Next Year in Jerusalem!

Our heads are swimming, and our hearts are full!

Our time with YWAM in 2007 was productive and meaningful as we met so many wonderful people, teaming up with new lifelong friends. We didn't know at the time God was preparing us for the next journey. Nat & I have been offered a volunteer seven month kitchen position at Jerusalem University College (http://www.juc.edu/) in Israel. It was founded in 1957 as the American Institute of Holy Land Studies and sits atop Mount Zion just outside the south wall of the Old City. The stone structure was an Anglican Church built in the late 1800's. We will be flying out early tomorrow, December 29th, returning the end of July.

Nat's young cousin & his wife have been grad students there for the past 2+ years, and I emailed Tim's mom & dad on Nov 1 to see how the kids were in light of news headlines. She reported they are doing very well with one more spring semester to complete their studies (living side by side with Palestinians who have citizenship in Israel, all used to a military presence, and a fragile peace) and then added, "Oh by the way here's an opportunity . . ." Next thing we knew, I was in contact with the head of the university. They will be providing us with room & board, a small monthly stipend, and we can go on all of the student field studies of Biblical/Holy Land sites. Oh yeah, and all the food we care to eat :)

Our responsibility will be to cook breakfast & lunch for the students. They have an Arab cook for the larger evening meal, and the kids want American fare for the other two lighter meals....eggs, pancakes, soup & sandwiches, macaroni & cheese, pizza (guess that's actually Italian?), etc. During January & May there will be about 130 students on campus. The rest of the semester will have about 35. We do not purchase the groceries, and the January menu is already set. We just slide in, get settled into our dorm room, meet everyone, first breakfast on Jan 3rd at 7:15a, lunch at noon, clean up and all evenings & Sundays are ours. On field study days, we prepare sack lunches for everyone (including ourselves) and tag along. Hey! Somebody's got to do it!

We are overwhelmed that He is blessing & trusting us with this! Neither of us have ever been to Israel, loving it from afar since our youth. Can you hear the 'shofar' blowing from Huckabay, Texas? We have fully enjoyed Christmas with Natalie, Kenzley, Taryn, and most family members on both sides. We have finished packing, buttoned everything up for our extended absence, and now our hearts are set on Jerusalem. We have stored up memories (and photos) to take along with us.

Now we're off . . . again
Shalom y'all!