Hump Day!!

Life is speeding by so quickly. Last week was my “hump day” in Israel. Before I know it I’ll wake up and this will all be over. I have to make sure that I appreciate each day. That’s a lot like a mission :o)

The snow this week was 7 inches!!!!! It was beautiful to look out of my balcony window and see it. Reminded my of Utah weather, except that Utah isn’t getting any of it. To have two snow storms in Jerusalem is really quite amazing.

Our field trip this week took us back to Yad VaShem. This is such a sobering place. I think that if I wasn’t with the students I wouldn’t go back. So much hatred, so much tragedy, so much death. I just don’t understand how people can do this to people, and yet it still goes on today, just in different places, and we pretend that it doesn’t happen, just like the world pretended then. I asked Lana to take this photo for me.

This is a hall with an eternal flame—lest we forget. I particularly wanted her to have a picture of the flame with Dachau in the foreground because I went to the Dachau concentration camp when I was backpacking around the world. That was my first realization. My bubble was burst. . . . And yet at Yad VaShem there is also a beautiful garden where trees were planted to remember all of those people who risked their lives to save Jews. That gives me hope.

On a brighter note, today I went to the King David hotel for lunch. This the ritziest hotel in Jerusalem. In the main lobby are tiles with the signatures of famous people who have stayed there. The one I saw were George Bush. I went with Linda Gunther and Sister Smith. Linda is leaving on Saturday. Sister Smith and her husband are here to be the new Humanitarian Service couple. I will miss Linda A LOT.

This  is a picture of Tina, Kasdyn and Linda at the Monastery at Petra. 

It’s hard to believe that in another week we’ll be finishing Old Testament class, heading off to Turkey and then coming back to start New Testament with the other group of students. It’s so easy to get attached and I will miss them, but I’m looking forward to getting to know the new group.

I wake up in the morning sometimes and can’t believe that I’m here and that I have such a wonderful opportunity of a life time. Who would have thought that a young kid from Redcliffe Australia would get to do all of this? The Lord has richly blessed my life.