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So, we’re in a new apartment! This is the third dwelling in five months, but they’ve all been great, so we can’t complain. We’re located in the heart of the city about 1/2 mile from the Old City.
I really can’t believe it, but we only have 10 weeks remaining for our time here in Israel. It makes me really sad, yet we are excited to move into what God has prepared for us in the future. We’re also excited to get back to work with FocalPoint.
We’ve been busy lately with work and fun… we had the opportunity to go to Netanya, a city on the Mediterranean Sea, just north of Tel Aviv. The Embassy has an apartment there that each staff member gets to use for a week. We just went up for a long weekend and had a good time relaxing and playing a ridiculous number of hours of cards with our friends. Bohnanza to be exact!
Some Recent Work
There are lots of projects going on around the Embassy this month… special events, a pastor’s conference, staff outing and regular work.
I had fun putting together my first CD album design. This is for Bram Maas, who recorded a live album during the Feast of Tabernacles 2008:
Upcoming Pastor’s Conference (PowerPoint Slide & Name Badges):
Also, Jon completed editing the Sderot/Youth-at-Risk fundraising video:
Kelsey and I have been in Jerusalem now for five months and we have grown a lot, as most people do when their small ideas about our humongous God are ripped to shreds. I think of a pinata that I have been closer to hitting for years that I can’t wait for the reveal of the goodness that pours out. Don’t get me wrong, God’s goodness is very prevalent in our lives even before the “big reveal,” but the journey towards himself is all culminating to one beautiful day that is only a couple of miles away from this computer I am sitting at right now. Wow!
“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.” ~Matthew 25:31-32
Anyway…what’s the title of this post??? Oh that’s right Yad Vashem. Kels and I went to the Holocaust memorial called Yad Vashem and I thought it would be similar to other memorials we had seen. I thought a walk through, see some beautiful statues, take a couple of pics and call it a day. How mistaken! For the next 4 hours, we were glued to our audio headset seeing one depressing visual after another. At certain points I felt tears welling up and others goosebumps. How could a people experience such evil hatred for so long? How could most Christians not say or do anything? How could some Christians agree with what was happening to the Jews as just punishment for not accepting the Messiah? The first and third questions I have no answer for but as far as Christians not saying anything we are still doing this. I am still doing this. Genocide has taken place in African countries such as Sudan, Darfur, Rwanda… and also the close to 50 million babies aborted since 1973 in the U.S. alone. I don’t want to sound like a one issue voter here (grin). I am sure there were those Germans supporting “change”, health care and government programs in 1942. (*Disclaimer: I am not saying Obama is Hitler reincarnated. I do support our president but I do not support his stand on this issue at all.)
I rarely give such a strong opinion in such a public way but maybe I should more than I do. Honestly, I sat down to write about Yad Vashem and God convicted me as I wrote.
“The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.” ~Matthew 25:40
Pic from Yad Vashem
Like Jon mentioned in the last post, we had a lovely walk through Sataf (a park 10kms from Jerusalem) last weekend. It’s amazing to know that some of the ruins there stem from even 4,000 years ago. The hills are covered with old vineyards, olive, almond and pomegranate trees. The almond trees are blooming right now… and smell o-so-good!
Seeing these kinds of places continually reminds me of God’s covenants, judgments and restoration. I keep thinking of Hosea and the beautiful example of how God restores and gathers back those who have rejected him… and I look forward to the day that he once again restores Israel by removing the veil that has kept them from seeing Yeshua HaMashiach (Jesus the Messiah).
Romans 11:
1Did God reject his people? By no means! I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin. 2God did not reject his people, whom he foreknew. Don’t you know what the Scripture says in the passage about Elijah—how he appealed to God against Israel: 3“Lord, they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars; I am the only one left, and they are trying to kill me”? 4And what was God’s answer to him? “I have reserved for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” 5So too, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. 6And if by grace, then it is no longer by works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace.
7What then? What Israel sought so earnestly it did not obtain, but the elect did. The others were hardened, 8as it is written:
“God gave them a spirit of stupor,
eyes so that they could not see
and ears so that they could not hear,
to this very day.” 9And David says:
“May their table become a snare and a trap,
a stumbling block and a retribution for them.
10May their eyes be darkened so they cannot see,
and their backs be bent forever.”11Again I ask: Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all! Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious. 12But if their transgression means riches for the world, and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their fullness bring!
So we had a very fun weekend hanging out with some cool peep. First we went to Sataf with the Guggisberg’s and it was amazing. Basically it’s a series of trails on the outskirts of Jerusalem that wind through “ancient” ruins, olive & almond groves, and even a natural spring. Between Kelsey, Matthais and I, we took several hundred pics. We will post picks from this excursion soon.
We then left the Guggisberg domisile to go catch a bus. This rather shaky video shows you what we saw on the way.
This was apparently a bar mitzvah celebration that was just so cool to experience. These men and boys were having a blast celebrating and the music was so….so…Israeli. 🙂 After checking this out we headed to the mall to catch a movie. Here is the movie poster of what we saw.
Defiance was really good and it was appropriate since we had just gone to Yad Vashem (Holocaust Memorial) the previous weekend. Guess what? A descendant of the Bielski brother’s, which were the leaders of this group of Jewish resistance, sat right in front of Kelsey and I. How cool is that?!! We talked to him for a few minutes afterwards. This dude was from New York which is where the Bielski’s settled after the war.
Kelsey and I then walked 50 minutes back to our apartment at 1:00am. I wish I had a pic of our tired faces. 🙂 Until next time…
Given that we only have 2 English stations out of 30 on our tv, eating out costs double, and we have to take Bus 11 (a.k.a. our legs and feet) everywhere; we have really gotten into playing a lot of games while in Israel. Kelsey and I always enjoy playing games so it is not an issue for us. Here is a typical hand of Nertz from our weekend gatherings.
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