BACK IN ISRAEL

On February 25, 2013,  Larry and I left Chicago helping host another Taylor University Alumni and Friends Tour to Israel.  Along with 49 other tour members from all over the US, we began another adventure in this amazing land.  For eight days we traveled all around the Galilee in the north then down to Jerusalem and the area of the Dead Sea and Masada being the farthest distance for us in the south.  What a trip!  Larry was the Bible teacher again and Pamela Suran, an Israeli and lover of the Messiah served as our Tour Guide.  They make quite a team.  We so enjoyed getting to know the people on the tour and felt very privileged to have several neighbors join us along with our Pastor and his wife and other friends from our church family and former Taylor employees I had worked with at the University.  Gene and Marylou Habecker, President of TU, and Ben and Lisa Sells, VP for Advancement, also helped host the tour.

What I hope to do in this blog is share highlights about what I have encountered in this new adventure. God continues to surprise me with great conversations and opportunities to meet amazing people.  Something different this time is that after the Tour left on March 6th Larry and I moved over to the Tantur Ecumenical Institute just outside of Bethlehem where we are staying for several weeks doing some research, writing projects, and touring.   Tantur is owned by the University of Notre Dame and allows scholars, study groups, and pilgrims to stay for short periods of time, or for sabbaticals.  Here's a photo of this 40-acre campus.  We have a wonderful room with easy access to the Library--three stories, a lovely dining room with delicious meals and the opportunity to meet fascinating people.  From the campus we can see over into Bethlehem and the Checkpoint.  We are only 300 meters away.  We take the bus into Jerusalem and can be there in 10 to 15 minutes, depending on traffic.  Last Sunday we visited the Anglican Christ's Church just inside Jaffa Gate.  We had worshipped there on previous trips and it was a beautiful service with a message from the pastor on the Prodigal Son.  This is the oldest evangelical protestant church in the Middle East.  As we found our seats on the bus into Jerusalem a young woman approached us and called us by name.  I was amazed to see Tania Kuttab standing there!  Tania graduated from Taylor in 2012 and is Palestinian.  She served as Vice President of the Student Body and helped launch a student organization on the Middle East.  We had met her on several occasions at Taylor events.  What a treat for us.  She is currently living in Bethlehem and working in East Jerusalem as a community organizer for an organization.  We hope to find out more as we plan to meet up together before we leave.  God continues to bring into our lives wonderful surprises.  While we were having lunch at Tantur a young woman came and sat down at our table and she made a comment about Larry's wearing a Taylor sweatshirt and then she said, "I'm a 2001 graduate of Taylor University and you were one of my professors."  Larry thought he had recognized her but was not sure.  Hannah Hemphill Barrett  is a PhD candidate from the University of Notre Dame and has studied off and on at Tantur and arrived this week to lead some Notre Dame undergrads on a pilgrimage during their spring break.  What fun for us to reconnect and learn more about her life.  She had spent one semester at Jerusalem University College (at Larry's urging) and fell in love with the Middle East.    We are so grateful for these contacts and reminders of the lives that have been influenced by Taylor University during over 30 years of service to the school.

We are enjoying beautiful sunshine and times to sit outside in the sun and relax, think, pray, journal, read and reflect on our recent tour.  I'm learning to use the drying rack on the balcony for all our laundry and getting acquainted with the staff who have been so friendly and helpful.  In the midst of this great experience the only cloud I'm feeling is concern for my dear mother.  She is hospitalized in California with pneumonia and atrial fibrillation plus congestive heart failure.  I spoke with her last night and the new heart meds are helping but her heart rate needs to drop even more.  My dear sister Dorothy is close by and keeping us informed about her condition.  Your prayers for Mom are appreciated.

In the days ahead I intend to share more with you about the people we have met, our projects and the sights we will be seeing.  I'm reading Henri Nouwen's book, The Genesee Diary. For seven months he lived in a Trappist Monastery and these are all excerpts from his diary.  His diary reveals a very human, vulnerable man with many insecurities and yet a heart that wanted to know God better.  I'm finding it insightful and a good read.  Here's Larry standing near the apartments for families at Tantur.  Our room is behind him on the second floor.