Uncle

It's amazing how many familiar faces we've already seen in our almost two months here -- and we had a special treat the last two nights.  My uncle Jonathan (who we affectionately just call "Uncle") was here in Jerusalem with a church group, so we got to spend some time together.  It was fun walking around the New City and some local Arab shops (albeit in POURING rain the first night), and their church group graciously blessed us with some gifts before they left.  It's always great to see friends from home, but it's especially fun to see family members. Thanks for letting us come visit, Uncle!

Psalm 122:6

We need to take the verse on the top of this blog very literally today.  You may or may not have heard about this:

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/bomb-explodes-in-central-jerusalem-1-dead-at-least-30-hurt-1.351377

We're safe at home now, but please join us in praying for this entire situation.

 

Na Nach Nachma Nachman Me Uman

Since Kels has been putting me to shame in blog post frequency yet again, I figured I had to share a story that is a few weeks old now.

A little while back, Kels, Charis, and I were walking through the market near our home when a van with an interesting picture on the side of a man who looked vaguely like Santa Claus drove by very slowly blasting weird Hebrew techno music.  As we watched confusedly, the driver of the van pulled over and a few young Orthodox Jews, looking like they had spent the prior 48 hours on a pot-smoking binge and dressed in all white rather than the traditional black, hopped out and started dancing wildly in the street.  Instead of seeing the mystified look on my own face reflected on the faces of the other Israelis standing on the street, I saw smiles creep across and in a couple cases people actually joined in the dancing.

It turns out, this was a sect known as the "Na-Nachs," who have a pretty interesting history.  Since we saw the van, we have noticed graffiti throughout the city reflecting the group's rallying cry of sorts:
"נ נח נחמ נחמן מאומן" ("Na Nach Nachma Nachman Me Uman," after the famous leader of the sect who hailed from Uman, Ukraine).  So I duly did my research, but obligatory Wikipedia reference pages aren't the point of this post.  The song is.  Kels and I have become obsessed, and not in a good way.  The song is terrible.  But really, really hard to get out of your head.  View at your own peril.

A New (Current) Favorite

As of today, I have a new favorite place in Jerusalem: Hezekiah's tunnel.

We were walking around near the City of David today, and we decided to stop in to see how much the price of admission was.  Thanks to a very friendly guard, we actually ended up getting in for free and took a few hours to explore the area.

Heading down into the abyss

I think Charis' face says it all right here -- she was pretty confused throughout the journey, but she didn't make a sound and just looked around the whole time. She is probably one of the younger patrons to journey through the tunnel.

I just loved how real and raw the experience was -- they could easily have drained out all the water, added lights and handrails, and made it into a relaxing, "touristy" experience, but they didn't.  You just trudge through knee-deep water in total darkness for 45 minutes and really experience what it felt like thousands of years ago.  Pretty amazing.

She's picked up this new habit lately...

He Knows Best

The Lord has had me in an interesting place lately, and one thing that I'm learning clearly is that God knows our needs better than we know them ourselves. Let me explain.


As many of you know, we prayed for months that we would get on-campus housing.  We applied last spring, sent numerous e-mails to various offices in the graduate school, stayed up until midnight some school nights to call the right people in Jerusalem, asked in person once we got here, etc., etc. because we thought that living on campus would be the ideal situation for us. We had the understanding that it was probably the cheapest option rent-wise, it would save us on bus fares, and, of course, it was quite convenient that Zach would never be too far from Charis and I.  Despite all of our strivings, though, we were told "no" so many times that we finally laid it to rest and just found something else.

Two days (yes, two days) after we signed the lease for our current apartment, we got an e-mail from the housing office: "A spot in the married housing complex has just opened up; are you still interested?" Really? Really? You couldn't have told us that two days or two months or eight months ago?  We had finalized our lease and were completely locked in for at least 6 months, and at that point there was no turning back. So we e-mailed the office back and told them that we were covered, but thanked them profusely for their timeliness (not really :).

At the time, we were puzzled and somewhat frustrated by the confusing timing of those events. Now that a few weeks have gone by, though, we are beginning to see clearly how the Lord's hand was actually keeping that door closed the entire time so that He could open the one we finally walked through.  First of all, we recently found out that on-campus housing isn't nearly as cheap as we were thinking; in fact, it is substantially more than we are paying now, and it doesn't include the utilities.

Second, the campus/campus housing is pretty isolated in the northwest outskirts of the city, and it doesn't have walking distance access to the real heart of Jerusalem (Ben Yehuda, Jaffa, the Shuk, Davidka Square, etc.) We are within a 5-10 minute walk of all of these places, and as a stay-at-home mom, it has been a HUGE blessing for me to be able to get out with Charis and not feel completely isolated up in a dormitory on the outskirts of the city.  It also gives me (us) a chance to really experience the heartbeat of Jerusalem and to feel like we are really immersing ourselves in the culture.

Third, I think it's been a blessing in disguise for Zach to be able to somewhat "separate" school life and family life.  It's obviously totally different for him to be a student now that he has a wife and daughter, and it's not always easy to get homework done here at home when Charis is crying (or being too cute to resist :).  He has long breaks between classes that he uses to get work done, and it's proven to be a really positive thing for his studies.

All of this brings up an interesting question in my mind about prayer.  While I absolutely think that there are times we need to pray very specifically ("Heal his body of the cancer," or "Please allow me to get this job," or "Provide the money for us to pay our rent this month"), I also think that if you don't know exactly know what to pray, just praying for God's will to be done is always a good thing.  For months we prayed specifically that God would give us on-campus housing, and that whole time the Lord knew He was actually going to provide something even better than what we were praying for.  If nothing else, it's a comfort to know that if I pray for something and the Lord doesn't answer in the way I expect, it certainly doesn't mean He wasn't listening or I just wasn't praying hard enough.  It simply means that He knows my needs better than I do, and His will will be done no matter what.  And that, my friends, is a comforting thought.

I'm clinging to this promise even now with two potential job opportunities that are looming on the horizon. I am praying specifically that He would open the doors, but I am also adding "if it's Your will for me" at the end of that prayer.

And I'm learning to really mean that.

Chag Purim Sameach!

In other words.... Happy Purim holiday! We celebrated Purim today, which commemorates the deliverance of the Jews from the plot of Haman in the book of Esther.  Because Jerusalem is a "walled" city, we celebrate a day later than other cities in Jerusalem that don't have walls (based on an interpretation from Esther).  In many ways, Purim is the Jewish "Halloween" (minus the candy and scary stuff) because everyone dresses up in crazy costumes to signify how God was "hidden" throughout the events of the book.  We, unfortunately, did not end up dressing up, mostly because our very limited wardrobe doesn't include anything remotely like a crazy costume (the price we pay for bringing two suitcases for two years).  We did, however, put Charis in a green dress and claimed she was a leprechaun. :)

At sundown, everyone gathers in the synagogue, and the Megilla (text of Esther) is read/sung aloud.  It is incredibly laid back and family-friendly as everyone is dressed up in wild garb and kids are running around.  Everyone brings noisemakers, as well, cheering when Mordecai's name is read and booing when Haman's name is read (see video below). Although the Hebrew flew by us too quickly for us to follow the story, we could recognize the names and participated in the noisemaking. After synagogue, a huge party ensues; the goal of most is to get "so drunk that you cannot tell the difference between the name Haman and the name Mordecai." Needless to say, we headed home to put Charis down, but I'm sure it will be quite the festive evening.

And now a few pictures...

On our way to synagogue... I tried to capture Zach's kippa, but it is difficult to see.  I think he looks quite Jewish when he wears it.

Opening up with a few traditional Purim tunes

Someone is enjoying the Megilla reading

Amazed at the noise and smiling at everyone around us

The Hebrew text of the Megilla

Note the noise-making when the reader says "Haman"... it was quite a bit louder in person, but you get the idea.

A Few Updates

Things have been busier than normal these last few days, so here are a few quick updates:

1. Charis turned 8 months old yesterday! She celebrated by going to a baby playgroup in the morning in our neighborhood and by eating bananas for the first time (which she loved!) This month she perfected sitting up, realized she loves to stand up while holding onto things, started eating applesauce, and grins at anyone and everyone who smiles at her.

A little playtime before going to sleep

Fittingly playing with Pooh :)

Our beautiful 8 month old

Almost a smile?

2. Zach had his first huge Islamic Thought quiz last week (actually the only one of the whole semester), and he studied diligently for it over the weekend.  He got it back yesterday:

See that? Yep.  100%.  Who gets a 100% on their first huge test of graduate school? My husband does. :)

3. We asked you to pray that we wouldn't have trouble getting our visas.  Our appointment was this weekend, and although it wasn't without drama, we did (finally!) get our student visas.  So praise the Lord for that!

Back from the Dead.

Not literally.  I just know that it has been quite a while since I posted on this here blog.  About a month to be semi-exact.  In that month, the following things have happened:

1) I have not become a Hebrew scholar.  Although I do think I have a somewhat slightly-less-than-rudimentary knowledge at this point, the language and I still have a bit of a love-hate relationship.  Or, in Hebrew, an "ohev-however you say hate in Hebrew" relationship.  And yes, I did just have to ask Kels to remind me how to say "love".

2) I have probably read more than during any previous one-month stretch in my life, and still don't feel like I belong in graduate school.  The workload can be a little overbearing at times, and most of my classmates don't have a super high-maintenance family to worry about all the time (that was a joke).  I have managed.  Yet I still find myself comparing my own study habits and love (or lack thereof) for spending hours (or days) on end in the library with other students.  At times I don't think I compare favorably.  I really do love learning and reading and writing.  This really is what I want to do.  I just don't think I'm your typical grad-student-on-the-way-to-being-a-professor.  But I'm working on that.

3) I have learned that it takes a significant amount of work to avoid politically-charged discussions around here.  It does seem like everyone has a opinion.  And when I say opinion, I don't mean like, "vanilla ice cream is the best," or "hot weather is more pleasant than cold," or "the NFL owners and players are all complete morons" (okay, that last one isn't opinion, but you get the idea).  I mean like, "this opinion is the most important thing that I could ever possibly believe and I am willing to die for it."  It is truly fascinating.  I certainly have opinions of my own, but I enjoy the role of impartial observer and think that I often learn a lot by just listening.  Maybe once I feel like I'm more qualified I can write a politically-charged post here and get half of our four readers all riled up.  But don't count on it.

4) I confirmed that I love this place.  I had a discussion with a girl in one of my classes the other day, and she told me that she absolutely hates living in Jerusalem.  She had her reasons but I have to admit, I can't sympathize with her in the least.  For someone who is really, really interested in religion, there truly isn't a better place in the world to live.  It feels like we are in the center of everything important, and I like it.  I'm pretty confident that it's going to be a good two years.

5) I love my family.  That's not a thing that happened, just an undeniable truth.  If you have followed Kels' posts, pictures, and videos of our little girl over the past month, this one needs no explanation.


This has been fun, I should try to do this more often.  My parting gift: If you have any free time, I just read this article and thought it was rather thought-provoking.  It partially convinced at least one person; I'll go ahead and avoid a polemic on universalism and Rob Bell's thoughts on heaven and hell.  Shalom, y'all.

Nachlaot

Like many large cities, Jerusalem is full of neighborhoods that each have their own unique flavor and culture.  The neighborhood that we live in, Nachlaot, is particularly distinctive because it's known for its narrow alleyways, hidden courtyards, winding cobblestone streets, love for the arts, community gardens, and old-fashioned buildings. The population is diverse -- primarily, it's made up of Orthodox Jews, young families, Americans, and hippies (quite the melting pot!) We have loved living here so far, so enjoy the tour.

Part of our walk from the bus station

A community garden

A beautiful, ornate gate

For some reason, I just LOVE this staircase -- isn't it so unique?

Murals like this one are all over the place

Another street drawing

A little community park -- note the three stray cats. 

A quaint little courtyard

And Nachlaot's cutest resident! She's already spelling her name in Hebrew, as you can see from the blocks in the foreground. :)

A Not-So-Coincidental Connection (in my humble opinion)

One advantage to living in Jerusalem is that the Bible absolutely comes alive when I can actually visualize the places that I am reading about.   For those of you who have traveled here, I am guessing that you haven't read the Bible the same way since you left.  Over the past month or so, I've particularly focused on reading Biblical passages that deal with Jerusalem (for obvious reasons), and what I uncovered today struck me in a pretty profound way.

Mount Moriah stands prominently in the heart of the Old City and is the modern site of the Dome of the Rock and the Temple Mount.  The earliest reference to Moriah, you may remember, is in Genesis 22 with the near-sacrifice of Isaac.  Although the passage isn't absolutely explicit about the fact that the sacrifice was to take place on Mount Moriah, scholars generally agree that God was referring to this particular mountain when he commanded Abraham, "Take now, your son, your only son, who you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you" (Genesis 22:2).  There is obviously much to be gleaned from this story, but I am going to focus on two particular facets of it: 1) God required a costly sacrifice from Abraham, and 2) God ultimately showed mercy to Abraham because of his obedience (and relented in allowing something potentially devastating).

It is obvious that what God was asking Abraham to do required extreme sacrifice on Abraham's part.  The sacrifice of his own son was not only completely heart-wrenching, but it also seemed quite contradictory to God's promise to make Abraham's descendants as numerous as the stars through Isaac.  Because of Abraham's obedience to this near-impossible command, however, God ultimately showed mercy and allowed Isaac to live: "But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, and said, 'Abraham, Abraham!... Do not stretch out your hand against the lad, and do nothing to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me" (Gensis 22:11-12).  Now we all know the story from this point: Abraham discovers a ram caught in the bushes nearby, and he sacrifices this instead of Isaac as a burnt offering to the Lord (22:13).

Keep all of this in mind as we fast-forward to 2 Samuel chapter 24.  This particular story of David may not be quite as well known, but it is significant to this discussion because of its similar themes.  In a nutshell, David commands Joab to take a census of the land of Israel (much to Joab's -- and God's -- chagrin).  The census is completed after almost ten months, but God is displeased with David's actions and offers him three different choices for punishment: 1) seven years of famine over the land, 2) three months of pursuit by enemies, or 3) three days of pestilence for Israel.  David ultimately chooses the three days of pestilence with the meaningful statement, "Let us now fall into the hand of the LORD for His mercies are great, but do not let me fall into the hands of men" (2 Samuel 24:14b).

This story continues as God carries out the plague and wipes out seventy thousand men across the land (so much for that accurate census that took ten months to complete).  At the climax, an angel of the Lord comes to completely destroy the city of Jerusalem, but at the last minute God stops him: "'It is enough! Now relax your hand!' And the angel of the LORD was by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite" (2 Samuel 24:16). David repents of his sin, goes up to the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite, purchases the land from him, and offers up a burnt offering to the Lord as repentance for his actions.  The Lord accepts the sacrifice and holds back the remainder of the plague from the land of Israel.

Let me briefly return to the two observations I made about the Abraham-Isaac narrative.  First, Abraham's costly sacrifice of Isaac parallels David's costly sacrifice on the threshing floor of Araunah (also called Ornan) the Jebusite.  Although Araunah offers the land to David for free, David responds with the significant statement, "No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price, for I will not offer burnt offerings to the LORD my God which have cost me nothing" (2 Samuel 24: 24).  Thus, in both stories, the point of costly sacrifice is a key element to the fabric of the story.

Next, I pointed out that Abraham's obedience led to a display of God's mercy (at the very last minute) that protected against a devastating situation.  Do we not see that same idea echoed clearly in this story of David? When David repented of his wrongdoing (and thus showed humble obedience), God relented from destroying the city of Jerusalem at the last minute and held back the remainder of the pestilence from Israel.  The parallels, in my humble opinion, are clear and profound.

Still, however, the question remains: why is it significant that these two stories have a pair of thematic parallels? The answer lies in the particular location of the stories.  I already mentioned that the Abraham-Isaac narrative took place on Mount Moriah, and we learn in 2 Chronicles chapter 3 that the threshing floor of Araunah (Ornan) was in the very same location: "Then Solomon began to build the house of the LORD in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the Lord had appeared to his father David, at the place that David had prepared, on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite" (2 Chronicles 3:2).  So now these two stories not only have themes in common; they also occurred in the exact same place.

The final story I want to look at is actually one of the final stories in the Old Testament that takes place specifically on Mount Moriah, and it is mentioned in that last passage from 2 Chronicles.  The temple of Solomon was built on Mount Moriah around 957 B.C. (since the land had come into David's possession from Araunah the Jebusite).  After the temple was completed, Solomon offered up a prayer of dedication, and the Lord actually appeared to Solomon shortly afterward and confirmed that he'd heard his prayer.  The first significant statement that God makes to Solomon is this: "I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice" (2 Chronicles 7:12, emphasis is mine).  Does this ring a bell? God is confirming here what was true in the stories of Abraham and David: Mount Moriah is a place where costly sacrifices should be made.  

Now, think about the second parallel observation that was made in both earlier Mount Moriah stories: in both cases, God relented from sending hardships because of the obedient hearts of his servants.  Now hear these words of God to Solomon in light of those previous observations: "If I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among My people, and My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray, and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin, and will heal their land" (2 Chronicles 7:13-14). Again, God is confirming here what has been true for centuries before: that He will show his mercy and goodness in response to repentant, obedient hearts.

I think these discoveries were meaningful to me for two reasons.  First, it is encouraging to know that God's actions can never be contrary to His words.  God completely confirmed his previous actions with Abraham and David with his words to Solomon, and seeing that continuity is such a positive reminder that our God does not, cannot, and will not ever change.  He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

The other reason that I personally love these observations is because Mount Moriah is about a thirty minute walk from our apartment.  If I ever need a personal reminder about God's promises to his people for mercy when we come to him with obedient hearts, I can literally see a place where he has confirmed that truth three times over.  And while I know we are called to walk by faith and not by sight, I think it's acceptable to be encouraged by a visual reminder every now and again.

I applaud you if you have made it to this point in this post... I hope that these observations encourage you today, as well.

A Song of Ascents

The Judean mountains surrounding Jerusalem

Psalm 125

A song of ascents.

 ¹ Those who trust in the LORD are like Mount Zion, which cannot be shaken but endures forever. 

² As the mountains surround Jerusalem, 

   so the LORD surrounds his people 

   both now and forevermore.

 ³ The scepter of the wicked will not remain over the land allotted to the righteous, 

for then the righteous might use their hands to do evil.

 ⁴ LORD, do good to those who are good, to those who are upright in heart. 

⁵ But those who turn to crooked ways the LORD will banish with the evildoers.

   Peace be on Israel.

A Day on the Mediterranean

The weather is warming up quickly here, and we have been itching to get out of Jerusalem and see some other areas of the country.  So today we took a bus to Ashdod, Israel to explore the town and, of course, to spend some time on the beach.  For some reason we never got over to the coast in Oregon after Charis was born, so it was a first for her today, too.

Ashdod, Israel

Spring is coming!

You've got to love how empty this beach was... we felt like we had it to ourselves.

The clear, cool (emphasis on COOL) waters of the Mediterranean Sea

Charis was oh-so-fascinated by the sand

Getting a little dirty

I think someone loves the beach :)

Note the sandy pants and the finger rakes in the sand

Our little beach baby

Gotta love that bathing suit

We walked around a bit of the city, spent time on the beach, grabbed a delicious lunch (Zach was thrilled to find a non-kosher McDonalds), and headed back to our apartment -- which, we noted, is beginning to feel like a home. Shabbat shalom!

Prayer List

I've been asked by several people recently if we have any specific prayer requests, and the answer is that yes, we do. So when and if we come to mind, here are some specific things that you can join us in praying for:

1. I am hoping to teach piano lessons while we're here, but the biggest problem I've encountered so far is finding a place to teach.  We don't have any sort of keyboard or piano at our apartment, so I am hoping to find a school, community center, church, etc. that has an extra room that I can use.  Once I find a place,  I can advertise and hopefully get a few students going, and I honestly feel like that part won't be too difficult.  If you want to get really bold in your prayers (and I hope that you do), you could pray that we could come across a piano/keyboard that we could put in our home to use for lessons (that would cost nothing or something very reasonable).  That would be the ideal situation!

2. On the "work" topic, employment in general is another big request.  Both of us are hoping to work as much as we can without having an "official" job (since it's illegal for us to have work visas as a student/spouse).  We would love to tutor English, do radio work (Zach), teach music, babysit, etc.  For now, I'm even walking dogs twice a week to make what little income I can. We're also hoping to secure more hours for the summer months (July, August, September) since Zach will be off from school during that time.

3. We are really craving a church community, and unlike the States, Christian churches here aren't on every corner. We've visited one already and are probably going to another this Sunday, but after having an incredible church community in Oregon, we certainly feel the void! We're meeting people gradually (classmates, neighbors, people from church), but it's certainly a process in a big city where we don't speak the native language and where we're in the huge religious minority.  I know Charis, too, would love to see more people as she is becoming quite the social little girl when she gets the chance. :)

4. I'm hoping this doesn't need too much prayer, but we have our visa appointment on March 13.  As some of you may know, we've literally been working on trying to get our visas for about the past 8 or 9 months, and it has not been a simple process (to say the least).  At this point, we have everything we need and just need to show up to get the visas with the correct documentation, and I'm hoping it will just be that easy. It will be a huge blessing once that is behind us.

5. As a more general prayer, you can just pray that Zach and I continue to love each other well and that we continue to love Charis well, too.  Ultimately, that's the most important thing, right?

Thank you in advance for your prayers... we will let you know when and how God answers them!

Playing with a kipa, fittingly

Sickness Has Hit

On Friday, Charis started having a deep, thick cough, and that began a pretty miserable sickness for our little girl.  Her nose won't stop running and she's still coughing, and it is so sad as a parent to see! This is really the first time she's been sick (save a small fever about a month or two ago), and it has been a difficult one.  So pray for us!

On a happier note, here is a video that we took a week or two ago that I just remembered, and it captures her in a decidedly "non-sick" mood.  Enjoy. :)