Look Mom, a post!

Well, I promised a real post. :D And there will be 3 sections to this one. :D heehee.

Shabbat we had our service at a church in Jerusalem, It was a strange church. It was like a charismaticky baptist church. Very interesting. :D After that we went and had amazing non-kosher pizza. :D We're always very glad for the chance to get non-kosher anything. haha. So, after the pizza we went into the city, and the girls all decided to get scarves for something we were doing later. Ashley and I got our scarves, bargained down with Jared's help, and then we went to the Christ Church cafe. We sat on the patio out there, and Ashley wrapped my scarf around my head like an arab woman. It was funny, because at the cafe they have free hebrew and arabic Bibles, and after I left, trying to act arab, my roomate Molly went up to get one, and the woman working at the counter told Molly that she should take an arabic Bible too. And Molly said that she doesn't know how to read arabic. The woman replied that it was for Molly's Arab friend. Molly clarified that I was only wearing it, and not arab. The woman said "Wow. I'm arab and she fooled me!"
Do I look arab? Judge for yourself. :D



Okay, so last Sunday our whole group went down to Jerusalem, lugging our water bottles and work gloves and lunches along with us on the bus, and showed up at about 8:00 AM in the City of David (hill in jerusalem where David first built his capital) at the site of an Archaeological dig that was going on there. Here's what I said to my mom after coming back, when I talked to her on skype that night. :D

Well, they have the whole area divided up into Bilks (squares about 10x10 feet)
surrounded by sandbags. and ou have a team on each one,
mine yesteray was me and an israeli guy and girl (Yo'av and Ochel)
and then today we had another guy (Yonatan) and basically,
you have a ton of buckets, and you start at one end of the
square and use pickaxes to go down in a line about 5-10 inches
and break up the dirt, and then you take shovels (more like hoes)
and put the dirt in buckets, saving out pottery/bones/or like..glass bits
and when you fill up all your buckets and there's no more empty
ones availiable, (which happens for everyone at about the same time)
everyone makes a chain and passes the buckets up to where
they get dumped on a dirt pile at the top. Then we start again.
if we find like. big rocks, or rocks that are set in, we go
around them and try to keep digging down,
and kinda clean them off,
cause they could be part of a wall or something

Here's a picture of me and you can see the dig activity in the background.

Thanks Whit for the picture. :D

We did the same thing on Sunday and Monday, in case that wasn't clear. :)

Then Tuesday I had Jewish Thought and Culture for 4 hours, and then Hebrew for another 2. It's pretty crazy, I'm about brain dead at that point. :D

So then on Wednesday we went to Yad Vashem. It's Israel's Holocaust museum. The building is a long triangular prism shape, when you walk in, on the wall there is a big video playing, I'm not sure of what, but it showed many people laughing and going about daily life, as a contrast to what would follow. The building is a long hallway with many rooms jutting off to the sides and you follow a path, and each room chronicles a different part of the Holocaust. It was one of the most intense experiences I've had. The weight of depravity is huge indeed. At times i almost cried, at times I felt so sick inside that I had to close my eyes and just breathe. The hardest for me was hearing about all the children hurt and killed. Families torn apart, never to meet again.

At the end of the time we spent there, we went out of the museum, and followed Bill Schlegel to the Chilren's Memorial. This was one of the most beautiful things I'd ever seen. It's a room under ground that is dark. It has in the middle a pillar of mirrors and around the walls mirrors too, and somewhere there are many candles and the effect is that you stand there with the low deep mournful music playing and hear the names, ages, and homelands of the dead children read and you can just see black, but with dots of light stretching out far and far. Bill told us to hold on to a name and try to remember it. Here's mine.

Hadassah Rosen. 5 years old. Poland.

That night we watched Schindler's List. It was thought provoking. And sad, but it was a very good movie to experience.

Well, Much love. :) Tomorrow's Shabbat, and we're going to Jerusalem. Again. :D We love Jerusalem.

Love Savannah!

To My Daddy and Mommy

Well, I absolutely ADORE Daddy/Daughter songs, because of the amazing relationship God's given me with my parents. It helps that they are the best parents in the world, but you know...:D Well, I just found this new one, and I thought I'd post it here, it's dedicated to my daddy and to my mommy, because of the way she supports him, and this kinda mentions that. :D

Happy Valentines Day...a few days late. :D
Why does Mark Schultz always make us cry???
Trash Cans, and running over little old ladies? :D (no one be offended, it's an inside joke. ;D)

She Was Watching
Mark Schultz
He always called her daddy’s little girl
She was four years old
Waiting by the door to run into his arms
Each time that he came home

And every night he tucked her in and read to her in bed
When she’d fall asleep he’d close his eyes and gently bow his head

(Chorus)
But she was watching
Her daddy praying
And thought someday I wanna be like that
She was watchin what he was saying
And the way he bowed his head
And though she can’t recall the prayer
She was watching

Late one evening he was coming home from work
He called to say he’d lost his job
And after dinner they excused their baby girl
She knew they had to talk

But from inside her bedroom
She could hear them down the hall
They were dancing in the kitchen as momma sang his favorite song

(Chorus)
She was watching
As they were dancing
And thought someday I wanna be like that
She was watching
Her momma singing
As they were dancing hand in hand
And though she can’t recall the song
She was watching

Faith can’t be taught
It’s just something that is caught along the way
No faith is never taught
It’s just something that they catch from watching you along the
way

He always called her daddy’s little girl
But now she’s twenty-three
He walks her down the aisle to give away his world
Oh but he can hardly speak
And when he kisses her goodbye he tries to hold it in
But as he turns away she pulls him close and whispers in his ear

I was watching
And I’ve been waiting
And finally found someone just like you
I was watching
My whole life praying
For God to see it through

And as he kissed her one last time
He said a prayer and closed his eyes
And she was watching

I'll have a real post soon. :D Love you guys!

2 Poems and a picture

I know I keep posting poems that I wrote, but here's 2 more. lol. I don't know why, but i've been writing quite a bit lately. :D
To balance out the poetry, I'll give you a picture and a bit of update.
I've been growing so much through the past couple weeks. :) I understand the sufficiency of Christ so much more right now than I ever have. It's such a beautiful encouraging thing to me. One day was hard for me this week, oh so hard. I won't go into detail, but it was an incredibly taxing day. But I praise God for sending it to me, because that day i spent more time on my knees running to my Savior for help than I have in a very long time. And I am so encouraged by the way he continues to grow me. :)

So anyway, for the poems:

This one I just wrote tonight:

joy of life
rock the boat
find the light
seek the truth

evermore
can we be
something more
not just lies

kiss the son
drink the wine
all the grace
all the time

would it be
anything
better for
you and me

if we see
love as pain
in today's
trials dark

fight for love
love for life
live for God
He sustains.

(The last stanza is my favorite :D)

And this poem is kind of meant to be a song. I'm workin on that. :D

Uncertainty haunts me all day long
I fight to understand what's going on
A rollercoaster ride
conquer the doubt inside
find the way somewhere

Jesus show me what to do,
When to let go
and what to hold on to
It's a long hard fight
in the middle of this night
but you'll lead me through,
i know you'll lead me through

I don't know what's going on
but i know i have a Father's love
the key to all I need to know
the place to find my only rest
is in the arms of Jesus Christ

The valley of the shadows long
underflows the chain of days
but i know the God above
Gaurds my life in perfect love
And pushes me to fuller life

And here's the picture. :D It's me near Jaffa Gate taken by James.
It looks like a bridge between 2 times and cultures.

Jerusalem and snow picture

Well, I mentioned the snow the other day, and just thought I'd put up a picture of me.:)



We went to Jerusalem again today, we walked around all over the place, through a market. Then we went up on the rooftops over the Armenian quarter, and had a snowball fight with 2 little cute arab boys. :D Then we went out of the city and walked up around the walls to come in Zion gate. it was fun. then we ended up pretty much retracing our steps. and we went out of Jaffa gate and got on the bus, and then we're back here, and we're gonna have a bonfire tonight. :)
Fun stuff.
Love you all!!