Gourmet in Safeway

Perched on bar stool chairs around a small, cocktail table, Maggie and I sampled the delicious beef, lamb's shoulder, stuffed chicken breast, and scalloped potatoes that the chef brought us. Also crowding our table were slices of cheese cakes and other cakes and samples of red wine. Beep, Beep, tchtchtchtch. The beep of the scanners and the clatter of the receipt printers disrupted our otherwise gourmet meal. What would have passed for the food in a fine restaurant was being served in the local Stop Market grocery store right across the flower display from the cash registers.

I think the whole presentation was for Passover, which the country is celebrating next week. The butcher who has very patiently taught Maggie the words for ground beef, drumstick, and chicken breasts had prepared the meat and wanted to be sure she would be at the store to sample it. Despite the rushing schedule, it was fun to sit and enjoy his cooking. Besides that, it was a great dinner substitute - even better than a lunch spent grazing through the Costco aisles' samples.

Our Foster Family

Meet the six additions to our family, a sweet mamma cat and five adorable kittens. They lived at Beka and Josh's ulpan, and Beka had come home many days in a row talking about a friendly, pregnant tabby cat who roamed the grounds. One Sunday, Beka came home with the mom and her five, day-old babies. They took up residence in the garage, and Beka made them a comfortable home and took care of them.

It was so much fun to watch them grow, to watch their eyes open, and to see them totter around on wobbly legs. Now, at almost 6 weeks, they are still small but are strong and playful. As hard as it will be to see them go, we are looking for homes for them. Anybody interested? The problem is that there are so many wild cats in Israel, and so many are having kittens right now, that people aren't jumping at the

opportunity to adopt a kitten into their home. And there's no Safeway or pet store to set up a table in front of and hand out the kittens to people. Someone is coming to look at the mamma cat today. She is the sweetest, most gentle cat - especially for being wild. The kitties are all still here and cute as can be. If anybody wants one... :-)

O Little Town of Bethlehem

In order to meet Nidab in Bethlehem, we had to go the border crossing that secured the Israeli/Palestinian border. The wall that closes the one off from the other is a sad necessity of peace. We didn't have any trouble getting through security; our trouble came in trying to find him and figure out where he was is relation to where we were.

After tea at Nidab's olive wood and jewelry shop, we headed first to the Church of the Nativity. The entrance door is very small, but you can see the outline of a much larger arched doorway. Through the large doorway, people had ridden horses into the church with no respect or reverence for the place of Christ's birth and so church leaders had constricted the door down to the present "Door of Humility" where all must duck their heads and bow down in order to enter. Viewable only through open trap doors is the original Byzantine mosaic floor of the chapel. From the far end of the chapel, you precariously pick your way down to the Star of Bethlehem, the site of Christ's birth and then across the birth cave enclosure to the site of the manger.
Also located in the Church of the nativity is the cell of Jerome, where he is believed to have translated the Latin Vulgate, and also the Tomb of Jerome.

From the Church of the Nativity, we drove to the Herodian, a mountain top which Herod the Great dug out in order to build a palace fortress. The view from the top is breathtaking and on a clear day, you can see all the way to the Dead Sea - ours wasn't a clear day. Not much of the original structure is left intact, but enough remains to make it clear that this mountain palace was an impressive structure. Climbing down underneath the structure, we explored a network of tunnels, used by the Herod, the Zealots during the first and second revolt, and then by the Arabs as both a defense network and a series of water cisterns.

We had hoped to see the Shepherd's Field (where the angels announced to the shepherds that the Messiah had been born), but it was closed during lunch from noon to two. Nidab drove us by the fence along the side to look in and then around by the front gate. When we pulled up at the gate, a large tour bus was just unloading its passengers for their tour of the Shepherd's Field. The site was being kept open for them and so we nonchalantly joined their group going through the gate, meandered around inside to our hearts content, and again joined their group as they headed back out the gate. Spring decorated the park with almond blossoms, flowers, and lush grass that we could enjoy along with a couple natural caves, much like what shepherds would have used to shelter their sheep. The chapel is light and beautiful on the inside, decorated with paintings that tell the story of the shepherds receiving the message, finding Jesus, and leaving joyfully.

Getting out of Bethlehem proved much easier than getting in. Since we had been through the crossing multiple times trying to get in, we were very familiar with how to navigate our way around.

Vacation with the Girls

Sometimes I miss college. Not the stress and weariness that haunts every step from midterms to finals,making your prayer life a whole lot stronger, but the full time learning and the opportunity to experience life's struggles and triumphs with your friends. Last week, I enjoyed reliving that old college time with close friend from PCC and two other girls. Thankfully, we didn't have to share many struggles together - at least not anything serious. Our struggles amounted to nothing more than blowing Lorina's apartment fuse right before the sabbath so that we had to spend the weekend in the dark without heat, getting lost in the Bethlehem border crossing, getting lost first on foot and then in the car in Tsfat and tramping all through the city for hours and not finding our destination until right before sunset, getting lost in Haifa (do you notice the getting lost pattern?).

Before I go any further, let me introduce you to the members of our exploring contingent, fearlessly traipsing into any interesting area armed with a map and little clear sense of direction. Lorina is standing next to me. She is a Hebrew Uv. student living in Jerusalem and studying Islam and the Middle East. Anna, my four-year PCC friend, is between Lorina and her cousin Christa. Anna and Christa rented a car when they arrived at the airport and did quite a bit of touring while Lorina was occupied with her papers and I was occupied with teaching, kids, etc. Together, we met up north at Tiberius for a couple days. Anna, Christa, and I drove up earlier and met Lorina there Tues. evening. On our way to meet her at the bus station, guess what - yep, we got lost! I think I was navigating at that point. I guess I should leave that to Anna! We hadn't made any hotel plans for the night because all the hotels on line were expensive resorts. We headed north anyway, hoping to find something cheaper when we arrived. Stumbling across a simple but clean apartment-like hotel, we spent the night; ate a modest breakfast with our four cups, one plate, one knife, and no silverware; and headed out.

Rain was threatening the whole time, but thankfully, it did no more than just threaten. We explored Capernaum, the Mount of Beautitudes, Banyas (Caesaria Phillipi), some pretty waterfalls, Nimrod's castle, and Tsfat and Haifa. Climbing up through the clouds to Nimrod's castle - an old Arab/Crusader castle - we emerged to a sunny day above the clouds. It felt like we were in an airplane looking down on the clouds from some great height. Then there was this picture of our rental car with the castle as a backdrop. Doesn't it look like a shot from some car commercial? It was the first time I'd been to Nimrod's castle and it was really cool. You could hike all over the ruins. There were very few rooms that you could go into, but a lot of the towers and walls of the castle were still intact and safe. There was even a "secret tunnel" that ran under the castle, dripping water on your head and making you wish for a torch or something to help you see. The scenery in the north is beautiful!

Our trip to Bethlehem is worth its own entry. If I'm on top of things, which so far I'm not since this is about 2 1/2 weeks old, I'll get that entry out soon. For extra pictures, look under the link "More Pictures" then "Vacation with Anna."

Yad HaShmonah

Just recently I got to visit Yad HaShmonah, a Christian complex/kibbutz where my friend works. Not until I got there did I realize that it is the same location as the Ibex campus for the Master's College. I didn't see the dorms or the classroom part of the complex, but I did see a Master's student on her way to class. Maybe next semester Rod will be walking the same path to his classes or maybe even Mark and Ellen.

We had stopped by Yad HaShmonah on our way up to Jerusalem. Ruth, a daughter of close family friends of the Dukes, was visiting for the weekend, and we wanted to show her around. Unfortunately, the damp fog clung to the hillsides and filled the valleys, obscuring the breathtaking view that you could tell was beyond the steep drop-offs. Even though we didn't get to see the view, Shlomit took us around and showed us all the attractions, from the Bedouin tent to the old synogague site to the wine and olive presses. These pictures show a part of the olive presses where they began the process with the first press. The olives would fill the baskets which were stacked under the press. Once the baskets of olives were in place, huge stone weights were attached to the far end of the press. By pressing down on the lever, the stones were lifted off the ground bringing their crushing weight down on the baskets of olives. The oil then ran into the trough at it's base to be collected. Other presses and vats stood close by to produce and store the oil during every stage of the process. It was fun to press the levers and spin the corkscrew press to see how the old machinery worked.