Day 73 - Shevet Achim

This morning was so fun! I was a little apprehensive about going to Shevet Achim again just because I wasn't all the way awake, but we had the most blessed time. Lu Wing and his amazing wife Pam came along with us. During the morning devo at Shevet, they were super enjoyable additions to the discussion! I was so blessed by just that alone. Then, I got assigned to help cook lunch in the kitchen. The three other ladies that were in there were all moms of kids who are here to get their heart surgeries. (If you don't remember what Shevet Achim is all about, you can read my previous post Shevet Achim.) But anyways, Tanner and I helped make the salad, and then after we were waiting for the food to cook, I just stood with the ladies in the kitchen. One of them (a super sweet lady!) stood next to me by the stove and she started teaching me the words for the different foods that we were cooking. They spoke Kurtish. It's a pretty obscure language that is spoken in Gaza and Iran and places like that. :) It was so much fun to learn a new language! But anyways, I had a very enjoyable morning doing that. (Oh yeah! And the lunch that we made was quite yummy!) Sffa! (that means thank you in Kurtish)

Love,

V

Day 72 - The Hands of Time

Refiner's fire

My heart's one desire

Is to be holy, set appart for You my Master

Ready to do Your will...

Israel truly is a refining fire. But it is not just the fact that I am in another country, but it is the result of many different factors that God has so wisely orchestrated. First, He has brought me out of my comfort zone by taking me to a different country with a different culture surrounded by 20 people that I have never met before. Second, He has given me so many opportunities to just sit at His feet and to learn from Him. I love so much being able to be still before the Lord. I think that that is a little bit crazy considering how incredibly busy here! It is such a unique concept. It's not considered meditating like other religions define as meditation for the Sitting at Jesus' feet is actually filling my mind with the Word of God. It is so wonderful and powerful that dwelling on just one simple verse can reveal so many things to me about God and His creation and my own life in general. I'm so thankful for this opportunity to be here! Please pray that during these last weeks that God will open up our minds of understanding so that we can be filled to overflowing with the knowledge and love of God!

On a side note, today is National Paint Your Nails a Crazy Color day!!! :D What colors are you going to use today? :)

Love,
V

Day - who knows what day this was... probably 60

Day 55 - Bethsaida and Capernaum

So this week was our travel week. We went to lots of different places in the area of Galilee. All very exciting, of course. :) On Wednesday, we left for Galilee. Our first stop was the ruins of Bethsaida. This is one of the three cities that Jesus cursed because they did not believe in Him even though He did lots of miracles and signs in all of them. The other cities that were cursed were Chorazin and Capernaum. They are all ruins now. After we went to Bethsaida, we stopped by the Jordan river.

The ruins of Bethsaida

The lovely Jordan River

Ancient destroyed city of Capernaum

Isn't the Sea of Galilee so lovely?

Ok, this next picture is pretty crazy. This is a catholic church that is built on top of the ruins of Peter's house. Do you remember the story of Jesus healing Peter's mother-in-law? Well, Jesus went to Peter's house after He taught at the synagogue (which was across the street from this house) for Shebat dinner. When He got there, He found Peter's mother-in-law incapable of serving them Shebat dinner because she was sick. Jesus healed her, and then notice the first thing that she did... she SERVED them. Cool isn't it? So this is the place! 

The church on top of Peter's House

The Sea of Galilee

Yup. This is the Apostle Peter...

So this is day one. Hopefully, I'll get the rest of the days posted. I have almost 600 pictures from these past 3 days, so I'm going to have a tough time figuring out what to post!! 

Love,

V

Day 44 - Loving Israel

Hey guys,

Sorry that I have not been too consistent with updating my blog. I'll try harder to do so from now on. Anyways, we have just finished our second block of the life of Christ classes. It was really nice. Mr. Doug Search taught this block. Now, this week is our travel week. We get chances to go all around Israel and explore without any school to do this week (except for those lovely chuck tracks).

I went to John the Baptist's church yesterday with Dean and Tori. Sadly, the place was closed, but it had such a lovely little courtyard there that felt nice and secluded from the city. So we stopped there and had a fun little picnic! I love how different this city is. There are little gems all over the place, you just have to get out and find them. It's pretty interesting to see it. It is not just handed to you on a little platter, you have to either know where to go or you have to seek out these places.

So yeah... Israel is just plain amazing. The longer that I am here, the harder it is to describe what life is like here and what my impressions of it all are. The longer I'm here, the less words that are even available to my mind to say about this place.

The farmers market (the shook) is very very crowded... if you are claustrophobic, then just don't go there. The buses will take you pretty much anywhere in Jerusalem for about 6 1/2 sheckles. Falafel is quite yummy, just make sure that you are specific on the extra stuff that is put on it. You don't have to let them put all the cucumbers on it!!! Oh yeah... and last little tidbit for tonight, don't flush the toilet paper!

Love,
V

Day 37 - Yad Vashem

So you are probably wondering what Yad Vashem actually is. Well, it is the Jewish holocaust museum.   Unlike other holocaust museums that you may have been to, this museum focuses less on the horrible things that happened during this time (though they certainly did not gloss over them), but the main point of this museum is to help you to remember. They see that it is more important to remember that each one of the people that died during this time had a name, had a life, and had a family. Each one was special in their own way, and we should never forget what happened.

Walking through the museum, we weren't allowed to take pictures so I took notes and I drew little sketches, but really, I can not say much about it. It's surreal to realize that because of a person's desire to  be as God and for his desire to become the most powerful, perfect person in the world, an entire people were wiped out from the earth. 

The murders in this war were so many and so horrible that even Himmler (the biggest mass murderer of all time) fainted when one of the bodies that had been shot dead bursted a blood vessel and spurted blood all over Himmler. At that point in the war, they decided that just shooting people, throwing them in a huge ditch, and then covering it with dirt was not a very effective way to kill people. At that time they resorted to mass industrialized murder. Think about that phrase for a second. Mass means that the killing was not limited to a small area but was spread everywhere. Industrialized means that they used the same process to kill people as Henry Ford used to build cars! They had a system that was so set out that thousands of people were involved in the killings without even having to shoot a gun. Because of that, many people thought that they were "innocent" of murdering hundreds of thousands of people when in reality they were guilty of that very thing. Then, of course, murder is murder. Thousands upon Thousands and even millions of Jews were murdered during this horrible time... Why weren't more saved? Why aren't there more Christians that helped these people? It is because they were scared. How often are you scared to do the right thing just because the process may not be very comfortable. Christians, don't forget. Don't be scared to do the right thing. Be bold and do what God is calling you to. 

See that tree that I'm standing next to in that picture? That tree is planted in memory of Corrie Ten Boom. She and her family dedicated their lives to saving Jews from the holocaust. All of them ended up in a concentration camp, and her sister and father died there. By the grace of God, Corrie survived the camp until the end of the war, and then she traveled around the world sharing the gospel with everyone, even her old prison guards that had abused her during the war. God gave her the strength to forgive her old enemies. Because of how she served the Lord and was used by Him so mightily during her life time, Corrie Ten Boom is one of my heroes. I love her very much, and I want to be used of the Lord as much as she was! :) 

Love,

V

[Forgotten Video - Sorry everyone!]

Day 30 - Yom Kippur

This Friday night through Saturday was Yom Kippur. This was one of the most holy celebrations in all of the Jewish calendar. Yom Kippur (or the Day of Atonement) happened on the 10th day of the 7th month. Now this was based on the Jewish religious calendar. The Jewish religious calendar begins around our month of April, so the 7th month usually falls around our October.

The Day of Atonement is a very holy day. It's like the shabbat (sabbath) only much more holy. That means that it starts on the sundown on Friday night and ends on Saturday night. It also means doing no work. Originally, this was a special day where the high priest of Israel would make all these sacrifices for the sins of all of the people. He would do all of the sacrifices by himself (this was symbolizing Jesus Christ coming to pay for the sins of the people all by Himself). Hence the name "Day of Atonement." It was the day that the sacrifices would pay for all of the people's sins for the past year.

Today, Jesus is our fulfillment in this Day of Atonement, and we can rejoice in that. Sadly, the Jewish people do not see it that way. Now remember that sacrifices can only take place in the temple. Is there a temple? No! So that means that the Jews can't have their sacrifices once a year to cover up their sins. So what the rabbis have come up with is this system of prayers. They pray all day long starting at least a day before the feast so that once Saturday night is done, their sins are "paid for." They even lay hands on chickens to "pass on" their sins. It's ok for them to sacrifice chickens because those were never named as a sacrifice that is only supposed to be done in the temple. So basically, this whole weekend is a spit in God's face. These people have rejected the ultimate and perfect atonement for their sins and they are now stuck in this bondage of prayers, fasting, and make-shift sacrifices. It's really sad to see this happening.

If you notice in the picture that we are all dressed in white. This is almost mandatory to do if you are going to the wall (turns out more so for men than girls) and wearing white represents the washing away of sin. It was quite interesting to see all of the Jews praying at the wall. On Saturday night there was singing and dancing because they could break their fast that they had been having since Friday night. They are so serious in their fasting that they do not even brush their teeth because they are afraid that some of the water might trickle down their throats and make them break their fasts. Crazy isn't it? This is the culture that Jesus was in when He talked about the strict legalism and the coldness of the law. It's such a blessing to know that Jesus is the fulfillment of all of the old laws. He has paid the ultimate price for us! Praise God!

Love,
V

Day 27 - Tel Aviv

Day 24 - Shevet Achim

Today (Sunday), we went to Shevet Achim. It's a really neat place that basically takes kids with heart diseases from countries (usually Iraq and the Gaza Strip), and brings them here to Israel to get proper health care that they would never otherwise get. It's such a beautiful ministry. Shevet Achim is based on Psalm 133 where it says, "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!" It was such a blessing to see these little kids and their mothers just being so loved on by people that they thought hated them. Pretty much all of these families are from Arab countries. They are told that they are worthless if they do not have any money or influence. They are told this all of their lives, and then they come here to Jerusalem and see that they have worth in Christ.

So I got to play with the kids all morning! Yay! This little boy was certainly a handful. He did all sorts of crazy stuff! Haha... then this little girl blowing kisses is named Kazhim. She was leaving the next day because her surgeries were sucessfully over and she was ready to go home! We got to be there for her farewell party. I thought it was so sweet! :) Then the little girl in the window was named Lamu. She was a year and a half old. She was such a sweetheart. I got to spend a lot of time with her because she can't walk yet. It's kinda sad to see that... Then the last little girl that I'm holding in that picture is named Aya. She has a really long scar all the way down her chest from the heart surgeries. She's doing a lot better now. Praise God! 

So yeah. That was Shevet Achim. Hope that you guys were blessed. Please keep this ministry in prayer. They are always in need of prayer!

Love,
V

p.s. You can see more of the kids and the ministry at http://www.shevet.org/

Day 21 - Bethlehem

Well, today was quite an adventure! :)  Sosimo told us last night that we were going to go to Bethlehem the next day! So we got up early, packed up, and went on a grand adventure! 

So we got on a little bus this morning and drove down the 7 miles to Bethlehem! After a slightly bumpy and precarious ride (reminded me of the perils of Mexico and El Salvador combined!) We arrived safely in Bethlehem. We had our first session of class on very uncomfortable metal seats, and then we moved down into this cave for class. It was pretty awesome! :) 

These are the shepherds fields where church tradition says that the shepherds were when the angels appeared to them after Jesus' birth. This building below the picture of the field is supposedly the exact spot where the angels showed up. Lol...

This place with the creepy columns was the Church of the Nativity. It's actually divided into three different sections for three different sections of religion. There is a section for te Greek Orthodox, a section for the Catholic, and a section for the Armenian people. It's interesting to see division even in the supposedly united body of Christ.

Please pray for this country as it so badly needs unity not only with conflicting religions, but also within the different sects of groups that even claim to be Christians. We can see that there is only unity within Christ. Well-meaning people often forget this thing, and try to resolve the world's problems on their own, but they forget that peace will never come without Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior! 

Please pray for Israel tonight.

Love,

V

p.s. Sorry if this post is slightly incoherent. I'm very tired right now. I'll try to make some additions to this post tomorrow. Good night! 

Day 20 - Feast of Trumpets

Today we went to the celebration of the Feast of the Trumpets. It's an odd festival. It's supposed to take place on the first day of the 7th month (of the Jewish religious calendar). And all we really know about it is that God commanded us to blow the trumpets on it. This is what the Bible has to say about it.


Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,"Speak to the children of Israel, saying: 'In the seventh month, on the first [day] of the month, you shall have a sabbath-[rest], a memorial of blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation. 'You shall do no customary work [on it]; and you shall offer an offering made by fire to the LORD.' "




Haha... and that's all we really know about it. So we basically just helped this Messianic church to set up for a fun party, and we just hung out with them for the evening. 


Oh yeah! And I got to help Yoni with the sound board for the worship stuff! I had a pretty good mix despite the fact that I couldn't find the connection to the jimbae on the sound board. Phoey... haha.... anyways, it was really fun to do that. :)  


Love,
V

Day 17 - Contemplating...

I have now been here for a little over two weeks... I've learned a lot about this culture during all this time. It's amazing to realize that things that don't really matter at all could really stumble other people here in Israel. For example, we girls have been instructed to never keep eye contact with any man here. Why is that? Well, in this culture, looking at a man for a longer period of time is a sign that you are... well.. available! And another part of that is the fact that Muslim men are allowed to have 3 wives... sooooo.... it doesn't really matter if they are already married!!! Hence, it's always an adventure whenever we go out. Usually when I'm out with a large group of the students I usually get looked over by those who are staring at our group. I'm not the youngest here, but I look like I'm the youngest, so the people who don't always have nice intentions usually never go for me first. Yay! :P  I get to sit back and laugh.... :P  Haha... just kidding.

Let's see... what other little nuances are there? Hmmm...  OH!! if a woman has a tattoo here, it's usually a sign that you are a prostitue... Ahh! (thanks, Mom for never letting me get a tattoo! Haha...) (not that I ever wanted one!!!)

Ohh! Another thing, there is basically no church on Sunday here! Think about it, in Israel, their holy day is the Sabbath... Saturday. So even the Messianic churches have their services on Saturday. So Sunday has become our shopping day. So we got all of our groceries for the week this afternoon. :)   It's kind of odd to be the stranger in the land. Back home, if you see someone that is just visiting your country (or city), you instantly label them as a tourist in your mind. However, here in Israel WE are the tourists! And we get to be tourists for three months! Lol... quite different to be the odd duckling around here.

Hope that's enough cultural information for your brains tonight! If you guys have any questions that you would like me to answer about Israel or what we are up to here, I am quite open to answering those for you! :)   Hope you all have a blessed day...

Love,
V

Day 16 - Hebrew and Rest

Phew... what a day... sleeping in was quite lovely, but then our three hour long Hebrew class was rather painful for us all. Please keep us in prayer as it's been a little tricky to comprehend everything. Perhaps once I comprehend what they are teaching us, I'll attempt to make a video giving an overview of what we have learned here. Hehe... that would be interesting to see.

I really enjoy the Sabbath here. Very very very few stores are open during the day. The streets are empty and the city is calm and peaceful. Some say that it's a little eerie to see no one around except the tourists and those who don't observe the Sabbath, but I disagree. It's that feeling that you can get when you walk on a movie set after they are all done filming for the day... it feels odd that there is no one there, however, you can rather enjoy having it all to yourself. It's a nice time to just observe the city and pray... 

"Pray for the peace of Jerusalem..." Psalm 122:6a

Love,

V

Day 14 - Garden Tomb and Day 15 - Test Time

Today we finally got to go to the Garden Tomb!!!! Yay! What a gorgeous site it was! As we walked in, we were greeted with a luscious, gorgeous garden. It was like a breath of fresh air after walking through the dirty, scary streets of the Arab quarter.

We saw the 3rd largest cistern in Jerusalem, and then we got to see a wine press, and then we saw the tomb... it was so cool! :)  Here's a picture of the tomb. 

I learned so much while I was there! I really have no clue where to begin! Umm... ok. I think I'll just post pictures... 

Love, 

V

p.s. I just took my final exam for this Biblical History class. Yay! I'm done with one of my classes!!! 

Day 13 - Spiritual Bondage

Ahhh... where to begin today? I think that I just want to focus on the spiritual bondage here... This is a really sad picture here... 

So look carefully at this picture. Do you see the two high towers with the ring of green lights around them? Those are Muslim prayer towers. Five times a day, from loudspeakers inside of the towers come out heathen prayers to a false god. These towers are spread all across the city of Jerusalem (predominately in the Arab quarter). Every day we hear these prayers that just sound dark... demonic... and evil. When we hear them, we are so much more reminded that we are not in a battle of flesh and blood, but in a spiritual battle! 

Usually those towers are not as close together to each other as these two are. Are you wondering why these two are so close? Well, the reason lies right in the middle of the towers. That far left hand side of wall (blocked by a perpendicular wall) is the Western Wall (commonly called the Wailing Wall). The Muslims did not want the Jews to enjoy having their wall to pray at so they placed their towers as close to it as possible. It's not visible in the picture, but there is another tower a little way past that far tower. Crazy isn't it? 

As you can see, these towers are all over this city... something that always reminds us of the need to be constantly in prayer. If these people are ritually in prayer five times a day, what does that say about us who may be praying maybe just once or twice a day!?! 

Dear God, those people are so lost, and yet they have such a fervor to serve their "god" because they believe that it's the way to salvation. May we, knowing the whole truth, never lose that fire in our relationship with You! It's embarrassing that a religion that hates the whole world can out do a RELATIONSHIP that can LOVE the whole world!! 

Think about that for the day...

Love,

V

Day 12 - History cont.

Ok. now perhaps I'll actually stay on track with this blogging thing! Lol...

Now back to this history... where was I? Oh yes... here we go! :D

Ok, we were talking about how the temple got destroyed. Now, I have never heard this before this class, but it was sooo interesting to learn! So, when the Romans had control of Jerusalem, they wanted to destroy the temple. To begin their destructive processes, they built a really really big fire on top of the temple. Now fire alone can not destroy those HUGE stone bricks, but what they did do was to make them red hot, and then white hot. Underneath the temple, there was a cistern of water... as the stones became white hot, the water all boiled and turned into steam and pressure! It was like a pressure cooker in there. As soon as the water came in contact with the rocks, they all combined into a huge explosion!! BOOM!

They have even found stones from the temple wall as far as 1/2 mile away from the temple! Now that's a humongous explosion!!! Ahhh!!!

As of that moment, Judaism basically ended. They could no longer use the temple, and almost all of the worship centered around using the temple.

So because Judaism basically ended at that moment, that man that we talked about last history post, Yohannon Borzehite (or however you spell it. Someone please help me!!!!), wanted to do something to preserve Judaism. So he and the council of 71 Sanhedrin came up with "Bloodless Atonement." For bloodless atonement there are four basic pillars; they are PRAYER, FASTING, MITZVOTE (good works), and REPENTANCE. At the point in history, Judaism changed from the Judaism of the Bible to what is called Rabbinic Judaism. It's no longer about God's laws as much as the laws of the Rabbi's. 


In this religion, the Rabbi's say that even if their rulings are not right according to God's word, it's ok because when God gave Moses the 10 Commandments, God was giving them their own authority, and man is just supposed to muddle through life obeying the laws of the Rabbi's. It's a very sad religion now... :( 


Off to lunch, and then class...


Love,
V

Prayer Request

Hey guys,

I'm sure that you have all at least heard about the political tension that is rising here in Israel. This week is the week that Palestine is going to ask the UN to vote to grant them statehood. We kinda hope right now that the US will veto the vote, and will not grant Palestine statehood, but even if that happens, we are not entirely safe from the people here. We as "Americans" will probably become the targets of some dislike because of the vote. 


So just to be safe we are taking lots of extra precautions with this whole situation... as of now, it's not too bad. The Israeli military is all being specially briefed on crowd control right now, so there are a lot of military squads everywhere around our hotel...


We are right now making sure that we have all of the right precautions taken. Tonight, we will have an emergency escape bag packed in case we have to leave in the middle of the night sometime this week. It's all rather exciting really, and a little bit scary. It's an odd thought to realize that you are packing something that you really don't wanna have to use... and that once you leave, you may never see the rest of your stuff ever again...

Still... it's rather exciting!!!! I know, I'm crazy. haha.... but ya know, we all have a really great peace about this whole thing. God has brought us all here for a reason, and whatever that reason is, we know that He has the best in mind. :) I think that it's all quite interesting. It's also a little nerve racking, because even if the US vetoes the Palestinian state, then the Americans here become the bad guys. And the place where we have class is in the Arab quarter.... :P 

We have like 3 different escape routes in case anything happens... no worries :P 

We are on a big adventure

Love,

V

p.s. Please keep me in prayer tonight (your tonight). I'm leading worship tomorrow morning... (my morning!) Hahaha.... :)  

Day 9 - History

So today we had our Hebrew class. It was the most difficult, fascinating, crazy three hours of my day! I learned so much, but sadly, my brain is on overload mode at the moment... perhaps next week I'll be back to normal. Haha... So yeah, our teacher's name is Yoni. He's actually an American, but he just changed his name to Yoni because it was easier for the people here to say. 

So today, after our extensive class of learning the letters and stuff like that, we asked him to share with us some of the history of this place. This is what he told us... (derived from my "condensed" notes)... 

So Jerusalem was under siege during the attacks of Titus the Roman general. A man by the name of Yohannon Borzehite (I couldn't find the spelling) was a part of the Sanhedrin (a big group of important Jews that decided all of the laws for the Jewish people). So this guy wanted to protect the heritage of the Jewish people, so he actually snuck out of Jerusalem in a coffin (the most humbling thing for a Jew to do if you remember the things that spiritually "defile" them) and made a deal with the Romans that they could have the city of Jerusalem if they just let the Sanhedrin get away. The Romans, of course, agreed and the city of Jerusalem was then turned over to the Romans. 

Now people ask how the temple in Jerusalem was actually destroyed. I'll explain that tomorrow morning. As for now, it's curfew time for sleeping! Good night everyone... :) 

Love, 

V

Day 7 - sleepy time! and Day 8 - Shebat Shalom

Hey guys,

So yeah. sorry for not posting for a little bit... it got sorta hectic there, and then I didn't feel like updating my blog, so I'm just gonna talk about two days in one. :P  lol...

So yesterday, we had our two classes as usual, and then Sosimo asked if any of us girls would like to volunteer to babysit some kids at this Arab Messianic church. (it's the same church that we are using for a classroom for school.) So me, Kristin, and Jordyn volunteered to go help. When we got there, we realized that we were on our own, and that we basically had no other craft supplies available to us other than paint and glitter... (for you guys that serve in Children's Ministry, you know how evil that stuff is. Lol...)

So anyways, we had like 8 kids show up all in all, and it was just ridiculous... this culture is soooo crazy! So all Arab kids here grow up in this culture that basically teaches the survival of the fittest... they are rough, mean, tough, and very physical. And that's what we had to deal with last night... it wasn't so bad, but once they got bored, it got really hectic! And THEN..... the church service turned out to be THREE hours long!!! Phew! What an adventure! :P

Today we had classes again, but after class, all of us girls and Mrs. Laurie (the wife of our teacher, Mr. John) went out to get some coffee (I got iced chocolate. it was pretty amazing!) and we talked and just enjoyed learning from her. She has such great wisdom. We talked about this culture, modesty, womanhood, and all sorts of awesome stuff. She's really helping me develop such a midset of wisdom when it comes to modesty and purity. Kinda like a sounding board to bounce ideas off of. God's really growing me, and giving me a special message that I know that He wants me to share with all of you girls out there... :)

Today is the Sabbath or the Shebat. It started on sundown tonight, and will last until sundown tomorrow morning. So a new greeting I learned is "Shebat Shalom." It means something like "Sabbath greetings." It's only used on the sabbath. :) cool huh?!? :D Tomorrow we have a 3 hour Hebrew class. I'm so looking forward to that! Yay!

On a lighter note, I have been learning how to..... ready?....... here it comes........ COOK!!! Haha.... I know, I know.... :P  I've cooked all of my meals so far, and I'm not doing too bad. :P  Night before last, (for those who were curious), I cooked a chicken sandwich with pita bread... now that doesn't sound too impresive, but when I tell you that I had to take the raw slab of chicken, butcher it up, and THEN cook it, it sounds a little better. Lol... here's a pic. It was yummy... :P

So yeah, tomorrow, I'll try to make a cool vid for you guys. Perhaps, I'll share with you all what I learned in my Hebrew class tomorrow. :)  That would be neat. I love you all, and I hope that you are having a blessed week. 

Love, 

V

p.s.... this is the Hebrew brand of Yoplait. :P :P :P 

Day 6 - Exploring!

Day 5 - School... bum bum bummmm!!!!

Haha... well, actually today wasn't as bad as my title seems to relate to you. The first part of the day was actually really fun. :)  Let's see... I cooked my first hot breakfast this morning! (Mom, you'll be proud. lol) I made scrambled eggs (with a tad bit too much milk) with some chicken (that looks like turkey) and some soy sauce... it was sooo good... I'm thinking about making it again tomorrow. :P

After breakfast, we went down back to Christ Church. They have a lovely little garden with lots of benches that they are letting us use for our morning devotions. :)  We had a nice time of worship and then Chelsea (our Dean of Women) shared her testimony. She's such a sweetheart. I love her already! :) (btw-Sosimo is not feeling too well. If you guys could keep him and all of us in prayer for health, that would be wonderful. We are all fighting off different stuff... phoey)

Later on, we went back to the hotel, and we got assigned our M19 project. I'm learning that in Bible College, they abreviate EVERYTHING!! Haha... this M19 mystery thing is just our Christian service class thingy. :P  Basically, we cleaned the hotel. Dayna and I volunteered to clean the receptionist area. We scrubbed and scrubbed, and when it was all done, we were quite proud of what we had accomplished. :) Now the hotel looks so clean, and it smells like that happy clean smell. I love it! This place is now officially my home for these months.

Then we had an amazing lunch that the hotel made for us. :)  It was like a stew of sorts with meatballs, potatoes, onions, and bell peppers.... mmmmmm... getting hungry again!

Then we finally had our first class. It seems like it's going to be interesting, but the classroom was soooo hot and stuffy.... Hopefully tomorrow it'll be better. Thankfully, we are going to have it earlier in the morning rather than at 2:30 in the afternoon... bad time for a class. :P

And THEN, we had evening devotion. (do any of you dare to ask what I had for dinner? :P :P :P) Those we will have only every Tuesday night. It's going to be neat, because we have like an hour of worship divided by a teaching by cool guest teachers. Tonight, Mr. John Stewart taught. He's going to be our Bible teacher for these next two weeks. I learned today that he used to be the vice president of the ICR! (Institute for Creation Research). I can't wait to pick his brain about that. :)  He and his wife really seem to enjoy hanging out and talking to us students. It's pretty awesome.

And lastly, in response to Justus' petition, here is a pic of me and two of my friends at the Damascus Gate. From left to right, there is Dayna, Jordan, and me. :) They are both really fun. Jordan is actually leading worship tomorrow morning for devo. :) She's gonna do awesome, I know it. :)  I'll have to post more pics later, but for now, I'm really tired and we have another day of school tomorrow... I'm waking up early so that I can get as many Chuck tracks done as I can before class starts. Yayyyyy......... :P

Love,
V

p.s. I get to lead worship for devo next Tuesday!!!!! Ahhh!! :D so excited! :D

Day 4 - New Culture

So today was a nice day. We had lots of different orientations today preparing us for classes that start tomorrow. I think that I'm finally ready to do my classes tomorrow... although, I'm still a little nervous. Lol...

I got to see the coolest thing today! Ok, so this is called "Christ Church." It's right across the street from where we live. We went there to be debriefed by a really neat lady who is from the US and has been here as a missionary for three years. So anyways, we went there and the lady told us that that church was buit by.... get this.... WILLIAM WILBERFORCE!!!!!!!!! (if you guys don't know who he is, he was the man who fought to remove the slave trade from England!!! He's also in that movie called "Amazing Grace," a very good movie by the way) But anyways, he and his friends built that church for "themselves" (because that was the only way that the Ottoman Empire would allow them to build a church in Israel) and they used it to share the gospel with so many Jews and Muslims! It's known today as the place to go to get answers. Isn't that so awesome!?!?

Tonight was the more thought provoking part of our day. We climbed up on top of the shopping area (it's right next to our place.) and we had our final part of orientation there. After we finished learning what we needed to know, we had a really sweet time of worship. However, as soon as we got into our second song, the Muslim prayer tower started to blast their prayers. 

Listening to the Muslim prayers was certainly fascinating. Turning my focus back to our worship song, I contemplated the differences between our two different religions... the Muslim people are taught from birth that anyone not a Muslim is an infidel and must be killed. Beginning in Kindergarten, their children color pictures depicting severed body parts that were a result of a bomb going off. This sort of violence is ingrained into their society and beliefs. Also, a muslim man is not considered a "good" muslim unless he beats and abuses his wife. How tragic is that??? 

Compared to the Muslim faith, Christians believe so differently. We are taught to love one another and to treat others as we want to be treated. We joyously discover the amazing love that God has shown us. That love is the source of our drive, our focus, and our joy. 

We are called to share God's love with the world. It doesn't matter what religion that they come from, God is not a discriminating God. Even now, He is using us (the GENTILES!!) to provoke Israel to jealously. That is part of our goal, is to show them how much we know of their Hebrew Bible that they themselves do not even know. As we share with them the amazing things that God has done for THEIR people, our door to enter into a relationship with those people is cracked open just a little bit more... 

In Israel, it is all about establishing the RELATIONSHIP with Jewish people... because once you have a relationship with them, you are a part of their family forever. They truly accept you into their lives, and therefore you must earn their trust. Please pray for us as we first observe the culture and then possibly begin forming relationships with these amazing people. Also, please pray for us because tomorrow is our first day of school. :) Our first class is a Hebrew history class. It's going to give us all the background information that we will need to truly understand this amazing, incredible, and confused land.

Love,

V

Day 3 - Shopping!

Day 2 - Rest in Him

Hey everyone. Didn't take any pictures today. We have just been chillin' today... :)  it was really nice. Today we went to a park to play soccer and hang out, then tonight our final student arrived so all 20 of us are now here. I finally got to eat a falafel tonight! Hehe... it was pretty yummy... :)  If you're wondering where we are staying, we are in the New Imperial Hotel in Jerusalem. This hotel is one of the oldest hotels in Jerusalem! Some people have said that it's as old as King David. lol...

So anyways, I am really enjoying being here. :)  I'm making some friends with the students here, and it's been fun... Oh yeah!! I got to play my guitar today!!! This morning, we had a worship jam session in Sosimo's room (he's the guy in charge of the students. His room is kinda like a common room. And then later this afternoon, I got to sit at the park and just play worship songs! I'm really loving playing guitar!!! It's soooo fun! Hahaha... and these girls here have AMAZING voices! It is such a joy to be able to sing and play with them! :)

Love ya'll :)
V

Day 1 - Awesomeness!

Hey everyone!!! I am now here in Israel! I haven't slept really since  It's a little past 10:30pm (Israel time) right now. I'm still up because 1) I'm trying to make sure jet lag doesn't last too long, 2) I'm working on my blog!!!, and 3) I'm not really that tired yet! Hehehe... some of the girls are assuring me that as soon as my head hits the pillow that I'll fall asleep. I certainly don't doubt them, so I won't "hit the pillow" until I'm done with this update!  :D


Soooo.... my flights were awesome! (security... not so much... I hate strip searches!!!!!!) But during my layover in LAX (Las Angeles), I got to play the guitar for two hours and then hang out with the Olivers for a bit! What fun! :D

Sooo... yeah. I'm really enjoying myself so far! We got all moved in this afternoon (2:00 AM your time), and after we went grocery shopping (interesting to do for my first time on my own!) and ate dinner, we went on a mini tour of the Western wall and now I'm really really excited to see what we get to learn this semester! 

Tomorrow, I'll post pictures of where we are staying... as for now, it's time for this jet-lagged college girl to get some sleep!!! Hope the adrenaline allows me to do so! Bye!! :D 

V

p.s. I thought of you home fellowship people while I was on my plane. During the time that you were having your group, I was over the Great Lakes!!! :D

Leaving Soon!

Hey everyone! Just wanted to let you all know that I'm leaving this Thursday. My plane takes off early in the morning so I highly doubt that I'll be getting any sleep Wednesday night! So anyways, when I get to Israel, I'll be sure to take lots of pictures and video. My goal is to post a lot of them here on my blog so that you can see Israel for yourself! (besides, blogs are boring without pictures!!) So I wish the best for you all. I'll be praying for you guys, and will thinking of you guys all the time!

Love,
Victoria

Thorns

As stated in Genesis 3:17b-19, "Cursed is the ground for your sake; in toil you shall eat of it. All the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you shall return"(NKJV).

Reading these verses, you might say "So what? This is just describing the curse upon Adam after he and Eve sinned... right?" And I say, yes, that's exactly what these verses are talking about, but let's take a closer look at one aspect of them.

Notice close to the beginning of verse 18 that one of the results of their sin was that the earth was going to bring forth thorns and thistles. Some people say that thorns are actually undeveloped blossoms, the exact opposite of a beautiful, thriving plant. So the result of sin was that these hard, sharp, dead plants would interfere with the growing of plants. This is a picture of what sin does in our life as well. On our own, sin causes us to whither until there's nothing left but a dead, shriveled up thorn of a heart.

Now, where else do we see an example of thorns in the Bible? Consider Mark 15:17-18, "And they clothed Him with purple; and they twisted a crown of thorns, put it on His head, and began to salute Him, 'Hail, King of the Jews!'" (NKJV).

These verses are describing the beginning of the torment that Jesus Christ received before He was crucified. When Jesus came to earth to die for the sins of all mankind, how fitting it was that He wear upon His head the first symbol of sin! Jesus came as God's sacrifice to wash away the sins of all people. What a beautiful picture of His plan for our redemption!

Next time you see a thorn, remember...
1. Thorns were part of the punishment for our sins
2. Jesus willingly wore the punishment of our sins upon His head!
3. We no longer have to be under the bondage of sin because Jesus has paid the price!

Praise the Lord!!!!

Tickets

I have my tickets and I'm so excited! Now it is really official that I am going! :)

Everyone has been asking my if I am nervous about going to Israel, and I have to say that at the moment, no, not at all. I'm sure that when it gets closer to the time that I leave, I'll start to get sad that I won't see my family and friends for three months (except for vid chat), but for now, I am so excited to see what God is going to do during the time that I am there! Please pray for me that as the deadline gets closer to going that God will continue to give me and my family His peace that surpasses all understanding!

"Let Israel rejoice in their Maker; let the children of Zion be joyful in their King. Let them praise His name with the dance; let them sing praises to Him with the timbrel and harp. For the Lord takes pleasure in His people; He will beautify the humble with salvation" (Psalm 149:2-4, NKJV).

Class Schedule

Well, I looked on the website that talks about what I will be studying and I have found what my class schedule is going to be! I will be studying Biblical Hebrew and the Life of Christ in four parts for the duration of my trip. How exciting!

If you would like to pray for me right now, please pray that God will help us get the best deals on airfare, that I would be able to connect with my future classmates, and that God would even now be preparing my heart for the awesome things that I know that He wants to teach me!


Sept. 9 - Arrival in Israel
Sept. 11-13 - Orientation
Sept. 14-24 - Block 1
Sept. 28 - Oct. 8 - Block 2
Oct. 12-22 - Block 3
Oct. 23-29 - Inter-Israel Travel Days
Nov. 2-12 - Block 4
Nov. 16-26- Block 5
Nov. 27-Dec. 3 - Inter-Israel Travel Days
Dec. 5 - Leave Israel  


http://calvarychapelbiblecollege.com/jerusalem/

Going to college!

Hello everyone!

For those who know me, you know that I have been praying very seriously about where to go to college. Well, God has answered my prayers! I will be going to college this fall semester in Jerusalem, Israel! I get to study in Israel for 88 wonderful, awesome, amazing days! Up until the time that I go to Israel, I will post a few blog posts sharing a little bit of the preparation for my journey. Once I finally go, I will do my best to share with you what God is teaching me and all the amazing things that I am seeing.

In Christ,
Victoria