Archive | September, 2009
I know many speeches are still to come in this century, but it’s at least the speech of the decade. Last week Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel, delivered a speech to the United Nations that is the best snapshot of the Israeli/Arab conflict that I have ever heard. The speech is so strong and straight-forward. Greta Van Susteren (FOX News) said it was one of the most piercing speeches she had ever heard. My husband, Gary, said that Netanyahu shared the truth boldly and without compromise. One Jewish author (Mark Levin) declared that, “…this speech has launched Netanyahu to be the leader of the free world.” Well I don’t know about the leader of the free world, but it definitely caused him to come to the forefront of the world’s political scene as a remarkably strong leader.
Of course we know that the issue is not political. It’s spiritual. The spiritual battle over the Temple Mount and Jerusalem is the most intense of any city on the planet. Mr. Netanyahu does an incredible job of explaining the situation in the natural. Be aware, though, that there’s much more to this issue on a much deeper level.
The speech is a total of 30 minutes, but it is in three different YouTube videos. I’ve posted it here for anyone reading this who hasn’t heard it yet. If you don’t have time to listen to all three of them, come back later and finish. Please listen and pass on to those that you think would be interested as well. I wish everyone could hear this.
Netanyahu U.N. speech 9/24/09, Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
My friend, Mare, and I did something new a couple of days ago. We walked from the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem to east Jerusalem where the Israel Antiquities Authority has a salvage project going on. About ten years ago an illicit construction project occurred under the southeast corner of the Temple Mount. Many truckloads of dirt were unceremoniously dumped into the nearby Kidron Valley before Jews as well as Christians found out about it and were able to get an order to have it stopped. Through a lot of red tape, the Israel Antiquities Authority was able to move most of the dirt to a site close to the Old City and began to sift through it looking for artifacts that would document the different time periods under the Temple Mount. This sifting began about five years ago. For those of you who love archeology but find the actual digs a bit too difficult, this is just for you! Archaeological digs are HARD work. (Here is my post from a dig we were a part of in ancient Ai this summer.) At the Temple Mount Salvage you get all the thrill of finding ancient pottery, stones, etc. without the backbreaking work of an actual dig in some remote location!
Here’s our journey:
We walked out of the Old City through the Lion’s Gate. The Lion’s Gate is on the northeast side of the Temple Mount.
The Lion's Gate
As you can see, we walked quite a long way from the Old City. It was fun, because we hadn’t ever been there before. We were exploring!
Temple Mount view from the salvage site
Temple Mount Antiquities Salvage
After you choose a black bucket full of rocks, you dump it out on the sifting screen, spray it down with water, and start sorting.
Mare looking for treasures!
Pottery, glass, bones (yes, bones), mosaic stones, special stones, and metal were the six categories that we sorted our buckets into.
Categories of treasures
In the pic below you can see the black buckets behind our instructor that had the dirt and rocks to sort.
Our Israeli instructor
Ok. Here is a little sample of what we found. First of all, mosaic stones used for paving and for art. Under the square mosaic stones is a bone I found. He said it was a knuckle bone, but they don’t know if it was human or animal. They send all bones to a bone specialist who can tell immediately even what kind of animal it is or if it is human. Our instructor said most of the bones are kosher animals that were used in temple sacrifices. I also found a square Roman nail that dated back to the Roman rule of Jerusalem during the time of Yeshua. The head of the nail is missing, but you can see it in the lower center of the pic. Pottery handles and bowl rims were among many other things we found. We didn’t really want to stop, but they closed at 2:00 and basically ran us out!
Some of the treasures that we found
Directly under the blue mosaic stones is a piece of black tile. The piece was chipped off of a tile like our instructor is showing below. (They actually found this tile in the piles of dirt and rock.) King Herod used these black tiles and also white tiles to line the floor of the temple. Think about it. This is the temple that Yeshua, Paul, John and Peter walked in. Wow! That’s all I have to say about that….
Second Temple floor tile
This rates right up at the top of the most interesting things I’ve done in Jerusalem. For more info on this salvage operation, click here.
Just wanted to say on this beautiful Rosh Hashana morning how grateful I am for my new website and also give a little glimpse into our exciting festivities for the holiday. (“Exciting” is a grandiose word for what we did, but we had fun!)
First of all I want to give a HUGE shout out to Daniel Dessinger for helping me get WordPress set up on my new website. He transferred all my blogging history from Blogspot into WordPress and got me set up on an awesome theme. It’s been a learning curve for me, but I truly think WordPress is a superior program to others out there. I just love the clean, solid look of it. Anyway….thank you so so much, Daniel for all you’ve done and are doing on my site. I’m forever grateful! Btw, he is a web marketer and blogger extraordinaire. Click here to visit his website. The links on the left of his site lead to his other blogs and interests. I wish I could download all his web & blogging knowledge into my brain….
We are in the second day of the 2-day Rosh Hashana holiday. Normally accustomed to celebrating with our large family, these pictures are a little comical to me. (I wasn’t feeling very well on Friday, so I didn’t put any effort into setting a nice table as you can tell.)
Shabbat candles and round challah
I like the pic above because of the candle light effect, but this one shows the challah better. (My tiny oven always gets the challah too brown, even when it’s covered with foil.)
After our day full of writing projects and internship-planning, here we are about to eat schnitzel and watch something on tvshack.net. Notice the external speakers attached to the laptop? This is the life!
Have I ever said I love living in Jerusalem?!
I absolutely LOVE this time of year for so many reasons. Here are a few:
- The mornings are crisp and cool.
- The long, hot, dry Israeli summer is drawing to a close.
- The fall Biblical feasts are rich with meaning and so fun!
- I only have five more weeks until I see my family and friends in Dallas!
- We don’t have to turn on a house fan all day long.
- The Feast of Sukkot (Tabernacles) causes me to reflect on the birth & soon-coming of Yeshua in a deeper way.
- Jewish Apple Cake on Rosh Hashana is SO good.
Tonight is the beginning of the Jewish civil new year. The biblical new year begins in the spring, but the civil new year begins tonight. Typically families celebrate by blowing the shofar, eating round loaves of challah bread sweetened with extra honey and maybe even raisins, and also serving apple slices dipped in honey….all to represent having a sweet new year. Many families also bake some variation of an apple/honey cake. It is delish! (The one I and my girls make every year is linked above.)
I pray your new year is filled with the sweetness of Abba’s presence and that you are filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding!
Images of Rosh Hashana:
Rabbi blowing shofar at the Western Wall
Round challah signifying the circle of life and the cycle of a new year
Shanah Tovah (Good Year)
Rosh Hashana
Just checking to see if you’re still with me! Have a great year!
Twenty-six years old…oh my goodness, it seems like just a few minutes ago we were driving to a park in Dallas to get Destiny’s bridal pictures made. What a fun time! God had done such a life-changing transformation in our little girl just a year before at Gateways Beyond in Cyprus. She came home a different person, washed clean, set free and in love with Yeshua. She also met the earthly love of her life in Cyprus. That’s why we were getting bridal pictures made that day!
Since I’m living in Israel, I don’t have access to all my old photos, but you can still get an idea of what a joy Destiny was as a little girl. Her name was definitely prophetic. She is destined for joy. She brings joy wherever she goes. The room lights up when she walks in. She is a fiery prophet who wants to see other young people set free. There’s no gray area with Des. It’s either right or wrong. And if it’s wrong, you shouldn’t be doing it! These kinds of children make life very interesting when you’re trying to raise them!
One year they all wore sailor outfits to church on Resurrection Day. They were the cutest kids, seriously. Everywhere we went people commented on how cute and well-behaved they were.
Destiny is standing beside me.
Here are the girls in our family on our way to a Tacky Party. They were so excited about dressing as ugly as possible!
She always had so much energy! When we took family road trips, we stopped frequently to give the kids time to run and play. She needed it just as much as the boys! All it took was for Dad to start humming the theme to “Man From Snowy River”, and off they went! (That’s kind of random. I don’t know what made me think of that!)
A drama awards night. She was kissing the frog (aka. brother, Austin).
I love my daughter. She is such a blessing to our family. She is the most loyal daughter, sister, and friend in the entire world. She lives to give. She’s always thinking of how she can bless someone. Her heart hurts deeply for orphans. She wants to make life easier for the poor and the hungry. She is such an amazing wife and mother. I’m so proud of the homemaker she has become. Her cooking skills put me to shame! She and Jon have recently sold their house and most of their belongings in order to move to Brussels, Belgium in November. God has made it very plain that He wants a house of prayer/missions base established in Brussels, the capital of the European Union. We are so excited about this, and eventually our whole family will have at least a small part to play in this. I’m grateful for the way she and Jonathan have listened to God’s voice in spite of the obvious sacrifices in making such a move. From the time she was a baby, I knew that her dad and I would be sowing her to the nations. That’s what gives me peace through it all.
The rest of my pictures were all taken two months ago in Israel. This has to be the best, most wonderful surprise of my entire life. I will remember it forever, and it has gotten me through these first six months of being away from the family. I still can’t believe they were here. It seems like a beautiful dream.
This was her first day here. My eyes are still red from crying!
One day we walked to the Old City and had shawermas and falafels for lunch. Destiny has this thing about onions and proceeded to pick her chicken shawerma apart looking for the little rascals.
Here we are in the prayer room one afternoon. I LOVED having my girls worship with us. There's nothing better in the whole world.
One morning we went up on the Temple Mount. This is her sister, Courtney, and friend, Rachel Baker. Women’s shoulders must be covered (Muslim rules), so that’s the reason for the shawls. This was the site of Solomon’s temple and also the second temple rebuilt in Ezra’s day. This is the actual place where Yeshua will set up His headquarters when He returns to Jerusalem! He is returning as King to rule and reign with us! (Sorry…this is Destiny’s birthday, not the time to explain the sites of Jerusalem…I get a little carried away.)
This is the family on the lookout right next to our apartment building. The Old City of Jerusalem is in the background.
My daughter is simply amazing, and life would be so boring without her! Happy Birthday, sweetie!
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