Day 19 - Tel Aviv

One Day More. Another Day, another destiny…(Les Miserables)

This morning we went to the Diaspora musuem. This details the lives of the Jewish people over ther last 2000 years, from family life to faith to remembrance to their chronicled experience and locations. Again, like Yad Vashem, I can't exactly describe what I felt in this museum. The lady we met with last night was our tour guide, and she was phenominal. It's so interesting to see how the Jewish people have survived all this time. The Romans destroyed the temple, and they got rid of all the "objects" that were sacred to the faith, and yet the Jewish people still thrived. How they celebrate shabat (sabbath) every Saturday always involves 3 elements: candles, bread, and wine; all found in the temple. Plus, these are the only people who can read their ancient scriptures. They still speak Hebrew to this day. It's crazy to think about. And so crazy to think that the Christians have had such a role in literally oppressing the Jewish people. And not without cause. The Christians really wanted the Jewish people to convert, but when they wouldn't, they presented them as being "blinded by the devil" which eventually evolved into being the devil themselves, which eventually led to the extermination of many of the Jews in the Holocaust. It's just overwhelming to think about the huge amounts of anti-semitism we see in our Christian history.

After our tour, we had lunch at the musuem, and then packed up for the beach. The sand in Tel Aviv is AMAZING. It is so fine and the water was a great temperature. Though we couldn't catch many waves, it was awesome. Sondra, Shawna, Ben, Rufus, and I had a good walk down the beach and talked about favorite Bible stories and the like. Then we got white chocolate Magnum bars - again, so good! Then we headed back to the bus. We got to see Kevin hitting on Israeli girls on the beach and we made fun of him for it later. And yeah - then we drove to Jerusalem and checked into the hotel. Then Sondra and I made a deal that we would do each other's hair for dinner. Mine looked like an Alfalfa freak when she was done and hers looked like a model/80's crazy hair girl. But in fear that we would cause commotion at shabat dinner, we just took a picture and put them back to normal. Then we had a good time of worship in my room with about 8 or 9 of us before dinner. I read Romans 8 and it really really started speaking to me. It’s a long chapter, but I feel like in every section things were popping out that God wanted me to learn. It was powerful.

Hannah really spoke to me tonight too. She speaks with such simplicity, but its powerful. She's going to do good things for the Lord. Down in Alabama.

Dinner was great. We talked about dating for the sake of dating v. dating and just having fun and not taking things to fast v. dating solely to get married to the first person you date. It was interesting. There was good food (of course). But NO HUMMUS. Shocker.

I am extremely tired now. I'm going to go pay for internet now so that you people have a sliver of what's been happening recently. Thanks for being faithful and praying for me. Tomorrow is Bethlehem. Til then, Shabat Shalom. From Jerusalem.

Oh, and Grandma, you had a whole lotta people praying for you here today. Be encouraged. I love you!