and so it goes…
shalom :)
yes, i’m still here. i just can’t leave…i love it. it’s been a huge semester- God has brought me through a lot of desert spiritually and back again to flowering green. i started learning hebrew, and it’s been tons of fun seeing the language whose sound intoxicated me transform into words with meaning. i love being able to communicate with people in three different ways, now. even though one of those languages may just be communication of “where do you live? what do you study?” and other simple things like that… i’m getting there :)
all semester i’ve been dreading the time when i would have to choose whether to come back to texas or not… i miss ya’ll, but i am also drawn to israel. i was just reading Gideon’s story; he asked God for confirmation quite a few times before he was sure that God really was asking him to do “all that”. i have been a little like Gideon in my wondering if i’m hearing and whether i’m hearing correctly from God, mostly about what i’m supposed to “do” or where i’m supposed to “be” (this one hits me whenever i get back on a plane, and i want to be in different places all at once). He’s been showing me again that He doesn’t want sacrifice of doing certain things, or being in a specific place for Him (like in Israel, where believers are few); just obedience, just my heart. so december finally came and, to make light my agonizing indecision, i’ll just say God has been confirming that i should stay here for a while longer.
israel has been my dream for a long time. i’m not sure if everyone who comes to israel catches the “israel bug”, but hey, come visit me here, and maybe you’ll catch it too.
no, it’s more than a bug; God has definitely given me an affinity for this place, for some purpose that i’m not clear about. i’ve been finding that Israel is not just a historical land… God’s heart really starts here, and reaches out to the ends of the earth, if that’s possible to say. His giving us-Gentiles salvation does not mean that He is finished with Israel. i don’t know what He’ll let me do with or in Israel in the future…but for right now, i’m enjoying :)
i have not been very good at communicating, i think, my decision processes with some of ya’ll this semester. i realize now that input and your prayers are very important, especially even when i’m far away. it was my first time to have friends that are like family to leave behind in the states… so i’m just learning how to keep my two different “worlds” connected.
so, after setting out lots of Gideon-fleeces, i’m staying… i made that decision without knowing what i would do this next semester! it’s been a good time with my family, but i’m raedy to get moving again, a little more “focus out” instead of down time… and now that i have decided to stay, options have opened up.
number one: in under a month (jan 10-20), there will be a conference inbangkok, thailand— a Pioneers’ Team Leader Training Conference for ‘workers in harvest’ from all over Asia. my cousin amy (also an aggie, whoop!) is involved in organizing the conference; she told me a few weeks ago that the childcare team for 100+ kids fell through at the last minute. so she has been in charge of finding people *quick* who can come and “babysit” for a week. but “babysit” is not the right word. “conferences” are my favorite kid-hood memories. families always went together; we did worship and funny skits with the adults, but, as soon as the meetings and lectures started, us kids got to go. we had some teaching, and then we would play hours and hours of capture the flag and snowball fights with all our english-speaking, friends who were kids like us from all over russia. a lot of my most vivid memories are from that one-week a year conference. for ya’ll who are involved in conference ministry, you know how refreshing re-focusing and re-grouping can be… but it also means a lot to the kids of those workers of the Harvest— whether it’s time to for the younger kids to have fun, or for the older ones to lament about how bad it stinks being drug around the world as a misso kid… the time is necessary and good.
and i have the opportunity to go hang out with these kids, who are growing up just like i grew up. i’ve got a few years on them, plus hard and good stories to tell them about moving back to the States.
if there is anything i have learned from growing up as i did, it is that God provides if this is what He wants. i have not felt like God’s “style” for my life involves raising money for these kinds of things…and He has proceded to drop the dollars i needed for the trip into my lap. it’s all paid for, and i’m going. i am pretty sure i’m on track for where God is wanting me to go :) isn’t it cool that God is sending His workers from Israel *out to the world, now? (well, me from texas via russia via israel…but not just me— many churches here are sending people, who have recently immigrated here, back out!)
ok, and number two: to ask you to pray…. after traveling so much, staying in so many hostels, one of my dreams has been to be one of those “hippies” that works at a hostel in some exotic place. dayspring got to do it in amsterdam, my favorite european city, but i don’t like the cold. God is giving me just the right place: i get to volunteer for three months or so, starting end of january, in a hostel run by believers down in eilat! (go look http://www.thirdtemple.com/images/israel-map/israel.jpg) it is the city at the very southern tip of israel, sitting on top of the red sea’s finger. there are a lot of sudanese refugees there right now, and the hostel is caring for many of them, so i will probably be doing stuff with sudanese kids, too :) check out what i’m talking about… so you can see where i’ll be :) shelterhostel.com
geez i miss you guys a lot. america, texas, college station, a&m? pshhh. it’s not the place. i miss ya’ll. thanks for praying.
merinda
“מרנדה” in hebrew :) those letters make absolutely no sense, huh
