We were honored to lead worship on our last Sabbath at Narkis Baptist in Jerusalem. This was the first time we have led as a family. Nathan finally got to play the piano instead of the drums or guitar which he had always done the last couple years in his youth group back in Spain. Renae played her flute by reading the root note of all the guitar music she had on her stand. Justin played the drum set for all but the last song when I motioned for him to come join us at the mics. Justin kicked off the the first song with a basa nova beat under “Those who Trust”, which we did as a funky blues style with harmonica. The following songs were “Beautiful One”, “Over all the Earth”, “Shout to the Lord”, “He knows my name”, “Jesus, Lover of my Soul”, and ending with “There is a Redeemer” which we sang partly a capella. The Lord blessed despite our failures, his name was glorified, and his children were encouraged. We didn’t have an offertory ready but a young friend of ours was prepared to play the piano and sing a beautiful song (The Valley) about God’s faithfulness. This fellowship has been sweet and the bible studies deep. Although I won’t be weeping on the necks of the elders like the Apostle Paul did at Ephesus, it is still sad to move away from here. Pastor Chuck and his wife Liz are amazing in their kindness, humility, knowledge, and talent.
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“blublabluuh?” I asked confidently through my snorkel. “Yeah, sure, Nathan.” My brother responded. We were night snorkeling in the Red Sea. Around 8 pm it had gotten dark. As we swam the current pulled us south, away from the shore in front of our beloved “Sea View Hotel.”
Dahab is a small city in Egypt that boarders the red sea. With sun cream topping out at 35 dollars for 150 ml and internet cafe’s on every block, this town, with the blazing hot Egyptian sun over head, stayed busy entertaining tourists. Taxi? No way! Pick up trucks preside here and we all pile in the back except Mom. Mother hesitantly sits in front next to the driver.
I tug at Justin’s ankle. Again, in mumbling communication I tell him of the Finding Nemo fish and motion towards the floating counterpart. Deep below us lays the coral reef, now a dark haunted green at dusk. Continue reading ‘“Wahad” Eel’
We left Jerusalem bus station at 5 PM and got to Eilat just before 10 PM. Crossing the border form Israel to Egypt took about an hour. Then, for 500 Egyptian pounds (about $100) Dad got a large bouncy taxi van to take us from Taba (across the border from Eilat, Israel). I got the most sleep because I laid down in the back. We arrived in Cairo at 3 AM on Thursday. We hung out in Ramses Square at what we called the cockroach restaurant because of all the roaches on the walls. The largest one was at least a inch. Only Dad ate his rice and very greasy beans. At 7 AM we arrived from a taxi to our couch surfing hosts. Me and the first bed I saw acted as very strong magnets toward each other. I snored away for three hours.
Across the valley a bonfire three story’s high flickered up into the smoky black sky. Me, Doron (a friend of mine who lives next door) and two other kids sat around a smaller version, talking about nothing in general. Just stuff like, ‘want another hot dog?’, ‘its burning!’, ‘why don’t you shove that board cross ways on the fire now?’, ‘pass me the fan’ and ‘I’m gonna have a marshmallow now’. The only serious subjects that we touched were about religion, what we were celebrating and a how most people don’t know what most cuss words mean. They asked me about Christianity.
I learned that many secular and religious Jews light bonfires on May 22 (but the celebration usually slides passed midnight) to celebrate the death of Rabbi Akiva. 24,000 of his students died in a plague. Some say that the ‘plague’ might have actually been the roman soldiers. Whatever the ‘plague’ may have been, it ended, and to let everyone know that it ended they lit fires on top of the hills. Hence the bonfires.
We helped a group of six girls light their fire at about 11:00. Then we went over and watched Lavi (Doron’s brother) and his friends built a very tall teepee fire. As the base was burning, we bet on which way the fire would fall. Lavi was ready to run for the fire extinguisher if it fell on the trees. Finally it toppled over safely. Later some people came by with a ton of paper files and asked if they could get rid of them. They tossed them on the fire. A huge blaze flared up and lit a tree near by. Luckily the fire extinguisher was at hand.
We stayed up till two, said our farewells and went to bed.
WARNING: DO NOT READ THE NEXT PORTION IF YOU ARE A FEMALE… Since it was just us three middle school boys after everyone else had gone to bed, we peed on the fire to put it out. We took turns. What a manly thing to do.
The research on marathon training is very interesting and informative. Three main aspects are running form, training schedule and diet.
At fist general society thought it was a huge wale of some kind. But then why would it glow? How could it possibly move so fast? How could a wale sink a ship?
Then they imagined some sort of monster. A monster? Impossible!
Finally someone came up with a theory that might be possible… a submarine! But of course, submarines didn’t exist! Even if they had existed, how could a private person create such a machine without the world knowing?
Finally a handful of people boarded the Abraham Lincoln on a quest to find out what the mysterious object could be. When they finally came across it, they found that even at full steam they could not catch it. In a last attempt Abraham Lincoln shot at the creature. The shell simply bounced off. Enraged, the animal came after the Abraham Lincoln and sunk it to the bottom of the sea.
After being thrown off the Abraham Lincoln, a Canadian, a professor, and the professors assistant found themselves clinging for dear life onto the very monster they had hoped to find. It was not a monster. It was a submarine.
A strong bond and a scents of camaraderie develops between them after many adventures. The submarine travels from ocean to ocean at the will of its captain, a man who has loosed almost all connections with the world.
Pretty good; it was a classic. Although not one of my favorites, I loved the style of writing. I think the main point the author was trying to make was that a submarine is probable.
In Eilat, Israel we walked along the beach toward Jordan. Since taxis only hold four passengers, we needed to take two taxis inland to the border crossing. We found one taxi driver that would risk losing his license for three months by taking all five of us. On the short drive there he decided that 50 shekels would cover his risk, even though we could have taken two taxi’s for 20 shekels each. I guess luggage was extra and we had three backpacks. You’ll never guess what happened next. Continue reading ‘A lot of Eilat and Petra’
“Look! There it is!” cried Mom as we approached Gibraltar rock at midnight. It just looked like a hugenormis rock, and it definitely didn’t look habitable from my point of view. As we got closer, I could get the full aw at the almost vertical sides of the rock.
The next day, we were traveling around, having our hosts show us the rock. It rocked! My dad had gotten in touch with one of his internet students, asking if we could stay with them. They answered yes. As we were driving up to the uppermost part of the rock, Nathan, me, and two of the kids got dropped off to go walk to the upper part of the island. The grown ups tried to get up another way in the car, but never found us, so we were left to walk home alone.