Obscure

Obscure things I miss about Eretz Yisrael...
Kippas
Magnum bars
Thinking, "I wonder if those are the Palestinians over in the West Bank"
Having Todd get side-tracked with fun stuff before Archaeology
"This is the Mossad..bye-bye!"
Getting lots of e-mails every week
Going on Masternet and seeing that it was "So-and-so's" birthday on Friday...and on Saturday
Trying to translate shekels into dollars and vice versa
Wearing shorts to class
Wearing rubber flip-flops to class
Riding through Telshe Stone on the way to Jeru
Seeing Elvis Inn and Gimel Gimel
Seeing all the profs' kids
Daniel and Ayelet and their cool family
Shabbat brunch
Visiting four different seas: Red, Dead, Galilee, Mediterranean
Climbing things
Ugiot
Camping out
Hiking
Oily tuna
Grainy hummus
Shaaban
All the different processions in Jeru: Greek Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant, Coptic
The prayers stuffed into every crack in the Western Wall
Hearing Meno get all excited in his sermons
The Foremans
Seeing machine guns everywhere
Yotvata chocolate milk...from a bag, of course
Pottery and rocks
Shimon Gibson
Roommates
The Miklat
Fiddler on the Roof with everybody
All the weird specimens hanging in the Muslim Quarter
Half-shekel Pita at Damascus Gate
The bullet holes in Zion Gate
Singing in the churches
Finding a good bus buddy
Finding a good bus buddy with good snacks...and notes
Violent rain storms at the moshav
Lightning over the Judean Hill Country
Watching people kiss camels
Sheket!!
Climbing in holes, tombs, tunnels, caves, etc.
Digging in Warren's Shaft
Hezekiah's Tunnel
Dishes
Weird boiled-egg lasagne
Chicken balls
Jackals (?)
Travel/Study Break
Work days

...we are healed

Surely He has borne our griefs

And carried our sorrows;

Yet we esteemed Him stricken,

Smitten by God, and afflicted.

But He was wounded for our transgressions,

He was bruised for our iniquities;

The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,

And by His stripes we are healed.

~Isaiah 53:4-5

July 4th, 2004

I had forgotten how loud fireworks actually are, and how pretty they are, too. **Why is that? I wondered to myself...maybe because for the last few years you have only seen the fireworks from your porch or from a boat on the lake or from your uncle's yard...or maybe because two years ago you weren't even in the country! hmmm, good excuse...**
Actually I was in Zambia, Africa on a mission trip through Awana Club's MIT program, Missionaries In Training...My team and I traveled to orphanages, schools, churches, and even Victoria Falls! It was an awesome 2 weeks...
While we didn't have fireworks on the 4th of July, we did have fireworks on the 3rd of July...Our team had enough money left over to spend on a few things...One thing we bought was a bicycle for Joseph Mbange, the native missionary, to use...Some other things we bought were, of course, fireworks!!! Our American host missionaries, Matthew and Manda Payne, bought smaller versions of American fireworks and we had a show after our little going-away party from our new Zambian friends...It was really fun until some other Zambians showed up...They kindly asked that we stop out of respect for a funeral that was going on down the street!!!

That has to be my most memorable 4th yet!!

Victoria Falls, Zambia
Kamanga Compound, Zambia
One of the many orphanages in Lusaka, Zambia

Both mercy and grace

Ever since I read this on my friend Ry's blog, I haven't been able to get it out of my head, which is a good thing...

From Awana, I learned that mercy is "not getting what I deserve." Grace is "getting what I don't deserve." Thank God that He overflows with both mercy and grace.