Almost Christmas....

It is another Sunday afternoon.  We have had lunch and I am hoping to have enough strength on the wi-fi to be able to do the blog.  I have all kinds of experiences I would love to share but I should write them down as they happen.  This is an amazing place to live and serve.
I can remember this morning.  We went again to East Jerusalem Baptist.  It is an easy walk.  For those who have stayed on tours with me, it is only two minutes from the hotel we use.  We were met by the pastor in the church yard.

It is a Palestinian international church.  Was very small this morning (13 of us).  Donna was asked to do the reading for the 4th  Advent candle.  Many of the Americans that usually attend were home.  I have been asked to preach in January. 

Tonight we go with Weglos to our friend and guide for supper.  Roni and Irit are very special to us.  He phones here ahead to ask them to put my name down to guide his tours.  I had a VIP group for him this week.  I cannot tell you who it is but he is the leader of a group that has been very much in the news this week.  Enough said.  Then on Wednesday Roni brought a family from New Zealand.  The man was of Malasian background.  Came to faith at age of 14 in Ottawa.  Thrown out of his Muslim home.  A Messianic Jewish women raised him.  Told him one day it would be wonderful if he could minister to Jewish people.  He has a job but has taken courses to equip him in his faith.  They now are on a list to host Israeli young adults travelling to New Zealand.  He hosted Roni's son and wife a few years back.  He had his wife and teens with him and it was a wonderful family to be able to meet and share the Lord.

We had some slow times here as far as groups go.  But then there would be times we were almost overwhelmed.  One day we had 15 buses of Nigerians and the next day 17.  Each bus would be about 50 people.  So a couple of mornings I was guiding a bus load only to return to reception without a stop and do it over again five times in a row.  The ones from the north of the country need translation as half the group do not speak enough English.  That is always more challenging.  Most groups have one person that does a good job of translating but I have had it otherwise.  It was cold and wet at the first of the week.  Once they started to worship, things warmed up.  Wish you could hear it even for a few minutes. 

From some countries there are a few groups with a bit of a confused faith.  They would understand the cross and resurrection but likely have some of the remains of a pagan belief.  There are some that would be wanting to get things blessed in the tomb and then take the objects home to sell.  Some Indonesian groups go into the store before their communion to buy oils to have them blessed at the communion time by their "priest"  And then we do have mixed groups of Catholic and Protestant on the same bus.  Makes it hard as they will not be having communion together. 

I am almost always asked by someone in an African group if they can have their picture taken with me.  That is the start and 20 pictures later it ends.  So I decided this week that I would ask if they would let me be in a picture with all of them.  That was all good.  Except I could not get one of them to take the picture as they all wanted to be in it.  So I had to ask someone close by from Singapore.  So here we are.

I cannot help but think hour after hour that these are all people that will be with me in the Saviour's presence.

Last night was a bit of a Christmas party.  I should have taken some pictures.  Many of the staff only work part time and some live a distance from here.  So we were about 30 people packed into the living room of the biggest apartment.  Glenda had arranged it all and did lots of baking to go with the finger foods.  I need to admit that I do not always enjoy these kind of packed parties.  Last night was very special for Donna and me.  We were in a corner and thinking about the various people God had brought together in that little space.  A young Palestinian mother with her two year old.  She has been seperated from her husband.  She is  a bright and beautiful lady.  She is a very new believer and wants in every way to honour the Lord.  Another mom is a single Jewish lady that has adopted two Palestinian children.  They were sitting with us and are wonderful children.  Sylva is an Armenian women of about 55 years.  She had a boyfriend but her mother has never allowed her to marry.  She does some of the cleaning including the washrooms.  The worship team was so good.  A Dutch Israeli with a great heart for the Lord.  He led and played guitar.  A Jewish lady played the flute.  She is single and has committed to play her flute in Seniors places where the last of the Holocost survivors are found.  She is a professional musician and works here a couple of days a week.  And Shukry is fairly recent Palestinian believer and he was playing the bongos.  Then besides other Israelis were the 4 Canadians and a contingent of those from England. 

So much more I could tell you.  This week is going to be busy.  Guiding tomorrow.  Then on Christmas morning we start at 8 am to completly rearrange all the seating in the Garden.  We know there are 525 Nigerians already booked.  Plus the service at 10 is open to anyone.  There could also be a number of other groups that will show up from tours.  We are praying that it will not rain.  All the benches are plastic  and there is no way to protect anyone from the rain.  We will not be havng tours after, but we are all assigned places to "usher" in the Garden. Translated, that means crowd control.  It is a service of Scripture readings and carols with a short message.  If the Nigerians get going, they may be enjoying the worship so much that they just decide to take over.  I think I would enjoy that. 

After the service, the men all try to get the garden back to how it has to be for tours the next morning.  The dinner is only for those living in the Garden.  Two of the coulples from England have 2 each of unmarried but adult children staying with them.  So I think the little turkey is going to be stretched to feed about 14.  The Director has invited everyone to their apartment for a movie in the evening.  That will be a full enough day.

One little incident to share from yesterday.  I had over 50 Nigerians.  I had toured them and left them at the tomb to finish there and go to their communion.  I had to take another group.  I found out from Don Weglo, that one of the men had picked a small branch off an olive tree.  That was the start.  If  Don had not got them stopped, the trees would have been stripped.  For the next hour you could see different people walking around with branches in their hands. 

From our temporary home in Jerusalem, we send you all Christmas greetings.  Gord and Donna