This Land

Merry Belated Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone! These holidays have been a little surreal for me. Neither are celebrated nationally in this country, so it seems anticlimactic for me to be writing 2008. I had my first (and hopefully the last) Skype Christmas. I have a webcam on my laptop, so everyone at home could watch me open my gifts. Yes, my mother... and my grandmother... and my Aunt all sent me packages. I was doing just fine, not emotional or anything, and then I opened the box and saw my brother's handwriting on the gift he'd bought me saying, "Love and miss you Bek!" I burst into tears. I'm realising more and more each day that I couldn't have ever imagined a better family. Mom is still counting the days - a little under six weeks remain. It's gone fairly quickly on my end, but Mom says she ready for me to come home. I know they miss me, but they're also so excited that God made a way for this trip to happen.

I have reconnected with more friends, specifically my kindergarten teacher and her family. We spent last Shabbat together and it was a precious time of fellowship and laughter. They are pastors of a small congregation here in Tiberias, made up of East Europeans, some East Asians, local Israelis, and a handful of Americans and British. And my teacher and her husband are French! I love this aspect of living overseas. The mix of people is so much fun! Languages are intermingled with various styles of dress, music preferences, cuisine, and measures of personal space. The typical Israeli doesn't need more than a couple inches of personal space, and nobody is a stranger. They're confrontational and very blunt. It's so refreshing to hear to exactly what someone thinks instead of doing the "politically correct" waltz around everyone's conversational sensitivities.

On a more serious note, please do keep these congregations in your prayers. They have undergone persecution in the past, and by grace are going through a time of peace right now; however, further south, there are many groups of believers experiencing great persecution. The children are especially a concern because they are threatened at school not only by their peers, but by adults as well.

I've had complaints from a reader who says I haven't been writing in enough detail. Thus it should follow that I make an apology for this oversight and cast my mind back over these most recent weeks in search of material to satisfy the demand.

A friend of mine, Abby, recently celebrated her 17th birthday, and invited me to come along for a day at a recreation center with herself, her parents and another friend. The first order of the day was to pick up burekas from a local bakery and then to make the drive out to Mt. Hermon in search of snow, followed by the rec center. The drive to Mt. Hermon took us through land that used to be part of Syria but was reclaimed by Israel during the 1973 Yom Kippur War. As you drive along the road, barren rocky ground gives way to earthen mounds atop which settlements have been made to stake their claim in the land. Remains of bunkers and army posts are a frequent reminder of the real cost of those hills; however, I must confess that nothing made as great an impression on my mind as did the fenced off areas bearing yellow signs with red triangles: "Warning: Mines!" The Israelis have cleared whatever land they needed for crops and development, but the general view seems to be that if there is another war, why not use the enemy's own mines as a barrier against them? As the road weaves and narrows to a single car's breadth, we come upon what appears to be an impassable barrier constructed from boulders. It is only an illusion, for as we approach an opening becomes visible and the road makes a 90 degree turning through the passage. In response to my questions, I was told they were barriers built across the road at multiple points in an attempt to slow the passage of tanks.

Israel would be a frightening place to many of us from the west who have never known the sound of rockets whistling over our heads or the wail of the sirens urging us into our bomb shelters. Everywhere you go, it seems, there are reminders of this land's war-torn history. Israel bears the marks of fallen rockets and many locals still jump when they hear any sound resembling a "boom" or the rumble of a fighter jet passing overhead. I ride the bus and grocery shop with young Israeli soldiers who are never without their weapons and, in the girls' case, their Gucci-like sunglasses and painted nails gracing hands casually draped across their Uzi machine guns.

I don't mean to paint a picture of a terrifying land with cowering, desperate people. This is simply not the case. Life goes on just as it does in our communities. Children go to school, mothers hang laundry and go shopping, the men work and loudly discuss the news over botz (Turkish coffee) and a cigarette. The religious Israelis stand at the bus stops in the morning silently mouthing the text from their open prayer book on the way to their studies and workplaces. By Friday afternoon at about 3pm, the shops close and the Sabbath (Shabbat) is observed until sundown the next day. This is time for family and friends, for prayer, and is a time to simply stop and appreciate the life you have. The Israelis are open, friendly people. I can't put into words the incredible differences between their culture and that of our Western world. All I can do is encourage you to come. This truly is God's land. Jesus is coming back to Israel, specifically Jerusalem, not Europe or the US. His name is forever stamped in Israel. I feel as if experiencing or at least learning about Israel is a necessary step towards an understanding of God's heart and of His Word.

I hope I have quenched the thirst for detail, indeed it is encouraging because it means someone is enjoying my writings about this journey. I promise to follow this posting with more stories, of the lighter variety, I hope. My plans for these next two weeks involve audio checking at work, but late January will find me in Jerusalem for the prayer conference, followed by a trip to Arad to visit a friend. Please keep me, and the other conference delegates and staff in your prayers; pray we would have open ears and ready hearts to hear from the Lord during the conference and the weeks preceding. Also that travel will be smooth (visas, etc) and safe.

Thank you again and again for all of your support. I marvel each day at the people God has placed in my life. You are demonstrating Christ's love to me and illustrating your faith in Him. We serve a mighty God, worthy of all honour, glory, power and praise!

In Yeshua