The Week in Photos

This week's theme is "Egypt"... since the photos are not telling enough.

Do I need to say what these are?

A woman with stuff on her head. She is also carrying a bag on her head.

I was pretty fortunate to see an Egyptian man in a white robe, with a camel, sitting in front of the Great Pyramid. Of course this was just a wax statue.

We paid a few Egyptians Pounds to a guide, who then bribed a guard, who then let us into this new excavation. Inside the excavation we saw Egyptian stuff.

A silhouette of one of the hundreds of mosques.

Cairo at night.

Cairo at day.

It really is amazing to see these structures that were built in honor of dead kings. The engineering and manpower that went into these clearly make them worthy of being wonders of the ancient world.

Can you get a more cliche' photo of Egypt? The answer is yes, but I am not going to post the photo of my family doing the Egyptian dance with these in the background.

A day in the life

Yesterday started out like any other day. We woke up to a near-snow-storm in Jerusalem. We ate our pumpkin bread. We watched my father-in-law (who is visiting this week) attempt to recreate "American" style coffee without a coffeemaker. First he boiled the coffee grounds in a pot, let the grounds sink to the bottom of the pot and then put the coffee in another pot on the stove to stay warm. This process only takes about 30 minutes and would be shorter if we would let him use an old sock as a strainer but I have boundaries. We then piled into our rental car and headed out of the snow storm, through some heavy rain and onto the Mediterranean coastal town of Haifa. It was cool and very windy there. We headed up the side of Mt Carmel to the Ba'hai temple and gardens. The Ba'hai "faith" is the belief that all religions and philosophies are good, and all men who have claimed to be messengers of God, are. One good thing about them is that they are a very peace-loving group of people and they also are amazing gardeners. The gardens surrounding the temple (and the shrine of the Bab) go all the way up the slope of the mountain and are perfectly manicured. We walked around and took pictures, and then left. Out on the street we continued with our day in the normal way. Everyone ate their peanut butter and jelly pitas while standing out on the street and I sat in the car and fed Baby Ben. Then we proceeded to look for the Santa Maris Monastery and Elijah's cave. We spent one hour driving in loops all over the city, following ill-marked signs, and roads that stop and veer off in strange directions. This is normal for Israel as they assume all drivers know where they are going so signs and even maps dont really matter. Finally we stopped for directions. I walked along the side walk asking if anyone speaks "anglit" until a nice man replied that he did. He gave me directions while a crazy man yelled Hebrew in my face (really a crazy man). We followed those directions and came to a place where there was no parking and no apparent street access at all. Ryan dropped us off and drove off in search of parking and we walked down to the beach where there was a cable car that supposedly took us to the monastery.

Because of hurricane level winds (give or take) the cable car was not running yesterday. We were told there was no access except by foot and our tour books also told us this. At this time, Ryan had showed up - he had off-roaded on the beach to get to us which again is fairly normal. We all got some coffee and then decided it was time to go. We also noticed that the monastery that had no car-access seemed to have a road going straight to it, so we decided on our own just to give it a shot. Somehow in 10 minutes we were able to make our way to front row parking up on the side of Mt Carmel in front of the monastery. Inside we were able to stand in a cave that for centuries has been traditionally the location of Elijah's hideout when running from Jezebel and her prophets. Just down the hill, surrounded by wildflowers and with the whipping winds, overlooking the Sea, is the traditional location of Elijah's showdown with those prophets of Baal. It is a very common experience for us here to be so fed up with the culture and crazy street signs and then to find ourselves standing on a cliff recalling the incredible intervention of God on behalf of His prophet. Elijah is a man who I have incredible respect and awe for and it was hard to believe I was standing on his turf.

When we left Mt. Carmel, we drove down the coast to Caesarea, where we had an incredible Mediterranean/Middle East -fusion non-kosher meal, while watching the sun setting over the sea and illuminating the ancient port town built by Herod the Great (the one who wanted to kill Jesus when he was born) in an orange-pink hue. After dinner, Ryan took his parents around the archeological park (in the dark) while I watched the boys roll down a grassy hill that ended at some ruins of Herod's summer home. Just as the country began to endear itself to me again, we walked out to the parking lot to find that our rental car had been broken into, and the boys leapfrog games had been stolen out of the glove compartment. The passenger side window had been shattered, and we spent two hours at the police station waiting to file a report. Thankfully, the baby (and grandpa) was asleep, and the boys were so happy to be at a police station looking for bad guys that it was only an inconvenience for me. After the police station, we drove an hour and a half home, with plastic bags in leu of a glass window, and put the boys to bed - only a couple hours past bedtime.

My emotions here in Israel must rise and fall about as much as the waves on the mediterranean on a windy day (like yesterday). But such is a day in the life of our family this year.

Random Thoughts (on life in Israel)

The following are some random thoughts or observations from life here in Israel. The following are in no particular order:

We have to keep a kosher kitchen which means we can never mix dairy plates, pots, utensils, towels, washcloths, ect. with any of the same used for meat. We even have two separate sinks (dairy & meat). This year for the first time in my life I had to ask myself, "When cleaning up vomit, do I use a meat rag or dairy?"

Since we left the calmness of the USA to the dangers of the Middle East, California had some of the most devestating fires ever, Washington state had 9 inches of rain in one day resulting in massive flooding then this winter the main mountain pass has had 30 feet of snow. The Midwest has seen violent ice storms and rare mid winter tornadoes. There have been mall shootings, a city hall shooting, national manhunts for killers, and the ever-violent presidential primaries. Meanwhile here in Israel it has been a warm and dry winter (with the exception of one snow storm) and we have only had a small 6 mile stretch of a wall on the Gaza border knocked down allowing 10,000 people to cross illegally into Egypt. So I guess we do have it easier here in Israel.

When we first arrived, I worked hard to keep the rules of the Sabbath so that our Jewish neighbors would not look down on us. Once I realized that this sentiment is unavoidable I now feel the freedom to take out the trash, shower, cook, and even brush my teeth in violation of the sabbath.

Forget the peanut butter and jelly, my 5 year old son eats pita with humus for lunch most days.

I have not had a piece of pepperoni pizza since I left and the countdown has now begun to when I will once again enjoy this gift from God.

We have become friends with a Palestinian Christian and his wife and like to have them over for a glass of wine and conversation. I didn't realize how much I could learn about Jesus through their eyes and not just the "trendy" Jewish perspective on Jesus.

I have not been a full time student and a father until this year and I realize now that this is impossible to do perfectly. Since something has to suffer, it must be the studies instead of the kids. (My sleep suffers a bit as well, but the Red Sox World Series Games and the Super Bowl airing at 1:00 AM did not help).

A gallon of milk costs about $8.00 but Captain Crunch is the cheapest cereal so I am not able to change my breakfast habit.

Sometimes for fun, I take my camera and walk down the street to the "Wailing Wall", the "Hill of Golgatha", or the Mount of Olives.

I have not had a burrito from Chipotle in 5 months but I have had many falafels and "toast with salty cheese and pesto (a.k.a. a paninni with sheep's cheese and basil)".

I have seen more men peeing in public this year than in my whole life. My wife saw a boy peeing in front of the swings at the park today. Brilliant!

I take one bus route through an "Ultra-Orthodox" neighborhood and I can actually make people get up from their seats by sitting next to them. I am a "defiled" pagan so they cannot be next to me. The sad thing is that I take pleasure in watching people move away from me. I know... "w.w.j.d."

My son asked to go to Egypt for his 8th birthday so, like any good father would do, next week we are going there for him. Forget the bounce-house, I'm giving him the pyramids!

We have actually become friends with a good amount of people and even almost have a social life here. Of course even in the states, having a social life and having three kids are not compatible ideas.

When crossing the border or dealing with any official here in Israel I proudly display my Jewish last name and my wife and boys' Old Testament names. If their thinking that we are Jewish allows us more privliges, then who am I to correct them?

I have learned more Hebrew and Greek this year than ever before and this is in addition to my leisure and required studies. I think my brain is full. My oldest son says that if we eat the brains of animals, our brains will grow bigger. We just have to remember to use the "meat" plates.

In the words of my wife, "I know I will be glad we came here this year. This will be a great experience when it is over".

The Week in Photos

This week we give you the obvious theme of snow in Jerusalem. This is the view of the Temple Mount from Mount of Olives.

This is a fountain in the park at Yemin Moshe between the Old City and our house. In about a month we will see kids swimming in this fountain once again.

The 8 inches of snow that fell over two days cancelled almost everything in the city but these two "Yeshiva" students still made their way to class.

Not too many made it out to pray during the heavy snowfall but God can hear us in our houses.

I found these Jewish kids on the rooftops of the old city building forts for their snowball fights. These are the "fences" and the types of wars that are fun to see here in the Middle East.

One lone person making the walk to work.

This Arab man was holding a little surprise for the Army soldiers. The soldiers were getting hit with snowballs from all directions but handled themselves well. I guess the snow was a nice change from rocks.

This is outside the Damascus Gate. This is usually a bustling outdoor market leading into the Muslim Quarter of the city.

This is a photo of Hinnom Valley (otherwise known as Gehenna). It was a cold day in Gehenna!

It was a perfect day to stop by "The Coffee Shop" on the way home. I actually skipped the coffee and stopped by the falafel stand next door. It was equally as warming as the coffee.

Now I am ready for Spring.