Shabbat has been great. It is so nice to have a day where so many people are intentional about resting. What a blessing God has given to us with Shabbat! Too bad more of us back in the states disregard it and fail to take advantage of it. We are really missing out.
I woke up this morning at 8:45 am after staying up late watching a movie with Leor last night. It was pouring down rain all night long, as well as when I woke up. I decided to read for a bit this morning, so I got out one of my books about Jerusalem. As I read the history of this amazing city, I found myself overwhelmed by the fact that I am here in the place where all of the events I read about took place. It has really been impressed on me that the story of Jerusalem is part of my story. It is part of the story God has written revealing the steps He took and the things He went through in order to rescue me, restore me, and give me life with Him. I think that is one of the reasons I love this place so much and connect with it. It is also one of the reasons why I believe every person who understands God love for them and His desire to have them walk with Him, if they will allow themselves, will love this place too, and connect deeply with it. It is not just amazing because God’s story happened here – it is amazing because God’s story here is our story as well.
After reflecting on this and praising God for all that He went through for me throughout the history of Jerusalem, I ate breakfast with Keren and Kelly (Leor was still sleeping). We ate some bread and pastries, as well as hard-boiled eggs and mashed tomatoes. When Leor got out of bed, he and I talked about what our options were for the day with all of the rain.
We both wanted to drive down to the Dead Sea. When there are thunderstorms in Jerusalem (which are fairly rare), there are flash floods that form in the valleys that flow into the Dead Sea. As smaller valleys merge with bigger ones, the size of these moving flash floods increase, and by the time they reach the Dead Sea they come pouring over the tops of the cliffs. According to Leor, it is an amazing and awesome sight. They are hard to catch when it happens, but we had a good opportunity and were hoping to at least go and look. The problem with all of the rain though is that since they do not have a lot of it in Jerusalem, with all of the rain that came down, the roads become extremely slick and dangerous. Keren did not think it was a good idea for us to go out and try to drive 45 minutes to the Dead Sea – she was afraid we would get in an accident or get tossed off the road and over a cliff. So we stayed at home for a while as it continued to rain.
I decided to get a little homework done while we were stuck inside. So I worked on some maps that I have to do for my class. It was actually fun to work on them, because I knew that I was in the very place where all of the things I was marking on the maps took place – the realization of that never gets old to me!
After doing this for a while, I jumped in the shower. When I was finished, a jeweler friend of Leor’s who specializes in rings with Hebrew inscriptions on them came by because I was interested in buying one. I ordered a ring with the Hebrew words from Micah 6:8 on it – act justly, love mercy, walk humbly with God – I am really excited about it since we talked about these three things as the theme for 2009 at our church.
When he left, the rain had let up enough, so we felt like we could get out on the roads with some degree of safety. We got all of our gear around and told Keren we would do our best to not injure ourselves – and that if we got stuck somewhere we would see her tomorrow. Then in the car we prayed for God to watch over us in our coming and going. I know that probably seems strange to everyone back home – but it is a totally different situation here when it rains.
As we headed out, there was no traffic because of the rain and because of Shabbat. We started making our way to the Dead Sea, but we heard on the radio that the Dead Sea road had been closed because of dangerous flooding. So instead of going there, we decided to get a little bit of shopping done.
We stopped by the Nissan Brother’s olive wood store on the Mount of Olives. Their main store is in Bethlehem – this is also where they get the wood from (olive trees in Bethlehem) and do all of the woodworking. I wanted to pick up a few souvenirs. I was hoping to find an Elijah figure to give to Elias since his name is the Greek form of Elijah. When we went in, Leor talked to one of his friends who worked there and asked him if there were any Elijah figures. He only had one. It was a larger piece (about 12 inches tall) that cost much more than I wanted to spend. Leor’s friend was going to give me 50% off since I was a friend of Leor. I told him that unfortunately it was still too much for me. He asked me who it was for and I told him that I wanted to get something for my son whose name was Elias, to which he responded by telling me that Elijah was his name. Then he walked over to the Elijah figure, pulled off the price tag ($150), wrapped it up and gave it to me as a gift from Elijah to Elias. What a blessing and what a special gift!
From there we went to visit some friends of Leor and Keren. They live in an apartment in downtown Jerusalem. Their names were Annotte and Rob. We had a great time with them enjoying some coffee and conversation. Rob is studying to become a tour guide – he’ll never compare to our favorite guide :-)
After leaving their house, we went to the Jerusalem shopping mall. I stopped by Toys R Us to see if there were any fun toys for Elias that had an Israeli connection. I found a little kids book called “Leor the Tractor.” I bought it and am excited about giving it to him.
Finally tonight we stopped by the home of one of the guys that Leor serves on the Jerusalem volunteer police team with. His mother passed away this week, and one of the traditions here when someone passes away is that after the funeral the family has seven days of mourning. During this time, people stop by to visit with them, to express their sympathies for the loss, and to help get their minds off of it for a while. Tonight, a bunch of guys from the volunteer police team were going to go over as part of this man’s seven days of mourning. So we went. It was a great display of what it means to do life together – there was such camaraderie. It was strange for me since no one was speaking English, and no one except for Leor even knew me, but I was comfortable and it was a good experience.
We made our way home a little after 9 pm – safe and sound in the Even Sappir village where Leor and Keren live (praise God). Now we are just enjoying some snacks (they have some really great sweets that I am eating too much of) and taking it easy until we go to bed. I have three full days left here before I head home. Tomorrow we are hoping to go to the Dead Sea area. We are going to visit Gilgal and maybe a few sights in town.
Thank you Jesus for allowing me to experience you here, to walk where you walked, to have the stories that I read about you in the Bible come alive before my very eyes. I love you.
