Countdown: A Very Full Week! ... by Hannah

This past week has been so full. We celebrated Passover on Monday afternoon/evening, and were blessed to have two other families join us - one family is local, and the other family came from Arkansas (and the husband's mother came up from Georgia!). We had a blessed and meaningful time as we celebrated our gratitude for the ultimate Passover Lamb - the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29).

Our friends from Arkansas left on Monday afternoon, and on Wednesday evening more visitors arrived - five sisters from Maine! We had begun corresponding by email a month or two ago, and this was the first time we had met them. They were able to stay until this morning, and we had such a wonderfully blessed time with them. I was especially excited, because they were able to help get this issue of Shining Stars Magazine published. This process usually takes our family a day or two, but with their help, we were able to get everything assembled, labeled, and stamped within a couple hours!  Below are a couple pictures from the assembly plant at the international publishing headquarters for Shining Stars Magazine ... in other words, our dining room.

left to right: Sam, Sarah, Lydia, Susanna, and Sharon

left to right: Shauna, me, Samantha, and Sarah

Some other dear friends of ours came to spend the night on Erev Shabbat (Friday evening), and left yesterday morning. Brother Lloyd and Sister Carolyn have been an incredible blessing in our lives for many years. They anointed Tommy and me, in preparation for our trip to Israel, and blessed us, and shared some words of wisdom. It was a very encouraging time, and we are so thankful they were able to make it!

This morning we said good-bye to our five sisters (sisters in Messiah!), and are once again in preparation mode.

left to right: Samantha, Susanna, Sharon, me, Shauna and Lydia, Ruthie, Sarah, Sarah, and Abigail

 Ruthie has been sewing lately - here are a few pictures of skirts she has made:

I really like this skirt!

Sarah, trying to give an idea of its size.

Plenty of room for the spin factor (as one friend said!)

Lydia - she was so cute as she tried to spin in it!

This is another skirt she sewed ... I was able to get this fabric for $1/yard!

We still have some more sewing to do, and plan to work on that over the next couple of days. Tommy and I are also still trying to find a camera! We think we know which one we want, but I can't remember the name of it! He has been handling most of the camera research, which is really nice since it makes one less thing for me to do :)

I was talking to a friend the other day, and she said; "So are you all packed and ready to go?"

My answer?

"NO WAY!"

I guess I'm pretty bad about procrastination, and usually do things at the last minute. We haven't even gotten our suitcases out, but we do have our backpacks!

Tommy's is on the right, and mine is on the left. Actually it's not really mine, but my sweet little brother Sam has offered to let me use it :)

Speaking suitcases, when we went to Israel as a family in 2005, we flew on British Airways and they were allowing each passenger to check in two pieces of luggage ... and the weight limit was 70 pounds per bag! We are now only allowed one piece of luggage, and it can only be 44 or 50 pounds, depending on the airline :(

Anyway, when we went as a family, everyone gave me a hard time about my suitcase being so full! It was packed out - huge! So we got to Israel, and our friends were helping us to load our luggage into the bus they had rented to take us home. There was a man from Finland there, and he carries my suitcase up, and turns to our Israeli friend and says; "Gadol!"

That means "big" in Hebrew, and I almost laughed out loud! It wasn't just my family who thought my suitcase was huge :)

In closing, I want to ask you to pray for the Livnat family in Israel. The husband and father was killed last night on his way home from praying at Joseph's tomb in Shechem, erroneously called Nablus by many. The Palestinian Authority Police (trained and armed by the USA), opened fire on their group ... Ben-Yosef Livnat was killed (a father of four children) and several other people were wounded.

In the words of Psalm 122:6, I encourage each of you to pray for the peace of Jerusalem and all of Israel. May we prosper who love her.

P.S. Don't forget to join the giveaway in the post below! Everyone is welcome to enter for a chance to win a gift from Israel. Just leave us a comment on this post.

Countdown: Is It Only Three Weeks? ... by Tommy

Wow, I get more and more excited the closer we get to our departure date. This past week has been a hectic one. Not only have we been getting ready to go to Israel; we have been preparing for friends to come to our home and celebrate Pesach (Passover) with us on Monday the 18th of this month.

Pesach is wonderful time to remember about the first Pesach. When the children of Israel were slaves in Egypt, they basically had no hope of things changing, and then YHWH sent Moses to lead them out of slavery and bondage. But it was not easy to convince Pharaoh to let them go. It took one disaster after another, until Pharaoh drove out the children of Israel from Egypt; the worst and last disaster being the death of the first born.

As I think back to that first Pesach, I can't help to think that things are very much the same today as they were back then. You may ask "What do you mean by that, Tommy? That was thousands of years ago" Let me explain.

While we are not physically in slavery/bondage, we do have things in our life that are not acceptable to our Heavenly Father. (I speak to myself as I write this) These unacceptable things can be considered a certain kind of slavery or bondage. We all need to examine ourselves and our actions, and ask; "Is this pleasing to my Heavenly Father?"

Just as we clean all the leaven out of our houses during the week of Unleavened Bread following Passover, we need to clean the leaven of sin out of our lives. "Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Messiah our passover is sacrificed for us: Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." 1 Corinthians 5:7,8 Amen, let it be so.

On another note, I had an idea that I thought you all might like to take part in. Leave a comment on this post, and you will be entered into a drawing for a gift from Israel.

Here are the rules:

1. The comment can only be left on this post to be entered in to the drawing.

2. The person commenting can only be entered once. However more then one person in the same family can enter.

3. Anyone is allowed to enter. Even if you do not know me or my family. Tell your friends about it.

4. When leaving a comment, please leave your first name with the first letter of your last name or vice versa. (So that we know who you are).

5. You must enter by May 5th.

The drawing will take place in the evening of Thursday May 5th. The winner will be posted shortly after that. Hope to hear from y'all.

Hag Pesach Sameach. (Happy Passover)

T for the two of us.

Countdown!! Four weeks to go!! ... by Hannah

I am beginning to realize how busy we are going to be in the next couple of weeks :)  Not only are we preparing to go overseas for six weeks, but we are also preparing to welcome some friends to our home for Passover/Unleavened Bread, as well as selling two litters of puppies.

Today, our whole family is going to a get-together of people who volunteered for an event some weeks ago. This Prayer and Action Event For Israel was held at the National Religious Broadcasters Convention, by an organization called Proclaiming Justice To The Nations. The mission of PJTN, is to "educate Christians about their Biblical responsibility to stand with their Jewish brethren and defend the State of Israel." They also try to get media reporters to report the truth of what is happening in Israel and the Arab world.  They are also the ones who produced the video "The Forgotten People" with Ted Pearce.  You can watch this video by scrolling down to the bottom of this blog.

Some of us were able to volunteer for this event in February, and now our whole family will be joining some of the other volunteers for a picnic this afternoon.

Speaking of the Prayer and Action Event, here is a picture that we received several days ago.

Photo taken by Bryan Seltzer

From right to left: Sarah, me, Abigail, Ruthie, my father, Meshi Zahav, and I do not know the name of the other man - he was Mr. Zahav's translator.

While we were at the event, Mr. Zahav approached my father, intrigued about his tzit-tzit (tassles). He is from Israel, and did not speak English, but he wanted to get a picture taken with us. While his translator went to go find someone with a camera, Mr. Zahav asked us (in Hebrew) where we lived when we were in Israel. I could answer that, but then he asked something else, which I believe was a question about whether we wanted to go back. I didn't have the words to reply right then, though I have since come up with a reply that I believe would be correct!

Anyway, Meshi Zahav is the one of the founders of ZAKA. This is an abbreviation for "Zihuy Korbanot Asson", which means Identifying Victims of Disaster.

ZAKA, founded in 1995, is Israel's dominant non-governmental lifesaving, rescue and recovery organisation, with over 1500 volunteers, 34 ambulances and 162 motorcycles deployed around the country, on call 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, to respond to any terror attack, disaster or accident immediately, professionally and with the necessary equipment. [excerpt from their website]

Unfortunately, there are terrorist attacks fairly often in Israel, rendering an organization like ZAKA a necessity. This is not a pleasant job, as you can well imagine, but it is a necessary one. ZAKA does not only operate in Israel, but will sometimes go to other countries where there have been disasters, like the earthquake in Haiti last year, and the one in Japan just recently. You can see more info at their website: www.zaka.us. We were honored to have the opportunity to meet Mr. Zahav, even if it was through an interpreter. Hopefully one day we will know enough Hebrew to be able to speak directly!  And we look forward to the day when swords will become plowshares, and there will be no more need for an organization like ZAKA.  Amen!

Tommy and I are busy making preparations to go. Last week, I did some fabric shopping to make some new outfits, and Ruthie has kindly offered to help with the sewing. I am really appreciative, because while I do enjoy sewing sometimes, it can get me stressed, and I don't want to get stressed right now!

We are looking for a camera to take ... any suggestions? We don't want to spend a whole lot of money on it, but I would like to be able to take good quality pictures. It needs to be pretty small, so that we can fit it into our pocket. We're planning to go shopping one day this week, and look at some different models, but we'd welcome suggestions on good (or not so good!) cameras.

I'm also looking for some all-terrain sandals; something really comfortable that I can wear all the time, and walk comfortably in. If anyone has any recommendations, please let me know!

We'll try to update again soon - it's time to get back to work now! We're getting ready to plant in our garden :)

This Song Hits Home ... by Tommy

Shalom Friends,

For those of you who know me and my family, you have an idea of how our family feels about Israel, and how we long for the day that we can move there. To live permanently. Our hearts long for Zion and for the people of Israel.

I came across the song below several months back and it has really hit home. It explains to a certain degree of how our family feels.

After writing what I just wrote above, it crossed my mind that it might sound like I am complaining about my situation. I am not, I am a very blessed person, however I do have a longing and that longing has been given to me by my Heavenly Father and I pray I never lose the longing, until I am in the land. I also pray that if you do not have a longing for the land and people of Israel, that you may be blessed with one. Remember in the end, YHWH has one people. The Israelites.

Until next time. T for the two of us

P.S. As you can see this song is done by a group by the name of Sons Of Korah. They are a group from Australia. They sing only the psalms and do a great job putting music to the psalms. Check them out.