Pushing onward to the goal!

Never before in my life has the saying "Home is where the heart is" meant so much to me. With this post I hope to answer the questions people have raised in the comments section of my blog and also give a brief insight into how I feel at this point in my journey. I hope I remember what questions were asked. The one most of you have been asking is in regards to the atmosphere around here with the war going on. The honest truth is that I can hardly tell that anything is happening. I hear bits and pieces about peoples opinion on what is going on, but aside from that life is going on as normal. One could ask the question how do you define normal? It is definately not normal in terms of American life. The security here is unbelievably tight. For the most part whenever you enter a mall, or resteraunt, or shop, or any public area, you have to go through a metal detector or security guard. It is definately a different world over here. To give one opinion on the war that I heard, I will relate a story told by the manager of the hostel I am staying at. He told me about the war in 1967, how he was a boy and enjoyed watching the bombs flying overhead and collecting the shells. It was like 4th of july. Then he told of when he was 17 and lived on a kibbutz, and during that war (don't remember which one it was) he had to run the telephones at the office and get the calls telling of the older boys who had died. Through all of that he said he has never been for war, except in this case. He said it is a necessity, that this is the first time in his whole life that he has ever been for war. All that aside, to address the question of food, it is great! I love Falafel. It is definately expensive to eat out at resteraunts but there are so many of them and they are all really good. There is a market called Machaneh Yehuda market where you can get things really cheap. I am definately going to do the majority of my shopping there. I hope that answers most of the questions and if there is anymore pressing inquiries, just make a comment and I would love to get to it. Now, as to how I feel, I must be honest and say that I am a little dejected. I had all these high hopes about the Land and for the most part, all of them have been crushed. It is a good feeling to actually know first hand what it is like here, but that knowledge is a little overwhelming for me. In America, the night life is hidden for the most part, which is not the case here. Right out my front door are bars, clubs, and people looking to party. Being that I am by myself over here, I am very anxious to meet people and make friends. The problem is that the people I meet smoke dope and really like to drink and party. This is definately not my scene. So my hope is to get in contact with more believers in my area and I really hope that on campus I will find a good group of people. As the saying goes, bad company corrupts good morals. I have no intention of falling in with this crowd, but I can definately feel it beating me down. Last Erev Shabbat I went to Rabbi Mochli's, which was a good experience. For any who aren't familiar with the name, Mr. Mochli and his family take in people from all over to share their Erev Shabbat meal with them. It was particularly crowded this time because there was a lot of people from the north who came down to get away from the war. All together though it was fantastic. The best part however was walking home in the middle of the street. The town really does shut down on Sabbath. All that to say, the highlight of my day is looking at my blog to see all the comments from my family and friends. The encouragement that you all give me is a blessing that I will never forget and it is the hope of returning to all of you that keeps me going. There is so much more on my mind but I will save it for another post. I know you all lead busy lives, so I really appreciate the time you take out to connect with me on my blog. Here are a few more pictures that I have taken over the past couple days.

With much love in Yeshua,
Jesse

P.S. I met a man from France who just arrived in Israel about two days ago. I had the pleasure of meeting him on the day he arrived. The significant thing about this man is that he walked to Jerusalem from France! He said it was about 7,500 kilometers. I can't even imagine. I was just so thankful that I was able to be here when he achieved his goal.

This is a view from Masada, looking out to the dead sea.















On the right is me with a stack of money from all around the world. It belongs a guy that I met who has been travelling for 8 months.