We're Still Here! ... by Hannah

For any of you who have been following this blog or visiting it regularly, you may have begun to wonder if these Israelites in exile are still on planet earth! We're still here ... just living life and staying very busy! Our days have been filled with a medley of ...

... family activities and traveling ...

     

... visiting with friends and family ...

 

... sunshine and rain ...

  

... puppies, puppies and more puppies ...

    

Last Monday, I had several experiences that spelled I-S-R-A-E-L to me. 

We (most of the family) traveled to KY to pick up a new dog, stopping on the way to meet someone who was buying a puppy. The puppy was a Coton named Espresso and as we were handing him over to his new family in the parking lot of a Mexican restaurant, I asked if they had decided on a name for him. His new mommy replied that they thought they would keep the name as Espresso and asked if there was any special Hebrew meaning to it! That opened a discussion about Israeli coffee, Turkish coffee and "cafe eem hell" - coffee with cardamom!

We continued on our way into Kentucky and stopped at Subway for a sandwich. As I was waiting in line to place my order, the gentleman in front of me turned and said, "So is there a lot of Romanian spoken over in Israel?"

I smiled and replied that there are quite a few Romanians in Israel and he agreed, adding that many went there after the second world war. He moved on to pay for his order, after saying that it's too bad we don't teach Romanian here in the States.

I thought briefly about asking what made him think I was knowledgeable about the various nationalities in the Holy Land, but I was pleased that I managed enough self-composition and concealed the surprise that I felt at his question ... I'm sure he thought that I often received inquiries about the percentage of Romanian that is spoken in modern Israel today!!

Later, as we were picking out our new puppy (who is a darling dog, by the way!), we stood in the bathroom/puppy kennel of an older couple who appeared to be Catholic. There were four females to choose from and as we were trying to make our decision, my eye caught the titles of several books on the shelf, including one called "Standing With Israel" and another by Israel-related volume by John Hagee. Very interesting! Especially for the hills of Kentucky!

We are excitedly preparing for Sukkot ... really looking forward to camping out with others from our fellowship. I have been asked to teach the children a dance for the feast and have chosen the Sons of Korah version of Psalm 95. If you aren't familiar with it, check this out ...

We will plan to video the presentation and share it on here. Speaking of dance videos, I believe my sister was working on post with some different ones that we have participated in recently. I'll have to check with her and see about getting that published here. We've just had so much going on lately that I haven't given a whole lot of thought to this blog - sorry :(

One more thing ... I assume that most of you are familiar with the Shining Stars magazine that I publish quarterly. We also have a website - www.shiningstarsmagazine.com and that is what I want to tell you about ...

I have recently created a survey about modesty, in an effort to get people's thoughts and opinions on the topic. If any of you have not seen it, you are invited to participate! It is geared toward a female audience but we are welcoming men's perspectives as well. For more info, you can click here.

Ok ... I'm signing off for now ... many blessings sent your way!