04/13/02 Jerusalem, Israel
Greetings to all that take the time to read this!
I talked to my mom on the phone tonight, and was expressing that I was
thinking to stop these updates. It seems that she appreciates them,
and emails them to others, so by the grace of God, I will try to be
faithful to keep them coming!
We moved yesterday from Tel Aviv (a very large city- which Steve called
"San Francisco with a language barrier") to within the walls of the Old
City, Jerusalem. We are staying in the Arab quarter, but are a few
minutes walk from the Western (wailing) wall, the "Church of the Holy
sepulcher", and have a very clear view of the Dome of the Rock from our
rooftop dormitory window. A few hours or so after arriving, we were at a
store where we saw news showing police and people running, etc. We
asked the man what happened, and he mentioned something about a bomb. I
asked him when it happened, and he said "now." It turns out that there
was a bomb in Jerusalem, in the new city, that they are reporting
killed 6 people. A man at the hostel that night talked to us about it- it
turns out that he was on his way to that market, and was a short ways
off when it happened. He said that being there in person is much
different than when you see it on the news. His view was that it is much
scarier on the news than in person- that the bombings are very contained.
One must realize that there are millions of people here that live from
day to day without such incident, and as I have held to throughout our
decision to come here- "Safety is of the Lord" (from Proverbs)
Anyway, we are now living at the "Al-Arab" youth hostel, which charges
90 shekels a week (under $20) We have realized, however, that just
having a nice living situation and food abroad does not necessarily make
you a missionary by any means. So, we would like to request specific
prayer in this- that our purpose in coming might be made clear. There is
such a variety of people here, from ultra-orthodox Jews, to Muslims, to
secular Jews and Arabs. So, if you who feel led could pray for us-
that we might have a labour of love to do here, we would greatly
appreciate it!
I thought to inform you about our brother Paul as well. He started the
journey with us, and felt like he should stay in Romania when Steven
and I came to Israel. It seems that he has been moved by the people
there, and wants to spend more time ministering there in the future. For
now it seems that he might go to visit a Romanian brother in Cairo,
Egypt, and from there he might have a chance to visit us- as there is a bus
that connects Israel with Cairo. We will see what happens.