One last transition

See if you can spot the guy who was
jumping off the wall into the sea!

This is a side view of Abbu Christo

Well, we're in Magdala now. We haven't had much time to update the blog but this afternoon we have a couple of free hours to do that. On Saturday, Jason and his family picked us up and took us to Akko, which is a historic crusader city with a wall and a moat. It was definitely a great end to our time in Haifa. Jordan and I can't believe we were received so well by a complete stranger. He brought us for lunch at a place called Abu Christo, where we had an amazing feast with pita, shewarma and a ton of other foods. The restaurant was actually ON the ancient city wall, which is built INTO the sea. So awesome.

Here are some pics from our last day in Haifa and Akko. Definitely going to miss these wonderful people!

Jason drove us to Tiberias after that meal and we met up with Rosaura from the University of Anahuac (in Mexico City.) They are in charge of the dig at Magdala, so we'll be staying with them for the rest of our time here in Israel. The place where we are staying is a refurbished Catholic Church that now serves as dorm rooms for the volunteers that come to dig. There are 5 bunks (10 beds) in our small room of about 25'x25' (yikes.) The next day, we visited Jericho, and Jerusalem one last time.

 Because the Catholic Church is sponsoring the dig, they hosted us for lunch in some sort of hotel/restaurant that belongs to the Vatican. We split from the group and took to the old city by foot one last time, and in the afternoon went to the self-proclaimed "oldest protestant church in Jerusalem." They were having a Bible study in an upper room by the Jaffa Gate. It was such a surreal experience to read from the scriptures with a group of about 20 in a small upper room much like the first Christians did!

For God so loved the world that HE gave His one and only Son, so that whosoever believes in Him, shall not perish but have everlasting life!


Keep Jordan and I in your prayers! We will definitely be needing that these next few days as we wrap up our time here. 

Today, We Dance!

Well, we didn't really dance. But that's what Maruan said to us as we walked up today, all the while doing the "wax on, wax off" motion from the Karate Kid movie. And that's what we did today with the drywall. We were back in the same room with the high ceiling, this time sanding down the grooves in the plaster to leave the room ready for a coat of paint. We used the same scaffolding tower from yesterday to sand down the walls from the very top to the very bottom, at times having to anchor a leg around a pole to reach a far part of the wall. The black tile floor was completely covered in a fine white dust when we were finished.

Today is our last day in Haifa. Jason will be picking us up tomorrow for lunch and will take us to the town of Akko (or Acre) with his family. Then he'll drive us east to Tiberias where we'll meet up with a certain Rosaura who is leading the excavation of the ancient city of Migdal (Magdala, where Mary Magdalene was from.) I'm kind of excited to be moving on to the Galilee region again! But before that, there is a lot of laundry and cleaning and packing to do!

Filafel for lunch!

On the way back home, we stopped at a grocery store for some goodies, including these lychees, which to me, taste like awesomeness. Then Jordan led the way home and GOT US LOST! haha I promised not to bring  it up but it was way too long of a walk back home to just let it pass without mention here. 

Dealing in Shekels

Three weeks ago, we arrived in Tel Aviv. It wasn't until today that we decided to change in our greens for the local currency. It's confusing having to convert dollars to shekels every time we pay for something. You have to do a double count to make sure you're not getting the short end of the deal. Anyway, we were dreading having to hammer away at that wall again today, but to our relief, Ony (the foreman) directed us to one of the larget rooms with a high ceiling, and pointed at a rolling scaffolding tower hehe.

We were going to paint the metal AC ducts up on top. But the morning shift wouldn't start without a good cup of coffee! Ony and the crew take work pretty leisurely.

We started about an hour after getting there. Ony mixed us a bucket of paint and up we went! I'm sure that during the 4 hours or so that we were painting, we lost a good number of brain cells to the fumes of the paint.

At noon, the crew always comes together for a quick and easy meal that usually consists of bread rolls, some sort of deli meat, cheese, cucumbers, tomatoes and pickles. Today, the meat was actually tuna. The food is always an easy fix, nothing too special, but the great part about lunch is that they all have a communal meal at work. That is completely unheard of in the States. In the US, each one of the guys would be on their own for lunch. Here, a simple meal, good laughs and a good time prove to be a refreshing time before continuing work. Community and spending time together take a high priority here. I like that :) 

NOTE: Jordan will be updating the blog beginning next week!

Chiseling Powder Monkeys

Everything in Israel is made of concrete, which means it's not very easy to make any modifications to an existing building. Today we spent the day with Youseff lending a hand in the renovation of a building they will use as a recording studio and broadcasting center for all their future productions. (Youseff has a broadcasting network that spans throughout the Arab world reaching others with The Message.) They are needing to install a wider door where the current one is, so that meant that we needed to hammer and chisel away at the cement to make the doorway wider.

The first part was easy - the cinder blocks were hollow so a hard blow with the hammer made it give away and crumble. The second half, however, was steel reinforced concrete :( 4 hours, two small blisters and two cement-powdered faces later, we got about halfway done. I really hope tomorrow we'll do something different haha. Despite everything, we're being treated so well here. Different guys kept checking in on us offering water, food and even popsicles!

Mission: Demolition -- Aborted

Today was supposed to be Demolition day #2. We would tear out the drywall in the kitchen. When we arrived, Jason looked pretty concerned because the tenant who lives in the upper floor of the building was there clearing out a lot of the junk she had accumulated. He explained to us that in Israel, ownership of property is a big issue because prior to Israel becoming a nation, anyone and everyone just built on whatever land they wanted. During the war of 1948, some people fled, others came and took possession of property, and still others came and purchased property. Needless to say, this caused, and is still causing a lot of tension between neighbors and people who claim the rights to buildings and land. The lady who lives in the upper floor should not be living there, according to Jason. According to her, though, Jason and his organization shouldn't be using the facility because it all belongs to her. To avoid any confrontation we left the site. Jason took us to one of the malls so that we could pick up some groceries, and then brought us back to the apartment. Tonight, he will be picking us up to go have pizza at his house with his family!

We have the rest of the day free until Jason picks us up, so it gave us time to do some reading, blogging, journaling, playing the guitar and watching the Office online haha.

One quick note: we asked Jason what his favorite passage in scripture was, and he said it was the recounting of creation in John. Neither Jordan or I had ever heard of this so he explained to us the literary style of John and how John is paralleling the entire creation narrative in his gospel: setting Christ up to be the second Adam. He described it in so much detail though! I will have to ask him for an outline of what he explained.

Mission: Demolition

Today we helped Jason tear down some old drywall. The roof of the structure leaks, and so they have to remove all the old drywall in order to repair the inside and install new drywall. This building is in old Haifa, and is over 100 years old. They're not allowed to make any modifications to the building, but they can retrofit the inside to make it modern. The actual walls, though, are made of stone and have a very beautiful pastel green. We took hammers and an ax to the walls and had our fun with it. The hard part was the heat. Yep, you guessed it, we were drenched again, all within 10 minutes.

Before

After

 This is what the room looked like when we got there. Pretty modern no? Well, this is what it looks like underneath all the drywall. You can see the original arched doorway (which is much wider than the modern wooden door.) The original windows are also much larger and arched at the top. The walls are painted green with a very intricate and beautiful floral texture. I don't know why they wouldn't keep the original inside and just renovate it. The old face definitely has more character. We also found one of the windows had been shut with the drywall, but there are still wooden shutters there that are pretty neat. You can see it in the picture below to my right.

Jason, bless his heart, called us in for coffee in his office again, and had a box of Knafeh that he had brought for us! Jason knows so much about scripture, it is crazy! Every time we have a chat, he blows our minds with something new. Tonight, we are having Filafel up in Carmel Center with his wife and children.

Sweat and Scrumptious Goodness

Sweat and Scrumptious-Goodness-incarnate sound like a weird mix, but don't get ahead! We started today by moving boxes from Jason's office to an attic in one of the other rooms of the learning center. Even though it was morning, the temperature and humidity here had us, once again, dripping with sweat! bleahhhhhh... We moved hundreds of books and up, and relocated a book shelf and other pamphlets. Jason is pretty forgiving though, he always calls us in to his office for coffee and seems to have his meals scheduled like clockwork haha. He took us to a shop down in the Arab neighborhood and we had some more SHEWARMAAAA. Jordan didn't like this one too much, he had to push it down. The real treat though, was found in a little, itty-bitty pastry shop up the street. Just walking into this place, you got a whiff of the sweet goodness they make there. Jason treated us to some Knafeh, a warm, sweet, cheesy lump covered in crunchy, orange stringy stuff, and topped with chopped pistachio. It's one of the tastiest things we've had here (at least in my opinion.)

Sweets at the Arab Bakery

Haifa Haifa Haifa

We explored the city on foot today. BAD IDEA. It was so hot and humid we were literally drenched in sweat the minute we headed down the street. Interesting though, none of the locals seem to be sweating as much as we are. We headed west on Abas street, and then continued west on the Stella Maris, going up, up and up to the top of Mt. Carmel. Near the top, we were eyeballing one of the beaches down the hill and followed a nature trail to the main highway that ran along the coast. The only problem is we were on the wrong side of the highway :( We had to walk a bit to find a pedestrian bridge, which we used to cross over toward the beach. We finally made it and were a bit surprised by how many older folks were crowding the beach haha. Also, Israelis don't have a problem with struttin' their junk in tight speedos, no matter how old. Weirdness aside, we took a dip in the Mediterranean, and the topic of conversation came to sharks haha. We concluded that Great Whites would probably not hang out here because there are no cold currents, but that the likelihood of losing an arm or leg to a nurse shark or tiger shark was much higher.

After a quick swim, we headed toward downtown and ended up in the German Colony, a ritzy street with nice buildings, shops and restaurants leading up to the Baha'i Gardens, so we knew we were close to the apartment. We ate a massive meal at Fattoush, all for about $35.

Jordan got some sort of sandwhich and I got a giant flatbread with tons of chicken and onion on it. After that we got ice cream across the street and headed up the street toward the Baha'i Gardens. We saw some people going inside, so we asked and they let us in hehe. They had to check our backpacks first though in case we wanted to blow the place up. The hedges are speckless. I would really hate being the guy who has to trip and mow the garden. yikes! So much work.

Baha'i Gardens

After returning back to the apartment, literally drenched in sweat, we cooled off on the balcony, which is shaded in the afternoon. Man, this place knows no cool weather! I actually fell asleep on the balcony and then came in and napped again on the floor. Jordan wanted to head out for the afternoon, so we showered and headed down to the German colony again. There weren't really any people there, so we headed toward downtown and then up the hill, following the signs toward Carmel Center. After endless walking and endless stairs, we were drenched AGAIN! But we made it!
We grabbed a few refreshments and cooled down at Zesty's, which serves these massive, mouth watering burgers (if there's anything you need to know about Israel, it's that they don't believe in small portions.) Soon after we heard chanting, and Jordan being the thrill seeker that he is, sprung up and we headed toward it. We came right up to the mob, all waiving flags and signs, chanting and clapping all along. A lady came right up to us and pulled us in haha. She tried handing Jordan and I a sign to hold but we were cautious enough to not take it! It turned out this was an "occupy" march. It was definitely a very fun turn of events!

Shabbat Shalom

June 29 - Friday

We got to sleep in today! We woke up around 11 am (normally we have been waking up at 6) and Jason came by to pick us up for lunch. We went to a place close to downtown and had some Shewarma. People here really take their shewarma seriously. Once you become loyal to a Shewarma shop, people will go there their entire life. Jason gave us an orientation to the city and introduced us to a couple of people. Haifa is an interesting place. It is unique in Israel in that the Arab population is predominantly of Christian background. That being said, being Christian to them, is a cultural thing, much like other Arabs are culturally Muslim. They would not be able to tell you what the trinity is or how the redemption of mankind was completed at the cross with Christ. The Jews here, as well as the Jews in all of Israel are very secular. They value the Torah and the Tenak (interpretations of the text) and they memorize the Torah in school, but they find the value only in knowing about their heritage. Most Jews do not believe in God, and they take the Torah much like one would take the Ramayana and other creation stories of near-east civilizations. They find believers to be ignorant and stupid for believing in the supernatural. It's a very disheartening thing to look at.

There are believers here, however! Jason said there are about 400 believers among 4 churches in this city of 600,000. He took us to Bet Eliahu (Bet=House Eliahu = Elijah= YHWH is God). This is a Messianic Congregation. Most of the Jews here are Jews who came to live here from Russia and other European countries during the Zionist Movement (after the holocaust, when the State of Israel was established in 1949). Most of them were already Christian believers in their countries of origin, who happened to be of Jewish descent (remember the Jews were dispersed throughout the Europe, Asia and Africa by the Roman Empire in 70 AD). Converting others to a different religion is strictly forbidden in Israel, and converting Jews to any other religion is also seen as a loss of culture and can get you kicked out of the country here.

During the time when Jews were dispersed, some went to Europe and eventually mixed with Europeans. Others went to other Arab regions and mixed with the Arabs (Ronan's father came from Baghdad when the state of Israel was established.) Still others went to Africa and mixed with the natives. So you have Jews who are very white, Jews who look Arab, and Jews who are black. There is tension and racism among these groups. There are terms for each of these groups, but I forget them now.

The congregation at Bet Eliahu is made up of Jews who came from Europe. They sung worship songs in Hebrew and had a sermon also in Hebrew. We then had a Shabbat Dinner of Lamb with Tahina Sauce, and bread.

I hope you're not as confused as I am with all the different groups here lol. Sunday we will go to a church of Arab believers.

A beginning and an End

June 28th

This morning was the last day with the GTI tour group. This tour has been so amazing, I was sad for it to be over. Today was also the beginning of a whole new adventure. Jordan and I would meet up with a worker in Haifa and help with some construction projects they have there. Everyone was definitely looking forward to being back home. Today, however, we visited a couple of different sites. Most of them in the old city. We started off at St. Anne's Cathedral, which is located above where the Pools of Bethesda were. The cathedral has amazing acoustic sounds. Ronan was able to get us into the church and be able to go on the stage to sing a few hymns! We pretty much looked like we were some kind of big-shot choir (except we were all wearing hiking clothes and probably smelled pretty ripe! haha.) We continued through the Muslim Quarter of the City and went on to the Christian part of the city. There we went and prayed for the peace of Jerusalem as we walked on the ramparts of the old city walls (which is the area on the top of the wall where archers would stand and shoot at the enemy.)

We came down in the Jewish quarter, where we walked outside the old city to a park where Meyer had lunch for us. It was a giant bagel with all kinds of dips to choose from lol. He had goat cheese, humus, date syrup, goat cheese WITH date syrup and chocolate spread :))) Oddly enough, my favorite was the goat cheese and date syrup mix haha. Weird combination but surprisingly good.

We then drove to the new part of Jerusalem, the modern city, and visited Yad Vashem, the Israeli Holocaust Museum. The name means, "a monument and a name," which is derived from Isaiah 56:5

Afterwards, we headed to the Olive Tree Hotel to freshen up and pack up to leave! Everyone else was packing for the flight home, Jordan and I were packing to head to Haifa, and since we would now be on our own, we packed all the toilet paper we could lol. We left the hotel around 6 pm and had one last meal at Abu Gosh. The meal started off with pita and dips, then moved on to pita and shish-kebobs (lamb and chicken.) The food was amazing and we laughed and gave our final goodbye to Ronan.

Meyer drove us to Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv-Yafo and that's where the anxiety started creeping in! We split from the group, and as they were headed into the airport, Jordan and I headed down two levels to catch a train to Haifa! We were definitely nervous and anxious! We bought our tickets, and since we don't know any Hebrew (DUH) had to ask around to find out what gate and train we were supposed to board and what time that train would arrive lol. Anyway, our ticket was supposed to be a one-stop trip. The train was late about 40 minutes, and we were sitting at the station waiting. It was so hot and humid, and everyone around us seemed to be smoking like a chimney. We boarded the train finally when it arrived, but the train was stopping at every stop along the way (grrr). To make sure we were on the right train, we asked a couple of girls, and it turned out that they were going to the same place. We basically stuck with them until we reached the station at Haifa - Hof HaCarmel (HaCarmel beach, at the foot of Mount Carmel, where Elijah had the showdown against the prophets of Ba'al!).

View of Haifa from the Stella Maris, close to the apartment

When we arrived, we called Jason, and he picked us up and brought us to an apartment on Abbas street close to the intersection with Bishop Hajar. The apartment is in the Arabic Neighborhood of Haifa and has a balcony that overlooks the Mediterranean Sea and the city of Haifa. We are literally two blocks away from the Baha'i Gardens (look it up to get an idea!) We can see the dome of their temple from our balcony. We have a everything we could have ever asked for and more. Jason provided us with groceries, fresh fruit and coffee. We also have free wifi here, washer and drier (thank the Lord, our packs were full of dirty stinky clothes hahaha.)

God definitely provides! He is the giver of all things. Thank you LORD for your provision and your loving kindness.