Field Study to the north:

Stream near Tel Dan.

As a deer pants for the water

so my soul longs after Thee.

Water!

A peak into Syria at moonrise at Ben Tal.

Buying fresh squeezed pomegranate juice from a Druze woman near Ben Tal.

Israel is a small country, but it's got everything from desert to seashore to lush orchards and inactive volcanos. Sometimes I have to stop and just drink a place in. I've been tagging along on the field studies with Tim and the others at Jerusalem University College going to archaeological sites connected with the Bible. Here are a few pics:

Makhtesh Ramon - a landform in the Negev desert

 Amazing what a little water can do, right?

It's equally amazing throughout ancient times people have found ways to survive and sometimes thrive in the desert.

And we complain if the air conditioning goes out!

Maasai School newsletter

We just finished the most recent Maasai School newsletter and that will be in the mail shortly. We continue to communicate with our partners in Tanzania and during our recent trip there set the target date for construction - this coming January. We hope next week to join an effort dealing with the education of the Bedouins in Israel. This compliments the research Tim did on education while in Tanzania (semi-nomadic people groups in poverty) and who knows but that we'll learn something that could be modified and applied to education of semi-nomadic people groups in Tanzania. We'll find out...

Holiday Progression:
1. Rosh Hoshana - Happy New Year! Traditional prayers for rain.
2. Yom Kippur - Day of Atonement - very solemn
3. Sukkot - Thankful for the harvest, let's celebrate!

These holidays came in quick succession during my first couple of weeks in Israel. During Sukkot people build temporary shelters where they eat their meals and sometimes sleep for a week. In early times during harvest people would sleep in tents near their fields. This also commemorates the flight from Egypt when the people of Israel wandered in the wilderness, lived in tents, and were sustained by the hand of God. Our neighbor, Ann, invited us one evening for an open house and we spent an engaging couple of hours sitting in her sukkah talking to her and her friends about all kinds of things Israel.

 Below: an evening in Lydia and Eldon's sukkah. Eldon is a Hebrew language professor. It was a refreshingly open time of conversation about Judaism, Christianity, scripture, faith, history, anti-Semitism. They were very gracious and generous hosts.

The last day (8 days total for Sukkot) was Simchat Torah. We wandered to the Old City and were caught up in some happy celebrations with the faithful circling with the Torah, dancing, singing, shouting, laughing. Depending on whether a group was Orthodox, Conservative, or Reformed apparently made the difference in whether the women joined in. Sometimes the women formed their own circle to dance. Sometimes they stood aside and watched the men. One young man walked through the women's area, shouting encouragement to the women with, "Form your own circle! Change the world! Form your own circle! Change the world!" (He was Perchik all over again!) Here is a small window into that world including some really unlikely bandfellows and one video with terrible quality but great audio. We loved it all.

Bars in the Kitchen

Here's a pic of our Jerusalem  apartment kitchen/livingroom.

Isn't it beautiful? Bright, light, attractive and we're thankful. It's been comfortable and easy living here.

What?The bars on the windows? Oh, right. Yep, all the windows have bars. What's funny is that I didn't notice them when we got here. It wasn't until a day or two later that I said to myself, "oh. bars. " I remember the first time we lived with bars in Mexico when it was a little unnerving wondering as to the reasons they were necessary. Then there was the year of barred windows in Tanzania where Tim would say, "You realize we're well protected from burglers with those bars, but if a fire ever starts during the night and we can't get to the door...." That helped me sleep well. My actual introduction to home-security-a-la-bars came years ago when we picked up our Chilean exchange student from the airport and brought her home. As we came in sight of our house, she froze in her seat and stared. I said, "What???" She said, "Where is the wall around your property?? And you have no bars on your windows!" I think it's safe to say (ha! nice pun) that much of the world lives with bars as the norm - if you have a house of much value at all that is... which is an entirely different subject explored while in Tanzania.

So we're secure here in our little home away from home. I guess we must need the bars, but I feel very safe walking around our neighborhood after dark, keeping to the same policies I have with large cities in the U.S. - avoid parks and certain areas. What I do have to watch out for is people barreling down the sidewalk and not moving aside to pass.  It's a cultural thing that we haven't figured out yet. Last night I got taken out by a baby stroller - very embarrassing - in the narrow stone streets of the Old City. (no baby, just the stroller)... And I had been so proud of myself that I was learning to play chicken with the best of them! I have figured out that walking behind a stroller is a good way to make headway down a crowded street. In one way it's like driving behind a Hummer. People tend to make way.

Speaking of security, news headlines in the U.S. and also here have the Iran nuclear situation under discussion. One American expat expressed great impatience with the American media as tending to blow everything out of proportion. The property managers visited briefly the second day we were here. Tim asked their opinions about the Iran situation. One said, "Nothing will happen. Iran might get nuclear weapons but they would never use them," The other said, "They would use them. Somebody has to take out those sites before they get to that point." So, the same debate that is happening at home is happening here.  If you're concerned, please know we're registered with the U.S. Embassy, so if there develops a serious need for us to leave, they'll let us know. 

Mostly, people are just living their lives, working, going to school, kids playing outside, parents taking their babies for a walk in the stroller (usually avoiding mowing down visitors). It's been the time of the yearly high Holy days and so there are many people visiting the city, flocking to the Western Wall and the Old City, visiting family, laughing, going to synagogue, talking, eating, strolling the streets - retirees, children, young couples, students.

We  did a field study to Samaria soon after I arrived. It's in the West Bank, which you're aware has been the focus of much of the unrest concerning a homeland for the Palestinians. The West Bank is a mix of Palestinians and Israelis, Jews, Christians, Muslims with a world of loss and pain on all sides.

Speaking of bars and the West Bank - now there are some bars for you.  As you know, it's currently walled in with strict controls over who travels in and out.

This pic taken from the bus while inside the wall. You can see an Israeli guard tower on the hill beyond.

 We've met a few Westerners who volunteer in the West Bank and travel back and forth to nearby Jerusalem. They've been comfortable being there and have had no problems. One said she holds the hands of the Israelis there, and holds the hands of the Palestinians, and listens to both and takes no sides. She is busy volunteering, taking kids to the dentist and helping in the schools. The love of God is what she's busy living out. Being the hands and feet of Yeshua. To everyone. Because "God so loved the world" - and that pretty much includes everybody. 

It's a fascinating country. We feel privileged to be here. We don't feel afraid, we feel at peace. Thanks for your prayers.

I am fluent in American Sign Language! Thank The Lord. 

If I couldn't say that about myself, I would be a knot of utter frustration. Why? I have dipped my toe into the inviting pools of Spanish (remember our times at Mexican orphanages?), Swahili (Jambo!), and German (dragged out of the dusty mental files from my high school exchange student days), but have not jumped in and become skilled in any of those languages. And now, here I go again. Hebrew. 

I'm definitely in over my head.

I have committed to memory (riiiiiiight) several survival words such as "Ani mitztaeret" (I am sorry) which I can remember by how it sounds like "Annie meets da airhead."

Thankfully Israelis are generally very encouraging. For example after being given change at the grocery store I cheerfully said, "bevakasha!"  (you're welcome!) instead of "toda" (thank you)..  The woman behind me responded to my sheepish laugh by saying, "Well done for making the effort!" 

Now that's generous.

I like using slicha (excuse me) in the grocery store. It surprises the staff, who know I know next to nothing, and it definitely makes navigating the crowded aisles easier. The drawback is that I can pull off one word like a native which means the response from another shopper might be a flurry of Hebrew asking which aisle the mustard is in. At that point the game is up and I get to use "Annie meets da airhead" closely followed by  "I don't know Hebrew"

The key is being able to laugh at myself, which I'm usually able to do.
The other key is that most people I've encountered are comfortable using English. Whew.