Well, the first feelings after hitting the tarmac at Tel Aviv were a mix of excitement and anxiety. I was thrilled to be in Israel, but I hadn't yet made it through passport control or customs. However, I was needlessly concerned; after answering a couple of questions I received my tourist visa and went on through to collect my bags. The airport is beautiful, but the best part was seeing friendly, familiar faces in the arrivals lounge. I hadn't eaten much all day, and thus had a considerable appetite. So Bob and Lesley (the friendly faces) said we should stop for dinner as home was a good two hours drive north. We ended up at a restaurant in a town called Herzoliyya on the Mediterranean. It felt like any other coastal tourist area until they stopped us at a fence surrounding the complex and glanced inside our bags before granting entrance. There wasn't any sense of fear, but more an air of dispiritedness that such measures are necessary.
The volunteer coordinator (who used to be my babysitter) offered a room in her apartment for the first week, allowing me to acquaint myself with Israel before navigating on my own. Her apartment is, like many other homes in her village, the bottom floor of a two-story house, with the landlord on the floor above. Everything is tiled and the windows are open all day because it is still quite warm. My room is the bomb shelter room, so the door makes a racket whenever I shut it because of the safety seal. The neighbourhood is very safe, and we walked to her parents' home yesterday evening for Shabbat. No lights, save scattered street lights, so the stars were clearly visible. It was beautiful.
My first day at work was filled with introductions to people who remember me as waist high with a riot of red curls. But the warmth with which they have welcomed me has been such a blessing. They all have fond memories of my parents and are happy to hear about the work we are doing in Europe. As to my tasks in the office, I've already taken care of some much needed filing and have started reorganising a database. Not scintillating jobs, you'll agree, but the people around me make me laugh, and I know that I am a small part of a tool that takes Jesus Christ all over the world. There are other projects I'll be assisting with in the next few weeks that will require more focus and attention, and I think I'm really going to enjoy it.
I have had so many invitations to visit people throughout Israel, I may not have a free evening! God has blessed my family so greatly in the shape of friends. I look to these next few months with expectation for personal growth and many opportunities to bless others in the name of Yeshua.
Thank you to everyone who has chosen to sow into this trip. I cannot begin to communicate what I feel, but thank you. I want to be a woman of God, and leaving home is part of it. I have attached most of Proverbs 31 below. This is the type of woman I am striving to be - please pray that God will show me how to be this woman in every area of my life.
In Him,
Rivka
