much for touring all day. After that everyone went back to their rooms and passed out for an hour before dinner. After dinner we had homework and locating toilet paper. Wait, did I just say locating toilet paper? yes, yes I did. Apparently they don't care if you run out toilet paper here. So we make late night runs to the public restrooms in the building to steal toilet paper...BAD TO THE BONE.
The next day, Friday (Feb. 8) we had normal class, but wait theres always a catch! At our half way break (two hours in) we went to another class to hear from our leader abour Shabbat, the Jewish day of rest. So we sat in there (on accident) talking about and asking questions about what to wear and how to act that night for the Shabbat dinner. Apparently richer Jews, can afford to stay in a hotel so that their Shabbat is more restful. They have strict rules about not turning the lights on or off and not driving or cooking or standing to use the restroom. I mean it all sounds weird to us, but cant you think of a few people who just need a freaking Shabbat? haha. I do. What customs they observer and dont oberve pertains to who their rabbi is, kinda scary right? Anyways, we got the afternoon off, our first significant amount of free time and we did homework and I accidentaly took a two hour nap....obviously I needed it though. After that I got up and all the girls were prepping to look good for Erev Shabbat the opening night of Shabbat.
They have a giant meal and dress up and sing songs and light candles signaling the beginning. We walked in to our dining hall ( the hotel is created to accomodate these guests) and it was flipped into a nice dining Jew party. ha. They had all kinds of celebration dinner foods and breads, of course our tables were easily recognized...why? We had non-alcoholic wine at our table. haha of course...no fun for us! Just kidding.
We sat down, and our prof walked us through blessing our wine, passing bread around and blessing it and we ate. It was fun to experience so much culture around us! We enjoyed our first Shabbat, but it wasn't minutes after returning from dinner that we had changed from churchy clothes to sport shorts and tees and tennis shoes, to play SOCCER! So fun! We split into teams of three. unfortunately we played on the edge of our compound near a fence bordering palestinian people. I was the genius who managed to boot the ball over the fence...twice. sorry guys! At least I got a goal or two in, right?
Ok this next day takes so much explanation, I HAVE to shorten it. Sorry! my hands are cramping from all this typing and my eyes are slowly coming to a close. Saturday we headed out to a Messianic Jewish congregation church-thing. The service was completely split into jewish and then translated into english. It was SO hard to follow, but SO FUN you guys! You just don't even know! I was eating up every ounce of it I could get. After two hours though my brain was so done. Afterwards they had a luncheon which ended up lasting 3 hours. You can imagine how DONE we were after that. But we headed out to Jericho instead. I posted pictures on Facebook, but the hills were brilliant as we descended from a couple thousand feet above sea level to a couple hundred below. The verses from psalm were ringing true in all our heads about the mountains surrounding jerusalem and the grass withering and the flowers fading. there is nothing like watching scripture come alive before your eyes!
We finally got to Jericho and HOW HUMBLING it was to stand before the ruins of a once powerful city! Our leader brought along a friend archaeologist to describe what we were looking at and we hopped a couple of fences (im pretty sure it was pretty illegal) and got ABSOLUTE INSIDER information! Guys! ONCE IN A LIFE TIME doesn't begin to describe this stuff! It was amazing! next we loaded up the bus for herod's winter palace ruins. That wasn't as impressive since it was far away because of a very convenient road block, but there was a wonderful sunset that we got to take pictures in front of.
Sunday! We went to a SOUTHERN BAPTIST church y'all!! It was so fun! Some of our group did music and Sig preached! There were two guys from ALABAMA in the congregation! SO fun :) oh, and free food after services seems to be a very very good theme around here! We had pre-packed luinches and headed out to the city once again. We took a detour for ice cream and then headed to the rockafeller museum which the security guard was closing. NOT A PROBLEM. Our leader knows everyone! We got a personalized (speedy) tour from the security guard of the museum! It was so cool! I can't remember everything that was there, but one thing was an ACTUAL tomb from Jericho that they found in the ruins...SO COOL.
After that we spent two hours in a library FILLED with ancient biblical texts that PHDs from all over the world travel there to take advantage of...SOO COOL! Then we were left in the middle of the city and told to find our way...it was easy.
Sorry for all the rushed entries, but I am so crunched for time! I HAVE to go to bed now, but I heard about all of you guys praying for me from my parents and I wanted to thank you so much! I SUPER appreciate all of the support! Love y'all! Laila Tov (Good night)
The next day we left early to tour all day I got to go on top of the wall of Jerusalem and walk around! So cool right? We got to see the Christian Quarter and the Muslim quarter. It was so cool to see all around Jerusalem! At the end we came back down at the Damascus Gate which is Arab/ Muslim area. We were instructed to pull out our modesty kit (in regular terms: scarves) and cover our necks and shoulders as much as possible. The guys in our group were instructed to surround the women and this is how we were to walk through the "Shuk" or Arab open air market. I was fine until someone asked why we were to do this. Apparently last year, on this trip, a girl was minding her own business, but not covered up (without scarf) and an arab man walked up and gave her a bear hug and started speaking to her in Arabic. Apparently he thought she was a hooker. YAY.
We made it through the Shuk fine, of course there was that occassional creepy stare at our ankles that we got for those of us wearing capris but the guys were careful to surround and watch out for us. My nick name in the group is MBI (oh, haha like our school!) (I dont like it), but I am trying to get Mcbeth to catch on since the guys are determined to give everyone a brand new nick name. Anyways, during this escapade through the Shuk one of the guys steps up to my left side and says "Don't worry MBI, I will protect you" haha thank you, thank you very much!
After the Shuk, we had lunch at Beit yehuda and then..Surprise! 2 hours of class, so much for touring all day. After that everyone went back to their rooms and passed out for an hour before dinner. After dinner we had homework and locating toilet paper. Wait, did I just say locating toilet paper? yes, yes I did. Apparently they don't care if you run out toilet paper here. So we make late night runs to the public restrooms in the building to steal toilet paper...BAD TO THE BONE.
The next day, Friday (Feb. 8) we had normal class, but wait theres always a catch! At our half way break (two hours in) we went to another class to hear from our leader abour Shabbat, the Jewish day of rest. So we sat in there (on accident) talking about and asking questions about what to wear and how to act that night for the Shabbat dinner. Apparently richer Jews, can afford to stay in a hotel so that their Shabbat is more restful. They have strict rules about not turning the lights on or off and not driving or cooking or standing to use the restroom. I mean it all sounds weird to us, but cant you think of a few people who just need a freaking Shabbat? haha. I do. What customs they observer and dont oberve pertains to who their rabbi is, kinda scary right? Anyways, we got the afternoon off, our first significant amount of free time and we did homework and I accidentaly took a two hour nap....obviously I needed it though. After that I got up and all the girls were prepping to look good for Erev Shabbat the opening night of Shabbat.
They have a giant meal and dress up and sing songs and light candles signaling the beginning. We walked in to our dining hall ( the hotel is created to accomodate these guests) and it was flipped into a nice dining Jew party. ha. They had all kinds of celebration dinner foods and breads, of course our tables were easily recognized...why? We had non-alcoholic wine at our table. haha of course...no fun for us! Just kidding.
We sat down, and our prof walked us through blessing our wine, passing bread around and blessing it and we ate. It was fun to experience so much culture around us! We enjoyed our first Shabbat, but it wasn't minutes after returning from dinner that we had changed from churchy clothes to sport shorts and tees and tennis shoes, to play SOCCER! So fun! We split into teams of three. unfortunately we played on the edge of our compound near a fence bordering palestinian people. I was the genius who managed to boot the ball over the fence...twice. sorry guys! At least I got a goal or two in, right?
Ok this next day takes so much explanation, I HAVE to shorten it. Sorry! my hands are cramping from all this typing and my eyes are slowly coming to a close. Saturday we headed out to a Messianic Jewish congregation church-thing. The service was completely split into jewish and then translated into english. It was SO hard to follow, but SO FUN you guys! You just don't even know! I was eating up every ounce of it I could get. After two hours though my brain was so done. Afterwards they had a luncheon which ended up lasting 3 hours. You can imagine how DONE we were after that. But we headed out to Jericho instead. I posted pictures on Facebook, but the hills were brilliant as we descended from a couple thousand feet above sea level to a couple hundred below. The verses from psalm were ringing true in all our heads about the mountains surrounding jerusalem and the grass withering and the flowers fading. there is nothing like watching scripture come alive before your eyes!
We finally got to Jericho and HOW HUMBLING it was to stand before the ruins of a once powerful city! Our leader brought along a friend archaeologist to describe what we were looking at and we hopped a couple of fences (im pretty sure it was pretty illegal) and got ABSOLUTE INSIDER information! Guys! ONCE IN A LIFE TIME doesn't begin to describe this stuff! It was amazing! next we loaded up the bus for herod's winter palace ruins. That wasn't as impressive since it was far away because of a very convenient road block, but there was a wonderful sunset that we got to take pictures in front of.
Sunday! We went to a SOUTHERN BAPTIST church y'all!! It was so fun! Some of our group did music and Sig preached! There were two guys from ALABAMA in the congregation! SO fun :) oh, and free food after services seems to be a very very good theme around here! We had pre-packed luinches and headed out to the city once again. We took a detour for ice cream and then headed to the rockafeller museum which the security guard was closing. NOT A PROBLEM. Our leader knows everyone! We got a personalized (speedy) tour from the security guard of the museum! It was so cool! I can't remember everything that was there, but one thing was an ACTUAL tomb from Jericho that they found in the ruins...SO COOL.
After that we spent two hours in a library FILLED with ancient biblical texts that PHDs from all over the world travel there to take advantage of...SOO COOL! Then we were left in the middle of the city and told to find our way...it was easy.
Sorry for all the rushed entries, but I am so crunched for time! I HAVE to go to bed now, but I heard about all of you guys praying for me from my parents and I wanted to thank you so much! I SUPER appreciate all of the support! Love y'all! Laila Tov (Good night)
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
Ran where he walked
First I want to start with saying that I am so content. Not long ago I wrote about being in the center of God's will and loving it. And yet, here I am again, in the center of His will and happy. My heart is full. Let me just tell you there is NOTHING like being where Jesus has been. I have barely begun to walk through this land and I am overwhelmed by the love and care that our Lord has bestowed on His people.
On a lighter note, I have been on a constant adventure. The first day in the holy land was quite spectacular. We drove to Bethlehem and had some smoothies, which ended up ALL being the same flavor because the poor Arab guiy didnt understand any of us.
Afterwards we went to the shepherds field, which is where it is believed that the angels appeared to the shepherds for Jesus' birth and one of our professors gave a first person narrative lecture about the shepherds. It was great to sit (maybe) in the same spot where angels appeared and know that looking to the hill top on my left is where Jesus was born! I will post pictures later on Facebook, or here.
Afterwards we went to yet another Arab restaurant where we had a Pita dinner. There is a ton of Pita and you get to dip it in all kinds of things. We also had filaffel which was good and Bacclava for desert. We spent the whole dinner laughing our heads off, of course we were all tired since we had gotten a mere 2 hours of sleep the night before, but I can already tell we are going to be tight.
After dinner we returned to our Hostel where we had "orientation" which turned out to be a dating prohibition and a 3 person outing requirement speech that we all could have lived without. we slept for almost 7 hours that night! What a treat! Everyone was so happy, it didn't even matter that most of us were on the floor and inches away from our roommates..maybe a little.
The next morning we were off to the original place we were suppose to stay, Beit Yehuda, a really nice hotel thing with delicious food and warm non-inflatable beds. Before we could go there, we had MORE TOURING to do! into the old city of Jerusalem through the old gate we went our head professor, Dr. Sigler (im going to call him Sig) was making a Jewish accent and yelling at all of us. That was kind of annoying, but i am pretty sure he was just really excited and struggling to express it properly. We walked through the old city for a while (just enough to wet our taste buds and we were back on the bus heading to Beit Yehuda. We finally arrived at our hotel and we were so happy to have time to relax and maybe have some lunch (finally, it was 2:15!). But NO we had to have CLASS!! So we went to a short lunch and then class for 2 hours and then then dinner. FINALLY! We were able to relax. My roommates are great! We have like the same personalities and pretty much laugh ALL the time.
We had HOMEWORK, so we did that and collapsed into bed around 11pm. Up at 6:45 this morning for 8 am classes, but not normal classes. Today is a special day. ITS RAINING. What does that mean? STOCK UP on as many hours of class we can possibly get in and tomorrow spend the WHOLE DAY touring. One of the girls in my Hermeneutics class this morning asked if we were ever going to have time to do things like homework, or unpack, or even just process what has happened in the last 4 days. Our proffessor has agreed to give us 2 hrs off class this evening on the condition that we at least do a little homework. SO we ONLY have 6 hrs of class today instead of the proposed 8. How am I finding time to write this? I have ten more minutes of lunch break! It has been really crazy here and I am sure all this is confusing to you becuase I am still not entirely sure what day or time or place it is yet, ahah.
My brain is reeling and my body dragging, but my heart is full. The Lord is so good in so many ways! I hope that those of you reading are blessed by these experiences as I am. I wish I had time for pictures too, but maybe tonight since I get TWO WHOLE HOURS to myself! haha.
All the way from israel: Shalom!
On a lighter note, I have been on a constant adventure. The first day in the holy land was quite spectacular. We drove to Bethlehem and had some smoothies, which ended up ALL being the same flavor because the poor Arab guiy didnt understand any of us.
Afterwards we went to the shepherds field, which is where it is believed that the angels appeared to the shepherds for Jesus' birth and one of our professors gave a first person narrative lecture about the shepherds. It was great to sit (maybe) in the same spot where angels appeared and know that looking to the hill top on my left is where Jesus was born! I will post pictures later on Facebook, or here.
Afterwards we went to yet another Arab restaurant where we had a Pita dinner. There is a ton of Pita and you get to dip it in all kinds of things. We also had filaffel which was good and Bacclava for desert. We spent the whole dinner laughing our heads off, of course we were all tired since we had gotten a mere 2 hours of sleep the night before, but I can already tell we are going to be tight.
After dinner we returned to our Hostel where we had "orientation" which turned out to be a dating prohibition and a 3 person outing requirement speech that we all could have lived without. we slept for almost 7 hours that night! What a treat! Everyone was so happy, it didn't even matter that most of us were on the floor and inches away from our roommates..maybe a little.
The next morning we were off to the original place we were suppose to stay, Beit Yehuda, a really nice hotel thing with delicious food and warm non-inflatable beds. Before we could go there, we had MORE TOURING to do! into the old city of Jerusalem through the old gate we went our head professor, Dr. Sigler (im going to call him Sig) was making a Jewish accent and yelling at all of us. That was kind of annoying, but i am pretty sure he was just really excited and struggling to express it properly. We walked through the old city for a while (just enough to wet our taste buds and we were back on the bus heading to Beit Yehuda. We finally arrived at our hotel and we were so happy to have time to relax and maybe have some lunch (finally, it was 2:15!). But NO we had to have CLASS!! So we went to a short lunch and then class for 2 hours and then then dinner. FINALLY! We were able to relax. My roommates are great! We have like the same personalities and pretty much laugh ALL the time.
We had HOMEWORK, so we did that and collapsed into bed around 11pm. Up at 6:45 this morning for 8 am classes, but not normal classes. Today is a special day. ITS RAINING. What does that mean? STOCK UP on as many hours of class we can possibly get in and tomorrow spend the WHOLE DAY touring. One of the girls in my Hermeneutics class this morning asked if we were ever going to have time to do things like homework, or unpack, or even just process what has happened in the last 4 days. Our proffessor has agreed to give us 2 hrs off class this evening on the condition that we at least do a little homework. SO we ONLY have 6 hrs of class today instead of the proposed 8. How am I finding time to write this? I have ten more minutes of lunch break! It has been really crazy here and I am sure all this is confusing to you becuase I am still not entirely sure what day or time or place it is yet, ahah.
My brain is reeling and my body dragging, but my heart is full. The Lord is so good in so many ways! I hope that those of you reading are blessed by these experiences as I am. I wish I had time for pictures too, but maybe tonight since I get TWO WHOLE HOURS to myself! haha.
All the way from israel: Shalom!
Sunday, February 3, 2013
Just not there yet...
Ok, so I left the Midway airport having to check one of my carry on's because apparently TOGETHER your carry on and personal item must weigh under 12 kilos...yay. Anyways, 8 hr flight to Amsterdam (which I didnt sleep at all on) to arrive and find out not only is it 6:50 am in the morning there, but we have a twelve hour layover, in which we are touring...ALL DAY. yup, no joke. We stowed carry ons in lockers and went to town. literally. we took a train and started walking, and walked, and walked, and walked. It was great to get to see Amsterdam, but MY GOODNESS! Here it is 8 pm in Amsterdam and not only am I still NOT in Israel, but I haven't slept in two days AND I spent all day walking all over Amsterdam.
We saw where Anne Frank lived, and her actual diary. We took a boat tour around the canals and got to see a ministry that works in the red light district. It was a busy day of COLD RAINY weather, but I survived. Looks like I will TD at 4am my time in tel aviv. not alot of sleep for me...again. Love you guys! pray for patience as we are all tired and tend to be constantly hungry haha. more news later, we're boarding!! See you in the HOLY LAND!
We saw where Anne Frank lived, and her actual diary. We took a boat tour around the canals and got to see a ministry that works in the red light district. It was a busy day of COLD RAINY weather, but I survived. Looks like I will TD at 4am my time in tel aviv. not alot of sleep for me...again. Love you guys! pray for patience as we are all tired and tend to be constantly hungry haha. more news later, we're boarding!! See you in the HOLY LAND!
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