February 6-8

This past weekend was my 3^rd Shabbat since I’ve been here is Israel. Usually we don’t make plans for Friday and Saturday, but this Friday was a little different. If y’all remember, I mentioned not too long ago about how our group goes to John and Calev Myer’s church every Saturday night. Once a month their church reaches out to the Muslim community by going to a neighborhood and picking up trash. We just happened to be here the one time in February they would be going! So, early Friday morning we met up with the group and picked up bags and bags of trash for 2 hours. I wasn’t prepared for what I saw when I was there… I had no idea things could get that dirty. We went into the dirtiest and most trashed neighborhood around. I took some pictures of it, and it just blows your mind, the piles and hills of trash that have accumulated throughout the years. It looks like for years, these people just throw all of their trash over this hill, and that is exactly what has been happening. Supposedly, the people around there don’t have any way of disposing of all their trash, so they would burn it. But whenever these people would burn their trash, the city would fine them. So, these people pretty much have no other choice but to throw their trash on the hill. I don’t even want to know the different things I was picking up that day. It ranged from everything between diapers to animal bones. My friend Sarah and I found this backpack and it took both of us to pull it out of the ground because it had been there for so long that grass and roots had started to grow on and in it. After we were finished with that community service, we went back to the house and just chilled, which was really nice. That night we had our Shabbat service, and as an extension of last weeks talk about being the salt of the earth, a leader in our group spoke about being the light of the earth. My eyes were really opened about how much influence we truly have on other people in this world because of the calling God has put on our life.

Saturday was an easy-going day and I got to rest, which was really nice. As usual, we went to the Myer’s church service this night and afterwards went to dinner.

Sunday marked our 20^th day of travel since I’ve been here in Israel. We started off the day by going to Bethlehem. It was really interesting to go here in the way we had to change busses at the entrance of the city. I found out this was because the city is under Palestinian control and Jews are forbidden to enter. So, since our bus driver and tour guide are both Jewish, we had to switch busses and get a new tour guide for the afternoon. We first went to the Shepard’s field, where the angels appeared to the shepards and told them that Jesus was going to be born and he would preach the gospel to all people. This was a huge event for them because shepards were considered low on the social status, and so when they heard they were going to be considered equal, it was an important moment. We also went to the Church of the Nativity, where the place of Jesus’ birth and where His manger had laid is commemorated. I’m not sure if the spots are exact, but even just being in the same vicinity of where those events took place is absolutely incredible. I mean, that’s my savior we’re talking about!! After Bethlehem, we went to Herodian, where the remains of Herod the Great’s palace are located. We walked to the very top and looked over Israel. From there, we could see Jerusalem and Bethlehem, and it was just crazy to think about and picture Herod standing up there after receiving the message that Jesus was just born. After Herodian, we went back to the house, starting off this next week nice and easy.