Passover Sunday, April 20th, 2008 - Making Friends!

Okay, so much for blogging everyday, the last four days have flown and even now it's early Monday morning at 12:30 am, but I want to share the past few days, they've been pretty amazing! Let me explain the pics first. . . this was Saturday night at a Seder meal, the feast before Passover, which was my first ever, and very interesting. This guy, Benjamin led it and he was kind enough to do it in Hebrew and English, and explain to me what everything symbolized.


This is the family that I'm staying with. The owner is the older guy, Dr. Uriel Adiv, and to his left is his adopted son, Assaf. The others are from Switzerland, Yosef, Ruth, and Nino. I spent a couple days with them as they showed me around Jerusalem. Ruth is an Iraqi Jewish lady and I will forever remember her for constantly telling me what to do and not to do, and for getting my attention my yelling repeatedly "Hallo, Hallo!!" meaning hello. But she describes herself like a cactus, prickly on the outside but sweet on the inside. It describes her perfectly! Yosef just turned 13, this was his birthday breakfast, and on Tuesday I will go to his Bar Mitzvah.
This is Norma and Brian, who I met today at Christ Church in the Old City. An amazing Anglican church and the very first Protestant church in the Middle East dating back to 1840's. They are from England, and Brian is a retired Anglican church minister. They're here for a month volunteering as guides to one of the tourist areas.
And ironically, wouldn't you know I'd meet some Coloradoans from Pueblo.
This is the rector of the Christ Church,Rev. David Pileggi. He gave a wonderful sermon on the Passover this morning. Check out the church's website at http://www.cmj-israel.org/

So, like I mentioned Thursday and Friday were spent with Adania and Yosef touring the marketplace and an ultra-orthodox section of Jerusalem. Friday I helped Adania prepare for Yosef's Bar Mitzvah as we shopped endlessly for kosher meat and good wine.

Saturday I toured the Old City alone and took lots of pics of everything like the Western Wall, David's tower, Jaffa Entrance, the Sepulchre, etc, etc, you can check out all the pics on the slideshow, it's also on Flickr.com if you double click the slideshow. And later that night I went to the Seder meal with Uriel and his son Assaf.

Today was a very special day for me. I got up and went to Christ church, and met some great people, and this evening I went to a conference that was being held at one of the oldest hotels in the Old City called the New Imperial Hotel where dignitaries and many religious leaders for centuries have stayed. And it was truly one of the most powerful messages I have ever heard that was given by an author named Lance Lambert his website is at http://www.lancelambert.org/ Just a powerful, Spirit filled message again about Passover, but a more in depth look at Jesus as the Lamb of God that was sacrificed. I just wept as I felt the Spirit. And my gratitude for being here in Israel was magnified by the preaching of the Word. I have felt and still feel God's hand with me on this trip. It feels much bigger than just an adventure and I can't wait to see what's next.....