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.