Alright...here we go...

I had a dream about you last night. Yeah, you! You didn't even think I missed you, did you? HA! How could I ever forget you?

I went to Jerusalem yesterday to check out this school for Arabs and Jews. Yeah. For reals! Arabs and Jews learning together at the same school and becoming friends and learning about each others' culture (beyond the extreme stereotypes that they're normally taught about each other). It's really cool to see it work in a practical way and the school was even a pretty neat place. So far they go up to the 11th grade because it's only been open for 11 years. So each year they add a grade because each year the first class that started there 11 years ago moves up a grade. Make sense? It's kind of interesting how they come up with the curriculum to teach as accurately and unbiased as possible the history of each culture. Because, of course, the Arabs and the Jews tend to have completely opposing stories on what has happened in Israel's history. So they have had to figure out a way to give both sides of the story using only the facts and letting the students form their own opinions. I won't bore you too much longer but I'll say that it was cool to get to sit in on a 6th grade political science class and see how informed and involved in the discussion the students were. Hopefully more schools like this will spring up and start to rebuild some of the mentalities long-held throughout Israel.

Actually, I'm getting a little ahead of myself...yesterday morning at 8:00 we met with Eldon for a few more hours in Jonah. THEN we packed up and headed to J'lem.

We got back into Arad just in time to go have dinner with Ruth (another one of the volunteers). She has actually lived in Israel for 9 years, or something like that, and she helps out with the kids at the center. She invited us over and cooked up a chicken and vegetables and rice and some homemade bread. Nummerz! Then after dinner we sat around and played some guitar and I gave her a lesson in music theory. I knew that stuff would come in handy someday.

"I'm Still Here"...I'm listening to it right now. It's one of my favorite songs and I believe it has been dubbed mine and Shannon's "song". Our song. It's our song. You know. Maybe it's a sibling thing. Nevermind. I love you, Shannon!

This morning I was up at 6:00 to catch that sunrise and start in to the book of Matthew. I finished the last couple minor prophets last night which means I've finally read the whole thing. Woo hoo! I think it's funny that most Christians haven't even read the book that we base our entire lives on. Bizarre. I was in that category yesterday morning. And, of course, I haven't suddenly learned it all because I don't remember or didn't understand probably a good majority of the Bible. But that's why I'm still reading it. It's a lifelong thing. Ideally, you'll understand and remember more each time you read it. Right? I'm hoping, because I was totally lost through the last few books. The Sermon on the Mount this morning. It's a good one. Check it out. If you already have...reading it again couldn't hurt.

But I digress.

Five hours of Bible study this morning. Then off to the center where we didn't actually do anything...There aren't any classes on Friday so I just hung out for a while and Kyle headed to the bus station to go to Tel Aviv for the weekend. I'm staying here again. I'll go to the Sudanese church service tomorrow morning and then I'll probably just relax because it's Shabbat and nothing will be open. On Sunday morning I think I'll take the bus up to Jerusalem and spend a day there. I wanna get one good solid day to really check out all that the Old City has to offer. So that's my plan tentatively. It looks good for now but we'll see what springs up.

I've been paying close attention to the news while I've been here. Interesting.

Well, thank you all so much for following the blog and for your lovely emails and, of course, your continued prayers and support. You are all such a blessing. See ya!

.Tim