More on Sukkot

It's about time I finish my post about the rest of Sukkot! One of the things we learned about Sukkot is that it is a time spent in prayer for rain. We had our second rain this past weekend (the first was the morning that Sukkot began, but it was early enough in the morning that we were not able to experience it). On Friday, after Tim's fever broke, we went to the bakery for some challah (Shabbat bread) and pastries, then headed home. It began to rain, so we put on our shoes and grabbed the umbrellas so we could go for a walk in it. By the time we all got ready, the rain had stopped. But we went out in it anyway, hoping to have more rain.

This was taken at a vista near our house, overlooking the Old City. (No, it wasn't raining in the picture, but the boys wanted to use their new NEW umbrellas anyway.)

Beautiful!

While Tim was gone on his field study on Saturday, I took the kids on the 40-minute trek to church for our Shabbat worship service. The early morning had been cloudy, so I grabbed the umbrellas and rain jackets and stuck them in the stroller. The sun was shining by the time we left our apartment. As we walked down the street, I considered running back in to return the umbrellas and rain coats because it was so warm and sunny. Ten minutes into our walk, as we started the uphill portion of the trek, the clouds rolled in and it began to rain. The boys were thrilled! We had been told that, in Jerusalem, the sun can be shining brightly with no clouds in sight, and in an instant there can be a downpour. That was why I chose not to return the umbrellas and jackets. Boy, was I glad we had them along! We managed to get to church fairly dry.

A few more pictures of our Sukkot week....

One night we went to the Jewish Quarter and were able to partake in some special treats: cotton candy and popcorn!

Here we sit inside the sukkah that belongs to our favorite pizza place in the Old City.

We had an amazing week of learning and experiencing. Do you remember the palm fronds, willow, myrtle, and citron? Together, these make up what the Jews call their lulav (pronounced loo-lahv):

Tim went to the Western Wall and watched as many people waved their lulavs as they prayed for rain, recognized the omnipresence of God (by waving it in all cardinal directions and up and down), and beat their willow branches on the ground to symbolize God saving Israel from her enemies. We have a great video but are having trouble with it. Maybe another time....

Tim came home to tell us about it and taught the boys how to hit their willow branches on the ground, too.

The Western Wall on the last night of Sukkot - much celebration taking place!

We ended the festival of Sukkot by going to a local park to see the celebration called Simchat Torah - a time of dancing before the Law (the Scriptures). They literally DANCE around the Word of God! They hold up a giant scroll and sing and dance around it. So cool! We were blessed to be a part of this celebration.

Yom Kippur

Yom Kippur was Saturday, September 11. It occurred to us this week that we never posted about this special holiday! It is the one holiday of the year when no one drives. Israel is also the only place in the world that has a holiday with no cars out on the roads.

Yom Kippur is a very quiet day. It is the day on which the Jewish people fast and pray, begging God to forgive their sins.

This is Hebron Road, the main artery between Jerusalem and Bethlehem (normally an extremely busy street) with no traffic on Yom Kippur.

Caleb and Josiah on their scooters in the middle of Hebron Road.

Tim couldn't resist - he had to experience sitting in the middle of the road reading a book.

After brunch, we went with our friends Keith, Laura, and Maryann to the Promenade and saw a family beating an olive tree to harvest the olives.

Our new dear friends!

Tim learned something through his studies that struck us about Yom Kippur. The Jewish people spend 25 hours fasting from food and drink and have many other restrictions on this day. They pray intensely for their salvation, essentially. They consider whether their names are written in the Book of Life. They beg God for forgiveness of their sins so they may be saved. What Tim learned is that, even after these intense 25 hours, some of them wake up the next morning still wondering if it was enough--whether or not they are forgiven. We are thankful beyond words that we can be assured of our salvation because of God's Son, Jesus Christ, who has fully paid for all of our sins - past, present, and future! Thank you, Lord, for the confidence we have that our names are indeed written in the Book of Life because of our Lord Jesus!

A Birthday to Remember

Thank you to everyone who wished me a Happy Birthday yesterday! It was fun to share a birthday with the first day of Sukkoth, and I had a wonderful day. We had our first date since we've been here, too. Tim took me out to a nearby restaurant where we enjoyed dinner together. Please say a special prayer of thanksgiving for our dear babysitters, Amy and Betsy, who are classmates of Tim at JUC. They volunteered to babysit for us, and the kids had a great time with them. It was a tremendous blessing to know we had someone we could trust to care for our children. They were an answer to prayer. (This was one of my concerns before we moved here.) God continues to take care of us in amazing ways!

Caleb and Josiah baked me a cake (with a little help): Chocolate cake with buttercream frosting - my favorite!

Josiah helped me make the frosting, and he got powdered sugar all over his feet! He had been sitting cross-legged on the counter when he spilled the sugar. Notice the chocolate corners of his mouth. He had just licked the cake batter spoon before helping me with the frosting.

The boys helped frost the cake with our homemade multi-colored frosting.

I can't get the video to appear here, so you have to look down below to see a video of them decorating the cake.

The final product!

I am thankful that, after a rough week with Caleb's homeschooling, I witnessed him reading to Josiah yesterday during their snack time. What a blessing it was! It brought joy to my heart. Thank you for your continued prayers for both of the boys as I work with them, and for me as I need an extra measure of patience and creativity!

Isaiah 65:17-25

The above passage is part of Isaiah's Messianic vision. It is a beautiful passage to read at any time, but a friend pointed it out to me during Sukkoth this year. Here's the connection: Part of (arguably, a big part of) the Sukkoth festival is the prayers for the prosperity of the coming year which, in antiquity, meant a prayer for rain so that the crops could be planted. Deuteronomy 11:10-14 conveys the idea that rain at the right time(s) of the year is important. Even the shaking of the palm fronds (part of the Sukkoth celebration) sounds like a gentle rain. So what brought Isaiah 65 to mind in this context? The first rainfall since our arrival here was the morning before the festival of Sukkoth began. Before they call I will answer... (Isaiah 65:24a). What a beautiful reminder of God's constant watchfulness and care for us!

Sukkoth

This is sooo cool! We are thoroughly enjoying being in the thick of things during the holiday season here in Israel. It has been amazing to experience the ways in which this culture celebrates their holidays. Tonight begins the week of Sukkoth (pronounced Soo-coat), which is the Feast of Booths, or Tabernacles, that we read about in Scripture. Last week, we walked past a home that was just starting to build their sukkah. Tim sat the boys down to tell them about it first. We then stumbled across a palm branch on the sidewalk, and each of the kids wanted to try holding it. They would've fallen over if it hadn't been for Tim holding them up! Farther down the street was a huge pile of palm branches in front of a synagogue, where people could come and purchase them for the use of covering the roof of their sukkah. We laughed when we saw a car drive past us with palm branches on its roof. It reminded us of Christmas trees on the roofs of cars in the U.S!

Yesterday morning we took a "field trip" as a family and walked into the Jewish Quarter of the Old City through the Zion Gate, which is very near JUC (Tim's school). We saw several sukkoth and saw the energy in the people as they busy themselves to be prepared for the holiday (similar feeling to Christmas Eve in the United States).

A Sukkah in the Old City

More sukkoth, also in the Old City (notice the three sukkoth in the background on the upper level)

This morning we took a bus for the first time and rode to the Shuk (pronounced like "shoe" but with the /k/ on the end), which is the huge open-air market here in Jerusalem. The people were bustling around, getting ready for Sukkoth. In Leviticus 23:40, God instructs the people of Israel to bring four species before Him: choice fruit from the trees (they use a citron - like a lemon), palm fronds, leafy branches (myrtle), and poplars (willow). It was fascinating to watch how seriously the Jewish people take this law, and how they want their items to be perfect for their families. We saw many people examining each citron that they picked up, making sure it was the right one.

Examining the palm fronds

Examining the myrtle branches

Tim and Caleb after purchasing the four species of Sukkoth

You can see the four species a little better here.

Tonight we took a stroll through a largely Jewish community and saw the many sukkoth that were built and being used. During the Feast of Sukkoth, families spend their evenings and nights in their sukkah. They eat dinner in it and often sleep inside it during the week. They invite guests over and dine together. Our favorite part of our stroll tonight was the sounds - the sounds of community as people gathered to eat and just be together.

Here are a few other pictures of our walk through the Old City yesterday morning:

The route to the Zion Gate

The Zion Gate Entrance

Just through the Gate (Mount of Olives in the background)

Looking back at the Gate from inside the city wall

The Cardo - Street that was built by the Romans in the 2nd Century AD. (Notice the mural at the end of the road - then see picture below.)

The boys pretending to be a part of the mural

Standing among the columns on the Cardo

Some of the original street is still there.

Lunch Break at the Cardo Pizza Place - notice the cardboard paper that is used as paper plates.

Abby spends a lot of time nestled in her stroller!

We found a small play structure where we could let the boys play.

We ended the day by letting the boys sit on the lion sculptures near a boy who was selling the four species for Sukkoth. Tim had a nice chat with him in his limited Hebrew and the boy's limited English.

Thank you, family and friends, for all of your prayers and support. We are thankful for the time we could spend together as a family this week, and that we had a couple of breaks from homeschooling after our rough day earlier this week. We have learned so much and pray we will be able to fully experience Sukkoth in the coming week. The Lord continues to bless us in amazing ways, providing for our every need.

"For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land -- a land with streams and pools of water, with springs flowing in the valleys and hills; a land with wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey; a land where bread will not be scarce and you will lack nothing...." - Deut. 8:7-9

Especially For Moms

Even if you're not a mom, you're still welcome to read on; maybe you'll have a laugh - or maybe it will stress you out. But I have a feeling many of my mom friends will be able to relate with this. I am by NO MEANS a writer, so this may not even hold your attention. I apologize for its length, but I'm doing this partly for my own sanity and to keep a sense of humor about all this. Anyway, our morning yesterday went something like this....

Abby woke up early and went down again at 6:30, which was the time that Tim left for his field study to Jericho and Benjamin. I had an hour and a half to myself (glorious!) to get ready, have devotions, and get prepared for our school day. By 8:00 when Caleb woke up, I was feeling ready and very optimistic about the day.

Here's how it really went:

Caleb wakes up at 8:00, has half a bowl of cereal, deciding to save the rest for later, against my encouragement to eat it all. This mistake may have been the cause of many of our problems for the morning. Since Josiah's still asleep, I tell Caleb I'd like to start school right away. Immediately Josiah wakes up, so forget that idea. He eats two full bowls of cereal. Caleb makes his bed and brushes his teeth while I work with Josiah at getting him dressed (a long process as we are teaching Josiah to dress himself). We're ready to start school with both Caleb and Josiah. Before we can begin, Abby wakes up. I try and give Caleb something to do independently, and he refuses, saying he's hungry. I tell him to wait until snacktime to have a snack.

I change Abby's diaper and clothes and get ready to start school. We do the calendar and memory verse together, then the phone rings. It's Laura saying she has bought a used toaster oven that we can have since our oven broke. Great! Let's get back to school. Now Abby's hungry. I give the boys something to do. Josiah works independently very well while I feed Abby. Caleb complains of being tired, so I allow him to lie down since last week he threw up after saying he was tired. Josiah finishes his work. (Go Josiah! Thanks to those of you who prayed for him today!)

Caleb emerges from his room. I try to get him started on school again. Abby fusses because now she needs solid-food breakfast. I get it ready (bananas - a large helping - in a bowl) and set it on the table near where Caleb is supposed to be working. I get Abby strapped into her high chair. Caleb reaches for something on the table and knocks the bowl off, sending baby bananas all over the floor and legs of the chair. I have Caleb clean it up while I get more bananas, which I had made fresh that morning and put in ice cube trays in the freezer. Since they were quite cold (though not frozen yet), I put the bowl with the cold bananas in the microwave for a few seconds (we have an old-fashioned microwave with a dial, so you can't set it for just 10 seconds). Josiah asks for juice, so I forget about the bananas and get him some juice. A minute later, Abby's bananas are boiling in the microwave. I add some more cold bananas to even it out and start feeding Abby. Caleb sits down to start his work and pinches his finger under the seat on the chair (we have a chair that pinches if you pull up on the seat and sit down at the same time). He screams and runs out of the room, crying.

It is now 10am and Caleb has one thing written down on his page: part of the date (a backwards 9 and a 2, which is not even right. Today is the 19th). The washing machine just stopped. Now is the best time to hang the clothes out to dry, because clothes dry quickly on the clothesline in the morning. But I choose to leave it because now is my chance to work with Caleb, since he is calm after hurting his finger. I have about 5 minutes of successful word-building with him (with letter cards because writing just isn't his thing this morning). Abby starts crying again. Time for a nap. Caleb complains that he wants a snack. I get him a small snack, to which he responds, "These don't taste good." Josiah grabs ahold of my pen and breaks it (it was already sort-of broken). Caleb is very distractible, so he and Josiah start fighting over who gets to play with the pieces of the pen. I take the pen and decide it would be a good idea to let Josiah watch a DVD in his room while I work with Caleb, since Josiah had worked so hard earlier. I start up the Diego DVD while Caleb is complaining that he doesn't get to watch a DVD. The portable DVD player loses its charge and conks out as we start it up. Caleb comments, "Good, now Josiah doesn't get to watch a DVD!" I send Caleb to his room for a time-out while I look for the DVD charger and plug it in. Abby has stopped crying but wants to be held.

Josiah is set up with the DVD player now, and I'm about to call Caleb out of his room to start school. But the door buzzer rings. It's probably a utility guy who doesn't speak any English, asking for money (yes, this has happened before). But no, it's just Laura delivering our toaster oven. Yahoo! The highlight of my morning!! I give Laura a hug as a thank-you, and just because I need a hug! (Thank you, Laura, for praying for us the rest of the day after that!) I call Caleb to the table to start school. Wait, what's that smell? Oh, Abby, didn't I just put a fresh diaper on you? I go change Abby's diaper, having started Caleb on his spelling words.

I return to see that Caleb has written two words, and now he is complaining of being cold. I'm broiling. It's almost 80 degrees in the house; how can he be cold? I take his temperature. No fever, he's fine. This is actually the second time this morning that he has complained of being cold, so I give him warm clothes to put on. He slips them on over his other clothes and says he's still cold. I dig out his snowman blanket that I brought here from home. He's glad to see it. He wraps it around himself then decides he wants the blanket only, not the warm clothes. He removes his warm clothes and sits at the table with the blanket around him. Now it's 11:20 and he has two spelling words written. (By the way, after all that with the warm clothes and blanket, I looked at him about a minute later, and he wasn't even using the blanket anymore.)

Abby's tired and should go down for a nap. I transfer the portable DVD player to my room so Josiah can watch in there while Abby sleeps (they share a room). I return to see Caleb staring at his spelling page, not writing. I offer this contest: "Caleb, I am going to go out and hang the laundry on the line. If you can finish writing your spelling words before I finish hanging the clothes out, you win a chocolate wafer cookie. If I finish my work before you, then I get a wafer cookie." He agrees. While I'm hanging the clothes out, I hear Caleb calling, "Mommy, do I have to have more of these?" I come in to realize he's talking about spelling lists. I tell him that yes, he will have a new spelling list every week. "Do I have to have these for the REST of my LIFE?!" he says. "Yes, honey, you will have spelling lists and learn new things throughout your life...." You know the 'needing an education in order to get a job and make money to survive' talk? Well, I gave that to him. He tells me he doesn't ever want to have a job and make money.

I return to my laundry and finish up while Caleb complains. He has written four of his ten words. I go to the kitchen and eat my well-deserved wafer cookie because I NEED CHOCOLATE! Caleb gives up saying he wants to go back to California because he doesn't like school. When I explain to him that in California he'll go to school, too, and his school day will be even longer than it is here, he starts crying and says, "I WISH I WAS THREE!!!" (In his mind, 3-year-olds get to watch a DVD in Mom and Dad's room while he's doing school.) He also states, "This is the WORST DAY of MY LIFE!!!!"

While this is going on, Abby's been crying because she never went to sleep on her own. Usually she's pretty good about that. I pick her up and hold her. Caleb cries, saying, "You don't care about me because you didn't give me a wafer cookie!!!!" I give him the talk about how I spent a lot of time this morning praying for him and that I love him and care about him, etc. He calms down a little bit. Abby has fallen asleep in my arms, so I go lay her down. Now Josiah is finished watching his DVD and he's had an accident on my bed. Lovely. Thankfully, it wasn't a big one - just minor.

It's 11:45. Time for Lunch! Phew!

Let me tell you, after Caleb ate a hearty lunch, he power-worked until our recess in the park at 2:00. He got all of his morning work done - Language, Spelling, and Math before 2:00!! Hmmm, perhaps the lack of good nutrition at breakfast had something to do with our difficult morning!

And praise the Lord that our afternoon and evening went great - when we got to the park, another mom gave us a box of hand-me-down toys and blocks. What a huge blessing! In the evening, I went to our homeschool co-op meeting and got a bag full of second-hand children's books. This afternoon as he was playing with our "new" treasures, Caleb said to me, "Mommy, this isn't the WORST day of my life anymore, this is the BEST day of my life!"

So there you have it. A homeschooling day in the life of the Becksvoort family. :)

Our First "Monthoversary"

Well, we are approaching the one-month mark for our stay in Israel, and what an adventure it has been! I continue to home-school Caleb Sunday through Thursday while trying to include Josiah in some educational activities and meet Abby's needs at the same time. I am thankful she takes both a morning and an afternoon nap. When she is awake, she is quite patient and enjoys exploring the apartment while we do our schooling. She is very mobile now and has even started pulling up on the furniture (yes, she's not even 8 months old yet; she's growing way too quickly for me)! Four days a week, we have "recess" in the local park with other homeschool families. That has been a blessing for the kids to have interaction with other children, and for me to have interaction with other moms.

Abby pulled herself up under the table and then considered herself stuck!

We made creations with raisins and toothpicks the other day.

Josiah had a little help with his. :) He just wanted to eat the raisins.

We've been doing a lot of reading at our house, and Abby wants to get in on it!

(Prayer Request: This week we only made it to co-op recess once because of Abby's naps on two days and because Caleb threw up this morning, so we didn't go today (I think he's okay now though). Please pray that the Lord provides for us to go every day since it is important that we have the interaction with other people and the opportunity to build Community. Also please continue to pray for our health. Abby threw up last week, but she's fine now. My cough is finally gone as of this week. Thank you for your prayers!)

Tim continues to attend classes at JUC Monday through Friday, with field studies on the weekends. This weekend is a holiday, however, so he has Friday and Saturday off. Yippee! We will be celebrating Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) on Saturday with our friends who helped us get our apartment. No one drives on that day, so we hear that everyone roams the streets - walking, biking, sitting in the middle of the road, etc., so I'm sure we'll have pictures of that for you!

Last weekend, as Tim wrote, we had the privilege of witnessing the celebration of the Feast of Trumpets (Rosh Hashanah) here in Jerusalem. As he noted, our family went to the Western Wall a couple of times to observe what was going on. Here are a few pictures of our experience there. (Photos are not permitted near the Wall, so the pictures you see were taken from up above, outside of the secure area.)

Many Jews wear white on special holidays.

Michelle, Caleb, and Josiah sharing fresh-squeezed pomegranate juice for Rosh Hashanah

The route to the Old City from our house...

The City Wall from afar

The City Wall closer-up

Jerusalem University College (Tim's school) - the building in the center, not the clock tower.

The outdoor theater near the Old City: Two weeks ago, Israel's version of American Idol was hosted live here. We could hear it from our apartment.

Monday afternoon, one of the homeschool co-op families invited us to the Promenade around the corner from us. It is beautiful - a wide, stone path with lots of olive trees, pomegranate and fig trees, grape vines; and... a play structure. :) There are also several viewpoints where we could see the Old City and Temple Mount. Here are a few pictures:

One view from the Promenade path - Jerusalem

The Temple Mount

The Play Structure at the Promenade

The boys going down the slide with their friend Petra

A teeter-totter! The boys were sad when recently our local park pulled their teeter-totter out. Now we have another one we can use!

Caleb doing a chin-up

The view from the top of the play structure - Jerusalem behind them

Our friends from the homeschooling co-op

Another viewpoint on the Promenade path

Other ways you can pray for us...

There are a lot of mosquitoes here, so our kids have bug bites all over them. We have no screens on our windows (just bars), so when we have the windows open at night, the bugs come in. We are thankful it's been slightly cooler so we don't have to have the windows open at night. Please pray for continued cooler weather and for relief from the bug bites (especially for Josiah who scratches them until they bleed).

Our fridge has a personality of its own. Sometimes it reaches the 50's during the day and we have to transfer food to the freezer. Other days it stays cool. Our oven went out on Monday just before we had a friend over for dinner. I had to use our neighbor's oven. Please pray we can get our appliances repaired or that God just heals them! :)

I praise God for the wonderful homeschooling experience we have had so far. I see Caleb learning and working very hard. Please pray for Josiah as it is hard to meet his needs while I am working with Caleb. Even when I have activities planned for Josiah, his attention span is so short that he's ready to be on to the next thing. Pray for creativity for me in working with all three kids.

I am thankful that the heaviness of Ramadan is gone. I was feeling a strong spiritual heaviness when we arrived, and now it has mostly lifted. We have a strong, growing burden for the many lost people here in Israel. Pray we can shine the light of Christ to our surrounding communities.