Before reading any further I suggest you get out a Bible and a map of Israel because it will add greatly to your reading of this blog and how cool or uncool you may or may not think I am and let’s be honest when it comes down to it that is what is most important.
Look at Genesis 13:1, here you will learn that the Negev is where Abram came out of Egypt into after being promised a nation.
Ok so that is pretty cool now go look at Joshua 11:16, here you will learn that the Negev was part of the mass of land that the Joshua along with the Israelites conquered to be their inheritance.
Yeah, that is where I live. My address is practically in the Bible. Literally, our back yard is a beautiful view of the Negev dessert where we get to sit and reflect on the word.
If you go and look at the Negev we live in the Eastern part very near the Dead Sea.
Ok, so now that you have some understanding of where I am and why I am so excited to be here, let’s talk about what we have been doing…
On our first day here we went on a tour of the City of David which is only part of modern day Jerusalem. We saw the Mount of Olives and Temple Mount. We also got to go through Hezekiah’s tunnel which may or may not be the way that David and his men took the city of Jerusalem.
We originally thought we were going to be teaching English but, as is tradition on the World Race, that has been changed. We are now working on updating the website of the organization we are working with, creating new brochures for them and doing a lot of recording the work they do through their volunteers. So our main focus is going around to all of their ministry areas and taking pictures and video and getting the website and brochure updates started.
Some other ministries that we get to be involved in are getting new ministries started up and serving at a soup kitchen. Here we have met Esther who is the feisty middle aged woman who runs the soup kitchen. She seems to know exactly the people who are going to try to swindle you and those that have genuine need. She walks the balance between compassion and discipline better than I can ever imagine doing. She looks at the child on her mother’s hip with such a genuine love that even our hearts melt without knowing anything about this woman or her child.
Our primary contact here also does a lot with us in teaching us how to read the scripture and giving us background with which to read. We just finished a study on the book of Jonah. He has a ton of knowledge of the way scripture was written that helps give perspective to me as I am reading. This has been so exciting for me, to get to just sit and listen to what he has to say and be caused to begin to wrestle with the text some more. Very little excites me more than getting to go to class with him.
He also is passionate about introducing us to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and showing us how such atrocities as the holocaust could occur in our world with normal people who don’t believe they are doing anything wrong.
He is also emphatic about making sure that our schedule while we are here includes time to tour the Holy Land and get to experience the Bible in new and more real ways.
One day, during our time off before soup kitchen time, we went to the lowest point on Earth. We got to float in the Dead Sea. One of my favorite things about this was trying to stand up perfectly straight because, while you could not touch the bottom, you would just bob around until you fell over forward or to the side.
Yesterday, we went and spent the day climbing up to Masada, an ancient city on top of a rock that was being attacked in 73 A.D. by the Romans. The Israelites that were living there decided that instead of becoming subject to anyone except God they would kill everyone living there and themselves. It was quite the hike to get up there but great to see this ancient city and hear more about the history of it.
We also went to an area called En Gedi which is an oasis. It was beautiful. There were animals and lots of plants and such that you may not expect to see. I think we were all expecting it to be much lusher than it was, but that is just because of our inexperience with deserts and oases, I think.
Oh, and just the other morning I woke up to ‘wake up! There are camels outside!’ so we went down and sure enough a herd of camels was walking by out back. Casey and I went down to try to feed them (we did not) but we did touch them and Casey ended up getting ride one of the shepherd boys’ donkey. It was a great morning.
Yeah, my life is pretty amazing. I kind of love it.
