ISRAEL - Day 3

It has been amazing to be able to see first hand the land where so much of biblical history took place. It definitely makes the events of the Bible not only come to life, but make sense! We will be adding pictures so that you can get a glimpse of what we are seeing, but today we can't download any photos.
We have so far spent 2 days walking all around the Old City of Jerusalem, it is a very interesting city full of different (and always clashing) cultures... with tons of tourists from all over the world. I think per capita it has the most churches!
Today we hopped on a bus that took us to the top of the Mount of Olives and then we walked the likely path Jesus would have made his triumphal entry. Here the Christians meet on the Sabbath as it is a day the city shuts down and they couldn't miss work to gather on Sundays, so we went to Jerusalem Assembly where we sang and heard the word in both Hebrew and English. (Pastor is the son of Zvi.)
After that we drove six miles to Bethlehem, had shwarmas for lunch and looked at the "idolatry" that marks the supposed site of Jesus' birth. Very ornate - reminds me of a lot of churches and shrines I've seen in South America.
The most amazing thing we saw today was the Herodion - a few miles southeast of Bethlehem. The palace fortress built by Herod the Great. In ruins, but still an impressive structure that includes an olympic size swimming pool!

Check back in a few days and hopefully we'll have some pictures!

Christmas Potluck

Last Sunday we had a Christmas Potluck party at our church. It was a nice way to celebrate Christ's first coming as a community - both English and Spanish assemblies together. Here are a few pics of my family there

... Mum hanging out with friends ...

... Jon and Dad leading Christmas carols ...

... and Bill enjoying the food ...

Finals Week

Technically this week is final exam week at Biola/Talbot, but fortunately for me my classes have already ended, so I am done! I still have papers to grade but it feels nice to not have to go to anymore classes nor do any more homework myself. The next couple of weeks might be a bit crazy with Christmas celebrations as well as preparing to leave for 3 weeks in Israel. (Speaking of which, I do plan to keep a journal of what we see and do in Israel on this blogspot while we are there - from what I've heard there will be internet cafes available where I'll be able to share with you all what we are up to!)

Here are two pictures that capture highlights of this past week. The first is a picture taken by Shawn at Talbot... we wanted one to put in our latest newsletter. (If you didn't get one please send me a note and I'll pop one in the mail for you.) We took it in front of what I call the "Talbot" bushes.

I took this picture of my brother at church today... we were witnessing the baptism of some people from both the English (1 young man) and Spanish(2 women) groups. Afterwards we had a potluck lunch together.

I miss these guys

... because they are far, far away in the beautiful, but frigid land of Siberia. Novoberserk to be precise (actually that should be spelt Novosibirsk).

This is Misha Nesbitt... my 4.5 year old nephew.

This is Sydney Nesbitt... my 1.5 year old niece - what a sweetie.

(Deb: How do you spell her middle name?)

The Fifth Wheel

My brother, Jon, was hilarious last Saturday. We had invited a dating couple over for dinner along with him, so he showed up at our door wearing both a tshirt and sweatshirt with this sign on it:

Thanksgiving Weekend

This Thanksgiving weekend was a very pleasant one... the weather was beautiful, we enjoyed making memories with friends and family and we rested from the normal everyday routines.
On Thursday we had a traditional Thanksgiving meal with Ang's Mum, Dad and brother, friends Bonnie and Bruce from South Africa, and friends Julian, Diana and Vivian from Colombia. In the afternoon we worked off the extra calories with a stroll along the Long Beach Shoreline.
On Friday we went to the San Diego Zoo with Julian, Diana and Vivian. It was fun to hang out there and marvel at all the different exotic animals on display! I made a little photo collage of our day there:

Green Pepper

Nothing very eventful has happened today, so I thought I would show you one of my small accomplishments for this semester.
All my recent ancestors had (or have) major green thumbs and amazing gardens of both beautiful flowers and productive plants... but somehow the green genes missed me! Where we are now living is my first home with a back door and the option to have a small herb garden, so you can imagine the pleasure I felt when my wee plant produced a very edible green pepper!

Beginning...

I've been thinking about starting one of these spots for a few months... so here it is. Please come back and visit when you want to see what we've been up to! Hopefully I'll update this blog on a weekly basis!

This is our most recent photo together... it reminds us of a special weekend (Oct 1, 2005) in Prescott, AZ - we went to Karen Oliver's wedding and at the same time celebrated our 7th anniversary! It was so beautiful and was a wonderful, peaceful escape from the craziness of everyday life of grad. school in L.A.