I am back!

So it has been a marathon of finals and I have been insanely busy studying and playing...lots to catch up on! This is on the beaches of Tel-Aviv! I love Tel-Aviv so much, it is very much like a European resort beach town. It felt so good to be on the beach:)



Purim Festivities~A night to Remember

Last week was a major Jewish holiday and the last night is an all out party! We dressed up- went and I think that is one of the first times when we actually fit in! Purim on Benehuda Street is quite the sight to see. Silly string, poppers, horns, drunk people, men with Kippas dancing everywhere haha! Anyways it was definitely a highlight:)


Bethlehem~Shepherd's Field

I loved Bethlehem. We went to the Church of the Nativity to the place which is believed to be where Christ was born. Apparently, this is the one place believed to be the true spot where the event happened. As the atonement and the Resurrection are somewhat guesses....they say this is the most accurate. We also visited Bethlehem University where we received a lecture and mingled with the students a little bit. Bethlehem University is Christian and Muslim. It felt a lot like a High School to be honest because it was pretty small. But it is a really nice school and it is cool to see two very different groups of people working and learning together. Shepherd's field was a great experience. At Sunset we went to Shepherd's field and read through the story of Christ's birth in the book of Luke. As we were sitting on the hill looking out over Bethlehem there was a twinkling star directly over the Church of the Nativity...quite poetic as our New Testament teacher put it:) I think sometimes it is hard for my mind to comprehend how unbelievable these experiences are. Sometimes it hits me and sometimes it doesn't.


Lately the Palestinian Israeli conflict has dominated much of our conversation and comes up in almost every aspect of our lives here. We visited the Separation wall with a journalist and it was really interesting. Visiting the wall opened my eyes to how devastating the situation is here in Israel. People's lives are incredibly impaired and it is hard to believe how much Palestinians go through just to get to work, if they work in Israel. All the checkpoints and searches they have to deal with make their drive to work sometimes 2-3 hours. Our Modern Near East Professor who teaches us Palestinian history is from Bethlehem and we have had multiple classes canceled due to his inability to get through the checkpoints. There is really no lesson better on the Palestinian conflict than that. Also, a woman who comes to church here from Bethlehem was not able to come across the border for about 6 months and therefore was unable to go to church. She is an amazing woman with an unbelievable attitude in her situation. With a family who completely disapproves of her religion and a separation wall with checkpoints that prohibit her from going to church it would be very difficult to stay faithful and not give up. This woman is an unbelievable example to me.

In these past few weeks studying has been so overwhelming I found myself during my study breaks visiting the Palestinian friends i've made in the past few weeks...and making more. I love these people so much. It is going to be hard to leave for many reasons, but I think one of the hardest things will be leaving these people i've developed such a special connection with. The kids are so sweet and so helpful in their homes. One of the woman I've currently gotten to know and speaks pretty good english. It was so great to be able to communicate and have a full discussion. I mentioned how sad I was that I hadn't reached out to the people sooner in the program. She agreed with me and we talked about how incredibly distorted people from the outside world have of the Palestinians in general, when in fact the people all around here are incredibly sweet and loving. This woman actually had a friend at the Jerusalem Center 10 years ago when she was young and they would go out at night together and go do things in the Old City. She lost contact wiht her after 4 years and she was really excited to meet some more people from the Center. Today we went and cooked lunch with one of our friends and let me tell you homemade Arabic food is go-hood!

I am doing great and heading off to Galilee for about 2 weeks, so I will have lots to tell when I get back. Miss you all and hope all is well:)