The End

Well, I feel badly that I have not written in such a long time. I don't know if anyone is still reading this or not, but for those of you who faithfully continue to check for updates, this goes out to you =)

My trip was cut short by two weeks. I came home last Friday, the 26th, on a direct flight from the Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv to the Philadelphia International Airport. It was a really smooth 12 hour flight, and I was able to get 6-7 hours of sleep. My bag was lost in the airport and I needed to report it once I realized it was missing. I honestly felt like I was going crazy .... because that had never happened to me before. Maybe I was tired, but it was inconceivable to me that it could have been lost on a direct flight. The next day as I walked into the house, our neighbor children came running over and said "Hey Jess! Some man came and put a suitcase in your shed! Hahahaha!" I felt so relieved!

I was disappointed to leave early, but at the same time, the program was not what I had been expecting in terms of ministry opportunity. Nonetheless I had an incredible experience. My favorite part by far was being able to get my bearings almost anywhere in Jerusalem. Also, mastering public transportation was quite a feat. Well, not exactly mastering, but being capable of getting from one major city to another. I was able to go to the CBS (central bus station) by smaller bus and navigate my way to my mom's friends in Haifa. It was a highlight of my trip. It made me feel so independent, being in a country so far from home and not speaking the language and yet getting where I needed to go with ease. Israel has a really awesome public transportation system. You can basically get a round trip ticket to and from any given city for an insanely cheap price and be at the opposite end of the country in less than 8 hours.

All in all, I would totally go back and do the entire trip over again. I absorbed a lot of Israeli culture, even from a distance, learned a lot about myself, made great friends, and grew in my understanding on multiple levels: faith, prophesy & how strong the pull of the world is. I've come to the realization that at times, life is crazy and there is absolutely nothing you can do about it. You have to accept your circumstances and rise to the occasion. Do the best you can, and don't look back.

Psalm 73:

²¹ Thus my heart was grieved,
And I was vexed in my mind.
²² I was so foolish and ignorant;
I was like a beast before You.
²³ Nevertheless I am continually with You;
You hold me by my right hand.
²⁴ You will guide me with Your counsel,
And afterward receive me to glory.

Haifa!

Haifa is a coastal city located in northern Israel. My mom has friends who lives there and I'm taking a 2.5 hour bus ride to visit them for the weekend. I promise to take tons of pictures! I am looking forward to seeing a part of Israel that I have never had the chance to see thus far. It will be nice to have a change of scenery for a few days.

I should be back late Sunday if all goes well!

I'll post of my adventure as soon as possible.

xoxo

Cleaning Day . . .

Well, I wish I would have had something super awesome to share about yesterday, but finding motivation to write about everyday activities is a bit challenging. I went to service in the morning (as I always do. Thats a given) and afterwards walked around the city center with everyone. We celebrated Tristan and Cheryl's engagement with some amazing Thai food. Mmmmm mmmm was it good (but when is the food here not good..?!). After lunch we went to the Coffee Bean for some decadent cheesecake that was out of this world. I talked to my family last night and they said I seem enamored by the vast amounts of food I have tried here. Honestly, I'm not. We just eat out so often and there are so many good restaurants around that a lot of my time (and finances haha) have been invested into divulging into the local cuisine. Because of this I share my experiences with you.

Today, like the caption says, is "cleaning day." I'm not sure why... Because we clean everyday. I guess we go all out today and dedicate this day to nothing else. Regardless, I'll try to do something interesting if I have the opportunity and post later on. :]

Day # 25 :]

I've spent the past two days doing a lot of cleaning. On Monday after the service we had a team meeting and went over many different aspects of living together, responsibilities, etc. My is job basically is as follows:

• clean the house,
• help Rachel with the preperation of the children's sunday school craft materials,
• make dinner every night,
• attend all Living Bread services (6x mornings and 1x Wed. night service)
• help out in Yeriho with the children
• do whatever Karen or Tristan (or anyone really) needs me to do

Seven services a week sounds like a lot, but the worship is so awesome that the hour and 30 minutes or longer goes by very quickly. Honestly, I have really grown to enjoy beginning my day praising God. I have to admit I thought I would begrudgingly walk to church every morning and dreaded the thought of having to do so on Living Bread's website. I really had no idea what coming here and working with this ministry entailed - I thought I would be doing legit outreach day in and day out. By 'outreach' I mean giving out food, laying hands on the sick, passing out clothing, teaching refugee children English, etc. Being here has been more of a personal journey and time of growth and developing of my own faith and values however. For the first week, I had a really hard time almost coming to the realization that I wouldn't be going to refugee camps everyday and serving 'the needy.' I did not want to take the time to realize my shortcomings and take the time to look at my own heart and begin to take out the trash. It is really easy to go on day to day and lead the 'normal Christian life' per say and not have to push yourself out of your comfort zone very often. But when you're at church seven times a week being asked to pray and prophesy, share dreams and visions... You can't be lukewarm and go with the flow simultaneously. The two do not mesh very well :]

I was asked by Rachel to go and be a part of the pastor's Bible study yesterday in Yeriho. I wanted to escape more cleaning so I said yes, of course I wanted to go! Please understand, I do not mind cleaning in any way whatsoever. On the contrary, I actually enjoy cleaning because it is a great opportunity to completely zone out and pray, think, or let one's mind wander freely. But I had already swept the roof,washed the dishes, and emptied all the trashcans so I was ready for a role switch. It was totally ironic though because none of the pastors came to the meeting, but the inside of the Prophet's House was incredibly musty and the floor was cakes in wet mud!! I scraped the bare cement floor with a pitchfork and ax and then mopped out the mud. It was really hot yesterday, so all the cool water on the cold floor was refreshing. Rachel, John and myself were the only Living Bread members who went and Abdu Ali was the only one who came, so we had a personal prayer time for him and broke bread together. It was personal, which I think he really enjoyed. Actually, John is a dentist from South Carolina, and looked at Abdu Ali's teeth. He had 8 that had been broken and the roots were still full intact and need to be removed. John immediately volunteered to do the job sometime next week. After the meeting we went to a house that had been previously rented by Living Bread staff. There had been a discrepancy between the landlord and our staff, and... long story short, we had to go back and clean. Ahhhh, it only gets better. I cleaned black mold out of the freezer and scrubbed poop (nice, brown chunks) out of the toilet. Nothing like a good toilet cleaning to bring you back to being humble again!

I am really impressed by John's bravery, to be honest. Yeah, he practiced in the States for 31 years as a pediatric dentist, but extracting teeth without any electricity while the kid sits in a chair seems so rudimentary and obsolete... I could never do it. Today in Yeriho there was one boy who had a tooth growing way up above all the others. I think the medical term for the case, if I remember correctly, was an "impacted canine." The boy agreed to have it pulled and sat down. John prepped all his supplies and got right to work only minutes after we arrived at the wedding hall. Christine held a light as Cay filmed and Kat took pictures... I was feeling really uncomfortable about the idea of sticking my camera in this poor kid's face as he winced in pain. Luckily for me, and unluckily for all of you reading this, my camera was dying and wouldn't allow me to take any pictures! Woo hoo! I was trying to stomach all the blood and struggling to get over the fact that I was sitting in Yeriho watching an American dentist pull the tooth of a Palestinian refugee. John said Israel is incredibly reluctant to allow that form of medical aid into the country. The state does not want to be seen as "third world" or as a "developing nation," so they hold a tight grip on the type of charities and organizations that are permitted to enter the country. As far as John was concerned, he was the first dentist to ever come into Israel and do that type of work. How cool is it that I got to witness history being made!? The tooth came out relatively easily and the boy (Ali) was totally fine. He was really still and did an awesome job overall. Initially I was afraid he would move a lot because when John injected the needle, he jerked his head back and pulled away. John spoke really softly to him and coaxed him back to a position where he could finish injecting the numbing solution into his gums. After that, the pain was over (or so I was told!... I'm sure his mouth is really sore right about now. The medicine wore off about three hours after John pulled the tooth). The word didn't spread because no one knew John was coming, so only 2 people underwent extractions. Several others were evaluated, and most needed to have some teeth yanked but the women were very reluctant and refused to do so. I think the fact that the women were probably embarrassed about the state of their teeth and that John was a guy (a foreign male; touching their faces) was a bit too much for the conservative women from a Muslim background. Yeriho is very traditional and reserved in terms of modesty and social conduct between the genders.

Another great day in Israel. 25 days so far! I feel like if I had a few of you here with me, I could really stay here forever. I love how close all the stores are, eateries, and how you can walk to get anywhere. I love that this country has arid desert, rolling hills, hot springs, canyons, waterfalls, sandy beaches, snow covered mountains, sprawling cities & towns all within her small borders. I love that two religions live side by side and have so much in common and don't realize it. I love that the people are so outgoing and hospitable and welcoming. I love the extensive history and rich tradition mingled with the upbeat pulse modern everyday life. I love Israel.

3.8.2010

sometimes, does your heart feel so much love you feel as though you're going to EXPLODE?

its a really, really good feeling.

Recappp

Would it be wrong to use a larger font to make it appear as though I wrote more than I actually did? :) 'll just give a recap on the past few days:

• Friday 3.5.2010

1. Church! Lots of fun worshiping as usual
2. Shabbat dinner with Christine and Kat. This week was a bit of a bummer because I was surrounded by women who spoke only Hebrew. Regardless, I had a wonderful time, but a different experience than in my previous visits. I was able to personally thank the Rabi's wife for having me as I helped her pass chairs over the heads of her guests!
3. Sleep. Ohhh how I have come to love bedtime. For some reason, I stay up really late these days. I think it most likely is because I have a lot of time on my hands at the end of the night and love catching up with everyone from home via Skype and Facebook. The time difference makes it challenging for me to be online at a time that is convenient for communicating with the loved ones.

• Saturday 3.6.2010

1. Slept in! YAY!
2. Walked around the Old City with Tristan, Cheryl, and Kat. We tried this delicious drink called 'almond milk'. It was one of the best drinks I have ever tasted easily. For not having artificial sweeteners, it was amazingly good. I hope it is available in the US.
3. Kats grandparents flew into Israel the night before, so we met up with them for pizza in the Armenian Quarter of the Old City. I've got to tell you, I never go hungry here (ever). Israelis know how to do food. I have never once eaten anything here that was short of incredible. Something about the food here makes me perpetually hungry. Olives, hummus, pita, pizza, ice cream, falafel, shawarma, smoothies, soup, French fries, burgers, chocolate, honey... Am I making you hungry? Being in an the center of an internationally diverse city only makes my predicament worse, because all of the deliciousness is at my fingertips 24/7.
4. Went back home, took a nap, did some reading: C.S. Lewis, "The Screwtape Letters." Good book!
5. Went back out AGAIN and had MORE awesome food. One of our collective favorites is definately Burger Bar, so we decided to go there for dinner. I had fried eggplant, which of course, was really tasty. Tristan shared his fries with me also (yummm!).

• Sunday 3.7.2010

1. Church! We had a lot of people at the service today. One family from New Zealand was there and I got to talking with them. They're had just gotten here the previous night at 2AM! They're going to be living here for the next year and home school. They had a son around my age and 12 and 14 year girls. Very, very nice family. Cay and I showed them to a grocery store and to the party street of Ben Yahuda. They're coming to Jericho with us on Tuesday and I'm excited to get to hang out with them again.
2. Walked to buy pants for Karen, the amazing kind of Aladdin pants I spoke of in a previous post. We found 2 pairs I believe...
3. I walked from buying the pants ALL the way home to realize that I had to walk BACK to the SAME exact place to go to the King of Kings church service. Oh well, at least I was able to get a falafel for dinner on the way :)

Overwhelmed

That last post was incredibly weak and I know it.

I have so many thoughts running through my mind that I feel as though writing them ALL down would be cumbersome and would take forever. . . Not to mention they most likely wouldn't make very much sense to anyone other than myself. I am still having an AMAZING time, and actually, because I've been out and about so frequently the past few days, my blog entries have been effected. I promise tonight I'll take the time to sit down and pour my thoughts & adventures once again.

Being here in this spiritual center of the universe is really hard to articulate.

My Week

Hey!

I'm sorry I have been lazy about posting these past two days, but I honestly have been relatively busy! I've also been really tired at the end of the day and didn't get around to writing... my apologies.

I had an awesome birthday - 17! To my dismay, I don't feel any different yet. Maybe tomorrow I'll feel older. I looked in the mirror today though and noticed bags under my eyes and felt old for the first time in my entire life. Hopefully I was just really tired today and they're not here to stay . . . I want to feel mature and everything, yes... But I'll wait for the sagging wrinkles. Haha.

For my birthday I was taken out to eat at Burger Bar and treated to dinner by Christine :). After dinner we went to the best ice cream shop on Ben Yahuda and I got an amazing fruit smoothie: strawberries, bananas, coconut, white chocolate, regular chocolate, milk. MMMM mmmm good! On my birthday morning, Karen and the team prophesied over me and it was phenomenal.

My Day (Happy Birthday Kat [19] and Samah[13])

Hey Everyone!

I had a really awesome day - another opportunity to go to Yeriho! Thats where my newest picture was taken. The girls there are so amazingly sweet and kind, and are always asking to use my camera. Today I had it with me and said sure, why not?! We had so much fun goofing around and I really loved being able to show them different settings and how to use the zoom. Each one had the chance to take several pictures and we had such a great time posing and making crazy faces for the camera! These few moments were some of the best I've experienced so far. Those elated, beaming, bubbly faces made my whole journey worth it. Today was also Samah's birthday, who is the girl who took the picture now on my blog. She turned 13 and I explained that in America, she is now considered a "teenager"!!! I was just smiling and laughing with girls... They all speak relatively good English and we have been able to hold basic conversations. Their English is tremendously better than my Arabic, because I can't get farther than "hello" and "thank you," unfortunately. Despite the language barrier, laughter transcends any communication difficulties. I was so happy to be there at that moment; able to love on them and give them attention and just show interest in what they had to say. I'll get to see them every Tuesday until I leave. I'm looking forward to building somewhat of a relationship with them.

This is what I came for. I am so happy.

Some Facts About Israel

So what interesting facts can I tell you about Israel? Hmmmm....

1. DO NOT flush the toilet paper!
2. Cats run rampant like squirrels back home
3. Israel has the highest abortion rate in the world
4. Sunday is really the first day of the week here - everyone goes to work
5. Girls get married young in Arab families; around 16-17
6. The Islamic call to prayer sounds 5x a day and you hear it loooud and clear no matter where you are
7. Men stare like nobody's business - it can be really awkward!!
8. Age 18 is the legal drinking age in Israel
9. Israel has two national languages: Hebrew and Arabic. Many people speak both (fluently!!)
10. Teens do not date here in Arab/Palestinian families, but rather, continue to have arranged marriages
11. Honor killings still take place in Jericho
12. If you want to buy something, you will need some shekels (NIS), not dollars (USD).
13. Israel is 7 hours ahead of EST
14. Falafel is Israel's national snack (it is DELICIOUS!)
15. Israelis love to party
16. During the feasts, security is heightened in the country, as the government anticipates religious clashes.
17. Buses are incredibly popular as a means of transportation, and for both travelers and citizens alike
18. Pita and hummus is available at every store (well, almost)
19. The streets are relatively dirty in Jerusalem, like any major city
20. Muslims do not live in the Jewish section of the city, and Jews do not live in the Muslim section of the city
21. The Old City is divided into four Quarters: Jewish, Christian, Muslim, and Armenian
22. Most women were some form of head covering
23. In Jericho, rain is almost non-existent. In the summer, the heat can reach 120F or higher
24. Israel has experienced a record amount of rain in the past week (I got to be here for that!!!!)
25. Ultra Orthodox Jewish women only wear long skirts & long sleeved shirts past the elbow, and typically dress in black

Sunday

am used to being in East Jerusalem now, and really am beginning to know my way around the city. I love this city, I love the culture, the cuisine, the atmosphere... It is unlike any other. The indescribable blend of religion and tradition and people is astonishing. Two peoples, two faiths, two entirely different belief systems exist side by side and vie for dominion of this fascinating country. It is an arid, dry, rocky place filled with passionate people who freely share their beliefs with anyone and everyone willing to listen. There is no such thing as being politically correct in Israel. In their own regard, every man's opinion is politically correct. I am extremely careful about what I share with others, but for the Israeli citizen, they freely share their views and opinion of God, Christianity, America... All are very welcoming and quick to ask where I am from, and then welcome me more. I am continually amazed that such different religions can live in such close proximity to one another without constant war 24/7. I have felt safe my entire trip, up until a few fleeting moments yesterday. I was totally safe, but made me think "whoa, I'm in Israel now."

I was going to the Western Wall with Stephania. We left the house around 9AM, like any normal day here in East Jerusalem. When we had reached the Damascus Gate, we were met my a an array of soldiers and police officers. We were waved through the throng because we were obviously not Arab, Palestinian, or Jewish. We continued to walk and about 10 minutes later at the end of the Via Dolorosa was another row of soldiers, UN peace keepers, and police. No Arabs or Palestinians were allowed to go through the blockade. Row after row after row, we finally made it to the Wall. It was crazy seeing that many people in uniform quelling the crowds of people flocking down the narrow streets of the Old City. After Stephania visited the Temple Mount and I went to the Wall to pray, we met again and began to journey home, again met by rows of soldiers and officers. This time though, multiple people had been hit by rocks hurled from atop the roofs of the houses in the Arab Quarter through which we were walking. Stephania wanted to stand and take pictures, but I really didn't want to be in a place where I could easily be hit from above. In certain parts of the alleys, sheets of tin shield passersby from the glaring sun and occasional rainfall. The area where we stopped to take pictures was unprotected from any stones, and through broken English it was explained that it would be in our best interest to keep moving. As we continued to walk, multiple men who had been hit in the head with rocks were being treated on the spot by soldiers. None of the injuries were very serious, but it was a reminder for me that I need to be diligent in maintaining my guard.
The reason for all the soldiers was Purim. Because it is a holiday, and therefore close to the heart of the Jewish people, the Muslims tried to make it as difficult as possible for the Jews to get to the Wall to pray. According to an article I read later on during the day, some Palestinians had barricaded the door of a mosque near the Temple Mount and had been hurling objects at visitors and tourists. Several people were arrested for throwing stones, but other than that, it was a brief bump in the road.

I would love if you continued to pray for my physical safety, as well as every aspect of my being here:

• relationships with the other staff,
• having the heart of a servant,
• continuing to passionately seek after God,
• effective communication to everyone I come into contact with,
• opportunities to share the love of Jesus,
• diligence to work on this blog ;)

Later on that night our team hosted Georgian Banov's group again for one last meeting. We arrived at the church at 9:30 and didn't leave until 1:15AM! It was another anointed, awesome time and as always, a lot of fun.