This Is Not A Dream......This Is My Life

 

Dear Mom and Dad, Can I keep Him?!

I just had the realization today…I have been living in Jerusalem for 3 months! I only have one precious month left. I am trying to take advantage of EVERY second I have here, which means I have not slept much nor blogged. 

Whether it be venturing to Bethlehem to see the birth place of Christ, “Cha-Cha ing” in a JC talent-show, waking up at 6am to go play sports out in the city, going to a Jerusalem Luau, traveling inside the Herodion, singing my heart out in a solo performance for our Jerusalem Branch, discovering the charity of the people here, or exploring the hidden beauties within the Old City, I am determined to live this experience up. 

You only live life once; you might as well live it, right?

Tomorrow at approximately 5:30am, we are all departing on another 10 day-"vacation on steroids”-trip to Galilee…I am SO very excited to study the life of our Savior and physically be where He walked and performed so many miracles. 

I still wake up each morning grateful that this is not a dream…I am really here! 

Galilee, here I come!

Take My Mind and My Blood

 

After DAYS of studying and HOURS of taking finals… the center decided to celebrate with taking a pint of every students’ blood in a little Blood Drive :) Talk about exhaustion. We had around 40 students donate (broke previous semesters records) and only one girl passed out. Party. 

(Josh, the boy above,giving a little moral support)

 

But Seriously: Cory (one of my most favorite people here) pulled me aside and said, “Do you realize where and why we are donating blood? We are on the Mt. of Olives and we are giving it in order to save those who are dying in Israel. Do you realize who else gave blood on this exact mountain so that we all might live?”  

L-O-V-E

Dearest Family I have something I would like to tell you,

I LOVE IT HERE!

I LOVE LEARNING!

I LOVE DISCOVERING WHAT THIS WORLD HAS TO OFFER!

I LOVE SOLIDYFING MY TESTIMONY 

I LOVE DISCOVERING NEW CULTURES AND MEETING NEW PEOPLE

I AM GROWING 

I AM CHANGING

I AM DISCOVERING NEW TALENTS

I AM DISCOVERING MY TRUE POTENTIAL

I AM LIVING LIFE

THANK YOU FOR ALLOWING ME TO HAVE THIS OPPORTUNITY:

THIS MEANS MORE TO ME THAN ANYTHING I COULD HAVE DREAMED OF!

*I LOVE YOU*

I WILL SEE YOU IN A MONTH!

PrInCesS BoSmA

 

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to go to a Jerusalem Preschool…My heart melted on the spot as I walked into one of the classrooms where ten little angels with big brown eyes looked up at me, anxiously waiting to play. 

They are in the process of learning English and we were there to help them…Hello, Cat, Dog, and Thank-You make up the majority of their English Vocabulary at the moment ;)  Surprisingly, not being able to communicate was only a minor detail… For Laughter and Smiling make up a universal language.

  

Jessie, Sarah, and I played for almost an hour with them.  I am not going to lie…we desperately thought of every children’s game or song we had ever sung or heard growing up.  From “Do As I Am Doing” to “Old McDonald Had a Farm,” the children anxiously participated in everything. They LOVED every second of it. We were able to recall many of the songs and games that we had learned 10 years prior. Miracle.  By the end, they all started mauling us, fighting for attention.  It was pretty much a giant mosh-pit of children. They taught us how to sing Duck, Duck, Goose in Arabic. High Fives were also a favorite. 

I love the people here. 

Regurgitating Reality

One of my highlights this week was our visit to Bethlehem University to talk to Palestinian students our age attending college in Bethlehem. (Our Palestinian Professor-above-took us to meet his other students.) There was a question and answer session and time to socialize.  Bethlehem University is made up of Catholic, Greek Orthodox, and Muslim students.  74% of the students are girls due to the high passing rate of women on entrance exams.  2500 apply and only 500 are accepted. It is extremely competitive to say the least.

Neat Facts I learned:

These youth chill, talk, watch American movies, play soccer, shop, and get on Facebook just like we do. These students were so down to earth and eventhough we come from drastically different backgrounds and cultures, I could have talked for hours with them; We did not want to leave.

Singe dating is not appropriate in the culture here, everyone goes out in groups.  The Parents are extremely involved in engagements. 

They wear their wedding rings on their right hands.

Many get married around 30, in order to have a secure foundation for a family.

THE MOST INTERESTING THING TO ME:

I have spent the past two weeks studying in depth for my Palestinian and Judaism Finals (hence no blog posts for some time.) I can't count how many hours I spent sprawled out on the floor, desperately trying to grasp onto the history and principles of these peoples and their various beliefs.

(Secretly, I enjoyed discovering for myself this previously-foreign world.)  

I am slowly grapsed onto the many concepts that make up this complicated Palestinian-Israeli conflict that consummes the thoughts and lives of millions.

Guess What?

What I studied and "regurgited" on the finals is not a list of useless  facts and made up history,  It is life and reality for most. My test was these students' lives. 

If you asked a typical college student what they struggle with on a daily basis, many will respond: balancing a social life with academics and a job.(Which is hard nonetheless)

Here is what these students replied:

 Challenge: These Palestinian students cannot go in Israeli areas.  Palestinian areas do not have airports so they must travel to Jordan to travel=most have never and will never leave this country. It is extremely difficult to cross check-points to go to Jerusalem (25 minutes away) let alone Jordan.  It takes an entire day to get a permit to cross the borders and that permit lasts one day.  Students from Jerusalem, Hebron, or any other city have to wake up at 5am to be at school on time.  (It takes them two hours to cross the borders.) Many students are denied schooling due to their location. Places that I have traveled to in the past week are places these students have never been.....and they LIVE HERE!

These students desperately want peace. Many participate in NGO organizations where they communicate and negotiate with fellow Israeli students. Most of the students aspire to change the course of this internal conflict through pursuing an education and obtaining authority which would enable them to.

The history of the Palestinians lay in the hands of thier youth-

Young Adults My Age!

Favorite Quote of the Session:

 “Education is not preparation for life, it is life itself.”

This is the wall/fence/barrier that surrounds Bethlehem today.

Powerful Messages are portrayed on the walls in graffiti.

According to the Israeli authorities the fence/wall is "a defensive measure, designed to block the passage of terrorists, weapons and explosives into the State of Israel...."

Close to 90% of the route of the fence/wall is on Palestinian land inside the West Bank, encircling Palestinian towns and villages and cutting off communities and families from each other and separating Palestinians from their places of work and education and other essential services.

Each side has a different story.





My Dearest Loved Ones...

  
Dearest Loved Ones,

I am aware some of you are hurting, some of you are enduring your own "Gethsemane s," others are emotionally and physically exhausted as they endure a strenuous life, and some are simply praying to have the strength to wake up the next morning to conquer another day. I think about many of you and sit in awe at what you are overcoming. 
If there is one thing that I have learned since being here in Jerusalem, it is the Lord Lives. He knows us so intimately and has felt our deepest pains in the darkest hours as well as our greatest joys.
He suffered alone, so we may not have to. 
He will never let us fall when we trust in Him.
(Isaiah 41:10-13) 

"In all the history of the world there have been many great and wise souls, many of whom claimed special knowledge of God. But when the Savior rose from the tomb, He did something no one had ever done. He did something no one else could do. He broke the bonds of death, not only for Himself but for all who have ever lived—the just and the unjust. 

I think of how dark that Friday was when Christ was lifted up on the cross.

 

On that Friday the Apostles were devastated. Jesus, their Savior—the man who had walked on water and raised the dead—was Himself at the mercy of wicked men. They watched helplessly as He was overcome by His enemies.

On that Friday the Savior of mankind was humiliated and bruised, abused and reviled.

I think that of all the days since the beginning of this world’s history, that Friday was the darkest.

The despair did not linger because on Sunday, the resurrected Lord burst the bonds of death. He ascended from the grave and appeared gloriously triumphant as the Savior of all mankind.

And in an instant the eyes that had been filled with ever-flowing tears dried. The lips that had whispered prayers of distress and grief now filled the air with wondrous praise, for Jesus the Christ, the Son of the living God, stood before them as the firstfruits of the Resurrection, the proof that death is merely the beginning of a new and wondrous existence.

Each of us will have our own Fridays—those days when the universe itself seems shattered and the shards of our world lie littered about us in pieces. We all will experience those broken times when it seems we can never be put together again. We will all have our Fridays.

But I testify to you in the name of the One who conquered death—Sunday will come. In the darkness of our sorrow, Sunday will come.

Because of the life and eternal sacrifice of the Savior of the world, we will be reunited with those we have cherished.

On that day we will know the love of our Heavenly Father. On that day we will rejoice that the Messiah overcame all that we could live forever." -Elder Wirthlin (Sunday Will Come)

This place has solidified my testimony of Jesus Christ and His divine power. 

He Lives.

3/5/11 Today I went to the Garden Tomb.  It was a beautiful Sabbath afternoon. A group of students and I started to sing hymns in the garden.  People from various countries trickled in to hear and join in.  Hymn books randomly dispersed, we all united to sing for one purpose...Jesus Christ.    I sat next to a girl, Maria, and her father. She spoke very little English yet I felt a unique bond with her.  She loved, "How Great Thou Art." 
We counted over 5 languages spoken and even more countries represented.

 The red blossoming flowers just outside of the tomb symbolize the joy and beauty of this sight, for there is life.  It is a hopeful sight to see the empty tomb.  

I yearn for the day to run up to Him and embrace Him
To feel His hands
To look up into His familiar face and see His smile, for I know it will light up my entire soul

Passover Seder

Passover Seder: a Jewish ritual feast that marks the beginning of the Jewish holiday, Passover.  The Seder is a ritual performed by a community or by multiple generations of a family.It involves a retelling of the story of the liberation of the Israelites from slavery in ancient Egypt. 

(Book of Exodus in the Bible)

Traditionally, families and friends gather together to read the text of the Haggadah, an ancient work derived from the Mishnah. The Haggadah contains the narrative of the Israelite exodus from Egypt, special blessings and rituals, commentaries from the Talmud, and special Passover songs.

(We all participated in performing various songs. The songs were extremely high and not to mention in Hebrew. I am not going to lie...I was laughing uncontrollably, like a little kid in church. Hilarious.)

Customs Include: drinking four cups of wine (which by the end of the night, I did not want to drink a drop more of grape juice ever again), eating matza and partaking of symbolic foods placed on the Passover Seder Plate.

The Seder is performed the same way by Jews all over the world.

 

kippahs anyone?

Haggadah

(Side Note: We read books from right to left here)

Did I mention it was 3 hours long...and you don't eat the meal until the last hour!!!!