FELLOWSHIP

The fellowship here has been sweet and special. John and Ellah and the boys are pictured here with us along with a sweet family from Galilee. Not pictured here are Kim and Cory, and Santosh and Indera. We meet for fellowship on Shabbat (Friday evening, the beginning of the Sabbath) starting with a meal, then singing and a teaching and sharing and prayer.

During the rest of the week we visit back and forth, play with the kids, and go to the boys basketball games.

This reminds Bonnie and I of when we were first married and fellowshipping this way, when the home group of which we were a part lived close to each other and visited back and forth.

John and Ellah's family  is a 5 minute drive from where we are, and except for the family from Galilee, the others are close by in the same kibbutz where we live. =)

SPRINGTIME IN ISRAEL

Cyclamen are all over the hill in Gizo

We picked a good time to come to Israel. It's full on Spring here, and it's beautiful! 

Flowers are blooming everywhere. 

Bonnie and I went on a walk in Gizo,  a forested hill area with pine trees, rock boulders intermingled with tall grasses and a plethora of wild flowers.

Cyclamen by a rock

Enjoy the 

walk 

with us

Pine trees

Tall Lupine

Possibly a Brodiaea 

Something like a Jack in the Pulpit

Red Poppy

During the Week

We love our little kibbutz apartment. It's perfect for us and comfortable. Not far from us are our friends Kim and Cory, and Santush and Enderi who are part of the fellowship. 

A kitty adopted us - I named it Tiger. Haven't seen him for a while (he must have given up on us since we don't feed him).

We've been fellowshipping with John and Ella's family, playing volleyball and singing and praying together (sound familiar? lol)

John and Ella got to take a much needed 2 days away, so we helped with chores and grocery shopping. 








Stay tuned for pictures of the beautiful flowers that are blooming all around!

SHALOM

Arriving and Settling In

Now that we got the technology challenges worked through, we can share!

Our trip here was eventful! I (Guy) got a stomach flu 2 days before our flight - ya, bad timing. So by the time we got to Newark to get on our 10 flight to Tel Aviv, I was in pretty bad shape. Well, the flight was delayed (of course), but went quite well - but for me it was painfully long. 

This is the Boeing 777 that took us to Tel Aviv

But we made it! And our friend John picked us up after we  exchanged our cash into New Israeli Shekels. 

It was great to see the family! The boys have grown so much! (I'm sorry I don't have pictures of the family yet - we were too tired to take any)

It took a couple of  days to recover from the sickness and jet lag, and also getting my technology in line has been a little challenge. We don't have internet in our apartment, but can access it at our friends 2 minutes away in the kibbutz, so that's been a juggling act. 

When I first started up our blog, all the editing instructions were in Hebrew! Since I don't know very much Hebrew yet, I couldn't navigate. There was word with a drop-down menu that said "Hebrew" - in Hebrew! So I didn't recognize it enough to click it to change the page language to English. So now we can stay up to date. =)

Lehitraot! (See you later)

To make it a decent time for our driver, Natana, (thanks again) we got to the airport way early. Much easier on our nerves 'cuz by now we're 'raring to go' and get this loooooong flight over with. Just as we stepped toward the  security check-in, it hit me. This is OUR trip; we're not traveling for us AND something else. We've been here an hour now, continuing to take care of do-dads. What a relief to have all the arranging behind us.

Here's a pic of us waiting in the Sacramento Airport for our first of 3  flights. And 22 hours later we land in The Holy Land!

~Readying for Israel ~

We're in our final days of preparation! - so many little details to work out. We got our Israeli cell phone number to use there. We need to shop and pack, pay ahead on bills, get everything ready for the person staying at our house, take Neiko to Justin and Melanie's, etc.....
I'll be glad when we're up in the air and can focus on our journey. We're so thankful for family and friends who will care for our things and pets while we're gone! Toda raba!
More soon.... =)

Going to Israel!! - getting ready....

It's a dream come true for me (Guy) - we're going to Israel! We are leaving (on a jet plane) March 18th and returning April 24th.I have long had it on my heart to go to Israel - but "lama?, lama?" why?
Is 40:1-2, " "Comfort, O comfort My people," says your God. Speak kindly to Jerusalem; And call out to her, that her warfare has ended, That her iniquity has been removed, That she has received of the LORD'S hand Double for all her sins."
Our friends have a house church in Israel, so we will be serving them and encouraging them. We hope to using counseling skills we have learned and hope to give the leaders a little vacation! Of course we'll tour the land and see where it all began!
There is a lot to do to get ready! We are making all the arrangements necessary to leave our house on 10 acres in the woods, our dog, 3 cats and 4 chickens. And we've had to do financial things like pay income and property taxes and have all other bills on automatic payments.
So the excitement and nervousness increases as we approach the day of our departure! We'll keep you posted on all our adventures as we walk the Holy Land! =)