A Speedy Shabbat

Here's the quicker version of today, since I talk too much anyway and I have to go in a little bit - there is fun to be had in the bomb shelter.

Today is the Sabbath (Shabbat), well, actually, it's over now since it's dark outside, but you get the idea. (The typical Shabbat will go something like I will describe in the next few paragraphs, exceptions will be noted.)

First things first: I got to sleep in, which is my idea of a day of rest! "Church," here referred to as Assembly or something similar, is at 11 so I got a semi-leisurely morning, not like I accomplished much, but I think that's the point. Right before the service we had to vote on our "wing leaders." This I have not mentioned before, so I will briefly explain. A wing leader is basically an RA, they get to make sure people sign up to clean the bathroom and then actually do it, they take care of other such things, they get to be keeper of the wing's cell phone :) and maybe the best part: they get to meet once a week with Abner Chou. The smartest 26-year-old teacher I have heard of and a super cool, super nice guy. Most of the wings here have about 10 people in them. Our wing has 4. And we are probably some of the most similar and most laid back guys here. I like it. So we talked about our "vote" before we actually went in, majority suggestion was that I get it. Mom, I have a confession, I'm committing to something extra-curricular, please don't worry that I am doing too much. This means that I get to be an RA again, who would have thought? Eli, the ex-RA has now been promoted to being an RA in a foreign country! It should be cool, especially the part where I don't have to ask someone else to use the phone and the part where I get to meet with Abner every week. I look forward to it.

That being explained, let's move on. Assembly: pretty much the majority of the people here at the Moshav go to church here. We get to sing in Hebrew, fortunately, the English version is on the powerpoint too. Now when I say English version I mean the Hebrew words are written in English letters, so we stumble through them and hope for the best. It was so cool though, we sang a couple Hebrew songs, but then we sang a couple of English songs. Come Thou Fount in Hebrew sounds pretty much amazing. It was a good day.

After Assembly we ate lunch (better food than normal since a group was here for the weekend. It's sort of like when the Board comes to Corban, or like Corban Experience :). Then we killed time until the bus came to take us to the Old City. We were there for a little over three hours, cruising the streets, perusing the wares, having a good Saturday afternoon, etc.

We stopped at our friend Shabaan's and in typical Arab fashion he gave us some mint tea. I was more along for the ride than anything. I had nothing I wanted to buy just yet and it was nice to get out and burn off some of that pita bread. Then we headed for home, going straight into dinner.

Dinner tonight was amazing! But not because of the food.

Tonight the food was pretty much normal. But the conversation was incredible. Four of us, my roommate Daniel, a guy named Tyler, and a gal named Jessi, had a really good conversation. I will briefly share it with you because it was so good. It started by talking about The Office (tv show) and Jessi was sharing how she didn't think Believers should really watch it because it contains so much crude and vulgar stuff (we like her line of thinking). From there the conversation exploded into the best conversation I have had here to date. We talked about all sort of things that pertain to true Christian living. Particularly how so often we will have a conversation like this and then go and do nothing with it. The question of the hour was this, "so now what are we going to do with this conversation?" -- So often we talk about great and challenging and convicting things and then do nothing about it. Our goal is to do something with it, to take it to the Lord and let those things that were discussed and those things which are on our heart sink in. It was just great.

I need to run now, time for our Saturday night shindig in the miklat.
Enjoy the weekend, may our great God bring Himself into your attention and may you buck the system of society and live unabashedly for Him.