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.