It’s like thanksgiving once a week. The whole city shuts down at sundown Friday so Friday mornings are all bustle with preparation and life. At the dinner there is singing, blessing and a whole lotta eating. Everyone brings a dish or desert and it is quite the feast.
Good thing it’s a 40-minute walk back to where we are staying.
We have the meal at the home of our contact who is truly amazing. He is a brilliant man with an immense passion for the people of this country and the people of the Middle East. He has been teaching us a ton about Israeli history, the history of Judaism, the Palestinian/Israeli conflict and so much more.
It is surreal to finally be in a land I have read about all my life! To see and experience the culture and people first hand is beyond a blessing. It is especially special to be here during Hanukkah (which started today) and Christmas. Honestly I don’t think it has sunk in yet.
Life here doesn’t seam entirely different than at home. We are surrounded by gyms and salons, pubs and restaurants, daycare for kids and places of worship. People drive on the right side of the road, teens hang out at the mall after school and old men talk on street corners. Family, beliefs and the weather are topics of conversation and well as politics and war. War is a topic that isn’t new. Most of us in the US have no idea what its like to be in a constant state of war especially on our own soil. We don’t have to go through airport-caliber metal detectors and security checks just to enter a mall or a bus station. We don’t ALL have bomb shelters in our back yards and wonder at the sound of every sonic boom or car backfiring if terrorism has made it to our street. And we certainly don’t see young men AND women in military clothing roaming the streets with massive semi-automatic weapons hanging from their shoulders like accessories. When walking through a part of the old city in Jerusalem last week, I saw a little boy walking with dad through the markets. He could not have been more than three years old and he was dressed up with full head covering, military top and bottoms with a toy machine gun around his neck and dragging on the ground. Dad let him dress up as his favorite super hero for the day but it wasn’t Spiderman or Wolverine. Crazy.
The reality of unrest here is not something to take lightly even though the locals have learned to accept it as a way of life. Please be in prayer for the safety of our teams and for the well being of this incredible country and its neighbors.
