in galilee

we had a very full day driving around northern israel - stopping at all kinds of places we haven't been before - mt gilboa, sheneum, nain, en dor, jezreel - we ended the day at a nazareth view point - one of our favorite places. had dinner in tiberias - shabbat shalom - and are now at the hostel in the hills overlooking the sea. i don't know what tim has up his sleeve for tomorrow but i know it will be good - and we will continue to see new places. yesterday we spent the day around the dead sea. so far no troubles driving around - i love to drive in israel.

tim and nathan talk alot. i think they are enjoying their similar interests and slightly different viewpoints. nico and i talk but about different topics. tim and i are both first born, which may or may not come into play as we drive - we both like to be in charge and to be right. and have argued about the right or left staircase, turning left or right, driving faster/slower - well you get the point. pray for us :)

currently trying to work out our ticket home. we can't agree on whether it would be better to spend 12 day hours in bahrain or 12 night hours in london - or just spend the extra $200 to fly without long layovers. bet you can't guess who wants what. opinions desired.

nico is here!!

they are here!!

nico and i seconds after their arrival.
first day - first stop - dome of the rock/temple mount. a place all of us have never been (it was closed to tourists in 2001).
nathan and nicole not showing any inappropriate intimate touching (as is forbidden)
nico and i as well - not touching. :)
we are having a terrific time already. i think tk gave the rundown of the next few days - so i won't review.

a smile captures my overall state.

arriving

so yesterday we get done with writing on the blog for the morning and kristi checks her email and guess what? nicole and nathan don't make it on the flight over here. they have this special buddy pass ticket or something and have to fly standby and well, it didn't work. so lucky for us, we have a whole extra day to clean and get ready for guests! but we were bummed that they didn't make it over yesterday. we relaxed and hung out with our friends kurtis and erin and kurt's parents yesterday. today we will run to the market in the morning and tonight nicole and nathan will actually arrive. we have gotten confirmation they made the flight. we'll keep you updated...

next two weeks

so after publishing the last blog, kristi mentioned that she would like me to run down what our plans are for the next two weeks. i said i'd be happy to (right now we are 'cleaning the apartment' and let's just say I'd rather be helping the family by blogging).

so tonight, monday night, nicole and nathan get here. we'll meet them by jaffa gate around 9 or so. tomorrow and wednesday we'll show them around jerusalem and let them recover from jet lag. in fact, i think our tour of jerusalem we begin tomorrow morning with 'the shook' (the big outdoor market where we get our groceries, we are out of food) lucky nicole and nathan! if I remember the walk to 'the shook' was a highlight of geoff and anne's trip here ;) . on thursday we will go down to the dead sea for the day, masada, floating in the dead sea, en gedi, etc.

friday, saturday, sunday we will be up in the galilee. its our favorite part of the country and it will be great to be up there one last time. monday we are headed over to haifa and the coast of israel. I think we will also go to caesarea on monday, another favorite location. tuesday we will explore the shephelah with the rental car. wednesday through saturday we will be back in jerusalem checking out things around town here. nicole and nathan leave late saturday night.

after they leave, we have sunday and monday here to wrap up loose ends and then leave tuesday for nepal. I think the next two weeks will probably fly by. we will continue to get as much up on the blog as possible, but the fact that our computer screen is no longer functional puts a big damper on our blog capacity.

in fact, its been a fairly technologically challenged time for us. i dropped my ipod a couple months ago, it didn't like that and began refusing to play music. a few weeks ago in jordan i sat on our digital camera. the camera still works but the lcd screen doesn't. the camera has now literally become point and shoot. you point it at what you want a picture of and shoot, hope it turns out well. there's not even the traditional eye hole to look through to take the pictures. we have some wonderful pictures of half of kristi's head that i took. and then our computer screen took up drugs and decided that a rainbow of psychadelic colors would be more interesting for us to look at when we turn it on than the same old boring programs that we normally do. thanks computer, thanks a lot. we have since placed it on electricity rations as a punishment.

thats us for the next few weeks. we'll keep you all updated. and i will try to steer clear of sensitive electronic equipment for the time being.

last two weeks

so if you haven't noticed kristi and i have been flying around for the last two weeks and haven't had much of a chance to stay in touch. in case your confused, after school got out two weeks ago, we headed down to tel aviv for a day, and from their traveled to the sinai in egypt. we had a chance to climb mt. sinai there which was amazing. we also got to see st. catherine's monastary there.

from there we headed to sharm el sheik, a city on the southern tip of sinai. we relaxed, laid on the beach, and had a chance to go snorkeling and scuba diving.

after 5 days there we headed back up to jerusalem. right before we had left to go to sinai we had run into our friend ben post who said that he and his wife staci were going to hike the jesus trail from nazareth to capernaum and wondered if we would be interested. while in sinai we had been emailing them working out the details. so we got home at 10 at night last tuesday and left to go hiking around 5pm on wednesday. quick turn a round. but, don't worry, somehow in those 10 waking hours we had while in jerusalem kristi found a chance to watch the american idol finale. sheesh.

we slept at a hostel in nazareth that night and were hiking bright and early on thursday morning. we hiked from nazareth (jersus' hometown) to sepphoris (the capital of galilee while jesus was growing up) to tel cana (not the traditional site of cana, but probably more accurate, where jesus turned water to wine) down the arbel pass and out to capernaum (jesus' homebase during his ministry years.) it took 3 long days to complete the hike and we were beat when we got back.

that was saturday night when we got home. since then we have been getting ready for our friends nicole and nathan to arrive. they get in tonight. the next two weeks we get to show them around the country to israel, it should be a blast. that gets you all caught up on life here, hopefully we'll have a chance to post some of our funnier stories soon.

jesus trail of our own

we had the opportunity to walk from nazareth to capernaum with our friends ben and stacie.

here i am at jaffa gate waiting to go. on top of the nazareth ridge - looking towards cana
at an ancient quarry
end of the first day - walking towards cana where we spent the night
the gas station where we ate lunch on the second day - it felt perfect - it had water, shade, place to sit (kind of) and coke!

very pokey bushes - yikes! (are you sure we are supposed to go this way...)tim and i with the arbel cliffs behind us
flowers - the smell reminded me of my friend keri
arbel behind us
done! we have reached capernum and the sea
we had a great trip. something wonderful about walking the way jesus did (as cheesy as that sounds). i am tired. nicole and nathan come tomorrow. our time here is quickly coming to a close. and danielle is graduated!!!! yeah sister!!!

sinai vacation recap

ok. for some reason it is not letting me move the pictures around - and even though it is driving me crazy they are not in chronological order - well you all still get the idea.

here we are on the top of sinai as the sun is setting.
where we slept. notice all of the people around. about 3 hundred people started showing up as early as 3:30 am for the sunrise.
STARBUCKS!!! yeah!!! a great treat after a crazy ride from sinai. after much heated discussion tim worked it out with a bedowin taxi driver to take us from sinai to sharm. we made multiple stops along the way - actually changed cars and drivers twice - one of the cars i thought could break down at any minute (and actually needed to be pushed to get it to start). had tea. we felt like we were on the amazing race. an interesting cultural experience to say the least.
relaxing at the resort. the red sea.
arrival day - we took a taxi from the taba crossing to mt. sinai.
sunrise on top of mt. sinai
walking up to the top of the mountain. our kind bedowin guide (which we HAD to have even though the trail is clearly marked) but hey - he carried my bag almost the entire way.
my excitement that i am not carrying my bag.
scuba diving tim!
on the boat the day we went snorkeling and scuba diving. so fun!
our room. amazing.
we got up for sunrise at the resort. beautiful watching the sun come up over the red sea.

well that gives you all a small idea of our trip. we were thankful to be able to do it - see and experience new things together.

jesus trail

tim and i are hiking. you may be thinking - what they just got home. well yes we did. less than 24 hours later we are off again. we are currently in nazareth. the opportunity came up for us to hike the jesus trail with some friends and we are thankful for the chance. a few weeks ago tim and i were hoping to go and it didn't work out. so we were thrilled when this chance came.

we tried to put pictures up today but so far no luck. we have yet to find a decent internet connection. so we will get the pictures up as soon as we can. we will be home by the weekend. and pictures will come flying out of the computer - hopefully.

things we are looking forward to: seeing erin and kurtis on saturday, my sister graduating from biola on saturday, having dinner with jamil and oly (our landlord) sunday, nico and nathan arriving on monday. the time is quickly going. i hope to fill you all in soon. we have some great stories.

ok. it is late. good night.

loving the sun

highlight so far - yesterday we went snorkeling and scuba diving. i wish this computer was fast enough for pictures - but unfortunately you all will have to wait. it was amazing. something i will never forget.

safe in sinai

we are having trouble downloading pics. bummer. but we are doing well. egypt isn't our favorite country but we are loving the time together.

vay-kay day 1

whelp we are in an internet cafe in tel aviv. we have had a great first day.

at the museum in tel aviv - kristi was in need of a snack :)
beach in tel aviv
tim at the place we had dinner. (no small decision. i think we looked at every place on the beach within 10 miles)
sunset after dinner.
tomorrow we head to sinai. we will sleep at the traditional mt. sinai site and see the sunrise there. thursday we will be at the resort in sharm el sheikh and will be able to post more pictures. i am super excited for a few days to relax by the beach and pool and tim is excited about the good chance to scuba dive.

as we continue to reflect over the semester we are reminded of the tremendous opportunity it is to be here and are grateful for this experience. today we said good-bye to dr. wright and his wife diane, who leave in a week for the states. we really appreciated getting to know them, dr wright's teaching and leading of trips and diane's willingness to answer any question i had or just talk. juc wouldn't be juc without them.

Hebron

yesterday kristi and i and our friend ben sheldon headed down to check out the city of hebron. its in the southren hill country, an important town in the hebrew scriptures. it also is the site of a monument herod the great built to abraham which some think was built by the same architect who built the temple mount, hence it helps us reconstruct what the temple mount looked like in jesus' day. finally, it is a important town in modern politics because in the dead in the middle of some 150,000 palestinians lives a settlement of about 800 jews. it was interesting...


hebron-
















we were told that the gates above the streets in the old city of hebron were to prevent the jewish settlers from throwing trash down onto the palestinians





















the tomb of abraham built by herod the great
















kristi and ben looking cool




armored bus to get jewish settlers into the hebron settlement
















abandoned area, its a buffer zone between the jewish settlement and palestinian area


















great day trip, today we are getting ready to leave for a little vacation over the next week. tomorrow we leave for tel aviv for a day, and from there we are headed down to the sinai peninsula for 5 days or so. should be great!

tim's haircut #2

a transformation

people at school didn't even recognize tim. i think he looks great.

one hour

tim has one hour left of his last test of the semester. he was up super duper late last night studying. and up extremely early. as he was studying last night i was eating popcorn and watching pretty woman. i don't remember him coming to bed. and actually i believe tim turned off the tv. i think i feel asleep just after the polo match argument. needless to say i am extremely excited for tim to be done - for tim and for myself. tim has worked so hard this semester and i couldn't be prouder of him. i also have worked hard as the support system :) i am ready for tim to have time to do the dishes again. haha.

next week we are going on vacation!!! we will spend tuesday night in tel aviv. wednesday night at mt. sinai. see the sunrise on top thursday morning. and spend the next 5 nights at a beach on the red sea. how excited am i?!! we are calling it our 5 year anniversary/end of the semester celebration. 5 years. wow.

one other thing and then i will go. if you think of it pray for healthy transition for all the students leaving tonight/tomorrow. i know how hard going home was after my semester here in 2001 and my heart has been stirred to pray for all of them.

its friday. shabbat shalom.

a prayer from this morning

O God, be Thou exalted over my possessions. Nothing of earth's treasures shall seem dear unto me if only Thou art glorified in my life.

Be Thou exalted over my friendships. I am determined that Thou shalt be above all, though I must stand deserted and alone in the midst of the earth.

Be Thou exalted above my comforts. Though it mean the loss of bodily comforts and the carrying of heavy crosses, I shall keep my vow made this day before Thee.

Be Thou exalted over my reputation. Make me ambitious to please Thee even if as a result I must sink into obscurity and my name be forgotten as a dream.

Rise, O Lord, into Thy proper place of honor, above my ambitions, above my likes and dislikes, above my family, my health, and even my life itself. Let me sink that Thou mayest rise above. Ride forth upon me as Thou didst ride into Jerusalem mounted upon the humble little beast, a colt, and let me hear the children cry to Thee, "Hosanna in the highest." Amen

A. W. Tozer

victory in catan and independence day

good morning from israel. tim is busy studying for his intertestamental exam this afternoon and i am sitting happily enjoying the morning. i am happy for a number of reasons. the greatest of reasons will be explained in a minute. the other minor reason is because of the news of american idol's latest elimination. america got it right this week. way to go land of the free.

speaking of free. yesterday israel celebrated its freedom of 60 years. the politics behind the day - well i won't go there. but i did want to tell you about the celebrations of last night. we were at erin and kurtis' house - erin and i watching american idol, tim and kurtis studying. they live near the heart of downtown and we were able to hear the action from down the street. fireworks, plastic bats, and shaving cream. i know the last two things don't make much sense. but in israel on independence day they celebrate by spraying each other with shaving cream and hitting one another with large plastic bats (my childhood reference is the large blown-up bat my dad bought me at a mariner baseball game - thanks dad). perfect strangers attacking each other - one giant crazy fun fight. somethings about this country i will never understand. but when tim and i walked home, about around 11 - there were more people out than i have ever seen in the new city (at any time of the day - let alone at that late hour). crazy. crazy. i imagine the celebration continued long into the night.

erin and i had our own celebration. i had my first victory in a long time. last night we played settlers of catan. tim and kurtis had a bet on the line (of course) and erin and i were just playing to win. well it turned out that tim and kurtis tied as the greatest loser. their consequence - wear hats that erin and i made to their intertestamental final exam today which say "Our wives beat us!" oh the wonderful taste of victory. :)

soccer, finals and a party

finals week at JUC. if i thought tim studied a lot before i hadn't seen anything yet. finals week has come and my husband has become the greatest study machine i have ever seen.

the only breaks up to this point were a soccer game, out for beer with erin and kurtis, and the party we hosted this evening. and seriously tim has studied from morning til night other than that. both he and i will be excited when friday comes.

tonight we hosted a study break for JUC students. chocolate was the theme - chocolate cake, brownies and chocolate chip cookies. i think everyone had a good time and there was nothing left over. i enjoyed the opportunity to have everyone over.

below are pictures we took after the soccer game.

erin - tired after soccer. me - still happy - exerted much less energy playing defense.

tim loves soccer

the only explanation i have is i was bored.

hope you are all having a great week.

ps - mother's day is sunday - let us not forget our mothers :) love you mom and momv

its hard taking pictures with a broken camera :)

so here are pictures from yesterday's frisbee match. unfortunately all of the pictures are from pretty far away, but i guess that is what you get when the screen/viewfinder is broken :)
above is erin in the middle letting me know we are about to start playing.
tk in the yellow, with matching headband.
after the game - all team picture
raising fists in victory.

gabe you would have been proud. i caught one goal and threw the pass for another one. not too bad for a girl :) haha