Thursday: 6-16-2011 ... by Hannah

Shalom Y'all,

In approximately 24 hours, we will be leaving Israel and flying back to the States. This past six weeks has gone by so fast! We are excited about seeing our family again, but will definitely miss being in Israel. Our hope and prayer is to come back soon.

On Sunday morning we went to Jerusalem and were there until Thursday morning. Those four days were very full ... we went to lots of places and took lots of pictures. It will take awhile to sort, resize, and post those pictures, so I will plan on doing it when I get back home.

Here is a brief overview of the past couple days ...

We woke up early Thursday morning (around 6am), packed our things, and left the house where we were staying, to catch a bus that would take us to the Har-El junction; the stop where we would catch the bus to Tel Aviv. Cathrin and her son Junis were with us ... we met her at the Hirshfeld's, and she spent several days in Jerusalem with us. It was only a 20 minute walk or so to the stop where we needed to catch the Tel Aviv bus, but we have three suitcases, and two of them do not roll properly! We did not particularly want to carry them all that way :)

Once we got to the Har-El junction, Tommy stayed with the luggage, and Cathrin and I ran to the mall that was nearby. There was a bakery in the mall, and we got some borekas and pastry for breakfast. And an ice coffee :)  We came back to the stop and caught the bus to the Tel Aviv central station ... or so we thought!

Tel Aviv.

The sign said to Tel Aviv, and we were under the assumption that all Tel Aviv buses go to the central station. We were surprised to find the bus stop at a small station, and all the passengers got out. I'm not exactly sure where the station was, but I think it was in the north part of Tel Aviv. Anyway, Tommy talked to someone, and was told to take bus 83 to Yafo (Jaffa). When we got on the bus, Tommy asked the driver if that was the bus to old Yafo and specifically mentioned the clock tower (a well-known landmark). He was led to believe that was correct.

The Statue Of Faith, in Yafo.

After about 20 or 30 minutes on the bus, we realized that we really should have been in Yafo by then, and so Tommy asked the driver about it again. We discovered that we had already passed Yafo and were actually in Bat Yam - a town south of Yafo! We exited the bus at the next stop, and caught another one going in the opposite direction. This driver spoke better English, and I explained to him that we wanted to get off at the stop closest to the clock tower.

When we got off in Yafo, someone from the house that we were going to stay at came and picked us up in a van. We were very grateful, as we did not want to drag our suitcases all the way to the house (about a mile or so)!

The house where we are staying.

When my father came to Israel the first time, he joined Yakov Damkani and Trumpet of Salvation, and he stayed in the house that we are staying in right now. We met Yakov and his wife Elisheva when we were here as a family, and when Elisheva heard that Tommy and I were in Israel, she invited us to stay here at the house. They also have Gilgal; a hotel in Tel Aviv.

The Tel Aviv beach.

After arriving at the house and dropping off our luggage, we went to the hotel and were there for a little while. Then we walked back to Yafo (a 20 or 30 minute walk) to get some lunch ... sandwiches with cheese, tuna, olives, corn, etc, and they are toasted. Yummy! We ate lunch at the beach, and then said good-bye to Cathrin and Junis, and caught a bus to the central station.

Walking back to Yafo.

Tim (our friend from Poriya) was going home from the army, so we met him in the bus station and spent several hours there. After he left, we caught the bus back to Yafo, and walked down to the beach. There was a beautiful sunset.

Tommy decided to go swimming in the ocean ... it was almost 8pm! He said that the water was warm, but I decided not to get in :)

I was sitting on the shore watching him, when the muezzin in the nearby mosque started the call for prayers. It is such a terrible sound! I have a video of it in Jerusalem ... I'll try to post it at some point. Anyway, I didn't want to listen to it, so I pulled out our blackberry and found the music that Tommy has on it. I played Awesome God by Rich Mullins ... turned it up as loud as I could ... and sang along! It was the most appropriate song I could think of right then!

We did not stay there very long, but came back to the house and spent some time singing and playing guitar and piano before going to bed. As we were leaving the beach, we saw a soldier standing on the shore, holding a small child. It was quite a photo ... sorry the quality isn't very good.

I intended to write about the past couple days, but I have gotten through only one, and I am tired and want to go to bed! Maybe I can write some more tomorrow :)  Leila Tov (Good night)!

Ezuz and Ashkelon ... by Hannah

Shalom Y'all,

Tommy and I are now in Jerusalem ... actually, right outside of Jerusalem in a small town called Maoz Tzion. We plan to spend several days here in the area, and will then go to Tel-Aviv/Yafo.

Here are a few of the last pictures we took in Ezuz.

Ruins ... I think they are from the past hundred years or so.

There was a hole in one of the walls.

Naomi and me ... on the morning we left ... she got up early to see us off :)  Love you Naomi :)

The rest of these are from Ashkelon.

The Mediterranean. 

We really enjoyed swimming in it.

Tommy and his friend Uriel ... they had several in-depth conversations while sitting on the rocks.

This is a bakery in Ashkelon ... we used to eat here sometimes when we came to the shuk (marketplace). Tommy and I visited this area on Friday morning, and had borekas for breakfast! Borekas are pastries that have different fillings - cheese, mushrooms, corn, potatoes, etc. Very yummy :)

This is the old part of the city.

Count the cranes! These are jokingly called the state bird of Israel :)

Israelis work hard to keep things beautiful ... especially city landscapes.

See the tall grey tower? This is a water tower, and is right down the street from the house that we lived in as a family.

A pretty bush.

Taking a break! Tommy and I did A LOT of walking on Thursday and Friday.

A clock tower ... near where we used to live.

A street sign ... Tsfanya is the Hebrew word for Stephen.

Domino's! This shopping area is a short walk from where we lived.

Supersol ... an Israeli grocery store where we used to do our shopping.

Ha'Atsma'ut ... the Hebrew word for independence. We lived one street off of this street :)

In the same vicinity ... a Masonic lodge.

The house that we lived in.

When we lived in Ashkelon five years ago, Tommy bought a huge Israeli flag, and hung it in the tallest tree in our backyard. The house that we lived in was on a hill, and you could see the flag from quite a distance. The original flag is no more, so Tommy bought another one and we took it to the house!

See how big it is?!

The tree house where my younger siblings spent lots of time playing :)

Tommy was concerned he might be too big to climb the tree now :)

The birds did not appreciate Tommy's intrusion. There were probably 15 or 20 of them flying around Tommy's head, screaming at him!

Compare this picture with the one below that was taken five years ago :)

The back of the house.

This is my bedroom window ... we children performed several plays while we were living here, and "our actors" would jump out of this window to come in the back door to the living room, which was the stage area :)

 These berries form a sort of hedge in the back yard ... very pretty flowers.

This is the marble column that my sister Ruthie found on the beach, and we rolled it up to the house one night. It weighs hundreds of pounds ... my father and brother could not lift it, so we used a hand-truck to pull it home. It was a couple miles to bring it from where we found it to the house.

Some of the pottery that we collected when we were here as a family ... there was so much on the beach.

We really enjoyed this house ... the way that we were led to it was a huge blessing ... and we had a lot of good times here.

The friends that we stayed with ... Moshe and his sons Uriel (far right) and Eyal, and his mother ... we called her Savta - Hebrew for grandmother :)

Saying good-bye at the bus stop.

Tommy and Uriel.

I plan to post pictures of our visit to the Dead Sea and Ein Gedi soon!