(photo courtesy of the great Paul Iwanaga)
 
We just got back from En-Gedi. It is the place where King David hid with 400 men from King Saul and cut off a piece of his robe. It is unbelievably beautiful and filled with cool little animals and furry creatures like Coneys and Ibex. But the best part was this little waterfall. We walked past it then reconsidered and came back. Matt wanted to go and jump in with his shorts on. I thought it was a stupid idea. But he went anyways. I realized it wasn’t a stupid idea but rather one of the funnest and best ideas that he had ever had. I ripped off my shirt and jumped in as well.

We swam under the waterfall and splashed each other and did cannonballs off the ledge. It’s the stuff movies are made of. I had so much fun. It came after day after day of God just blessing my socks off and being so overwhelmingly kind. On Christmas Eve after talking with my parents I almost started crying in thankfulness in disbelief at how kind and tender God has been to me. With the media fast this month we have had so much time to just love each other and have so much fun and be creative and be ourselves. I feel so alive.

Even ministry has been so much fun. We have been teaching english to children in a small Beduoin village. They are very energetic and excited. Last time I’m not sure how it came up but I started having a little beatboxing battle with Amir one of the students during the english lesson. There is so much freedom in God to love life and be ourselves.

Yesterday I got to go to Nazereth, Capernaum, the sea of Galilee, the place where Jesus multiplied bread and fish, the sermon on the mount mountain, and the place where the angels spoke to Mary and Joseph. We’ve been really busy with ministry and helping out in different places. In the last two days before we leave for Uganda God opened the door so that we could do all of these amazing things and go to the dead see this morning and hike through huge dessert ridges and bluffs early this monring. Celebrating Christmas with some of my favourite people, I don’t know how life could be any better.