Fun in the Mud

The only drawback to the agriturismo in which we stayed was not the warm sun or the surrounding vineyards that cut the hillsides into neat rows but was the absence of a washer and dryer. With eight people, there is bound to be laundry, and no doubt, there will be more than less.

The first full day here we spent relaxing. Part of the relaxing was taking the kids exploring. They started out with me as their fearless leader. We wandered over vale and hill, etc until we came to a beautiful, little stream. Since I had the sandals, I carried most of the kids across. It was during this task that I discovered the deep, thick mud covering the bottom of the stream and the surrounding banks. “Warning! Turn back now in order to avoid a muddy disaster!” this should have warned me, but I, their fearless leader, plunged ahead enjoying their fun and wanting them to continue in it. There is no need to account the details of what happened. I’m sure that you can fill them in with no help from me. Needless to say, these pictures tell it all (and at this point, Sara's clothes are still clean). Feet, hands, clothes – all were covered in mud. But along with the mud came bright smiles and happy laughter. Except for the one time Nathan’s face filled with panic. His Croc stuck in the mud, and he was sure he would lose it along with his foot. He panicked, "Ahhh! I stuck!" After his rescue, he pointed to the mud squishing between his toes and said, "It's dirty. I need a bath." No joke! It is during all this that I regretted being an adult, for along with the fun came the plague of responsibility – knowing that there must be a clean up. So - in the absence of a washing machine - bathtub and handscrubbing, here we come!

Under the Tuscan Sun

Looking from our stone cottage porch over the Tuscan hillside and vineyards, I can’t imagine a more beautiful place to be. After spending four days in downtown Rome, the peaceful, breathtaking countryside is a welcome change. Rome was amazing. Immense, ancient, and European, Rome was everything but disappointing. Tuscany, though… Tuscany is everything I imagined it would be and more. Rome was touring; Tuscany is vacation.

Roman Holiday

Welcome to Rome – the city of the small cars, impressive buildings, and church cluttered piazzas(the pictures are just a few examples of each one of those). The weather is perfect. It is sunny and warm, but not too hot, with a token thunder storm late in the afternoon. Many kilometers have been tracked by Vans, tennies, and Crocs, large and small alike. We have marched, or sometimes plodded, from the Colosseum to the Pantheon to the Vatican, etc. Each has been impressive and overwhelming in its own right. Sometimes the impressiveness comes from monumental size or sometimes from the age or sometimes from the artist/sculptor who created it who you’ve read about every year in school or sometimes simply from its beauty. If you came to Rome just to see the churches, you would be busy for weeks. Those, along with all the other must-sees, have given us a pile as high as the Vatican dome to sort through and figure out which ones to put on a realistic list of how many we can see in the few days that we have. So far we’ve managed three or four a day with the rewarding gelato waiting for us to energize us for the walk home. (Sorry again about the sideways picture - computer wasn't working for me again!)

Easter Weekend

For the first time, my Easter was spent somewhere other than at church celebrating Christ's resurrection with other believers. I missed it. My weekend was a wonderful camping and kayaking trip in the Galilee with the college/career age group from our church as well as a few others. It was interesting how a Western tradition, even though it is a church holiday, is not observed by believers all over the world. The majority of the group were Russians who's Communistic histories kind of dampened any Christian beliefs let alone Christian celebrations. The few Israelis there and the others at our church are more anti-traditionalists and so have not adopted a lot of Western traditional holidays. This was one holiday that I missed a lot more than I thought I would. In its absence, I had a chance to think about how important of a Christian celebration it really is. Even more so than Christmas, Easter celebrates our hope that we have as believers. Our faith rests in the fact that Jesus, as the sinless Son of God and yet fully man, died as our substitute to pay the penalty for our sins against God and to restore our relationship with Him. His victory over death, the curse of sin, proves that his payment was accepted and effective. If it were not true, as the Apostle Paul says, we would be of all men most miserable. But it is true! What better reason do we have to celebrate!

We did have a wonderful time of fellowship together. Andre brought us devotionals on the importance of unity, and we built a campfire and sang on the Western shore of the Galilean Sea. We barbecued, kayaked on the Jordan river with its one rapid, and played frisbee. Because the majority of the people were Russian, the majority of the language that was spoken was Russian. Unfortunately, I didn't get a lot of opportunity to practice my listening skills, but at least the guilt of not being able to understand when I was listening was lifted!

The activities were my favorite part. Putting up tents, kayaking, and playing frisbee offered many opportunities to be involved and to interact without needing a lot of words. These are such wonderful people! I look forward to the day when interacting with them at a group, or even an individual level, is not such a challenge. One more thing that makes you long for heaven!

The Winsted's Visit

This February, Ruth Winsted was able to visit us from Jordan for a few days and see some of the sights in Israel. At that time, sharing a room with a fun-loving person my age who has many similar interests resulted in little sleep. This time was no different. An added blessing of the shared fellowship was that she didn't come alone - her parents came with her. Brad and Fawn Winsted are long time friends of the Dukes. They did Darren and Maggie's premarital counseling and have been an example of a godly marriage and family. They were also military attaches, stationed in Tunisia. Now they travel widely, promoting their Bible teaching curriculum and teaching marriage seminars in various churches and conferences.

Although our time together was short, we packed as much sight seeing and visiting with church friends into them as we could. Most of these pictures are from the Galilee where we visited Capurnaum, Megiddo, Banyas, and drove around the mountain villages. It was a little chilly and only threatened, or actually did, rain a couple of times. For more pictures, and also a video clip of the Muslim call to prayer in Jerusalem, click on the More Pictures link on the left of this page, and you'll find the pictures in the album labeled "The Winsted's Visit."

Handel's Messiah

Although known for their musical talent (especially in stringed instruments), Handel's Messiah is one of the renowned scores that would not make it into an Israeli musician's top ten favorites. Quoting scripture verses from the Old Testament and the New, Handel weaves the most beautiful combination of words and music to tell of the prophesied messiah, a Messiah that, as a whole, the Jews have rejected.

Tonight, I went to see a performance of Handel's Messiah translated into Hebrew. A volunteer choir; modest, retired orchestra; and three months of hard work and practice produced a version of the Messiah that I will never forget. To hear believing Jews sing about their promised Messiah in their own language was a first time event, very moving to many of the Israelis present. The auditorium was packed with about 600 people, with the same amount of tickets sold for tomorrow night's performance. Some in the audience may never have come to listen to a concert of classical music, but they came to support those involved and enjoyed the majesty of the music and the message. The orchestra and choir were complete with an enthusiastic conductor whose glasses slipped off his nose to his chin whenever he vehemently thrust his arms or bobbed his head. The conductor, I heard, was the same man who translated the words and organized the choir. His musical contacts helped him form an orchestra, some of whom were not believers but agreed to help as a favor for a friend.

The Hallelujah chorus was the part that I recognized the most. Over half the words remained the same, hallelujah being used in both the English and Hebrew version! There were enough Americans/foreigners to carry the crowd in the tradition of rising for the chorus. Some of the Israelis that we talked to after the concert didn't know why we stood but were interested to find out the source of the tradition.

The concert was very well done, especially for an amateur choir and orchestra. It will be interesting to see how this version of the gospel will be used and what evangelical inroads it can make. I'm sorry that I forgot to take my camera and so have no pictures. :-(