Day 8 was a travel day from Jerusalem to our next home for a few days in Tiberias. On the way we hit up the Dead Sea for some salty floating action, organic mud baths and all. Next was a water baptism in the Jordan. Please excuse the occultish white robes, they made us wear them.

Jenny, the pretty one in the b&w photo has a killer testimony. The short, very short story goes that while studying for the Bar exam, yes the Bar exam, Jenny rented a beach house for the summer. Within that time, through sunsets and unrecognisable circumstances she could no longer deny that there was a God. On her journey, the Lord told her to wait to be baptised in the Jordan even when she had no potential plans to go to Israel. Well, well.

Be sad that you do not know Mango

Day 7, like most days, was heart opening. God’s plan for Israel can be a difficult one to reckon. “God has given them a spirit of stupor, eyes that they should not see and ears that they should not hear, to this very day.” (Romans 11:8) God has turned His face for a purpose, one we cannot fully grasp. This was all divulged to us once again by the Calvary Chapel Jerusalem pastor- whose highlighter annihilated Bible you can find within my pictures.  There at CCJ, you can find Assya, a Holocaust survivor who gave her life to the Lord one year ago. It is unheard of for Holocaust survivors to do so because Nazi’s tortured you on the weekdays and went to church on weekends. The word Christianity is taboo. You can find Assya at the end of the pictures.

I love and pray for you all. Enjoy the wackiest and my most favorite images as I scoured the church/warehouse while my team worked very hard in practical ways:

 

Jericho

We got to experience a bit more of the racial dissension when we took an impromptu trip. Jericho is Palestinian territory where Jews are not allowed, a more hostile area but certainly not unapproachable. We met up with a contact we made along our Jerusalem journey. Our first stop was cleaning a school that teaches English to young ones and passively teaches about Jesus. An amazing, wonderful, beautiful ministry in the midst of a hurting land. Here are their faces:

The day got so much better as we began simply picking up trash on a busy Jericho road. We made a small dent in the waste system- a trench next to the sidewalk where trash and brush is thrown. And potentially made a larger dent on the city of Jericho. Just by passerby’s and word of mouth- a couple hours in, we had the equivalent to what would be a Vice Mayor of Jericho inquiring and thanking us. Not only that, but our bus driver couldn’t even help but get out of the bus and help as well.

Our bus driver

The “Vice Mayor”

The Green Family had an opportunity to check out the German Colony, a Jewish community right outside of the Old City, with a couple team members from SEND Ministries (davidsherrill.blogspot.com). It resembled a quaint European town more than anything, except for the Hebrew writing of course. There Madi had a sweet talk with a Jewish-American immigrant, you can read more about that in our team’s blog: lolisrael.wordpress.com

The walk home was so beautiful, mostly because we ran into a Holocaust survivor named Motke. Also a fine artist with killer charm.

I love you all, so much!

Motke

The Green Family Ladies

Day two and three were incredible- eye opening. Unfortunately, I’m not permitted to write about it because the subject matter is too sensitive to post publicly. Nonetheless, I can tell you that I was able to spend time listening to missionaries from in and around Jerusalem. I have yet to really grasp even a small glimpse of God’s heart toward His people. Not to mention, my knowledge toward prophesy and His promises for His people is glum as well. What I do know is that fulfilled prophesy was occurring right in front of me. Isaiah 57:14 says, “… Prepare the way, take the stumbling block out of the way of my people.” And what might that stumbling block be? Their inability to lay down their law, accept Christ as the New Covenant and admitting that you missed your own Messiah is a very large stumbling block saturated in pride and self-righteousness. (Romans 10:3-4) These men- these families are directly fulfilling exactly what God said- preparing the way and [attempting] to take the stumbling block out of the way of His people. The task is more than difficult. Commend them and pray for them.

Enjoy some pictures of the team and Arab Quarter:

A Communicating God

After being interrogated by El Al Airlines employee- a five foot nothing, feisty Israeli woman protecting the Holy Homeland and a fairly easy fifteen hour non-stop flight- I was in Israel. Mind you, for the second time in my life. Nuts. I do not deserve it, but the Lord is clearly moving. The feeling did not fully hit until we approached the Old Jerusalem City, walked through the Damascus Gate and right into the Arab Quarter, where we are currently staying at a hostel. The sun was setting and Shabbat was approaching. The Arab quarter quickly turned from an over-populated, maze-like alleys filled with vendors of sorts to an empty skeleton lined with cement and steel doors painted beautiful colors.

At the hostel, we immediately dove into the book of John. This wasn’t just any study, this was a study held on the rooftop of our hostel, overlooking the city of Jerusalem. It is an incredible, ambient view but that night God’s Word was able to perfectly illuminate what our eyes beheld.

John 1:1 tell us that, “In the beginning was the Word…” So we know that God has been communicating Himself since the beginning. Now in verse 3 it says, “All things were made through Him (Jesus) and without Him nothing was made that was made” And by that we know that God used every little thing that Jesus did- what he spoke, how he spoke, what he did- everything, to communicate God and His character here on earth. If all things were made through Jesus- than we know that God is communicating Himself and His character through all creation as well. Through everything! You may not be in Israel right now (don’t cry), but God is speaking always. Allow yourself to hear.

I love you all and enjoy the pictures of my first day.

Israeli Soldiers

Orthodox and kids

A very quieted Arab Quarter

Rooftop Devo

Wailing Wall and written prayers

Steve Scientology

A couple Fridays ago, my HSE family and I went to the trolley station downtown. Close by is a high traffic Starbucks that mainly caters to the business world and its people. We were immediately attracted to a french bulldog tied to an outside table. The little pup lead us to Steve. In a matter of a few minutes, the four of us had gained the trust of Steve. Normally, Steve had admitted, he would send any Christian right on their way had they engaged him any other way. But sometimes divine moments can outweigh anyone’s common sense.

Steve claimed to have dedicated 35 years to a non-denominational church. Burn after burn and long story short, Steve had had enough. He left the church, divorced his wife, switched his religion to Scientology, spent the last couple years doing humanitarian work around the country, now back in San Diego to make some money, found out his prodigal son was now part of an intentional Christian community, resembling a commune and that our conversation with him was probably the answer to that son’s prayers. Now Steve is a very intelligent man and we all concluded quickly that he could talk his way in and out of any situation. It wasn’t until Reza, the one in the shades, brilliantly painted a beautiful yet simple analogy for Steve that anything any of us had to say resonated.

Reza gathered that Steve’s favorite guitarist was Jerry Garcia. This is what he had to say, “Now imagine it is Jerry Garcia’s last performance and you are in the front row. You are focusing and meditating on the beautiful and ingenious rifts coming out of this man’s guitar. It is by far the best moment in your musical journey. And then, all of the sudden the crowd does something so catastrophic that the performance is ruined and over.” “Like when the crowd pulled down the fence at the last Grateful Dead concert!” Steve interrupted. “Exactly! Now do you hate Jerry Garcia because of what the crowd did to ruin your favorite performance, your musical moment?” Reza finished.  ”Of course not.” Steve replied. We all sighed in understanding and unison.

How often do we allow our physical and human religion with people  shape our perspective on God? On any spiritual level, we can so easily allow how God reflects off sinful people shape who God is rather than allowing His own word shape who He is. It is when we can allow God to be God by His word that we can truly experience Him. The church may have burned Steve, but did God? So why is Steve now a self-proclaimed Scientologist?

 

OB

Every Friday, my classmates and I have the opportunity to engage people in different communities around San Diego. A few weeks ago we went to Ocean Beach. OB is highly populated by old San Diegan natives, hippies, SDSU students (definitely not natives) and the homeless. Here are some of the people I met and one that I did not:

The Unapproachable Man

The Pier and Its People

Lawrence Squishy Face

Corth Narolina

I spent about 8 days of my life in North Carolina this last July.

Here is what I did: Spirit filled road trip from Orlando to Charleston, attempted a 3am long board sesh in the streets of downtown Charleston, admired the new hotel carpet, late night chat, games,  attended the Early clan reunion, emptily threatened to conquer King’s Mountain, threw some dice and passed some quarters, impromptu lake visit — diving board, small children, water snakes, deep Southern accents and adventure all included, drove to Holden Beach (16 pit stops), went to the beach, sat on balconies, more games,  ate a lot of food, died my hair and laughed for hours. 

North Carolina was the first of many stitches in my side after beseeching God to take the thorn out. It was the beginning of a regenerated foul heart condition, heart perspective rather. It was weird, yet blessed.  

Here are a few of the faces that belong to the People of my community:

The Great Enthusiast: George Schiller

Downtown Charleston

 

King’s Mountain

 

Danielle on our double date with Tom and Ed

 

Tom and Ed

 

Mijanne finally got her braces taken off

 

Yorc and Mother of the Year

 

A & J

 

Proud moment in baby photography

 

 

Holden Beach

 

 

 

 

 

To Blog or Not to Blog? That is no Longer the Question.

When mulling over the idea of starting a blog, a good friend of mine, who was considering my best interests told me, “Jessica, just journal.” She was right. But with a three week outreach trip around the corner and a need for prayer, I can no longer resist.  

Here I am world of the blog, will you be my friend? 

Much like other Bloggers (is that a bloglitically correct term?), I thought I would start mine off on a vulnerable note. Here are some pictures from my first photo assistant job at the wedding of Bronte and Anthony.