Our first week In Israel

When I was a young girl, I wanted to visit Israel and see the place where Jesus lived. In 1996, I had the opportunity to visit with Jeff for a tour of the Biblical sites for ten days. It was in the Garden where Jesus' tomb is, that Jeff got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. That was eighteen years ago and just last week, we returned to Israel once again but this time with our six children.

Jeff has been working for a non profit organisation for the last four and half years called The Joshua Fund. His work brings him here to Israel many times a year. Jeff's desire has been to bring us here for a visit so that we have the blessing of seeing what he does and to meet the people here that he works with.

For the last three years, we have been living in North Carolina. Just two days ago, our house finally sold after many months of stress and unknowns. The remaining pieces of furniture and all our possessions are being held in a storage unit there until we know where we are moving to next. At the end of June, we took a step of faith and travelled to New Jersey where we stayed for six weeks with Jeff's family. Just before we had planned to leave New Jersey, our home went under contract. On the 12th August, we flew to England with 16 bags all consisting of everything we would need for the next six months, clothes for two seasons, homeschool curriculum and just about anything else that we considered to be essential items. Upon landing in London, my Dad and sister Emily arrived at the airport very early and we were blessed to meet my new niece Lottie who was five months at the time and just precious. We left London and headed for York via the shuttle to Paddington, then two taxis to Kings Cross Station (the taxi driver said that in all his years, he had never seen anyone traveling with that many bags) where we managed to get all the bags stored into a loading coach on the train. It was with much relief when we made it to York two hours later and had our friend Dave waiting there to pick us up!

We spent three weeks in York staying in one of the flats at the Bible College. We seriously had the best three weeks we have had in a long time! Completely surrounded with people and fellowship, we spent much of our time with old friends and meeting new ones. We were staying in a one bedroom flat with just one bathroom, and yet more content than we had been in our home in North Carolina. The peace we felt being back there, confirmed that it had been God's will when He spoke to us and told us to "Go forward" even though our house had not sold and it seemed so irresponsible. We knew that God was calling us to step out of the boat together and walk on the water. So we did. And as soon as we did this, peace that passes all understanding came upon us.

For me personally, it felt as though our three weeks there were the first time I had experienced being home since I left in 2010. When I stayed there in my home town last year, after I had been in Uganda for almost three months, I was so traumatised by that experience that my time at home seems a blur now. There are many things that I do not remember from my three weeks there, so returning this time with my mind and body completely healed, felt like a new experience. It is very strange when you have been away from your homeland for so long. You realise how much you have forgotten, but once there, you realise how much you love where you are from and the deep impression it has had upon your life. My trips to the grocery store were so exciting because the food truly is so good and there is much variety. I tasted a 'Discovery' apple for the first time in five years and must have eaten two a day at least during the three weeks. I could go on and on about how good the food is there which I have missed but seriously the high light was being with friends again whom we have not seen for so long. It was wonderful for our three oldest children to spend time with their friends, sleepovers, swimming in the river, walks to the parks to feed the ducks and play football, walks into town, meals with friends and Isaac had the chance to work in the church coffee shop and spend time with students and interns at the Bible College. I believe that we were all very sad when it came time to leave for Israel. But we are so thankful for such a refreshing time and we really felt so loved on by our friends there.

Isaac working at the 'Gatehouse' coffee shop in York. 

Eliana and Elijah playing checkers at the coffee shop. (See the old stone walls of the original gatehouse)?

Feeding the ducks at the river. Reminds of when I was a little girl.

The famous 'Bettys Tea room'.

Jeff teaching at the church. It has been amazing to see how much the buildings have changed since we have been gone. The property was once used to park funeral cars and is now a place for the God's people to dwell with the living God!

We left for Israel on the 3rd September, just a four and half hour flight from London which is much less than the flight Jeff usually takes from the USA…. eleven hours! There was also the blessing of very little jet lag. A driver picked us up and drove us to the apartment where we will be staying for the next two months. It is a lovely place to stay here in Jerusalem and it will be nice to stay put for awhile. We also have a patio and garden outside with a fig tree and a lemon tree growing. On my second day here, I had managed to climb the wall and pick figs to make a caramelised fig and bread and butter pudding. I also managed to short circuit the apartment when I tried to turn the oven on! We eventually had someone out to fix it several days later, but fortunately we had been invited out with friends for dinner in the meantime. On the first night, some friends blessed us with dinner at Jeff's favourite restaurant, "Foccacia". I am not kidding when I say that the Foccacia was amazing. So was the pizza, the pasta, the salad and the coffee! Just about everything we tasted was good! We have tried falafel's and shwarmas and the pita bread here is unbelievably fresh! One thing I have noticed after leaving the USA is how quickly the food goes off in both the UK and Israel because it is so fresh. It certainly keeps you on toes making sure that you plan accordingly and only shop for small quantities rather than bulk like we did in the US. The food here in Israel is delicious and varied. Aroma is a great coffee shop and the coffee is so mild that even I can drink it without sugar!

Aroma coffee shop. Better coffee than Costa Coffee!

The fig and bread and butter pudding, (graciously baked by the neighbours)!

I am sure that over the course of the next two months, I will be writing about the food in detail because our family are 'foodies'. We visited the market which was bustling with people shopping for the Shabbat and bursting with dates, halva, spices, breads, fruits and nuts.

This one above is for my friend Debbie who was the first one to introduce us to halva. I plan to bring you some back, you will be not believe how good this tastes! 

Eliana and Caleb drinking a freshly squeezed pomegranate and orange juice!

Israeli's also have a sweet tooth…. this market stall was filled with gummy sweets!

It is truly a blessing to be here in the land where our Saviour was born. We have been here for a week now and already visited a few places of interest but we have so much more to see. We have not yet gone into the Old City which will be a highlight. We visited the Valley of Elah where David fought Goliath. Jeff drove us up the mountain where the Philistines were camped across from Israel and we looked down over the valley. What a beautiful sight it was. Much of the schooling our children will get in the next two months will be history lessons while on location. I did not want the children to do as much 'classroom' school while we are here. So we have opted for the basics; maths, writing, science, bible studies, the history and geography of Israel and Isaac is doing an online class, teaching him how to debate and argue from a christian perspective. We are so excited for the children to grasp the significance of being here and the privilege that it is and we do not want to spend all day inside so we are only doing school for half of the day. The rest of the time is spent touring and meeting with the people whom Jeff has been privileged to get to know.

The Valley of Elah where David fought Goliath.

The mountain where the Philistines camped.

Olives growing. 

We also visited the Mount of Olives and looked down at the East Gate where Jesus will one day return and step foot upon, causing an earthquake. We could see where the temple had been which is now the mosque. The picture at the top of this blog was taken while we were there. Then we did the tourist thing and had camel rides while looking down over the city. What an experience that was for everyone except Elijah who screamed when the camel came close to him! I made the mistake of wearing a  skirt and completely forgot until it was my turn to climb onto the camel! I spent the entire camel ride worrying how I was ever going to get down. I never knew how high a camel is and the thought of riding through the desert on one, is unimaginable.

Tombstones.

Just in case are any of you are wondering, it is very safe here with no signs of war where we are staying. People continue with their lives like normal and we all feel very safe here, much more so than certain parts in the west! Our children are doing well. Elijah has been out of sorts ever since we left North Carolina but after a few weeks in each new destination, he does adjust, only to find that he is moved again and has to reacclimate all over again. He has been very shy around new people until he feels comfortable. The others are thriving on socially being with people once again and they are very excited to see what each day holds. Jeff has taken the three oldest out this afternoon while I remain home and recover from a stomach virus. I have only been here a week and already have been throwing up but I do suspect that I have a poor constitution. Everyone else is okay thankfully.

I have many pictures already but here are just a few of the highlight so far. We appreciate your prayers during this time for our family for good health and safety. We also pray that our family will be such a blessing to the people here and that we will leave knowing Jesus much better than when we arrived.