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.
Showing posts with label Shabaan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Shabaan. Show all posts
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Jerusalem, Pizza Hut, and Israel in Israel.
Hello again my good readers. I was thinking today, with a little help from a Friend, that these long posts may be scaring away some of my readership. Let me promise you all this: a long post means a full day. A full day means a good one and typically I will blog about important days, not just everyday types. So I will try to keep it short, but I know ya'll want to know about life over here and about what I get to experience, hence the rush of large posts. That said, let's get to it.
Yesterday I went to Jerusalem. Wow, what a packed statement. It seems so commonplace around here already and I've been here what, three days? But really we did. It was so cool to go back. We arrived by bus at Jaffa Gate (West side of town) - the same place we arrived as a Corban posse last May. From there we toured David's Citadel, a big Herodian/Roman/Crusader/Muslim/Turk fortress at the gate. It is possible (nay, even probable) that Jesus stood before Pilate and was beaten in that area, a reality that was hard to grasp so early into our adventure and even now seems so far from real for me. From there we went to Christ Church just across the street in the Old City. It's the first Christian (Protestant is the word around here since there are SO MANY Greek Orthodox and Catholic churches/sites/monasteries etc. around here) church in Israel. We heard from a young Brit named Aaron about the history of it and how Believers witness to Jews, a young Messianic Jewish gal also explained a lot of that to us. It was really neat and super eye-opening. We just don't get it. Witnessing to Jews is the ultimate version of friendship evangelism. None of this mass evangelism bogus, it just isn't effective and/or it turns them away. Fast.
Then came lunch :) We had Pizza Hut of all things. But it was kosher of course, which means no meat because meat and cheese DO NOT go together over here. We ate in the little square outside the church, next to where the little Bible School "Word of Life" meets. The class had a break and one of the students (which are aged from roughly my age to one-foot-in-the-grave-the-other-on-a-banana-peel types) asked me where we were from and what we were doing. We had a good little conversation and I have a new friend, William, from France. The pronunciation of his name is more like Gillum (but with the Spanish double-l pronunciation, so it's like Gee-yum) Anyway, one of the men who walked out at the beginning of the break looked very familiar, so I asked William if a pastor named Israel taught there. He did, the man I saw was him, and I know him. Israel and his coworker, Max, met with our Corban group last spring and we got to see them when we were in Jerusalem. It was amazing to see him, it was a highlight of the day. (PS- pray for him. In brief, he's facing some persecution and has a court appearance coming up. If you know Dr. Trull or Dr. Anderson you can ask them for more info)
After lunch we began our long walk of the day. We stopped at a shop owned by another new friend of all of us IBEXers, Shabaan, and exchanged money. Then we went to the church of the Holy Sepulchre, the possible site of Jesus' burial and maybe crucifixion (but who knows for sure). Then onward through the crowded streets to the Damascus Gate, where we mounted a lot of stairs and began the North/East wall ramparts walk. We walked from there to Stephen's gate, where we came down and went to the pools of Bethesda. Oh, before that we saw no fewer than 7 soccer games going on inside the Old City. Gotta love that. Anway, the pools of Bethesda and the church of St. Anne. The church is probably one of my favorite places, the acoustics are phenomenal. I will try to post a video of us singing there, it is pretty sweet to say the least.
From there it was more walking through the busy streets and we eventually made it back to Jaffa Gate. All in all a long day, a good day, a lot of weird sights and smells and sounds. Day one of many more to come in The City. Afterwards I could have fallen into my bed and slept until the Rapture, but I decided it would be more beneficial to stay up until dinner and then do some homework. Good choice... Mostly.
As for Wednesday (which if you read this right away, is just starting for you :) It was our first real day of classes. I had History of Ancient Israel (HAI from now on) and Life of Christ (LC). Those classes will be absolutely amazing. Here's a cool fun fact: The prof, Abner Chou (less than 30 almost 2 doctorates guy) is more about learning and trying and understanding than he is about grading. Here's a good summary quote of how it will be, "You get two grades in this class, a deserved and an actual. The deserved is what you would get if a mean teacher graded your papers. The actual is what I give you. You don't need the pressures of grades, there's enough pressures as it is." I love this guy. And he has a great sense of humor (Dad, Dr. Anderson, Justin - and others - you would get this guy, he's a kick). After lunch I had Modern Hebrew. Let me explain something real quick. Everyone takes Land of the Bible (40 ish students). Maybe 8 aren't taking HAI. Maybe 2 aren't taking LC. In Hebrew class? Well that is a different story. There are less than 10 of us. And boy did we dive in today. I now know the alphabet (side note: Hebrew is where that word comes from, ask me sometime if you don't already know) and the correct pronunciations. This will be by far the most challenging simply because it is so very foreign (duh.) I would Really appreciate your prayers in that realm, I am hoping the gift of languages descends on me soon. But in all seriousness, all of my classes are going to be absolutely wonderful and I don't want to waste any of it so I would covet your prayers very much.
This has gone on long enough. I am sick of hearing my own voice and all I am doing is typing, so that is really saying something. Or maybe it's not saying anything... whatever. Until next time, enjoy life under our new pres. (will someone please email me a 5 sentence summary of the inauguration or something, we're clueless over here) don't cause too many problems in your local church, and take care of yourselves. I will avoid all rocket fire and IDF personnel as best I can.
Yesterday I went to Jerusalem. Wow, what a packed statement. It seems so commonplace around here already and I've been here what, three days? But really we did. It was so cool to go back. We arrived by bus at Jaffa Gate (West side of town) - the same place we arrived as a Corban posse last May. From there we toured David's Citadel, a big Herodian/Roman/Crusader/Muslim/Turk fortress at the gate. It is possible (nay, even probable) that Jesus stood before Pilate and was beaten in that area, a reality that was hard to grasp so early into our adventure and even now seems so far from real for me. From there we went to Christ Church just across the street in the Old City. It's the first Christian (Protestant is the word around here since there are SO MANY Greek Orthodox and Catholic churches/sites/monasteries etc. around here) church in Israel. We heard from a young Brit named Aaron about the history of it and how Believers witness to Jews, a young Messianic Jewish gal also explained a lot of that to us. It was really neat and super eye-opening. We just don't get it. Witnessing to Jews is the ultimate version of friendship evangelism. None of this mass evangelism bogus, it just isn't effective and/or it turns them away. Fast.
Then came lunch :) We had Pizza Hut of all things. But it was kosher of course, which means no meat because meat and cheese DO NOT go together over here. We ate in the little square outside the church, next to where the little Bible School "Word of Life" meets. The class had a break and one of the students (which are aged from roughly my age to one-foot-in-the-grave-the-other-on-a-banana-peel types) asked me where we were from and what we were doing. We had a good little conversation and I have a new friend, William, from France. The pronunciation of his name is more like Gillum (but with the Spanish double-l pronunciation, so it's like Gee-yum) Anyway, one of the men who walked out at the beginning of the break looked very familiar, so I asked William if a pastor named Israel taught there. He did, the man I saw was him, and I know him. Israel and his coworker, Max, met with our Corban group last spring and we got to see them when we were in Jerusalem. It was amazing to see him, it was a highlight of the day. (PS- pray for him. In brief, he's facing some persecution and has a court appearance coming up. If you know Dr. Trull or Dr. Anderson you can ask them for more info)
After lunch we began our long walk of the day. We stopped at a shop owned by another new friend of all of us IBEXers, Shabaan, and exchanged money. Then we went to the church of the Holy Sepulchre, the possible site of Jesus' burial and maybe crucifixion (but who knows for sure). Then onward through the crowded streets to the Damascus Gate, where we mounted a lot of stairs and began the North/East wall ramparts walk. We walked from there to Stephen's gate, where we came down and went to the pools of Bethesda. Oh, before that we saw no fewer than 7 soccer games going on inside the Old City. Gotta love that. Anway, the pools of Bethesda and the church of St. Anne. The church is probably one of my favorite places, the acoustics are phenomenal. I will try to post a video of us singing there, it is pretty sweet to say the least.
From there it was more walking through the busy streets and we eventually made it back to Jaffa Gate. All in all a long day, a good day, a lot of weird sights and smells and sounds. Day one of many more to come in The City. Afterwards I could have fallen into my bed and slept until the Rapture, but I decided it would be more beneficial to stay up until dinner and then do some homework. Good choice... Mostly.
As for Wednesday (which if you read this right away, is just starting for you :) It was our first real day of classes. I had History of Ancient Israel (HAI from now on) and Life of Christ (LC). Those classes will be absolutely amazing. Here's a cool fun fact: The prof, Abner Chou (less than 30 almost 2 doctorates guy) is more about learning and trying and understanding than he is about grading. Here's a good summary quote of how it will be, "You get two grades in this class, a deserved and an actual. The deserved is what you would get if a mean teacher graded your papers. The actual is what I give you. You don't need the pressures of grades, there's enough pressures as it is." I love this guy. And he has a great sense of humor (Dad, Dr. Anderson, Justin - and others - you would get this guy, he's a kick). After lunch I had Modern Hebrew. Let me explain something real quick. Everyone takes Land of the Bible (40 ish students). Maybe 8 aren't taking HAI. Maybe 2 aren't taking LC. In Hebrew class? Well that is a different story. There are less than 10 of us. And boy did we dive in today. I now know the alphabet (side note: Hebrew is where that word comes from, ask me sometime if you don't already know) and the correct pronunciations. This will be by far the most challenging simply because it is so very foreign (duh.) I would Really appreciate your prayers in that realm, I am hoping the gift of languages descends on me soon. But in all seriousness, all of my classes are going to be absolutely wonderful and I don't want to waste any of it so I would covet your prayers very much.
This has gone on long enough. I am sick of hearing my own voice and all I am doing is typing, so that is really saying something. Or maybe it's not saying anything... whatever. Until next time, enjoy life under our new pres. (will someone please email me a 5 sentence summary of the inauguration or something, we're clueless over here) don't cause too many problems in your local church, and take care of yourselves. I will avoid all rocket fire and IDF personnel as best I can.
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