Quick update. As you may have read in the news, there is much craziness in Leh right now because of a “cloudburst”. We didn’t have a team in Leh at the time, we are all fine, and God’s grace has continually been shown to us in our travels. Everyone on Massah is doing great! Thanks for your prayers.

Aaron

I think I am in a much better place today than I was a mere 48 hours ago. Which feels like an eternity ago, btw.

I’ll try to paint a better picture of Delhi, because I don’t think that I was really doing it justice. Delhi is dirty. Delhi is crazy. Delhi has flies everywhere. Delhi is smelly. I actually have clothes and a sleeping sack that still smells of Delhi. Delhi has chewed us up and spit us out and I am so thankful. I think that coming off of 24 hours of traveling and then watching two team members get a bad case of something nasty from ICE CUBES (who are much better now. don’t fret), the eminent goodbyes to our friends, and the fact that we had a 16 hour bus ride ahead of us put me into a less than optimistic mood.

Now though, the air is sweet. And I did some shopping. So, life rocks.

Dharamsala is incredible. We’re situated in the Himachal Pradesh region of India, almost to the foothills of the Himilayas…but don’t let the “almost” fool you. Our guest house has the most exquisite view. We’re tucked into a mountain and look out over several thousand feet at small villages below. There’s a waterfall in the distance, and the snowline is a five hour hike north. This place is incredible.

I will say this about dharamsala though. There’s a darkness here. I imagine that it’s all over India, but it’s this palpable yearning that the people seem to have. Like, they light up but are already looking for the next high. I can see that some feel full of life after some super spiritual experience, but they seem to droop within hours, wanting more.

So, prayer requests? For boldness. For wisdom. For joy. For delighting ourselves in the Lord and trusting that He’s at work even if we can’t see much beyond the smoke from the backpackers’ temporary high.

I got peed on today.

I was walking through Florentine, thinking about how good it was to be alive and in Israel, walking around- an independent woman, and then I was stopped to be  asked where the nearest grocery store was.

Nevermind the joy in understanding what he was asking. Nevermind my elation in being able to give legitimate directions to the grocery store. Passing by at that very moment was a pug (oh the irony, seeing as we’ve been singing the Abramson children’s ‘Hug a Pug’ for the past two weeks).

And then, the flood-gates of that small bladder opened as the dog is walking and peeing. On my foot. On my foot!

Poor Shy, the guy that was asking for directions, because mid-sentence I yelp, “The dog just peed on me!”

The man walking the dog turned around and offered an apologetic half smile…probably was more smug that his dog has the uncanny ability to urinate while walking than was sorry that my poor foot had been showered.

The Lord has a sense of humor. I had just been thinking about how i needed to add a post to the blog but wasn’t sure what I should even be writing about…voila! Pee on foot.

And an opportunity to share the gospel with Shy. As we walked together towards the AM PM, I shared my faith and why I believed what I did. Shy was polite and listened, and even asked some questions. At the end of the walk, where I would turn towards the Hostel, Shy asked if I would like to continue the conversation.

….wait a second.

Continue the conversation? I pulled out the litmus test that all women should know when doing evangelism:

“You know, I can’t guarantee that I’d be the one to call you, but I know some people who will be in Israel longer than me who would be able to explain all of this better, and probably be able to answer your question better than I.”

Shy looked at me. He wrote down his e-mail and as he handed the paper back to me, he said,

“You know, I’m interested in you and not your religion…”

RED FLAG.

You better believe that I was wishing him well and high-tailing it out of there.

But I will continue to pray. And I think it’d be great if you guys prayed too. His  heart, though momentarily confused, is definitely being pursued by the Lord.

Don’t worry, I washed the pee of my foot.

Things that are running through my head as we are crawling on our hands and knees through 2 by 3 ft tunnels in Israel:

I hope Al Queda isn’t hiding around the next corner….

……Why don’t we have a flashlight?….

……Am strangely comforted that someone’s butt is in my face……

….Ow! Ow! OWWW!! What is that?!

Oh. a tick. In my arm.

That’s when I started crying (a little bit) and panicking as it was pitch black, dank, and every claustrophobe’s worst nightmare. But dangit, we were doing team bondinng, and nothing seals friendship like hanging on to eachother’s ankle’s for dear life and removing ticks from arms by light of a camera flash.

Maybe I’m not making myself clear here with what exactly was going on.

We were dropped off at these caves in the foothills of southern Israel and instructed to crawl into a jet black tunnel—watch out for that 10 foot drop off—sans flashlight, and thanks to David and Abbie not being afraid of ANYTHING, we somehow made it out of the tiny tiny tiny tunnels (by way of a traumatically difficult and small hole to crawl out of. I believe that this must be what childbirth is like for the baby: what is that bright light? I’m being squashed. HELP! HELP!… no wonder we’ve repressed that memory).

And aside from the probable lyme disease that I caught from ol’ ticky-poo, wriggling through the caves was the craziest most fun thing I’ve ever done. Don’t worry, I’m not an adrenaline junkee now, but it was cool to be completely surrounded and enclosed and in a place where a million bad things could really happen (walls collapsing, water flooding in, terrorists, bats, someone in front of you farting) and to really have to take my thoughts captive. I know that I am not the only one who struggles daily to control my thoughts on topics varying from relationships to body image, fear of death and doubts of faith, but it is so important to be able to dwell on things that are true, lovely, edifying etc and in this specific instance, to remind myself that I belong to a God who put those danky little tunnels in the earth in the first place.

And if God can deliver us from the bowels of the earth, just like he did with the Messianic Jews who were hiding in those very tunnels from the Romans in the early second century, then he can most certainly deliver us from our paralyzing claustrophicizing (new word. dig it)thoughts.

I’m trying to think about a parallel I can draw with the tick and some other kind of spiritual epiphany, but I don’t want to push it. Thanks for praying.

Life is good here.

rachel

ps. i’m really going to try to get a hold of some picture to put on here, but i didn’t bring an adapter for my camera…silly me!

I am sitting in our room at the hostel, chatting with Liz S. and Eden. We’re trying to figure out what on earth we’ve been doing for the past two weeks, but everything seems to be a blur of broadsiding, laughter, worship, travel, sweating, sleeping, and eating. Lots of eating. So much eating in fact, that I sort of feel like I’m turning into a giant Falafel. Or a Pita pocket. 

So, since I’m not totally confident that I’d be able to give you guys an accurate play by play of the past two weeks thanks to the massive quanties of hummus crowding my brain, I can fill you in on the kids that you’re reading about. I mean, not all the gory details. Afterall, this is the world wide web. So many creepers out there…But just enough for you to understand and be appropriately envious of excited for our group, and know the sweet people that you have been faithful in prayer for! 

The Girls:

1) Liz S- This girl is fabulous. Grew up in Russia. She claims that she is pale and usually cold because the first half of her life she lived in snow pants… oh yes. This one, always good for a laugh. Oh, and I cannot forget to mention that Liz is a Xcore runner. The first day we were here, she and I went out for a jog. Now, I’ve always known that running is not my “gift” per say. Naturally, I should have listened to my voice of reason and not gone running because Liz and I were almost arrested for crossing the street the wrong way. 

2) Tirza P- She’s lovely and affectionate. Also has an uncanny ability to make Israeli men think they are in love with her.  Additionally, she has an incredible voice and sings us girls to sleep most night. I highly recommend that you guys finds yourselves a personal music box too. 

3) Elissa B- Funnnnnnnyyyyyyyy. I don’t really know how to emphasize how much we laugh when we’re together…basically she gets the credit for our first Massah “inside joke”. When we were role-playing for broadsiding training, she in the role of the spiritual mystic, named herself Shamaca…we don’t know what that means, but it’s stuck. (if anyone does know what that means, let us know..) She works at a nursing home in PA which I think has set her up perfectly for this trip…since our group seems a little geriatric-esque wanting to  go to bed at 9 pm every night.  

4) Shoshana- Eden says that she likes to play with Shoshana’s hands because they are “very soft”. Not that that’s her only asset. Shosh is hysterical. She has spunk. I recently heard a story about her that she chased down a phony cop who tried to issue her a speeding ticket while she was not speeding. Hailing from Mexico city, she is kind enough to help me with my Spanish, which is great. Except for when we’re in Ulpan Hebrew lessons and I try to answer “yes” with si instead of ken.

The Boys

1) Joel B- Went through a metamorphosis of sorts. As the trip has progressed, Joel has lost more and more facial hair. Maybe we will convince him to shave one of his eyebrows next. Joel also has an iPad, which we all congregate around to drool over. Oh technology! He is truly one of the kindest people I have ever met.  

2) Saul W- Saul is the strong silent type…basically on any given day, we’ll be gathering in the community area to have our devotion. After doing a headcount and figuring out that we’re missing Saul, Isaac, etc etc. We wait. The people we are missing filter in. Someone will say, “where’s Saul?” And there he is. Like MAGICALLY appears without anyone noticing that he slipped in. I think he has a bright future in espionage. 

3) Shmuel- Or Shmule. Or Shmuli-Babooli. Or Grandpa Shmuel since he seems to only ever want to 1) sleep 2) eat 3) play guitar…ha. However, this kid is also Israeli and has been a total blessing for this trip. Aside from being really spiritually encouraging, Shmuel’s Hebrew lessons and health-conscientiousness have enabled our team to speak of trans fat in Hebrew…actually, I forget the word. But you know. One day it could really be helpful 

4) David- affectionally named Monkey Child, David has  an uncanny ability to make anything fun, loud, or a trapeze-esque production. Before David, I had never seen anyone 1) go for a barefoot run 2) climb up a light pole 3) skip for an extended amount of time in public 4) get harrassed while sortie-ing. He handled the  harassment like a champ though. I have immense respect for his carefree can-do attitude.

5) Ben R.- washington state cofffee lover, superstar boyfriend to his stateside gf, and great team leader (I was in his group this week. We made a STELLAR dinner last night. Latkes, couscous..NOM). I learn new things about Ben everyday. This morning at breakfast, I learned that he makes funny noises while he eats breakfast. Joel told me this is not uncommon for Ben. Also, Ben is super smart: Physics major. 

6) Isaac B.- Isaac is pretty much fearless when starting up conversations with people on the street. No fear in asking people what they’ve heard of Yeshua. Isaac also is a technological genius and knows how  to unlock computer passwords…so handy!  He also looks Brazilian, which makes him a total hit here with all of the world cup madness going on.

7) Sam R- I like to think of him as our resident Bible scholar. He also knows the most Hebrew here (aside from our dual citizens Tirza and Schmuli) and patiently helps explains the concepts of the language. Hm, funny side note about Sam too. Before I headed out for the trip, my parents told me that they knew Sam and his parents from back in the day. I asked them how, and they said, “Oh, you know– messianic jewish geography. And we were at his Bris.”

….isn’t that a nice conversation starter.

So that’s our crew.

Last night a handful of us sat out on the roof, sharing stories, testimonies, and talking about quality things. I mean, it’s been so great. These people are pretty stinkin’ cool.

Thanks for praying. I’ll be more dilligent about blogging, I promise.

Rachel