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!
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