May 13, 2006

Thank you very much...


Life has been good in Jerusalem. Never has friendship been more appreciated than the past few days...starting with the gracious hospitality of Geoff C who has been the best tour guide and friend around...and continuing with picking up two of the best friends a gal could hope for at the airport yesterday!!! Ben and Joy L. got in saturday, and we're hoping her luggage gets here as well...but other than that slight mishap, things have been AMAZING!!! the struggle of being here lost and alone was good for me, but it is SOO GOOD and that much more amazing to have friends here now. AND i've found a very cheap place to stay that is so much fun...lots of very interesting characters and i have had just odd/cool/good things happen one after another. Today was especially amazing, going to a messianic jewish service on sabbath, following seeing the MASSES at the western wall as sabbath began friday evening. Wow. more on that later. I love the sabbath routine. I loved riding the bus to Tel Aviv and talkign with a young jewish girl whose passion for the faith, the torah, and the sabbath overwhelmed me with joy! THere is much to learn.

The greatest thing of all i have learned so far is how much the jewish tradition enforces the need for COMMUNITY. "You cannot seek God alone...you must be with at least 10 people who can pray for you." Althought there is obviously more to be said about this, and of course the number of people can vary...the importance placed on being WITH people when seeking God has never been so real. And never have i longed for it so much as i did when i was in Jerusalem the first few days...ALONE. I'm so thankful for that time so that i can appreciate it all the more. He always provides, that i've never doubted.

All is well, life is good...this week is packed full of plans...oii vey. And for the record one of the new friends i've made has a very interesting involvement photographing the palestinian/israeli wall conflict. More on that in details when i get back, but check out these pictures from the stuff he's gone to just outside the city. I'm increasingly palestinian sympathetic...it's been so good to KNOW the people rather than seeing things you can't grasp on a television!!! Reality is always better. Tear gas though, really is quite annoying. http://www.travelblogger.net/members/sojourn2006/

I'm SOO Glad to have finally found a good, safe, community hostel. It's so good to pay less than $10 a night for a room, meet strange/fun/interesting people from all around the world, and to be increasingly amazed at how similar people are wherever!!! those palestinians throwing rocks on your evening news are REAL!!! They are quite nice too i would have you know...but passionate about things like life survival. Life is hard...i'm just THRILLED TO KNOW JESUS so that LIFE HAS MEANING. I can rejoice in the hard as i know it will make all things experienced more valuable...that has been experienced
Blessings to all, keep me in your prayers...every step of this life of mine is surprising, good, blessed, and CHALLENGING. More later...mostly wrote to say, all's well. :) Shalom.

1 comment:

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