Blessings Abound

Wednesday was a day of personal blessing; we want to tell you that the L-rd has moved in such a wonderful way to encourage us and keep us in Jerusalem! A recap:

-I visited the midwife and the baby is growing well, she is head down (which is the right position), my blood pressure is normal and I checked out pretty healthy. We're awaiting results about a possible infection, so we're asking for prayer that I am infection-free, meaning no UTI's or GBS.

Some friends gave us a nice car seat to use.
Cassidy's baby Lulu loves it.

-Tom negotiated a new lease for the apartment we're currently in. Our lease is up at the end of February (the same time the baby is supposed to arrive!) so it was crucial that we get something resolved. Now that we know we will be in this apartment for the arrival of the baby we can set up the baby's room and put our minds at ease that we don't have to go apartment hunting and furniture shopping.

-We also received news that the special gift for our housing was renewed, so we are able to stay here for a year. Since this was a special one-time gift last year which covered our rent expense we were not counting on this BUT are extremely thankful for it!

-We got our totals for the year-end and are blessed by the people who gave one-time gifts, renewed their monthly pledges and those who increased their monthly donations. We added some new monthly donors and are seeing the number we need to make our budget shrink almost on a daily basis.

Just today, Sunday, we had our appointment for our visa renewal and praise the L-rd, we got it! Even though it should be a given that we would get another visa, nothing is certain, especially in this country, and it can be a very uncomfortable and long process depending on who is in charge of your renewal. We are very thankful that the appointment only took 15 minutes and we now have the paperwork to stay in Israel for another year.

Thank you for your prayers and care! We look forward to sharing more stories with you throughout the year. Here we go!

Bo!

The name of this week's portion is Bo, בוא, meaning enter or go, which reflects what the L-rd says to Moshe in the first verse: Go to Pharaoh. As parents living in Israel we learned this important word early on, even though we used it incorrectly.

In modern Hebrew the word bo (pronounced like bow & arrow) means come, and you use it to call your son or a group of children or people. But when addressing your daughter you use the feminine form, boy, בואי (as if that's not confusing enough, the Hebrew word for she is he, היא). For the first month or so we yelled, "BO!" to Cassidy to get her to hurry up, only to discover that we were using the masculine form -- probably pretty confusing to Hebrew speakers as they looked at our long-haired, pink-skirted daughter. With the help of Cassidy's teacher we realized בואי was the appropriate term, and we now use it quite often, and correctly.

So, Bo, chaverim (friends) let's study the portion this week...

I will cause a hailstorm

Never One to disappoint, this week the L-rd lined up the weather in Jerusalem to reflect His power as told of in the weekly portion. Exodus 9:18-19 says: tomorrow, about this time, I will cause a hailstorm so heavy that Egypt has had nothing like it from the day it was founded until now. Therefore, send and hurry to bring indoors all your livestock and everything else you have in the field. For hail will fall on every human being and animal left in the field that hasn't be brought home, and they will die.

You think I'm kidding...

Curious about the portion? Here's a post briefly explaining what it is. You can always check our left side-bar to find out what the reading is for each week. Hope it blesses you!

And You Thought Genealogy Was Boring

Here is good example of sod (סוד) Hebraic Biblical interpretation. This understanding is the hidden, secret, or mystical meaning of a text. Genesis 5 reveals that G-d’s plan of redemption was written on the very names of men. If Adam and his lineal descendants are lined up one right after the other, the Gospel message is revealed to us when their names are translated from Hebrew to English. All of these name meanings point to the One name, Yeshua, which means salvation.

Adam = Man

Seth = Appointed

Enosh = Mortal

Kenan = Sorrow

Mahalalel = The blessed God

Yared = Shall come down

Enoch = Teaching

Methusaleh = His death shall bring

Lamech = The despairing

Noah = Comfort

When you put this together you have a sentence that reads, ‘Man appointed mortal sorrow the blessed God shall come down teaching; His death shall bring the despairing comfort.’

[96, A Case for God by Jim Jacob]