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