About two minutes ago over a loud speaker there was a nice (catchy) ‘’song’’ sung to announce the Shabbat. Thus all work has stopped. On Fridays stores and stuff close in the early afternoon no later than 3pm. Shabbat is the best time of the week, because everything settles down for a rest and riles up for a good time! I honestly love Shabbat, it’s such a family centered time! Also it’s the perfect time to have company over! Tonight we have some company coming and I know we’ll have a blast! All the girls of the apartment cook up a storm and somehow, even though it’s just our classmates coming over, it’s special!
Last week we had a field trip to Jerusalem. It’s so fun to hop into a bus in the morning and only be back in the evening. We spent the whole time touring around the city...well, actually more precisely, under the city! You must understand that Israel is very centered around water. Back in Canada you could find water anywhere and then build a city there, but here Jerusalem mount was always a much sought out city to build on, why? Because of the accessibility to the springs that are around this ‘’mountain’’. Thus the whole thing is jam packed with history. For our Biblical geography class this made things difficult and a wee
bit confusing! Was this wall in early Canaanite period (before Abraham) or is it middle bronze or 2nd temple period. No joke we saw all those periods in actual artefacts! In our last visit to Jerusalem it was just a private trip with some students. This time it was with our tour guide and teacher therefore everything that you wouldn’t even normally notice had a special meaning to it! I didn’t see practically anything that I had already seen in my previous trip! One reason is because we were basically always underground! We walked through two tunnels that had been previously used for bringing fresh water to the city. If a siege was underway and you couldn’t get out of the city walls, it would be very important to have a water source in the 
city!! So in the Canaanite period they dug through the rock and made this tunnel. Later Hezekiah re-dug a more secure tunnel. That is the tunnel we walked through for most of the way. It was the coolest thing ever!
Seriously, super cool!
At first you got into water that was about half-way up the thigh, cool and refreshing was the water. (some said it was Freezing... but I didn’t find that at all! Perhaps because I’m from Canada! ) We all had to be paired with someonewith a flash light because it’s pitch black. At first we walked through normally,but then some of us decided that we really wanted to walk through without any lights. 
Thus we let the people who wanted lights walk ahead of us and we groped along in the total darkness. I would say that we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, even though the guy in front of me will forever have the imprint of my face in his backpack. There was a lot of *bump* ‘’oh sorry’’ *face in backpack* ‘’sorry again!’’ * trip* ‘’whoops, my bad!’’ * ‘’okay guys watch your head!’’ *ouch*. Aka a very good time!
We went through yet another tunnel, this time dating to the early roman period. A little less exciting, but none the less, very cool! This tunnel led to the temple mound and when we emerged we saw the stunning and immense walls of the temple mound.
These stones were the very ones that made up the temple 200 years ago! The very steps that lead into the outer places of the Holiest place on earth- where God chose to reveal Himself. Now, we’ve got the chance to go into an even more special place, God’s presence. Even though Jesus probably taught from these very steps, He gave us His teaching and promised that He would never leave us nor forsake us.
This is our group learning about the temple steps (that we are sitting on) and soaking up the historical details.
School is going well. I’m enjoying it and its honestly fun. The international students are getting pretty close and often we do things together.
How am I doing? In one word, great.
In more than one word, life is life thus it has its ups and downs. The ups far outweigh the downs and since I know that this is where God wants me to be, I’m content! God is with me, thus I need no more.
I really appreciate the way people have been supporting me and praying for me! It makes me feel less disconnected with the world I always knew! Thanks to everyone who prays, emails or supports financially. You are all a God-sent and I’m so thankful for all you have done!
