Israel Week 4

First of all, I finally got to see the Old City, the Temple Mount, and the Western (Wailing) Wall!!! I was so great! I don’t know when my next tourist thing will be-I have some friends looking into going to Cypress for a weekend, and depending on the cost I might consider it-but it would be better for me to do something like this when my visa is about to expire so that I could get it renewed. (A friend just spent 4 days in Switzerland and France on a “visa run”-only cost $250 for a round trip ticket-wow!). I am planning to go up north the end of this month with CFI (the organization I’m volunteering for) and that should be fun. I’ll take lots of pictures (which means I have to replace the battery charger I burned out my first or 2nd night here-the electricity here is 220 v so my appliances don’t work. : (

This week I started my volunteer work at CFI-a really great organization. I’ve been working on thank you letters to the people who send clothing donations-and on Fridays I’ll be with the “Doors of Hope” program giving out clothing to the new immigrants who come in. We receive a lot of Russian speakers, so with them I can only smile and attempt to look friendly, and hand out the Tanakh (Jewish Bible-no New Testament).

We did have a girl from Peru my first day, so I got to speak a little Spanish with her. Then this Friday a young soldier from the U.S. came in, so that was nice-I got to tell him about CFI, gave him his gift basket (it comes with a sheet, a towel, a pot and a skillet, and a “challah cover”), and I helped him pick out a few items of clothing. His name was Shmuel (think Samuel)-so if you remember, please pray for his safety.

My first week at CFI was very nice, but I was really, really tired-(my brain get’s very full during Hebrew class in the morning and studying a new language makes me physically very tired)-I’m going to try to manage my time better and get a little more rest, which will mean not goofing off on the internet (I do a lot of that-in addition to spending quality time with all of you).

Well that’s it for this week- Blessings from Yerushalayim!!


Challah cover-used to cover the “challah” (special bread below-served on Shabbat and other special/Holy Days).