Old City Jerusalem

Day 2 - Old City Jerusalem

Yesterday we went around Old City Jerusalem, looking at the different main roads, walls, and gates - with great views of the city and the Mt. of Olives, and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre - where tradition says Jesus was crucified and was buried. My favorite part of the tour was going to the ruins of the Pools of Bethesda - where Jesus healed the lame man in John 5. We sang in the chapel there called St. Anne's Chapel and it had such sweet acoustics. We sang "It Is Well" and "When I Survey" and I just got goosebumps listening to the beautiful sound of only our voices. I was so inspired I wrote a poem right there:

A beautiful melody rings in the chapel
Built on the ruins of the pools
Where the angel stirred the waters
A song of Shalom
Lines the marble walls
The Simple Cross says it all
Here there's healing
Where the lame man jumped for joy
When Yeshua said, "Rise up and walk."
There's healing here.
In the palms of His hands.
In the nail-scarred hands
Where Beauty lies.
Simplicity.
Simple Melody.
Shalom.

P.S. I love our group and my roommate Lauren. Such great fellowship with other seminary students.

Safely Arrived!

Hi all!

We arrived in Tel Aviv yesterday around 3 pm. Right now, I'm sitting in the lobby of our hotel in Jerusalem, called the Gloria Hotel. After a crazy day at the airport with intense security, and a 15 hr. plane ride, we finally made it here and I'm so excited! Last night, we went to see the Wailing Wall at Herod's Temple Mount. It's so crazy that we were at the place where Jesus had his last discourse in John 14-17. Being there seeing all the people praying to the wall was a really interesting experience. I'm still trying to process it all, and honestly I probably won't really have time to process it until after the trip.

I slept pretty well last night, so now I'm ready to go!

P.S. Please pray for one of my group mates, Jen. The airline security didn't let her ride with us yesterday, but she will be coming today. Please pray for her safety.

Thanks all! Love you!

The Best Christmas EVER!

I had the best Christmas/Christmas week EVER! Reasons why:

-The BEST Christmas gift EVER from my brother and sister-in-law! A Kitchen-Aid standmixer! Thanks Bon and Joses! If you know me at all, you would understand just how much I've wanted one of these for a very long time. And it's just exciting spending Christmas with the newlyweds. I loved having bonding times this past week with Bon at their new apartment. Thanks for letting me bake and hang out there!

-Spending Christmas with all my family at my house, and having the youth party at church, building graham cracker houses. good times :)

-Breakfast with Joanna and Joy on Christmas Eve. Thanks Joanna for the Snuggie! It's so warm! And I especially need it right now that my heater is broken at my house. I love it! And thanks for all the sweater! I think sweaters are my favorite article of clothing.

- Feeling accomplished with Team Glasses (a.k.a. Kyle and the Amazing Crisostomos) after recording a demo of an original song by Nate and Kyle. Good job, guys. I'm proud of you.

- Turning in my final paper on Monday and being DONE with the semester! Then regressing with Yen and Easter to watch, "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs." So fun! I love being a kid.

- Taking a personal retreat...really refreshing and needed that time with God.

- Waking up on Christmas morning, thinking to myself, "Wow! I'm going to be in the place where Jesus lived! The Christmas story will take on a new dimension this year for me!"

-Woot! Leaving for Israel tomorrow! I am so excited! I woke up this morning thinking about this fact and I felt like I was going to explode from excitement!

Now I gotta finish packing...

The Half-Way Point.

Whoo! This semester has been a whirlwind! Starting my semester off with evacuating my house due to fires, then taking two languages at once (which was not the wisest decision), preparing for my brother's wedding, and preparing for the Christmas concert at church...craziness...I know that it was truly only by God's grace that I got through it all. And I am so grateful! Now I have the opportunity to look forward to Israel! Wow, I can't believe we're leaving this Sunday!

And it's Christmas in a little more than 24 hrs. Crazy. Where did the time go?

I'm halfway done with my M.A. program at Talbot. Wow, I can't believe that either. God has been so good to me through it all.

I will be keeping my blog updated while I'm in Israel, so check back often!