Pictures from Samaria and Shevet Achim

The internet is up and running just enough that I could upload one picture at a time. It was a process but I wanted to share them with you.

This was the man who led us around the Zionist Colony. He was very passionate about everything he spoke on. He knew the land like the back of his hand, and the best part was that he grew up in New Jersey.

This was the Samaritan Priest that spoke to the group about who the Samaritans are today and what they believe. He was such a nice man, I pray that his eyes will be opened to the truth.

After the Samaritians slaughter the sheep or lamb on passover the remains goes into these covered holes in the ground and are burned.

This is the area where the Samaritan Priest slaughters each sheep/lamb. If you look closely at the back of the picture you can see that there are bleachers. Many people flock here during the passover season to watch this slaughtering take place.

This is when we were acting out the woman at the well. "Jesus", who is my good friend Matt was telling the Samaritan woman, me, that I had five men in my life...and I was ashamed. My friend Kaytlin is the well. We laughed a lot while taking these photos.

This is Dr. Paul Wright who is an incredible man. He and his wife run the school and he is also the physical settings insturctor. He is a brilliant man. The other lady in the picture is my good friend Leah.

Shevet Achim

This is Sara, from Shevet Achim. She is eight years old and is going in to Tel-Aviv today to have her heart surgery. She was a joy to be with. She was very shy, but warmed up quickly with lots of hugs, smiles, and laughs.

This is Hevi, she was twelve years old. She is still waiting for a date for her surgery. She definately acted like a twelve year old. At one point she was trying to take a picture of me and my friend Laura. We weren't positioned the way she wanted us to be so she came up and just moved our faces to the places she wanted them. When she wanted us to smile...she said, "Smile. STOP!" It took us a while to figure out what it meant, but she really meant for us to smile an stay still. She was sweet.

The men in this picture are Matt (on the left) and Peter (on the right). Kale (Kay-lee) is on Matt's shoulders. She was a ball of fire. We were playing hand games and she kept pulling tricks to try to tickle us and hit us in the face. We had so much fun! She goes in for her surgery on Tuesday. The little boy on Peter's shoulders is Meme. He is actually the son of a man who is getting ready to have surgery. It was so rewarding to be with these children and make and impact on thier lives.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year! This last week was Rosh Shanna. This is the Jewish New Year. Tuesday morning myself and a few of my friends went to a Messianic Synagogue. We arrived around 9am and left around 12:30 and the service was still going on. We probably would have stayed, but the school was not close for the holiday so many of us still had classes. It was a neat experience. The entire service was in Hebrew. There was a translator, but he didn’t do a very good job. He was having a hard time following along. But with the little bit of Hebrew that I have in my vocabulary and the little bit of synagogue I have in my past I was able to follow along and understand quite a bit. My favorite part was when the Torah scrolls were removed from the ark. There is such a great respect for the word of God. I felt very convicted about the way I treat my Bible. I often just toss it around like any other book, but it is the inspired word of God!
Usually we have Vespers on Friday night, but this weekend many people were going away, so it was held on Thursday night instead. (It is the first weekend where we haven’t had a field study). Alex Pettett came and spoke about his ministry here in Jerusalem. He is the head coordinator of Shevet Achim. Shevet Achim literally means Uniting Brothers based out of Psalm 133. The ministry of Shevet Achim is to help non-Israeli children receive life-saving medical care from Israel. The ministry focuses on children with heart defects. They have all the children who are in need on their web site in hope that people will sponsor these children in some way to receive these needed surgeries. Then they make arrangements for one parent and the child to come to Israel and wait for their surgery. While in Israel, they stay in the Sevet Achim home in Jerusalem, and the staff takes care of them and brings them back and forth from doctor appointments. I was so moved by this ministry. Not only are they saving physical lives, but they are living the gospel out in the open. They do not push Jesus down anyone’s throat, but the live a life of total love to these people. The ministry has seen several parents and children come into a relationship with Jesus Christ.
The next day I had the opportunity to go and visit the Shevet Achim home and play with the children. You would never know that there was anything wrong with these children. They laughed and played just as much as any other children I have been with. They loved to be loved on. It was a special treat to be a part of their lives in a little way. There was a language barrier. Three of the children spoke very little English and the other little girl spoke no English, but that didn’t stop the hugs or the laughs. While we were all playing together the parents ended up coming in and taking pictures. I know that we impacted not only the children but also the parents by simply showing love to these children. A visit with children was just what I needed to pick up my spirits. I am hoping to spend a few afternoons a week with the children.
To all the children and teens at Free Christian Church I miss you all soooo much! I hope that you are having a great new school year and that you are seeing Jesus in your life. I love you!
If you would like to check out the ministry of Shevet Achim the web address is: www.shevet.org
The internet is not working well today. I will post pictures of the children when the internet will allow me to.

Samaria Trip!

Last weekend we traveled to the land of Samaria. For the first half of the day we went to a Zionist colony and were led around by one of its settlers. It was very interesting to hear many of the struggles that they are going through in regards to being a Jewish settlement. The colony is about 28 years old and there are 300 families that live there and they have come from all over the world. They are very orthodox Jews. Within the community there are two elementary schools, high school, and a seminary, medical facilities, post-office, factories and stores for shopping. They refuse to gate in the community because they believe that it would indicate that the land is their and the land on the other side of the gate is not, when in reality they believe all the land is theirs and they are just waiting to get it back.
After hearing from this man, we went to the town of Samaria and actually spoke to a current day Samaritan Priest who gave us background on who the Samaritans are and what they believe. In my opinion they have some very interesting and very off base beliefs. They only believe that the first five books of the Bible are inspired and the rest are not even holy writings. They will have nothing to do with the rest of our Bible. There are only two groups of Samaritans, one group in Samaria and the other in Tel-Aviv. They hold to all the Old Testament laws and many of the land markers are different. They believe that there were only two mountains where God did any of His works, Shechem and Geriziem. All the mountains in our Bibles have been changed to one of these two. They are very conservative, so much so that they still intermarry. As we were walking through the town and you could tell that some of these children did not quite look ok. There five tenants or beliefs are: 1. Only one God 2. Moses was holy and mighty 3. Everything centered around Mount Gerezim not Jerusalem 4. Only the five books of Moses 5. The messiah will come some day. They only recognize three holidays as well, Rosh Shanna, Yom Kippur, and Passover. Passover is a very big deal for them because they do still hold to the letter of the law in the book of Moses. Each family must have a sheep to slaughter as atonement for the sins of each member of the family. The Samaritans that live in Tel-Aviv must come to Samaria for the sacrifice. In the middle of the town there is a court yard which this all takes place. This portion of the trip really made me think about how privileged I am to be one of Jesus Christ’s children and to live free from the bondage of the law.
In this same place we saw the location of the well where Jesus went and ministered to the Samaritan woman and gave her living water. Then being silly my friends and I acted it out. I was the unclean woman…eeek. There was also a store that was called the Good Samaritan, of course named after the Bible story. It was a fun day.
Internet is really slow...I will post pictures when the internet will allow me to.