Hello,
dear friends. Welcome to Israel!
I can’t
believe I’m in Israel. How weird is that?! To be honest, I wasn’t
really sure we would be here. I thought, at the last minute, it was
going to fall through and we’d end up in Antarctica or something.
here. Israel has been rough for me, in ways that I can’t explain
quite yet, but it’s also been good too.
we slept in a park, and some people got rained on. Our second day
here, our contact, who just so happens to be a tour guide, led us on
a tour of the Sea of Galilee. As in THE SEA OF GALILEE that Jesus
walked on. I looked at it, you know to make sure there wasn’t like a
2,000 year old dock underneath the water that he just skipped on.
Nope, and it looked really deep too.
We spent the first part of
the month in Arad, where our ministry was two-fold:
-
Working
with refugees from Darfur. We were supposed to teach women
English (men and women have to be separated), but, on the first
night, three men showed up, and about ten kids. Hmm.. okay. Geoff
went to the other room to teach the men, and we grabbed crayons for
the kids. The next night: the same three men, and double the kids.
It took me a little while to realize that these kids are our
ministry. No women showed up, but God sure did give us a bunch of
kids to love on.
2.) Learn
and experience. Our contact is one of my favorite people. He’s so
smart, and loves to share his wisdom with us. He speaks 47 languages,
and is translating the Bible in his spare time. He usually says
things like, “You know I wrote a book on that very subject that
you could read” and ” you could spend a semester on
Biblical Aramaic and get it out, it’s easy stuff.” Who is
this guy? His wife is incredible too. I’ve learned so much in the
short time that I’ve been here. I will never read the Bible the same.
made the Bible come alive. Staring out over the Negev Desert, I can
imagine how intense Jesus’ forty day fast was. When we were at the
Sea of Galilee, it was stormy, and I could totally see why the
disciples were freaked in those storms in the Bible. We also visited
the place where Peter and Jesus stayed in Capernaum. It makes Jesus
seem so human. Lately, my heart has just been so burdened to see Him.
I wonder what it was like, to sit at his feet, to touch his hand, to
just listen to Him. It had to be amazing. I’ve thought of the pain
the disciples must have felt, seeing Him die.
month in Rama, Israel, which is what my next blog post is about. We
finished the month with a squad-wide thanksgiving in the Negev
Desert. We have a ton to be thankful for.
What else…
-
My vertigo was ROUGH
in Israel, and I spent a greater portion of the month in confusion
and bed. Hopefully more on that in a blog to come. -
The Dead Sea does not
look dead at all. It’s actually beautiful, and you really do float.
Like, it’s hard to walk/swim because your body wants to just float.
Oh and the bottom of the sea is pure salt. I’m sure there’s sand
underneath it somewhere, but I couldn’t find any, just ton’s of
salt. Also, the Dead Sea holds an incredible lesson about life, and a huge thing that we’re learning on the race. My old team-mate RObin Barnes sums it up so well- “Life in the Dead Sea“
-
I will never judge a
book by it’s cover again. Switchblade taught me that.
My
favorite thing that I have learned so far:
one of the things that stuck out the most is:
the “Promise Land” and the “Land flowing with milk and
honey.” Looking at the desert, it’s easy to wonder “where’s
the milk/honey?” And what kind of promise is this? How can you
sustain a prosperous life in the desert? Someone asked our contact
this and he told us that it’s the “Promise Land” because you
have to rely on God to survive. If He doesn’t send the rain, you
don’t eat. I’ve really been re-thinking what prosperity means, and how lucku we are that our God is a God who is true to His promises, and is full of everlasting love and faithfulness.
Oh, and…
are connected. And, sometimes, they suck. More on that in a future
blog, I’m sure.
