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JAFFA!
Jon and I have wanted a dog for years and decided that now was the right time to get one! We’re so excited to have him and get used to him being part of our family. We talked about tons of names for him and decided on “Jaffa” because we think it’s fun to say and it reminds us of our time in Israel. 🙂 Jaffa is a Morkie, half yorkie/half maltese. There is some white showing up underneath his black fur, so he may turn more silver colored the older he gets. Anyway, besides today, we promise not to post pics as though he is our child! haha.
Those of you in town, drop by for a visit and to meet our new pup!
I’ll leave you with a few pics from a couple hours after we picked him up this morning!
p.s. he was born on my bday, Dec 22nd!
Work Day opportunity to get involved!!
Some amazing friends of ours have started in a wonderful venture here in Middle Tennessee. Eric, Chel, Zaden and Zaylee Dill own a beautiful area of land in Murfreesboro and have been dreaming and working towards starting a camp and ranch for children of all ages and walks of life. The Perrigo family has had a passion for using their horses, animals and talents for ministry and have teamed up with the Dills to start Son Valley Ranch.
The Ranch is in the process of being cleared out, cleaned up and made ready to house 16 campers. Eric, Matt and Laurel are headed to Oregon in two weeks for a training conference at a successful ranch similar to what they hope to build and grow here in our community. Please lift them up in prayer regarding this training! Look for a new website, videos and much more coming soon.
It’s amazing to see how God is working in our community, and Jon and I look forward to being involved along the way!
*** Should you, your family, or your small group want to volunteer some time and a little sweat, the next work day is Saturday, May 3oth. Email: chelanie@yahoo.com or call Eric at 615-631-2831 for times and directions to the camp!
A group of ten of us decided to take a couple of days off of work and play in the desert. Our plan was to rent a car, drive to Masada, hike to the top, ride camels, camp out in the desert at a Bedouin establishment and swim in the Dead Sea before heading back up to Jerusalem. Out of this entire plan the only part that didn’t go so good was the rental car. It’s amazing how non-productive and how difficult it is here to get business accomplished in Israel. We spent almost an hour in the rental car company even after I had arrived at opening. Wow! I will not use this time to vent.
Anyway….our group consisted of 4 Swiss, 1 Brit, 1 Israeli, and 4 Americans. I say this because Kels and I absolutely love the international mix of people we get to hang out with on a regular basis. What a blessing to experience believers from such different backgrounds and that are stinkin’ funny. Here are some pics from our trip.
On the left is the beginning of our ascent up Masada. Our goal is the top flat part you see on the pic. On the above right you can see the view we had on the way up and on the bottom right is the whole crew at the top.
More pics from the top of Masada.
Kels and I riding our camel “Rufus!” I named him 🙂
The left pic is the tent we slep in fot the night. It really wasn’t bad. It had a generator so we had heat and lights. The right pick is us swimming in the Dead Sea right between some rain showers. Very rare to see rain in the Negev desert much less swim in a relatively cold Dead Sea.
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:
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!
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