Ulpan Mania

Shalom m’Yerushalayim,

So far, this week has been pretty quiet. Ulpan is getting intense- we have studies for six days this week. Still, it hasn’t stopped people from going out to have a good time. Last night some friends and I went out to King George Street, which is in Western Jerusalem. If any part of Jerusalem is American, it is the area around King George and Ben Yehuda Streets. There is a McDonald’s, a Levi’s, and about anything else one can think of to make Americans feel at home. I’ve gotten ice cream- the same as at home- from McDonald’s more than once.

I got hooked up to the internet in my dorm room yesterday- something for which I’m incredibly thankful. I feel much more connected to the world and to home, but at the same time I feel like I’m a sissy American who can’t go very long without checking his email and the news. Still, I’ve downloaded a program, Skype, that allows me to talk for free, telephone-style, to other people with the same program and for about 2 cents a minute to people back home on landlines. The internet really is a great thing.

Yesterday afternoon, me, Josh (my good and similarly minded middle-American friend from Montana), Elliot (a very bright Catholic theology major from Chicago, with whom I have plenty to talk about), Leah, and Lee took a walk through the Kidron Valley up to the Mount of Olives. Along the way, we stopped and saw the Tomb of Mary, the Grotto of the Garden of Gethsemane, and the big Jewish cemetery facing Jerusalem on the Mount of Olives. We watched a beautiful sun set below the horizon over Western Jerusalem- it was quite a sight to see with the Old City and all. I’ve put up some pictures from the walk at http://georgetown.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2008083&l=fe023&id=1407506 . Afterwards, we had dinner at a Palestinian Pizza Place in the Old City. We were the owner’s only patrons while we were there, and boy did he treat us kindly. The hospitality here really is something. Even though I’m sure he was motivated by the prospect of free-flowing shekels, I feel like I walked away from the restaurant having made a new friend. I ordered shish kabob- which turned out be patties of meat made from sheep and spices. Still, it was good after a long walk.

I’ve been through the Orthodox neighborhoods a few times now on my way to other parts of the city. I really love looking at the faces of the Heredim (the ultra-religious) because they remind me so much of people I know back home. I see little kids running around on the street and mothers walking down the road with their arms full of groceries. It really breaks my heart to know that these folks don’t know Christ. Mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins -- zealous for the God of Jacob, and yet they’ve missed the mark. Whole communities – an entire nation – blind to the truth and hope of the Gospel. I pray that I’ll see the day when, as Paul says in Rom. 11:26-27, “All Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this [is] my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.”

Well, I’ll be going. Have a great week, all.