Intro to Israel

Hello friends and family, 2/19/10

Arriving in Tel Aviv at 5:25am made for an interesting first day! My cousin Roni Hendren picked me up at the airport and took me back to the families house in Kfar Yona. I had great breakfast with them and took a 2 hr nap which was amazing!! When my uncle woke me up, i felt like a train hit me, but my uncle drove me back to the airport to meet the students, i was wide awake and happy to see my brothers and sisters in Christ! We drove back to the Hotel in Jerusalem and made ourselves at home. This Hotel is a little ancient, but God is teaching us to be content with little, because we are pilgrims in this life awaiting our true home with the Lord. A quote concerning the hotel from the campus leader Ernest: "I think Nehemiah did the electrical work here." When flip the switch to turn on the lights, you have to pray that the lights actually come on cause you never know if it'll work or not. As everyone was going to bed, me and a few guys decided to walk around at night because we can! As we were cruzing these ancient streets that are barely wide enough for cars to drive down, we found a sign that lead us to the "wailing wall." This is a VERY HOLY SITE for Jews, PLUS it was the Sabbath which makes it EXTRA HOLY for the Jews. So, being the dumb tourists that we are, we decided to roll down the wall and check out the scene. When we got there, you had to go through security just as you would see it in the airport. There were guys standing there with big guns! That was pretty cool! :) What's funny is that I feel super safe here in Jerusalem. Don't listen to the news and be deceived. Yes you'll see regular lookin citizens with AK47 and M16's but that's what actually makes it feel safe. No one would pull anything stupid here because 90 people would put bullets into there faces! I know that sounds really extreme, but it is sort of true. It's now my bed time, so i better hit the hay.

In the Joy of the Lord,

Mike D- Nehemiah 8:10