Catching up, post numero one.

Follow, follow me now on my journey from the scorching desert so devoid of spiritual sentiment, to a land overflowing with religious affections. Melodrama aside, this is my first actual post where I show you what's going on! How? Why, with pictures of course. If I can manage to get them uploaded...there we go.

The first exciting leg of the trip: catching the plane out to Tel-Aviv. Grabbed my ticket, checked my luggage, and said my sad goodbyes to the family before taking off on another lengthy adventure. It will be another twenty hours before my arrival in Israel, and another three and a half months after that before my return to the US and my family.






A little bit higher on the totem pole than the local hotels is the Yad HaShemona, a small Moshav (village) that is the home of Messianic Jews, Finnish missionaries, and other varieties of people. It also doubles as a hotel and retreat center, and is generally a haven for Christians all over the nation of Israel. The name means "Memorial to the Eight", and is named for eight messianic Jews who perished during the holocaust.




Home sweet home, which happens to be a little cement block with holes in it. Don't be fooled though, it's quite charming on the inside. My roommate Troy and I quickly got all of our stuff settled nicely, and the showers are surprisingly nice and warm. All in all I think the harshness of the living conditions was a tad overrated - except for the weather. Boy is it chilly over here :(


Unfortunately this is where I have to stop, because I have a lot of reading and a little bit of writing to do before tomorrow. I've got plenty of much more interesting pictures than the drab things you see here, so check back later!

Pictures and descritions, you say?

I've got a more lengthy and descriptive essay on the way...soon, very soon!

Oh, Jerusalem!

Wow, what can I say…but that today was amazing! We got to experience Jerusalem for the first time, an incredible experience. Partially because it’s a complete mess, with all sorts of rubble and trash laying around (never before have I seen such a huge collection of garbage), partially because of the great diversity of people and cultures and tastes and smells and all sorts of other sensory input, oh my. But what made the experience even more incredible took a little thinking to come to. I had to stop and think about how much this city really meant, and should mean.

On one level it’s just a dirty city, a very dirty city, built on a piece of land that has little merit compared to many other pieces of land in the world. But the incredible value invested in this land by events and beliefs is incredible. In order to feel the weight of Jerusalem you have to try to get out of your own shoes, and into the shoes of a people who really sense meaning much more than we do. Looking at the many Jews throughout the Jewish quarter, I tried to imagine what sorts of sentiments arise in their souls as they walk the streets of their city. Similarly, as we traveled through the Muslim cemetery I tried to imagine what it must mean to the deceased to have that great honor (or just to use their bodies as an insult to Israel maybe). Anyway, it’s not something that can be acquired in a single day, and it’s not like our culture does a peachy job of instructing proper reverence for that kind of monolithic symbolism. Yup, I just had to get my negative remark in there!

Oh yeah, and the walls were lovely. Score one for the purely positive comments!

Just before flying out

We are waiting in the airport for our flight to arrive…patiently, and somewhat boringly perhaps. The tension is laying a little heavy, as the fact that I'm heading off to a foreign country and have no idea what to expect is really starting to settle in. Okay, it didn’t really settle in, more like just plopped right into my lap. But nonetheless, as my attitude seems to be toward all trips, I will immensely enjoy the new environment once I’ve been tossed into it ;D Starting to miss everyone already, so please-please-please talk to me on Skype! Or send me e-mails or letters or PRESENTS with delicious foods in them.