Jezreel Valley & Galilee

So a packed day with an early start and a quick stop at Mount Carmel, the place where Elijah had a showdown with the prophets of Baal. Then to Megiddo. We went to Nazareth and climbed the hill of the precipice and on to Cana...where Jesus turned the water into wine...his first miracle and the launch of his public ministry. The day concludes with a perfect cup of coffee with a perfect sunset across the Sea of Galilee as I reflect on a perfect day.

The Last Few Days...

I know it has been a while. I started writing this a few days ago, so some of the things are old, but anyway...

Goodbyes are never fun.  When you make awesome new friends, you just don’t want to say goodbye.  I am so thankful for my new friends at Kaplan Hospital and I do hope that this will not be the last conversation that we have.  This is Ulga, she was married 5 years ago to Alex and they have 2 gorgeous blond blond children.  Ulga moved to Rehovot from Russia when she was 15 years old and loves living in Israel.   As trust was established, she became very interested in talking more openly about my faith and beliefs.  She is a dear friend and I will miss her!  May our friendship continue beyond geography.

For Shabbat this evening one of the hospital staff made us dinner.  Amazing!!  She must have been cooking for days!  We sat outside where she had strung up lights from the trees and the weather was perfect….it was like being in the movies. 

Tonight we will be singing in the Shabbat  service.  We will sing 3 Hebrew and 3 English songs….kinda looking forward to that! 

WE have been walking through Philippians for our daily devotions.  We are almost finished with chapter 1 and it’s all about joy.   

“Deep seeded contentment and happiness, not based on circumstances but based on Gods ability to control all things to make them turn out for his glory and my good.”

Joy.  I am really and sincerely happy in my circumstances right now, but my JOY rests in the knowledge that God is using my current circumstances for his good and glory.  Pretty cool.

The last few days have been full of farewells.  Several dinners with the hospital staff, with the local church Kehilah (congregation), with our host family.  This is Jack and Judy - our hosts in Rehovot.  Love these people!  Will miss them!

We are on our way to 10 days of touring....walking where Jesus walked!  While I am sad to be leaving my new friends, I am excited for the next few days. 

Happy Birthday to Me

So….my birthday was awesome.  I was kinda excited, kinda sad about spending my 18^th in ISRAEL J  ....without my family L.  It was great though.  I talked to my parents on the phone at midnight to bring in the big day.  Then at the hospital,  Nitza made me a cake.  She is so awesome!  So, she was telling me what was in it…nutella, cream, stuff, liquor, more stuff, etc..  I thought no problem….she cooked off the liquor so it would be fine….um not so much.  The bottom layer of the cake was an inch soaked in very strong liquor!  I almost died.  So I just ate the top part …it was funny.  Ulga got me 4 bars of the poppy chocolate (like pop rocks in chocolate…you have to try it…) and a journal that opens backwards cause Hebrew is written opposite of English.  The ladies are teaching me Hebrew which is awesome, but slow.  I can now write the alphabet, my name and a few basic phrases.  Hopefully, I can continue to learn it when I get home.

Today, I learned how to play teradactal – it’s a game.  I learned how to eat a falafel correctly.  You have to really cup the whole thing nicely and snuggly so it doesn’t all fall out.  One of those truly critical life skills! 

So, a friend in the group has her bible color coded…pretty cool.  I think I am going to use this!  She uses colored pencils to underline passages that mean different things….here is a general guide:

God’s grace – green

            Prayer – yellow
            Warnings - Orange
            Blessings - Pink
            Names for God – Red
            God’s character – Grey
            ETC….

I will come up with my own list, but this gets me to thinkin’….

I am so honored!  Ulga invited me to her house for Shabbat on Friday!  Huge huge!  Not sure if I will be able to go, but hoping that God will clear a way for me to visit her in her home one day this week.

Thank you all for praying for our team here.  Please pray for every connection that we make and that God would be glorified through our being here.  Pray for safety – you never know what could happen in Israel!  Pray that I would learn more about who God is during my time here.

Working working working.

We started working at Kaplan hospital a few days ago and it is absolutely amazing! I've been very busy and tired at night sorry for not posting any pictures.. We usually don't get home until after 10 or so, then we have hang out time and so yea, not a lot of sleep and not a lot of free time.  We have been having devotionals as a group and bible studies with the 'Kehilah' (congregation) and they have been absolutely amazing.  My group is studying the book of Philippians, we are only on the 4th verse! At Kehilah, we did a study with the women on the book of Ruth.  Loved it.

I have a few pictures from Jaffo on the camcorder, not on the iPad so I will be able to post those another time.  We went there for dinner and devotions at sunset a few days ago.  Can I just say....WOW.  I think you might hear that a lot this month. 

My time at the hospital has been great, I serve as a secretary in the oncology ward! With NO Hebrew mind you!  It is interesting though...I am doing some data entry from patient files into a database (in Hebrew...)  I work with 4 local women and have loved getting to know each one.  They each have a unique and beautiful story.  There are a few pictures on facebook at "ORIGINS (Friends of Israel)" of the work we are doing in the hospital.  Please continue to pray for every interaction that we have with the staff here. 

God has blessed me so much with my team here, I've learned so much in such a short time.

This is my whole team:) (better quality on Facebook)

Mediterranean!

So today we got to sleep in a little before having an amazing lunch. Then we went to the Mediterranean Sea!! The scorching sand nearly burnt my feet off when we walked on it. But we found our spot and set up camp for the day.
There were so many people there just enjoying the beautiful sunny day:)
The waves in the sea were HUGE! we got salt water all up our noses and in our eyes, no fun. Then I played this Israeli game with some of my new friends (Sonya Mati Boris and Leesha) which was basically ping pong with out the table or net, make sense? Haha
We then ate some delicious food and settled down for our time of devotion.
We were all still in shock that we were actually in Israel, then came the beautiful sunset. It was so breath taking watching the sun go down in Ashdod, so much history!  Jesus probabley watched the sun set from here.....

We took a lot of pictures today so here are just a few

Shabbot!

Today is Friday in beautiful Israel and we had a very laid back day. We woke up and some people went to play soft ball with members of the congregation (Kehilah). We had an amazing lunch then all the girls got to stay home and have game day :)
We played cards, had bandana day and laughed for a few hours. Then we had church so we all got pretty and had a feast for shabbot!
Tomorrow we are going to the Mediterranean sea and having so much fun with a lot of people in the community. So excited!!
Can't take enough pictures :)

In Israel!

Yesterday's blog post didn't quite finish posting in the airport so I just did it.. BUT don't be fooled, we are now in Israel! We have settled in so nicely with our hosts Jack and Judy :)
Day one and ministry is already under way!  We are on our way to work with a youth group. 

As always...pray for us!   :)

At the airport!

So after 2 different passes through security, 2 hours in an air port, and crazy fun times, it is almost time to board our plane in Philadelphia to Tel Aviv, Israel!
We have had so much fun with each other and all work well together as a team. Our flight will be almost 11 hours long but then we will be in beautiful Israel finally:)

End of day 1

June 12th has been a great day! All of the team is finally together and everyone is in their room :)
We had a quick introduction after our amazing pizza dinner! We are so eager for tomorrow and can't wait to grow more as a team!

Almost all here!

Been waiting at the airport since 10:30 this morning and people are FINALLY starting to come. We are all really connecting and having loads of fun!
Once everyone gets here we are going to the hotel and having a pizza party :)
Can't wait!

In the air!

So I'm officially on my journey! And it started bright and early this morning (3:30 to be exact) with my wonderful parents:)
I'm headed to Philadelphia now to meet up with everyone and I'm so excited!!
Wish me luck 🍀

T -1 Day!!!!

The journey to this day has been amazing.  God has taught me so much over the last 8 months!

When Chris spoke at our youth group in the Fall, I was immediately captivated!  From there , I started saving my pennies and praying.  I only told my closest friends that I was definately going to Israel next summer...not my parents mind you...just my closest friends.  One day my mom asked me what the 'Israel jar' was for....'ugh...ummm....I'm going to Israel...OK? :D'

Of course my mom was excited for me!  And supportive....so starts the real process of applying.  I had to write an essay, get references, etc.  It was fun.  Then finally in March, I received notice that I had been accepted to the program along with 14 other young adults!  Over the moon! 

I have been very blessed with a great job and was able to pay for a good bit of the program myself.  Then as we started raising support, I have been blown away at the generous support of friends young and old!  Amazed!  God is so good and so faithful and I am so so excited to be a part of his plan.