Saturday was busy here. We start work at 6:30. Each of us has an assigned area to sweep or wash benches. So it is 7:15 when we get "home" for breakfast. And then at 8:15 when the guides meet for prayer and start guiding by 8:30. The ladies start at 9 as their part depends on the groups already having had the guided tour. Of course, for Donna there is a bit of house work to try to squeeze in the spare moments. Saturday evening most of the volunteers go out for a supper. Glad the half hour walk there was up hill so coming home after supper was all down.
So this is some of us having that supper
We are closed on Sunday but a surprise for us yesterday was chain saws outside our door about 7:30. Of course Jews and Muslems do not have Sunday as a day off. So a crew was here to cut down a number of trees. The Garden is open all the other days so it was the only time for that kind of work. What a big mess. The Weglos , oursleves and a couple from Sweden headed off to West Jerusalem Baptist.
It is in a Jewish area but all are English speaking and not many Israelis.. They have their service in Hebrew Saturday nights. The service went for two hours. Then the 30 minute walk back home. Except all of us needed a few groceries and the store is near the church. It is a real grocery store. All the labels are in Hebrew so you do have to guess at some things. It was a late lunch. Then there was the problem for all the volunteers. It was obvious the contractors were not going to get the branches cleaned up and pathways swept for the morning when we would open. So out we went and spent almost 2 hours hauling branches and sweeping. Twelve of us were walking to King of Kings church for the 5pm service. Again a half hour walk. It was a very lively service for2 hours. We stopped for falafel on the way home.
Today I had my first opportunities to do the guiding. Up until now I was in training. That meant I would go with other guides to listen and observe what they do. I was anxious to get at it. My first group was 46 Mormons. It is great to be able to share my testimeny and talk freely about the crucifixion and resurrection. As a matter of fact we are required to share. The primary goal is " to present the groups with the Gospel of Christ's death, burial and resurrection in a biblical, inspiring , and relevant manner..." How is that for a job description?
The second group was 53 Americans and the third was 20 Canadian Pentacostal pastors and wives from Canada. I love doing this. Of course we also have Jewish groups and secular groups and get to share with them.
Up until today we have had 8 volunteer guides. Within the week, five of them will be returning to their homes. So it should be busy even though the number of groups slow down with Christmas.
Tonight we have not gone for a walk. Did enough around here today. Some time tomorrow, one of us will have to head down the road and find some food for our supper. Otherwise we will be having cereal for breakfast and supper.
We will try to post again on Friday as it is our day off. We knew we were not coming here for a vacation. It will keep us busy but is exciting to be able to serve the Lord here.
"In order to live off a garden, you practically have to live in it." Well it is not a food garden but we live in it and this picture with Donna is not far from our front door. The second one was " you dont have to lie awake nights to succeed. Just stay awake days." We are not "trying to stay awake at nights. Jetlag is tough business with a 10 hour time change. You can pray for Donna as she was asleep last night at 9 but awake at 1am. Hard to go long on that kind of sleep. Blessings. Gord and Donna
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