Jon the Baptist.

It has been an interesting week here in Jerusalem.  The whole city is in crazy people mode.  There is hundreds and hundreds of people walking around looking at stuff.  It is passover week, plus the week of Jesus death, plus the week of the Samaritan sacrifice.  Having Easter here has brought to life much of its importance.  It seems that the North American practice of hiding chocolates around the house for their kids to find, just doesn’t regester to people over here.  At times I can see why many consider the North American church as sleeping…  Just as we North Americans would look kinda funny upon those that walk around with insence and worship to pictures of marry, they look funny upon our Christmas trees and chocolate hunts.  They had a march of like 12,000 christians of all the world coming down the mount of olives.  Many carried palm branches, others came down with music, others came down with whole marching bands.  It is a skinny road so it takes hours for this march.  The whole eastern side of the city shuts down for it.  Hearing all the different languages singing as they came down made the idea of Jesus ruling the nations much more impactful in my mind.  I heard mandrin singing, arabic singing, english singing, hebrew singing, you name it ever nation under God was represented…  It was an awesome experience.

Mt of Olives decent

This week has been absolutly busy for not just the city but myself as well.  Not so much with school work, but just with event after event.  We went to the march, went of a 4 hour hike, then to a sheep sacrifice, set-up for a special old cultural dinner where we laid around a table and ate what people would have ate in the Bible times, and then it was today…  The sheep sacrifice was interesting, it is that samaritan group that I mentiond before that only believe in the first 5 books of the Old Testament.  It was a bit disturbing, but definetly and experience that I will never forget and will forever change my view of different ways of life…

Roasting Sheep Skin (It didn't smell good...)

Personally I have been doing really well.  Perhaps this trip is not at all like my Germany trip in the sense of how I am learning and able to help other, but God is working in his suddleties…  I am being challenged in whole new ways.  This week was a challenge of taking the cross and Jesus life more seriously.  It came to my mind that one of the greatest promises I continually remind myself is that I am eventually going to make it to heaven.  In light of looking to heaven I am able to be joyous, loving, and not so worried about how I am percieved or how I do.  I will eventually get old and live my life as an old person…  I will eventually be like this lady I saw in the back of a church.  It seemed as though she was an amazing artist because from a distance she was drawing to fast while looking at a garden sceen.  She had loads of makeup on and had not a care for this random 21 year old coming up behind her.  Little did I realize that her drawing was simply scribbles that had been drawn really fast.  It almost looked like a tree that a 3 year old could draw…  Eventually I will be there.  Eventually I will be able to see God in the peace that heaven is coming up soon…  This is how I look at my end, and still I am so disobedient to live how God wishes…  I looked to Jesus, and what did he see…  What has his promise?  He had the cross to look forward to.  In light of all those he was loving around him and all those that he helped, he knew he would have to eventually die in the most horrible way known to man.  He knew from the start that his life was a living sacrifice upon a cross.  He was to be like those sheep I saw get massacred and put onto stakes…  Now if that was my promise… would I even still be obedient at all?  I would run away…  Just as all his disciples did…  Yet this is was I deserve.  I deserve the worst thing that man has to offer, in fact I deserve the worst thing God has to offer…  I deserve to take up my cross and die…  Yet we are called to something greater… we get to now follow Jesus.  That comment in the Bible where Paul says, “take up your cross and follow Jesus” has a much deeper meaning to me now.  I have the promise of going to heaven and that is what keeps me going…  Jesus had a promise of the cross…  how did he keep going?  Going through those temptation of Satan, Jesus knew he would have to be on the cross;  Going through his childhood, Jesus knew he would have to be on the cross;  Going through the constant tiring 3 years of non-stop ministry, he knew he would have to be on the cross.  Yet he was always obedient.  Never once did he fade from the objective God had given him.  Man…  I am not worthy.  It is even too much of an honor to be able to carry my cross with Jesus.  My life is to be be in light of that as well.  It is to realize that in the end it is but a sacrifice.  It is God’s for the sake of his doing on earth.  I’ll get my time in eternity… but until then God should have the right to use my life in anyway he pleases.  I did in fact commit my life to him in baptism.  It’s not mine anymore.  Weird that that actually is a source of complete joy.  That takes every worry and leave it with God.  If my life truly is his, then what do I have to worry about besides trying to take it back?

I also went to Elot

I forgot to mention but I went for three days to a place with clearn blue water!  It was awesome…  We did snorkling and all sorts of things.  It was a trip not with the school, but about 12 of us went down for three days and had an awesome hot time.  It was really hot.  I saw some really colourful fish.

Holding up a tower in Elat