Home Again, Home Again...

It is GOOD to be home. As I looked back on our previous posts just now, I realized for the first time that there are parts of Israel that I really miss. But it is so good to be home. Thank you for your prayers for our trip home. We had 16 hours of complete cooperation from our kids, plus quick lines in the airports and a smooth flight. In fact, we agreed that our experience in the airport in Tel Aviv was the best foreign airport experience we've ever had, and Tim sought out a manager to tell her so. They were very helpful and patient with us. We know our travel day went so smoothly because people were praying! Even Abby was amazing. She took good naps on shoulders and was happy on our laps when she was awake. Caleb and Josiah enjoyed having their own built-in TV screens in front of them and found some kids' shows that they liked. They also slept several hours. Customs & Immigration in the U.S. went quickly, and all of our luggage arrived intact. After we landed, Josiah commented to Tim that after we got our suitcases, we would be walking home. Tim replied with, "Actually, we get to DRIVE home." Josiah's response was, "Oh, so we're going to rent a van?" He was so used to walking everywhere; and anytime we drove, it was because we rented a car. :) Speaking of renting a car, . . .

During our last week in Israel, we visited a few sites in the area. The Soreq cave was fascinating with its stalactites and stalagmites.

Here, Tim and the kids are standing in the Elah Valley brook from which David took his stones for the purpose of fighting and defeating Goliath.

On one of our trips, we stopped at McDonald's. Here is the sign in Hebrew :)

We also took a bus to the Biblical Zoo in Jerusalem.

My favorite animals were the mommy kangaroos who had joeys in their pouches.

Jennifer became a good friend during our last weeks in Israel.

Caleb, Josiah, and our friend Ellie (Jennifer's daughter)

We walked to the Old City to spend one final day in Jerusalem. This is Abby crawling up the Southern Stairs of the Temple Mount.

Caleb climbing an olive tree on the Temple Mount

On the Temple Mount stands the Dome of the Rock (Muslim Mosque that is seen in most panoramic photos of Jerusalem - see below). This is where the original Temple of God once stood.

Dome of the Rock from a spot near our apartment

We visited the Western Wall one last time. Our boys wrote a note to God and placed it between the stones just as many others have done over the years. They were also able to wear their new kippas. :)

On our last Shabbat (Sabbath), we bought Challah (pronounced "halla" with a throaty /h/ sound) bread as we did every week. Ever since we returned, we try to make it every Friday night here in the States. We love it!

We have been home now for 2 1/2 weeks (arrived home on Jan. 11). The first week was spent getting adjusted to the 10-hour difference in time zones. The kids crashed every night around 5pm (Josiah even fell asleep at the dinner table once), then they woke up between 3 and 4am, ready to start their day. One morning, after all waking up at 4:30, we decided to go out for donuts. So there we were at 5:45am, in the dark, walking our three kids down to the donut shop. We got some funny looks. The next couple of nights, we had dinner dates with friends, where the kids had to stay up past dinnertime, so we all adjusted fairly quickly after that. Throughout that first week, we enjoyed hearing the boys say things like, "Mama, look at THIS!" and "I forGOT about THIS!" "Daddy, look what I found!!" They feel like they have all new toys. They also enjoy having their backyard back, and I enjoy being able to send them outside to play. Oh, how I missed that!!!

Our second week was spent with Tim's parents who came to visit. We enjoyed a trip to the beach, the park, a day at Disneyland, and a party on Abby's first birthday. Our third week has been spent being sick and preparing for school starting. (Josiah, Abby, and I have had colds, and Abby also had a stomach flu early last week.) We are all feeling much better than we did in the middle of the week and praise God that we are going into our first week of school fairly healthy. Tim and the boys start school on Tuesday. Here are a few last pictures:

Abby's first birthday cake

Abby enjoying (well, sort of) her birthday cake. She fussed through most of it because she missed her afternoon nap, plus we had a house full of people. She was a tired little girl by the time everyone left!

Grandma & Grandpa gave Abby a very special gift -- the same thing they gave her daddy when he turned one: a rocking (riding) horse. Tim's wasn't pink, though, I promise. :)

Disneyland - Grandpa and Josiah on the Astro Blaster

Grandma and Caleb on the Astro Blaster

Our family with Jesse & Woody from Toy Story.

We covet your prayers as we enter a huge week. Tim returns to teaching on Tuesday, adding a class he has never taught before: New Testament Survey. He is very excited about it and looks forward to getting back into the classroom in the role of a teacher. Caleb begins first grade, and Josiah will start going to preschool three mornings a week. I look forward to going back to leading GEMS (our church's ministry for young girls, grades 3-6) and joining a Bible study. Once again, we thank you all for your prayer support and encouragement, as well as your financial gifts. The Lord has used you to make this experience happen, and we give Him the glory! He has reminded us over and over again that He is a faithful God, a God of provision, who is ever present, even in the midst of people groups who do not proclaim Him as Lord. I want to close with a passage that is close to my heart because I memorized it while in Israel. It comes from I Chronicles 29, and is a prayer of David:

"Praise be to you, O Lord, God of our father Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours O Lord, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all. Wealth and honor come from you; you are the ruler of all things. In your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all. Now, our God, we give you thanks, and praise your glorious name."

On The Journey Home

Yesterday was Shabbat—our last one here. Two days ago was Greek Orthodox Christmas—we saw the motorcade from Jerusalem to Bethlehem while walking towards JUC. Three days ago was the day of Epiphany on the Western Church calendar, remembering the visit of the Magi to Joseph, Mary, and Jesus. It is this story that fascinates me as I write this today. When they came to meet (and worship) this King of the Jews whose star they saw, it is doubtful they anticipated what the scene would be. After all, they first started asking the question in Jerusalem, where the king ‘ought’ to have been (Matt. 2:1-2). After being informed by a passage from the Text of God’s Word, they started making their way to Bethlehem, and the star went ahead of them, leading the way to the house where the King was. We have been so influenced by countless nativity scenes that it is difficult to imagine what the actual scene looked like. Probably it was anything but “majestic”—devoid of the pomp and ceremony, which they had likely experienced in Herod’s court. Nevertheless, we are told that they came to the house, “saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshipped him”(Matt. 2:11). It may not have looked anything like what they expected, but they somehow knew when they were in the presence of the King. This is how life often is, isn’t it? In many ways, our trip here was no exception to this. In its twists and turns it has not always looked like what we had imagined (or perhaps even romanticized) ahead of time. However, I feel like we have had a lifetime of experiences squeezed into the last 5 months, related both to the classroom and life lived in this land. While it has been challenging, it has also been exciting, and through it all, God has gently shaped us through encounters with His greatness and His subtlety.

The gifts that the Magi brought—gold, frankincense, and myrrh—would soon come in handy as Joseph, Mary, and Jesus would soon have to flee the wrath of a paranoid ruler, but for the Magi, a different path lay ahead: the journey home. It’s true they were exactly where they were supposed to be—drawn there, even called there for that moment. But that place was not home for the Magi. We are told that the Magi “returned home to their country by another route”(Matt. 2:12). After that, the Bible is silent about these visitors. According to tradition, they returned believers, but whether or not that is the case, I imagine that their sojourn in this land and meeting Jesus here changed them significantly. We also return home having had encounters with the Savior here. Unlike the Magi, we’re anticipating a return flight that should take us back pretty much on the same route by which we came. But we leave here changed because of the gracious people we’ve met, and the challenges through which God has brought us, and our experiences walking in the land which was the setting of God’s Word.

Experiencing the Land

One of the things my professor said this semester was that Israel has the geographical and natural variety of California squeezed into the size of New Jersey. In the last couple of weeks, my family and I have been covering some of that ground from the very southern tip of Israel to the very northern tip and many interesting places in between. We had a great day in Eilat on the Red Sea, including some time spent just north in Timna, hiking with the family. Besides the hiking, there is a 1:1 model of the Tabernacle there where we were able to have a good discussion with the boys.

(Note: This post was a team effort, so you'll notice us switching back and forth between who is writing. Sorry for the confusion!)

Tim teaching the boys about the tabernacle

Other pictures at Timna Park...

Please forgive me, but I thought this sign was pretty funny. (Typically, it is expected to throw toilet paper in the trash can, but this was a porta-potty, so the rules were different.)

We also visited the aquarium in Eilat.

Here, Tim is pointing out that we could see 4 countries: Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Israel.

After our visit to the aquarium, Tim and I took turns going snorkling in the Red Sea. It was amazing, but we don't have any pictures, unfortunately.

Our next trip was up to the Galilee region (loosely defined as we traveled from the Mediterranean coast, into the Jezreel Valley, and north almost as far as we could go in Israel). On our day up to Tel Dan and Caesarea Philippi, the air was incredibly clear and we could see Mt. Hermon, far in the north all the way from Tiberias. It was an amazing thing, really, to visit so many places so significant to our understanding of the Text of God's Word with my family.

Our first stop was Capernaum.

Here, Tim is showing the boys that the lower layer of rocks (the darker ones) are from Jesus' time.

This shows the first century layer more clearly.

"Jesus boat" - a 2,000 year old fishing boat that was found in the Sea of Galilee and is now on display in Nof Ginnosaur.

The next day, we went to Akko (also called Acre) to see an old Crusader fortress and a walked through a tunnel that led from the fortress to the Sea (Mediterranean).

Rosh Hanikra - we took cable cars down to some caves that were formed by the sea's waves.

My (Michelle's) highlight of our Galilee week was that on Tuesday morning, I watched the sun rise with Abby over the Sea of Galilee (from our apartment where we stayed), and later that evening watched the sun set with my family over the Mediterranean Sea. Wow! (Below is the sunset.)

On Wednesday we started at Hazor to see the ancient Canannite and Israelite city ruins. Here is Solomon's gate to the Israelite city of Hazor.

We went on to Tel Dan and then Caesarea Phillipi. Thursday, we headed home by way of Zippori (Sephoris), Megiddo, Nazareth, and Mt. Carmel. I think we've posted enough pictures, though! It's hard to choose which ones to post.

I'm going to sign off because I'm about to lose power on our computer (we're still having computer charger issues and internet issues). We spent our last day in the Old City today, and tomorrow we have a couple of other things planned around town. We are thankful for an incredible experience here! The Lord has taught us so much....

We look forward to our return to the States next week. Please pray for my (Michelle's) health as I have developed a cold, just in time for our flight home. We also covet your prayers as we fly home with two active boys and an almost-one-year-old baby girl who will not enjoy sitting on a lap for 16 hours! :) We look forward to sharing our adventures when we return!

Grocery Shopping in Israel

We made our last grocery shopping trip today. Just for fun, I'm posting specifically about grocery shopping in Israel because it's quite different from shopping in the States. Here goes:

Step 1: Put a 5-shekel deposit into a shopping cart in order to unlock it from the rest of the shopping carts.

Step 2: Attempt to maneuver the shopping cart around the store (both front and back wheels swivel, which makes it difficult to push a full cart)!

Step 3: Shop. Notice prices are about double what we pay in the States. A quart of milk costs about $1.50. We buy milk in 1-quart bags here.

Cheese costs about 32 shekels (close to $10) for a small bag of shredded cheese or a box of about 10-15 sandwich slices. We haven't found American or Cheddar cheese here yet. :)

Currently, real butter is unavailable in Israel.

Eggs are stored unrefrigerated. They are individually stamped with an expiration date (cool, huh?), and they often have little chicken feathers stuck to them.

We can't find any pork, bacon, pepperoni, or ham here! (Not kosher - it's all from a pig.) We eat a lot of pastrami on our sandwiches, and salami on pizza.

I've learned how to ask in Hebrew for 1 kilo of schnitzel at the meat counter.

There's an entire refrigerated case that sells only humus - a zillion different brands and flavors.

The cooking oil/olive oil section is huge, too. (I forgot to get a picture of this.)

The bread is sold in unpackaged loaves. They do also sell bagged loaves, which we also buy.

"Hamburger" patties have mostly been veal.

Vanilla flavoring is different. Sugars are more coarse here. Therefore, baked goods turn out to have a different taste and texture.

They sell pomegranate-just-about-anything, including baby rice cereal!

Step 4: Go to the checkout. Hand cashier my discount shopping card (just like we have in the States). Bag my own groceries. (Yes, really!) I will truly appreciate my grocery baggers when I return to the States!

Throughout most of the semester, I went grocery-shopping with my friend Laura on Tuesday nights, which was a huge blessing. Often we have another one or two friends with us, since Laura is the only one with a car. We've decided that we should start a trend in the U.S. where friends go grocery shopping together. :) It makes it much less of a burden - and even a little bit fun!

It's hard to believe we have only a little more than a week left before we head home. We've been so busy with traveling that we haven't posted much. We spent much of last week in Galilee and a couple of days prior to that in Eilat. More on that later! Happy New Year!

On Christmas

This evening, I can genuinely say I was glad to have been here for Christmas this year. This may seem like an obvious conclusion, but leading up to this day, even 24 hours ago, I wasn't sure this would be the case. But my thought process got a re-tuning, and I'm not sure I'll be able to articulate everything, but I have to try. Last night, as we walked into part of a carol sing at Christ Church in the Old City, those already present were singing "O Little Town of Bethlehem." While we were finding our seats, we sang the next-to-last verse, the words of which helped me frame my thoughts then and now. (Please forgive me the length of this post.)

How silently, how silently the wondrous gift is given.

When people back home ask me "What is Christmas like where you are?" the first thing I want to say is "It's quiet. Very quiet." With just a 2% Christian population in the country, I guess this should not have caught me by surprise, but it did and broad-side. Today was in many respects, "just another day" in Jerusalem. Oh, it was Shabbat, so there were fewer cars driving and most of the grocery stores and restaurants were closed, but traffic will be back and the places of business will be open again after sundown. One has to look very hard to find any hint of a Christmas decoration in any part of town. It was a much busier day 5 miles south of here in the no-longer-so-little town of Bethlehem, but even there, the day was occasionally trumped by those taking advantage of the crowds for the purpose of political posturing. It didn't "feel like" Christmas. At all. How can this be, as we are (metaphorically speaking) in the shadow of the stable?

So God imparts to human hearts the blessings of His heaven.

Two days ago, we took our kids to Bethlehem, not really sure of what we would encounter there, or even what our purpose should be. I got lost driving, but suddenly, after making a spontaneous right turn (both directionally and in terms of correctness), we were in Manger Square. So we went to the church there, which was surprisingly not busy at all on December 23, and we had a really good talk with our boys about the Christmas story. It strikes me now that the roles have reversed somewhat when it comes to the events surrounding Christmas, at least in terms of activity. Today, Bethlehem was all a buzz and Jerusalem not so much. Upon the visit of the Magi (not exactly the same time as the events of Luke 2, but remembered at Christmastime today), Bethlehem was quiet and all Jerusalem was disturbed at the news (probably because Herod was disturbed). Without the distractions of shopping sales, the TV specials, and the decorations, Christmas was boiled down once again to its very core. Jesus, while "being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness" (Phil. 2:6-7). The ultimate result for us: life now and forever reconciled to God! The blessings of heaven indeed.

No ear may hear His coming, but in this world of sin...

Still, something was keeping me from joy. While Michelle was with the kids on Christmas Eve at the rehearsal for the Christmas pageant, I was doing some grocery shopping in the open air market (more truthfully, I needed some 'wander time'). On my way back, very near the church building, the police had a road I wanted to walk roped off. What was this about? After a few minutes and an explanation offered to me in broken English, I discovered that a suspicious item had been discovered nearby. The police were taking care of it. It soon occurred to me that 'taking care of it' was going to involve a detonation device. Honestly, my initial reaction was, "Cool!" After the bag was 'taken care of' with a loud bang (it turned out to be just an old pack filled with trash that someone had discarded near, but not in, a dumpster), the sound reminded me of the ongoing tension that makes events like this less joke and more everyday reality here. I already mentioned the carol sing at Christ Church; the day before, there was a memorial service there for Kristine Luken, the American who was stabbed to death one week ago today (we did not know her, and we still feel safe here, but please pray for her family and friends). These recent events turned my thoughts once again to the Christmas story. What was it that the angels said? "Peace on earth; goodwill toward men" (or "toward men of goodwill," depending on your translation). What was it that Isaiah said He would be called? "Prince of Peace," among other things. Really? Here? It is easy at this point to see the despair Longfellow saw as he wrote the penultimate stanza in his poem-now-turned-song "Christmas Bells." But his poem had one more verse, and this story has at least one more part as well...

Where meek souls will receive Him, still the dear Christ enters in.

Energized this morning by thoughtful wishes and actions of good friends, but still turning all this over in my mind, we came to corporate worship this morning, with an angel and a sheep costume for the pageant. Perhaps you think that a Christmas pageant here would have better costumes or would be less chaotic than such things elsewhere. You would be wrong on both counts. This is in no way a reflection on the effort, skill, or patience of the wonderful people who organized it--as anyone who has taken such a thing on can attest. Nevertheless, there was stage-fright, tears, and a meltdown (not by our kids), but it in no way detracted from the beautiful simplicity of the story and its telling. During worship, stories were heard of encounters with not-yet-believers in Jerusalem and Bethlehem both, and I realized that there are people here who are hungry for God. Perhaps they aren't even sure of what they are looking for, but they are curious about Christ! And that's the idea. Christ was born in the relative quiet (minus the angel chorus to the shepherds) of a stable in Bethlehem, but the message was one of deep transformation and salvation just as it is today. And on our walk home, I heard the Christmas bells pealing loud and deep. Even in the face of silence, apathy, and darkness Christ is on the throne: the Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and yes, the Prince of Shalom--which He is bringing about in His time.

O Holy Child of Bethlehem, descend to us we pray.

Cast out our sin and enter in, be born in us today.

We hear the Christmas angels the great glad tidings tell.

O come to us, abide with us our Lord, Emmanuel.

Hezekiah's Tunnel

Well, as Michelle told you, Caleb and I went to "City of David" today to go ahead and try Hezekiah's Tunnel. If you're curious as to what that is, it's a 2700 year old engineering masterpiece that Hezekiah's men undertook to get the water from the Gihon spring (Jerusalem's primary water source, but outside the main city walls and vulnerable) to a pool lower in elevation, but inside the city wall. For more information, check out 2 Chronicles 32 (especially v. 30) and this web page.

Taking Caleb into the tunnel was something I had wanted to do since we've been here, but I was never quite sure how he'd feel about a 1/3 mile walk through a narrow, dark (except for flashlights) tunnel with (cold) water running ankle to knee deep. I was also nervous because (as those who have been there can attest) it is a 1-way deal. Once you've started, you're in it for the long haul. When the time came, however, he just got right down in there like nobody's business, and we had a great time. Nobody was behind us (as far as we could hear, which, if you've been there, is actually quite far), and only a small group of noisy boys was ahead of us, so we could move at our own pace. We noticed the cavities for lamps in the tunnel as well as the chisel marks in the walls. Also, in my previous treks through the tunnel, I had never paused long enough to consider the exact place where the two sets of tunnel diggers met, but together, we noticed a definite place where the direction of hewing quite abruptly and obviously changes, so I learned a new thing, too. At one point, Caleb even wanted to turn off his light (and mine!) for a few seconds to see how dark it would get (answer: completely dark!). It was pretty cool! For all you archaeology buffs, the third picture is of a structure that Eilat Mazar (the excavator here) believes to be the remains of David's Palace. The picture doesn't do it justice, but if she is correct, this is a find of enormous importance.

Caleb in Hezekiah's Tunnel. It's tricky because he's smiling in the dark until the camera flashes! Still...not bad.

Today, the tunnel empties into a pool dating to the time of the Crusaders, but in the 2nd Temple Period, the water system emptied into this, known as the Pool of Siloam (John 9).

If E. Mazar is correct, this is part of what remains of David's Palace (2 Sam 5:11, or "House of Cedar" in 2 Sam 7:2).

You Know You've Been in Israel for a While When...

... you walk into the living room to see your 3-year-old playing with his toy cash register. He says to you, "Mommy, I want you to buy something from my store." "Okay," you respond, grabbing a toy to buy. "How much does this cost?" you ask. Josiah responds with, "20 shekels." :)

Tim took Caleb to David's City this morning to walk through Hezekiah's tunnel! He just called me and said they got through, and Caleb did GREAT. He loved it. I was afraid he would be scared because it's pitch black inside (they took flashlights), and the tunnel has about a foot of water in it. But Tim said they had a very good time together and they're glad they did it.