Home At Last

I must be feeling at home now, partly because I am less shocked by what I see and hear these days.  I’m taking the oddeties in stride and actually starting to take some things for granted.  For example, I’m expecting the pushing, shoving and budding when I get in line at the grocery store or enter or exit the train.  I've even learned to return the gesture.  Yup, it’s become my new normal, I guess.  I can even laugh at it.  The other day we were with friends and driving in heavy traffic and we watched trucks drive right over the roundabout to get past traffic, not to mention driving into the roundabout the wrong direction in order to beat traffic.  Today, there was a heavy backlog of traffic on one of the roads adjoining several intersections and no one could move, the intersection was in gridlock and the horns were blaring incessantly.  “This is Jerusalem”, I told myself, "everything is balagan (crazy)".  Another way I know I’m feeling at home is by how annoyed I got at the amount of tourists that arrived in Jerusalem during Easter and Pesach – stores, trains, streets…basically everything was crowded for about two weeks.  I felt like they were encroaching in on my space and there is very little personal space available in this city.  I now understand and sympathize more with the Israeli’s who deal with tourism all year long as thousands upon thousands make the pilgrimage to the Holy Land.  However, to be honest, I am mostly feeling at home because of the people I have come to call friends and the comfort that I feel in my surroundings, a feeling of belonging and knowing I will miss and be missed when I leave.  It's a good feeling.

Triclinium Meal (Roman dining style)

Easter Week and Pesach

We began our Easter week on Thursday evening before Good Friday, with a Triclinium meal.  This is the type of meal that Jesus and his disciples would have had together the night before he was betrayed in the Upper Room.  Steve’s Cultural Backgrounds class hosted an evening for all students and I was asked to give some direction in decorating the room.  So we created a Roman dining hall, with the three-sided reclining tables (triclinium) and even a foot washing station at the entrance where our servants gave the guests a good foot scrub.  This was part of the tradition at that time. 

Servants wash feet of weary travellers

Our food was served while we reclined on the floor and eaten without utensils, using unleavened flatbread to dip into our stew and scoop our salads.  Complimented with dried dates, apricots and figs as well as olives, we enjoyed a wonderful meal together and then learned all about the cultural context in which the Last Supper took place.  All dressed in traditional toga, it was a fun event!

Servants served as we reclined at the table

Toga (women colourful, men white)

We enjoyed an early sunrise service at the Garden Tomb on Easter Sunday as 1,500 people from all continents (except penguins) squeezed into the garden where the empty tomb of Jesus Christ is said to be located.  What a privilege to be part of a beautiful worship service dedicated to our Risen Lord.

The empty tomb

Pesach on the Hebrew calendar happened to fall at the same time as Easter this year.  I’m sure it was interesting for the many Christian tourists to come and find many of the grocery store shelves covered by sheets for about 7 days to prevent the selling yeast containing grain products and related foods.  Apparently, Aquafresh toothpaste falls into that category!?  Actually, it is amazing how many products have yeast extract in them.  It was quite depressing to walk into stores all looking like they belonged in a ghost town.

Grocery Stores covering all products considered Chametz

Pesach, which is a Jewish celebration of the Passover, is celebrated by not eating bread with yeast, so everyone eats Matzah crackers and the stores, in order to keep Kosher status, refrain from selling anything with yeast in it.  Jews will bring the holiday in with a traditional seder meal and read the Exodus story from the Haggadah to retell of the exodus from Egypt and also to explain some of the symbols and practices of the holiday. 

Burning the Chametz (unleavened bread)

A common tradition is for the parents to hide pieces of leavened bread (Chametz) around the house the night before Pesach and have the children find them all.  The next day all the leavened bread is thrown into a fire, often a neighbourhood firebox is provided on the streets.  When Pesach week is over, some celebrate with pastries – lots of pastries!  Done with the low carb diet!

Priestly blessings at the Western Wall

Also during the week we wandered down to the western wall to observe the Rabbi's giving the priestly blessings to synagogue members.  There were thousands of Jews attending this event and many synagogues from all representations were present.  Based on the Biblical account in Numbers 6:22-27.

Ministry

As Steve’s schooling starts to wind up, I find myself getting busier.  I’ve been focussed largely on helping Caspari Center to launch their new website.  It’s finally up and running www.caspari.com if you are interested.  I have been auditing a course called “Islamic Thought and Practice” which is really challenging my paradigms (so what’s new? everything in Israel has challenged my paradigms).  Taught by a Jewish professor it has enlarged my very narrow & western perspective about the Arab/Palestinian/Muslim culture and beliefs and made me come face to face with some of my own prejudices and uninformed assumptions.  S-t-r-e-t-c-h-i-n-g me!  I’m sure I’ll be having some very interesting conversations when I get home.  Another project I am working on is a series of workshops for Messianic Jewish teen girls ages 12 – 18 on developing a healthy identity and self-image. The negative influences of media and pop culture on young girls exists in Israel too.  Through a co-worker I was asked to help address some of these issues – our first session is May 2^nd!  I’m very excited about this opportunity; though someone is translating everything I say into Hebrew (we’ll see how that goes).  Then at the end of the month Steve and I are leading worship in an international church in the West Bank (and I’m not referring to West Kelowna), Palestine.  It’s been a while, but we are looking forward to it.  There are many English-speaking Arabs returning from all over the globe to the area and this church provides them with a Christian community and place of worship.

Time Speeding Up

We are now into our last few months here and it seems to be speeding up.  Funny how life is like that, the older you get the faster life seems to move and you become acutely aware of the many things you still want to accomplish or experience.  So we still have a big list of things to do and see.  And even though we miss home, family and friends, we have also just begun to settle into friendships and a routine of life that makes one feel at home.  I guess that is a good thing, because it means we have really been able to enjoy a grassroots experience of day to day living in this country.  Yes, we have taken in the sights, but it is the day to day interaction with locals, experiencing life as they do, rubbing shoulders (literally) with the community, being in their homes, listening to their struggles, sharing their joys and triumphs and praying together, crying together and laughing together, through which our lives are enriched.  We are thankful that we have new friendships to cherish.  For now, as we consider our future, and wind it down here, we are trying to stay in the present and take every day in fully, knowing that soon it will seem like a long dream we just woke up from.

Taken at the Baha'i Holy Place Gardens in Akko on
our Islamic Thought Field Study