Thanksgiving....

Today is Thanksgiving. So in the spirit of the holiday here are the things I'm grateful for this year....
1. God's love. The love that He has for me that He sent His Son here to suffer and die for me, to pardon my sins. And knowing that I have eternal life in Him. That because He died and rose again, I can live forever in heaven with Him. I would not have been able to make it thru the loss of my grandma without knowing that this separation is only temporary. I will see her again one day, and that makes the pain of loss bearable. And, for that, I am grateful.

2. My family. I have the best family. We may not be perfect, but no matter what, thru thick and thin, we always stick together. And, for that, I am grateful.

3. My niece being born. This little baby is the biggest blessing. She's such a happy baby, and just thinking about her makes me smile. She's only been in my life for 8 months, but I cannot imagine life without her, and for that, I am grateful.

4. My friends. I may not have alot of friends, but the one's I do have are great. I know I can count on these girls, and hope they know they can count on me. And for that, I am grateful.

5. Facebook. Ok, you might be thinking this one is a little strange, but Facebook has brought me back into contact with some old friends that I would otherwise probably have never spoken to again, and for that, I'm grateful.

6. My job. In this economy to have a job is a good thing. To have a job that I like, with people I like, is truly a blessing. And for that, I am grateful.

7. My dad quitting smoking. Never in my life did I think I would see the day that my dad would quit smoking, but he's gone cold turkey for 6 weeks now and for that I am grateful.

8. The perfect mac and cheese recipe. I perfected my own recipe this year, not only is it fantastically yummy, but I have a wonderful potluck dish that every one loves and frequently requests, and for that, I am grateful.

9. The new Arby's by my house. Arby's is one of my favorite fast food places, but up until a few months ago, there was not one within a 10 mile range of my house. Now there is one just about a mile away, and for that, I am grateful.

10 Twenty minutes on the last Saturday in August. This was back when my grandma was still sick, it was the day we really realized that things were bad. I was at my parents house when my mom came home from my grandparents and said things were really bad. I headed up there and found my grandma laying in her bed. I laid in bed with her and just snuggled up with her and told her that I loved her. And even though it was not the last time, it was 20 minutes that no one else had, just her and I. And I will never forget it, and for that I am grateful.

Israel and Jordan part 3

Go here for part 1 and part 2.

Thursday morning dawned bright and early. One of us woke the rest of us up at 2:00 am thinking that it was 6:00 am. I wont mention names but it wasnt me. :) Anyway after we went back to sleep for a couple hours, we loaded up our luggage (we were changing hotels) and got on the bus and headed to Jericho. Jericho is Palastinian (Arabs in Israel) so not many tourists go to this area. On the way to Jericho we stopped at the Zaccheus tree. You know the story of Zaccheus, so no need to share it here. Just the pics...

The Zaccheus tree

I kept singing in my head...."Zaccheus was a wee little man, and a wee little man was he. He climbed up in sycamore tree for the Lord he wanted to see...."

After the Zaccheus tree we headed to Jericho. Jericho is where Joshua fought the first battle in the Israelites attempt to take their land back. (The quick version of the story....God instructed Joshua to walk around the walls of the city once a day for 6 days. On the 7th day they were to walk around 7 times. On the 7th time they blew their trumpets and the walls fell down.) There are some remains of the 4000 year old walls.

4,000 year old ruins

walking up to see the walls of Jericho

the walls of Jericho

perhaps the remains of Rahab's house?  you never know....

Again I kept singing those old Sunday school songs in my head...(Joshua fought the battle of Jericho, Joshua fought the battle of Jericho, and the walls came tumbling down.) Very strange to actually be at the site where it happened.

Outside the ruins of Jericho, there was a little shop where we parked our busses. Of course we did a little shopping. I ran outside the shop for a minute and one of the ladies on the tour stopped me and told me that a man was giving rides on his camel. So Stacy and I took turns going for a ride on the camel. It was a very strange experience.

Stacy on the camel

riding a camel :)

A note here about Jericho...because it is under Palastinian control, Jews cannot go into this area. So before we entered Palastine, we had to drop off our tour guides, who were Jewish. The bus drivers could enter because they were Arab, not Jew. Also, because it is in Palastine, very few tourist go into the area, only 1 in 20 tour buses. The people were very friendly. And while it was a little trippy to say we were in Palastine with everything we hear on the news, never once did we feel in danger. It was definitely a learning experience, and I'm so glad we got to do it.

After leaving Jericho (we stopped to pick up our guides outside the Palastine area), we headed to Bethleham. Bethleham is also under Palastine control, so we had to drop off our guides outside the city limits again. While in Bethleham we went to the Church of the Nativity. This church is built on the site thought to be the site of Jesus' birth. We went into the Church and down a flight of stairs into a small room with a star above the door. The actual site of the birth is in small little alcove, just a star medallion with a hole in it, where you can touch what is supposed to be the floor onto which Jesus was born. A few feet away there is a manger. And while we cannot know for sure that this is the actual site where Jesus is born, just the fact that it may very well be the site, and that no matter what, He was born very near where we were at that moment standing, we a very neat experience. Never before in our lives had we been closer to where He was born!

Going into the Church of the Nativity. The door was partially enclosed to keep men from bringing their horses into the chruch. They left it that way so that people had to duck their heads as a sign of humility and to remember they we were going into a holy site.

The steps down into the area where Jesus was born

The picture didn't turn out too well because it was dark in there, but behind the fence area, where the 4 little lights are, is a manger.

The spot where Jesus was born

Stacy

Mom

Me

Here I need to mention that one of the people on our tour was a missionary in Jordan for many years. He is the reason we decided to go with this particular group. His parents were friends with my grandparents for many years, and he grew up with my mom and uncles. So he kept giving us extra little tidbits of information because he was familiar with this area. So anyway, while we were waiting for the rest of our group to finish up, he told us that there were small caves in this other part of the church that is where they put the bodies of all the first-born children that were born when Jesus was born. (Remember the story, King Herod had all children in Bethleham under the age of 2 killed. Matt. 1:16) So we quickly ran to check out these caves.

Because Bethleham was under Palastine control, the whole city was very guarded. In fact. it was surrounded by a wall similar to the Berlin Wall. We had a guard, armed with a machine gun, come onto our bus to check passports, before we were allowed back out of the city and into Jewish territory. This would be like needing a passport to go from Anaheim to Garden Grove. It was very weird that people live like that on a daily basis.

The Bethleham Wall

You can't tell it in the picture, but every guard had a machine gun. They told us not to take pictures of the guards, but that didn't stop us. :)

After leaving Bethleham, we headed towards Jerusalem. We stopped at the Church of the Ascencion, which is where Jesus ascended into heaven, after the resurrection. (Luke 24:51)

        The Church of the Ascencion

 The ground where Jesus was standing when He ascended into Heaven

         The sky above the Church, where Jesus rose into Heaven

From there we went to the mount of olives to overlook the city of Jerusalem. Now I need to explain here that our guide on the bus was a little strange and wouldn't stop talking. So while she was chitchatting away and holding everyone else hostage I snuck off the bus via the back door. There were vendors at the site and one of them offered my dad 1000 camels for me. He said he would send them to California if I stayed there. I told him that we didnt need camels in California, but that if my dad were here he probably would have traded me for 2 camels. :)

View of Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives. The Dome of the Rock in the center. The walls are around the old city.

The little Arab man who offered to give my dad 2,000 camels for me.

    The rest of the group trapped on the bus...Mom, Jon, and Myrna

The Mount of Olives was used a Jewish burial grounds for centuries. There were tombs as far as the eyes could see.

One more view of Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives

From the Mount of Olives we went to the Garden Tomb. There are two possibe sites that Jesus could have been buried. This is one of them and although its probably not the actual one, it is the one that looks most like what it would have looked like then. (And again, as with the Church of the Nativity, we were closer at that moment than we had ever been before in our lives.)

There were about 60 people in our group and people were filing into the tomb a couple at a time. I hung back and was one of the last people to go in so I actually had a few minutes in the tomb by myself. It was very moving to see where they possibly laid Jesus body. And when you turn to leave there is a sign on the door that says He is risen. When I walked back outside there was a church there from the Congo that was singing and rejoicing in their native chants. It was neat to see that and to know that thats what it is all about. We had some time here, and read from the Bible about the crucifixion and resurrection,and sang a few songs. How powerful to sing, "Nothing but the blood of Jesus," in the place where Jesus' blood was shed. It was amazing. Not a dry eye among us!

The Bible notes the crucifixation as occuring at the place of the skull. Look closely, and you can see the skull in the rocks. Possibly the hill of Calvary?

Mom going into the tomb

Headed into the tomb

Where Jesus' body was laid

When you turn around to walk back out, this is what you see. And believe me it never feels the same after being here. It really is an indescribable feeling. You have to experience it to understand it.

The church from the Congo rejoicing. Although we couldn't understand what they were saying, we understood their sentiments. The sounds of joy in their voices were almost palpable.

The door where the stone was rolled away.

I know I said there were only 3 parts to this, but as I type, I keep remembering more stories, and there are more pictures that I want to post (I took almost 600), so it keeps getting longer and longer. So stay tuned for however many more parts there are. ;)

Flashback Friday

In keeping with the theme of the holidays, my flashback Friday photo is Thanksgiving related. In 2004, my mom and I went on a trip to New England. We flew into NYC and spent a few days there. Then we rented a car and drove around the New England states. One of our stops was in Plymouth, Mass. We were there in October, and oh my golly was it cold. Seriously, it was bone chilling cold. The wind was blowing and it was horrible. We both said it was no wonder most of the pilgrims didn't survive the first winter. It was just downright awful weather. And this was just October, technically still fall. I wouldn't want to experience it in the middle of February. Anyway so here's this weeks picture...

Me, at Plymouth Rock. Its kind of disappointing actually. You expect a big rock that the Mayflower would have crashed into, and its just this little-ish rock. It's maybe 3 feet across...pretty hard to crash into that. Although we did visit a replica of the Mayflower and it was a pretty small ship. No way I would have crossed the Atlantic in that.

On the same trip, this was in Conneticut. The colors were so pretty, we pulled over and took a pic in someone's front yard. :)

I've been a bad blogger lately...

Seems I haven't been on here in a week. Oops! So what's new...well I worked a bunch of hours this week, at least that's my excuse for not posting. :)
I redecorated my bedroom, repainted it, got some new furniture, and changed some stuff around. I'll upload pics and post them soon.
That's pretty much the only exciting thing around here. Just getting ready for Thanksgiving next week. My niece is coming out, I'm so excited to see her. It's been almost 2 months since we've seen her, and I know she's changed alot in that time. :)

Flashback Friday

It's flashback Friday again! For this week's picture I decided to use a picture of my cousin since his birthday is on Sunday. This cousin is special to me, because he is just a few months younger than me. And I don't know if it is because we're so close in age, or some other reason, but we've always had a special bond. We may not talk as much as we should, but I think he knows that I'm always here for him, and I know that if I ever needed anything, he would be there for me. He has struggled in the past, but I think now, maybe he's finally at a place of contentment in his life. I pray for this cousin, for although he was raised in the same Christian faith as me, he made a statement to me in the past, that he didn't really feel like a Christian anymore. I don't know if it was just a momentary feeling, or he still feels this way, but I pray for him. That he walks away from his particular demons, whatever they may be, and finds peace with the Lord. I love ya, Jimmy.

My cousin and my grandma, at my parents house. Based on hairstyles, I'm gonna guess this was sometime around 1991. Christmas.

Veteran's Day

In 1918, on the 11th hour, of the 11th day, of the 11th month of the year, WWI came to an end. November 11th, was proclaimed Armistice Day in honor of the returning soldiers. It was later renamed to Veterans Day to honor soldiers from all wars. Today, we thank our American Soldiers. We cannot be thankful enough for the sacrifices they have made, and continue to make. They are a rare bunch, and make me proud to be an American. No matter where I am, when I see a soldier in uniform, I feel a surge of pride.

And today, I had an idea. Just bear with me here. So I blame alot of today's problems on two things, 1. the failure of the nuclear family. Children today are raised without fathers, and boys don't have strong men to set examples for them. The men my age and younger today, are no better than the boys they were 15 years ago. Seems like they reach age 13 and don't mature any further, and that I blame on the collapse of families today. The other thing that I believe leads to society's problems today,  is an overwhelming attitude of entitlement. People today believe that society owes them something just for being. People don't want to work for anything, they want it handed to them. They think that just because they were born poor, or a minority, that they are deserving of more. And its not just the poor and minorities. I have friends that have been blessed with many things in life, who think their parents should work hard and buy them things. They don't want to go out and work hard on their own. They want a fancy house, fancy cars, fancy clothes, the best new cell phone, all things they can't afford. And they are not grateful for the things they do have, such as a roof over their head, food on the table, and warm clothes when it is cold.
So here's my solution to these problems... mandatory military service. Call me crazy, but it could work. I'm sure if young men had to spend a year in the military, with strong examples set for them on how to behave and act like a man, things would improve. If they had to sleep in the dirt, and eat MREs for dinner, I'm sure they would be grateful for their beds, and mom's homecooking.
I'm sure you noticed that I said young men right? And you're asking why not women too. Well, I'm old fashioned. And really, I think having strong men, who stay with their family, and raise strong, self-confident sons, and especially daughters, will make a huge difference in this world.
It's just an idea, and I know it would never happen here in America, but really think about it, and I'm sure you will think it would work too.

20 years ago...

Twenty years ago today, the Berlin Wall, and communism, fell and all the news channels were replaying President Reagan's famous line, "Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall."

And I couldn't help but wonder, what would this world be like now if Mr. Hope and Change was president then. You know, the one who is pulling troops out, cutting military spending. Would the Berlin Wall have fallen if America hadn't pressured the USSR so much. Would communism in Eastern Europe remain? Thankfully, we had a real president then and we don't have to wonder. But I wonder what the world will look like 20 years from now, when we're living in the aftermath of Hope and Change.

Me, in front of the Berlin Wall, May 2007