A Prayer Request

Hello friends! We are getting so many things accomplished (health insurance, phones, bus/train cards) and now we're ready for the big one -- the apartment. We will be looking at a few tomorrow and want to make sure we end up where the L-rd wants us to be. We're praying for a nice, clean 3-bedroom apartment with a little patio or green space. In the physical these requests put the price above our budget, but we know He loves to give good gifts to His children. We need favor with man and wisdom from Him to find our new home. Please pray with us and know we will keep you posted!

Menorahs in the Portion Terumah

Some thoughts on the menorah described in this week's portion, with Tom.

The Golden Menorah, created by the Temple Institute.
Visit www.templeinstitute.org for more information

Portion Terumah

We watched this video as a family today. It addresses the portion for this week and we all found it very insightful. Hope you enjoy. Shabbat Shalom!

Watch Us

We just added a new page up at the top, titled "Watch Us". Currently we have our promotional video there, including the silly outtakes. Our good friends Kait and Luke put this together for us the week before we left and we're blessed to know talented people. We hope you enjoy hearing our heart and laughing with us.

Visa Miracles

UHL's administrative offices in Gilo

We visited with Tom's school director today and it was a helpful few hours. There are three very kind women who run the school office and we got some great news. Seeing as our visas are in Hebrew we didn't quite know what we got, though we knew the expiration date was about a year out. Come to find out not only are they for a year but we have multiple re-entry, which means, L-rd willing, we can come home, (or somewhere else) anytime we want and it won't be a hassle. The ladies were excited about this, since it seems visas are a very tricky thing over here. They said last week the state employees went on strike and anyone who had an appointment for a visa during that time lost their appointment and had to wait for a new one. So... Thank You! We know it's because the L-rd heard all of our prayers for this to come together. It may seem little, but having a year-long, multiple re-entry visa is a huge blessing and one we will not take for granted. In the few days we've been here we've heard some extreme stories regarding visas -- good and bad. We're thankful to be one of the good stories and sincerely appreciate all of your prayers.

Warm enough in the sun for ice cream

We then headed up north to meet with George, a gentleman who helps students at UHL get situated. While we didn't look at any apartments he did show us (me) around French Hill and I feel such a peace about the area. It might have been the warm sunshine or the ice cream, but the area is beautiful and pretty quiet compared with the rest of the city. We're praying for a nice 3-bedroom with a patio or garden (and good view) since there will be so many nice days. Apartments typically have limited heat so being able to sit in the sun makes a big difference on our cold bones. We believe He already has a place picked out for us, we pray we have the ears to hear His decision. Please pray with us!

The Old City

If you haven't heard, we're here! We arrived flawlessly with all of our bags and a little bit of jet lag. The apartment where we're staying temporarily is wonderful and we're fully anticipating a nice place of our own up north soon.

A view from our apartment.
Can you see the sheep on the grass, near the street?

Today we counted our blessings. It was a cool 55' and the sun was out so we hopped on the bus to go into the city. We visited Cassidy's school and it is going to be a nice fit. Jacob's Ladder is a Messianic school run by some amazing women and an Israeli named Jon. The classes are small and the content dense and we believe that in less than a year Cassidy will be a fluent Hebrew speaker.

The Old City's Damascus Gate

We visited the Old City today as well, since it's about a block or so from Cassidy's school. We walked through the crowded Muslim quarter to get to the beautiful Kotel, the Western Wall. Cassidy and I spent some time praying for the first time at the Wall and the L-rd graciously reminded me that He will return here, in power and glory.

Tomorrow we meet with Tom's advisor and then someone affiliated with the school is going to show us some apartments. We're praying the L-rd will show us the right one; what that will look like we don't quite know. But rest assured, we'll fill you in once we know!

Shalom!

This year in Jerusalem

We arrived in Jerusalem! All of our flights were on time (and so were we), and our luggage showed up. Cassidy slept most of the flight over the Atlantic and did wonderful for her first airplane trip. She loved having her own little carry-on, nicknamed RJ. We made it through Amman with no trouble and got our first taste of culture shock. When we arrived in Tel Aviv Becka Glueck was at the airport to meet us and we rented a vehicle. Tom got us to Jerusalem without getting lost or stressed, even though it was 11pm and rainy. Cassidy and I saw the walls of the Old City for the first time. Incredible!

Thank you for your prayers! It is nothing short of a miracle that we travelled about 24 hours with no meltdowns, all flights on time and 9 pieces of luggage arriving in-tact. We are grateful. Time for some sleep, and then off to find an apartment.

Shalom!

Post-Supersessionist Interpretation

You may wonder what I am studying while I am in Israel at the University of the Holy Land. The area of study is called post-supersessionist interpretation. New Testament scholarship is revisiting its understanding of how the writers of the New Testament understood Jews and the Judaism of the 1^st century.  Since the early Church fathers, supersessionistic interpretation of the New Testament has been widely accepted and promoted within Church theology.

Layers of Biblical scholarship have been constructed around the premise that the authors of the New Testament viewed the Church as having replaced or superseded the Jewish people as the people of G-d.  Twentieth-century and post-holocaust scholars began to question these historical and theological assumptions. Major studies appeared in the last quarter of the century that challenged the traditional supersessionism of Church history.  The result: today we are seeing a new school of thought emerging within the field of New Testament studies, sometimes referred to as post-supersessionist interpretation.

Messianic Jewish post-supersessionist interpretation maintains that the New Testament writers affirmed (1) G-d’s covenant fidelity to the Jewish people, (2) that Jesus was Israel’s Messiah and participated in the unique identity of the G-d of Israel, (3) that the besorah (gospel) was for Jews and Gentiles, (4) that Jesus-believing Gentiles were full members of G-d’s people without becoming Jews, and (5) that Jesus-believing Jews should continue to live as Jews in keeping with Israel’s calling to be a distinct and enduring nation.

(http://mjstudies.squarespace.com/about-post-supersessionist/)

Research in this area is still fairly new but scholars are definitely looking into what it means to return the rightful identity to the Jewish people as the covenantal people of G-d. I look forward to sharing all I learn with you on this journey of study and exploration.