beautiful and sad moments

I just had my last dinner with the Iraqi families. I will miss them.

Here are my last few days with Shevet Achim in Jerusalem (and Tel Aviv) ...
On Wednesday Amy, a shevet volunteer, and I went to the Jordan border to pick up new patients and a missionary couple from Iraq. The whole trip was quite crazy, we got lost several times, we had to wait for hours at the border until everyone was able to go through passport/visa control...on our way back through the desert as we were listening to Johnny Cash I couldn't help but smile at everything that is going on.

Thursday morning: I went up on the temple mount- it was so peaceful up there. Amazing.
Later on the missionary couple (he is from Iraq, she is from the US) and I went to the Wolfson hospital in Tel Aviv to meet up with the other Shevet workers and the Iraqi families (they had gone there early in the mornig). It is so good to be able to talk to the missionaries and to hear their stories. To see our children and for more details about our day at the hospital, check out the blogs at http://www.shevet.org/childrennowinisrael.html. Our kids who are here: Shanaw, Shkar, Hevi and Sara.

Friday: spent time with the Iraqi families. Had very good conversations with a Christian couple from Baghdad, they are here for several reasons. They have gone through so much, lots of hurt, fear and pain. But there is hope, but that is difficult for them to see. Also, one of the fathers here started talking to me yesterday about what I believe and what he believes. The conversation was very interesting- even the way it came about. The Lord is working and it is good. The things that I am hearing, seeing and sensing feel pretty intense.

Saturday: met a friend at the Shabbat service here in Jerusalem. I had met and seen her last eight years ago. We had coffee together, shared briefly about our last 8 years and our prayer requests- all in 1 1/2 hours. So good and amazing!
In the afternoon I went to Tel Aviv to go to the CC Tel Aviv outreach. They had a Christian rock band from New Zealand play right down by the beach. They were really good, but unfortunately they had technical problems and couldn't play for very long. It was great seeing everyone again. It was funny though that I really missed the kids from Shevet at the same time.

Sunday: went to the Wolfson Hospital in Tel Aviv with our families. Two of the girls got their echos done, everyone got their TB results. We had a great time playing together as we were waiting...pictures and details should be on the shevet blog tomorrow...

Tomorrow morning, Monday,... will be on my way to Jordan.