First Day in Jerusalem

Today was our first full day in Jerusalem. It was up not so early to get breakfast in the hotel. If thee's one thing that won't happen on the trip, it's our going hungry. Every meal is a buffet meal of absolutely wonderful salads, kabobs, hummus, pita, and fruit. None of us are going hungy and we're actually eating vegetables and fruit. That was a rare occurence while in India.

The morning was training at Musalaha's headquarters. We broke bread with them for lunch and even had something like Indian naan! The training was excellent and started the preparation for what camp will look like. What we learned is how difficult it is to reconcile and restore a relationship if there is no trust present. What we are doing is helping these kids who come to camp begin the process of building trusting relationships with "the other."

After lunch we toured Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum. It was a pretty heavy time, especially reading and listening to video recordings of people who had survived the death camps. It was all a fresh and stark reminder of what happened prior to WW2 in much of Europe under Hitler's regime. It's a sad episode in modern history, one that had a great effect on the modern world's willingness to open up land for the state of Israel.

One great story! We walked to a Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf about 10 minutes from our hotel. As they were walking they found a Palestinian young man and as the conversation went along they realized that he was a new Christian. In fact, five months ago he was baptized after "seeking" for about three years. It was the most wonderful thing to have our students actually engage in conversation with a young Palestinian and then find out that he was a brother in Christ! He was so excited to meet us that he joined us for coffee on a beautiful summer Jerusalem night.

All of us have lots of questions, some that we will get answers for, others that we will wait and trust God in His timing. But we are all committed to the reconciliation process. Please continue to pray for our health and team unity. I think at this point I'm the only one with kind of an upset stomach but I'm sure that's in store for many others.

Tomorrow we are on a day long tour of Jerusalem. Then Friday we have a lecture in the morning and the afternoon is free. That evening we will visit a Messianic church close by as they celebrate the Sabbath, Shabbat. Thanks for praying for us! We are blesesed and sense your prayers!

Shalom,
Jon