Day Five - First Day of Teaching

I didn't get an email from Jeff today until 4:19 p.m. (11:19 p.m. Israel time) despite my almost-constant checking of the computer all day long. Even Josiah got into the waiting game, asking frequently whether Daddy had sent an email yet. :) As I said a few days ago, are we spoiled or what by modern technology?! This daily contact with Jeff is making this time go by much more easily than I thought it would, and I'm so grateful!

Excerpts from Jeff's email (the informational part...I'll keep the love part to myself): ;)
School went well... games are the secret for keeping attention. My helper, whom I am hosted with, is indeed helpful; and I am grateful for the preparation I did do. Nazareth Village is cool... they are building a Mikvah there that I might get involved doing also... it is being built the way it would be in the first century... so lots of lifting of stones and making first century plaster from powdered stone, limestone, and other such things.
The food is good. Today was Yara's birthday... she is 8. She is the youngest daughter of my host family. After the village I returned to join her for her party... it seems they have a lot of fun... and I get small doses of sleep... carpe diem!
This [the English camp] is a big event here... the Nazareth News came to report the events and recorded me explaining a game for the camp... tomorrow one of the girls (my hosts' daughter, 8 years old) will be going to Haifa to be live on the radio there to talk about the program... I am not sure what all will come of all these things, but I know that God is at work.

The Israel picture of the day is from a site in the North called Nimrod's Fortress (although it actually has nothing to do with the biblical character Nimrod). Ruins are almost commonplace in Israel, but this site is bigger than some and really is a fun one to explore. I look forward to the day when we as a family can all return to Israel and show the country we love to the boys we love. In the picture below, Josiah has his classic quizzical look on his face as he questions Kathy, a participant in a study tour that Jeff was involved in leading back in 2005. It was a big deal that Josiah got to go on this particular portion of the tour since it wasn't really a "kid thing," but his maturity made it possible for Jeff to take him along, knowing that Josiah would cooperate and act appropriately. Yet another reason to be proud of him! :)


Here's a glimpse of home life today:
Josiah and David got out A LOT of toys today, but once again they had a great time playing together and didn't need an excessive amount of intervention from me. It's fun to watch their imaginations blossom; and I noticed that David is really getting into imaginative play, which I'm sure is due in part to Josiah's strong influence over David.

David has said a number of times, "Daddy's in the airplane," and then I explain again that he's not in the airplane right now...but that, yes, he did go in an airplane...and he's in Israel...and he'll come back. Today David got out a USA map and wanted me to show him on the map where Daddy was. :) Obviously, that didn't work so we all traipsed upstairs to look at the world map on our wall, and I pointed out where Israel is. Time is such a fuzzy concept for David at this stage of his life, so the idea of Daddy coming back in two more weeks or 14 more days is essentially meaningless, it seems. But I don't want to give the impression that David is moping around all the time, in extreme suffering from Jeff's absence. He's doing fine; he really is. We all are.

One last comment from David that I just have to jot down: before supper, he was looking in the "blue book" (a short daily devotional that we read before we eat supper) and found his favorite-by-far picture in the book--oddly enough, a picture of Jesus on the cross. He was explaining what happened to Jesus when he was crucified; and when he got to the resurrection part of the story, David cheerfully said that He "popped back up!" :)

Thank You, Jesus, that You popped back up!!!