.So we have survived our first few days in the land where Jesus once walked
After traveling for 33 hours we finally found our shuttle service and began our two hour journey from Tel Aviv into Jerusalem stopping to quickly visit our office at Musahala and then continuing our journey across the boarder into Palestine, our home for the next month! We were greeted by our host family, Ala (dad), Abeer (mom) and our four brothers, Abir, Amin, Adam, Hanna. They are extremely loving and gracious. We all were exhausted and napped for 5 hours before heading back down for dinner! The food here is incredible! And they literally feed us at all hours. We got to tour the city of Beit Sahour with our house parents and visit Abeers mom and dad at their new home! We then crashed as soon as we got back and are
now somewhat over our jet lag
The next morning began our first full day in Israel. Ryanne woke up early enough to watch the sunrise and Cory journaled for a while after the morning call to prayer. We all awoke with the lovely music provided by the rooster residents and our horse Selma's morning requests for breakfast. We all took our time getting ready and preparing for our first day at work. Abeer made a delicious breakfast for us with fresh pita bread, homemade jams, olive oil and thyme, boiled grapes and thyme eggs. We also had Arabic coffee out on our porch with Ala. Hanna, our youngest brother lovingly locked us out on the porch resulting in Ala having to climb back in through the windows. Haha it was a perfect way to start the morning.
Ala then took us to the taxi stop to pick up our shuttle to the bus that would be able to cross the checkpoint into Jerusalem. The three of us handled it like pros only getting lost once!:) At the checkpoint we had to show our passports but the guards were very friendly and we are now comfortable with the daily journey.
Once at Musahlaha we met some other students that will be with us for the trip. They are from a Christian college called Trinity in Canada. There are four boys and three girls and all are extremely nice! We all worked together on newsletters and then got to meet the rest of the staff during orientation. We were also given our work placements. Vicki will be working at the offices helping Salim with the youth curriculum and writing some pieces about gender issues and religious conflict. Ryanne and Cory are assigned to Bethlehem Bible College and will be doing summer camps, small groups and teaching English. We are all so excited to start on Monday.
Tomorrow we are headed into the old city of Jerusalem to tackle the sites and find the best hummus!:)
Love you all! Thank you all for your prayers!
