So I know I haven’t posted in a while. My schedule went from leisure to crazy within
a week’s time. I volunteered my help to
a friend who put me in her short film, which took up a whole week. And from that time, things haven’t
stopped. But it’s alright. This kind of busy isn’t so bad.
The film wasn’t ready for its premier at the film school’s
graduation, so the cut that was shown was quite a mess. I suppose I’m waiting for the re-edit. Since their school is out now, who knows what
will come of it. But, no worries... I did it to help a stressed-out friend, not
to make my debut as an actress. I don’t
think acting is my forté.
So after that, Dustin and I finally made it onto the prayer
watch schedule. We lead a couple of our
own “prayer watches” now. Ours are
basically just worship times with intermittent praying as we feel led, which is
awesome and so rejuvenating. I’m still
tackling the whole concept of intercession.
It doesn’t exactly make sense to me.
I used to think I knew what it was all about, but now my views have
changed, and it seems strange to set aside time to ask God for certain things
in certain ways in a group of people. I
don’t believe it’s my own power that actually accomplishes anything
anymore. I simply rely on God, so I have
a hard time finding the point in asking God for things more than once, let
alone setting aside an hour to two hours to ask Him for certain things. I don’t believe that any amount of fervency
makes a difference except how it would in any relationship: if I truly care
about something and ask my love about it, He will attend to it because He loves
me… The more it affects me, the more if affects my love. If I tell Dustin I need something while
crying, he feels more urgency about it.
I see God the same way. Then I
often think, “God cares about this so much more than I do… Me asking Him to
take care of it seems ridiculous. Of
course He’s going to take care of it.” I
just trust He’s got my back. And yet I
still ask Him for things at times. So I
don’t think I’ve settled my mind about it.
But I will say that getting in a group of people with a
spiritual focus does activate the gifts, like prophecy and words of
knowledge. That’s when it’s really
fun. The supernatural is amazing.
So that’s a look into what I’m going through in that area. Moving on…
I’ve also been helping with the kids’ camp because the
beautiful Jalene (she is such a bright person!) got wind of my painting/set-building
talents. It’s nice to work with my
hands, but also a little lonely in that room with all the cardboard. So that is what has been filling my time:
building props and decorations to make kids’ camp all the more amazing. I’m a little out of shape, so several hours
in a day working with cardboard wears me out physically. By evening I’m just tired.
The heat here isn’t bad; nothing worse than Oklahoma, in
fact, not nearly as hot as Oklahoma. It
reminds me of Phoenix, Arizona, but it doesn’t even reach the same highs. The hottest I’ve experienced is 94 (F), and
it’s a dry heat. It cools down in the
evening. And often I’m in
air-conditioned places.
There are some things that do bother me.
There is dirt almost everywhere except my apartment and the
main rooms of the church. It is a rather
dusty region, and it hardly rains. So
even the streets have weird liquid stains on them all over the place (and some
of it is urine… it’s not a felony to pee in public here). Businesses don’t always find it necessary to
keep their windows clean. Some are pristine,
and some look abandoned, yet they both operate and sometimes are right next to
each other. There’s one apartment sliding
door window that I observed across from my building through which is a wall of
trash. Literally, I looked at it through
a camera with zoom, and the entire window is plastered to the top with trash…
bottles, bags, etc.
Then there are the unfinished surfaces that are all over the
place. Outside my apartment, there’s a
famous gate that’s just sitting there, connected to what used to be rock walls,
but they are broken now. And there’s the
bottom of an old building that is just rubble. It's somewhat endearing, because it's all Israel stone.
The parking garage has piping all through it, and areas where the piping
goes through the floor and I can see through the hole to the lower level. There’s creepy closets, and super narrow
alleys, and really short doors. There’s
uneven steps, uneven stairs, small rooms…
But they’re not everywhere, I just see them a lot more often than I did
in the States.
There are several different stenches that I smell every day. 1) Human
urine in the alley where my apartment building entrance is. 2) Garbage on the bottom floor of the
elevator shaft. That’s where the
apartment tenants throw their trash into these bins in a very small room. On
Shabbat, trash piles up in there and it can be almost waist high, pouring into
the elevator door when it opens. I often
have to walk through there, climbing over trash, to get into the parking garage
(but it’s not always full like that). 3)
Cat litter (so many cats…). 4) An
unknown stench that reminds me of rotting cabbage that I always smell in the
Clal elevator (the Clal is the mall building where King of Kings is located). 5) The smell of sewage that randomly comes
through my air conditioning vent on random days in our apartment. It concerns me. I hold my breath in certain areas that I have
to walk.
I don’t always know where to find things: there’s no
supermarket. There’s a conglomerate of
tiny micro-stores all with certain specialty items. So one hardware store might have one tool you
need, but not the other, and then another might have the other thing you need. You just have to learn where stuff is by
going out there and searching. I could
spend a whole day searching for an item I need…
Thankfully I have friends who know their way around and have helped make
that experience much easier (*cough* Daniela *cough*).
Speaking of coughs, it took me twenty minutes to explain to the guy at the drug store what I needed for Daniela's sore throat last week. Actually, she needed cold medicine. I couldn't remember the brand Dayquil, so I had to describe it, pointing to my throat profusely. They guy spoke good English, but he obviously needed to expand his vocabulary in the field of medicine, especially since he worked at a drug store... He was nice though.
Speaking of... There are a few things that I refer to by common name, but I never knew what they actually were... for example, baking soda. I couldn't find baking soda until I learned that it was actually called sodium bicarbonate. And it's so funny when I read Hebrew to English transliterations. They are hilarious when misspelled. And the names on road signs are inconsistent. We were driving down the highway to Hertsaliya Beach... Then we were headed to Hertsliyya, then Hertzaliya...The Hebrew letters were the same, of course.
And the light switches! They are always behind the door or outside of the room! Who decided to make that the standard?! Where is the logic? I feel insecure in the restroom. My brothers would have had a hay day turning off bathroom lights from the outside if we lived in Israel when we were little. They always did it when I left the door unlocked. I'd see the door crack open just enough for a hand to reach for the switch and then... darkness. Sucks when you're in the shower...
So, sorry for the negativity... I'll post more interesting things soon :) Here's a photo just for fun.
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| Yeah... there are centipedes here... luckily not in my apartment! |
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