L'Shana Tova!

Well, I'm not swimming in the Nile or anything (Go RYAN!) but I did have a great last week. For all of you who have been keeping up with me, isn't it amazing that tomorrow is my last day of Ulpan?! Where did the time go? Well, to get you all caught up on my time in Israel, a few important things happened this last week. On Thursday, I went on a random trip down to a place called Kiryat Gat, which is a development town about 30 minutes away from Ber Sheva. A few people from the Ulpan were headed down there with a girl named Jenny. She is a volunteer in a program that is aimed towards providing a place for at-risk youth to learn and grow in a safe environment. These kids were in elementary school and they were great. We went down there to play with the kids and help with their Rosh Hashana party. There was a lot of singing and playing games. I even showed the kids a few card tricks! It was great. Although I have to say that it was a little humbling to have an 9 year old kid tell me the proper way to read a Hebrew song....But hey, at least Im trying. On that Friday was the beginning of Rosh Hashana. Now, I had been waiting for a long time to hear the shofars being blown all across the city, and to my dismay, I found out that they weren't going to blow the shofar because it was Shabbat! How sad. Anyway, I went to a conservative synagogue on Shabbat which my teacher of ulpan directed me to. After the service I went to the house of a family that attends that synagogue. I spent the whole day at their house and it was great. The dad of the family liked Jazz so we had a lot to talk about. He even had some Django music! All that to say, I had a good Rosh HaShana and life is going well. My final test is tomorrow and then I am all done with Ulpan. I will be studying like mad today, but I don't think I will have a problem on it. Yesterday was the Oral examination and I did really well on that. We had to prepare two 5 minute dialogues and improvise a little. Last night my class went to Ephrath (A settlement just inside the westbank) where my teacher lives. We had a great time. The view out there is just amazing. Although I didn't bring my camera I am relying on my classmates to e-mail me the pictures. So hopefully I will have a grand presentation when I get home, who knows. As we are nearing a time of reflection I just would like to say: I feel very blessed for my oppurtunity to do this Ulpan. I am still amazed at the turns my life has taken and I am so thankful to the Lord that he pulled me up from the depths. Thank you to you all who helped me and supported me and prayed for me, during this time and before. Even though I have my highs and lows I always know that I have people that care for me and that there is always a reason to smile and get up out of bed, day after day. I can never show enough gratitude or repay what has been given to me by the Lord, using you all as his vessels, but I will try to live my life to the fullest and follow him in all his ways. May I be as good a friend, brother, or father in the days to come as you all have been to me. Sorry for the generality of "you all" but the names are too great to list, and that is a blessing in an of itself. But I hope that this message of gratitude is received by those of you who know where I was and where I have come and have helped in that process. I say this in almost every post and I will say it many more times to come, thank you. I love you all!

May we be mindful of this coming Yom Kippur and look deep within ourselves and turn to the Lord our God with Repentance and Thanksgiving!



P.S. The second picture is of Machane Yehuda Market which is a very great place to shop for food. The picture to the right is of one out of thousands of pastry shops in Jerusalem. They are all over and they are so good! I am going to miss these the most I think.