Sunday, September 13, 2009

Thanks for the pictures!

Here are some more fellow Gezerites pictures. I think we all have pictures of each other and are trying to exchange them through facebook and blogs. Exciting news...we may have another digger joining us at Southwestern....Dan Haggerty and his wife are visiting here next semester. I should warn them though...all it takes is one sit down meal with Dr. Ortiz and they will be hooked!!

By the way - for all of you praying for our home to sell here is an update. We got not one, not two, but three different offers within 24 hours. One is too low ( but i am counting it), another is to lease our home and then purchase it and the other offer looks very promising. We have countered twice and now its in her court until tomorrow. We are praying that she is able to purchase our home and that God would bless her with it. PRAISE GOD FROM WHOM ALL BLESSINGS FLOW!!

now for more picturesHere is my husband strutting his stuff...this was only the beginning of a loooonnngg night of dancing. By the way- if any diggers are reading this and have a picture of Adam and I doing the "butt dance " please send them to me...so far none have surfaced!! ( for you readers, dont be concerned...the picture will explain everything)
Adam is a wonderful dancer, and not shy at all. Just put on some music and he can't stay still.
I just had to love on him once I saw those moves...by this way this is at our "Faux 4th of July" party!
Then they put on some country music and I tried to teach Katy how to line dance...right before James ran over and started mocking me :)
The talent for that night was "Get Fit Gezer"... a workout series using all of the terms and "moves" you would see out on the dig site everyday. I didn't have any pictures of it b/c I was filming it for them. Here is the video....you may not get it if you dont know dig terms but its still pretty hilarious!! Get fit Gezer video

And finally...remember how I said that Adam would go to sleep almost instantaneously when we got on the bus?...well here is yet another picture to prove it...apparently we were always out so there are many pictures like this of us. Enjoy...more pictures to come!

4th of July on the Sea of Galilee

This video makes me smile so much that it almost breaks my face. It starts with us all standing out on the shore of the Sea of Galilee singing the National Anthem on the 4th of July. Some Israelites heard us and told us how great we were for being so patriotic. The fire ( well lighter) is Willie's attempt to re-create a firework show for us...he lit cardboard on fire that was torn to spell out July 4th...I miss all of my fellow Gezerites!!


I also wanted to post some other pictures from other people...they are slowly being uploaded and shared. This first picture is of the sign for the Tel as we approached it at 5 oclock every morning. It would be dark for the first 20-30 minutes on the Tel and then the sunlight would break through. To be honest, I didn't ever see this sign b/c I almost always got on the bus and fell back asleep!!!Since I didn't go into Hezekiah's tunnel ( i am super claustrophobic), and Adam didn't want to take in our good camera we had not posted any tunnels pics yet. I got these from another digger and apparently this was as high as the water got and it only lasted for a short while....but thank goodness I did not go in....just looking at this picture makes my heart speed up.And here is showing just how tight this tunnel got......and its underground...NO THANKS.


This is from my friend Mariah's stash of pictures. I added this in case any of you ever doubted my supervisor skills ( that would be me in the blue shirt and do rag with my hands on my hips)!!!
More pictures from others cameras coming soon! Thanks again to all who helped us go and who prayed for us while we were there. We are already working on how we are going to get back next year...its hard to take 3-5 weeks off when you have a real adult job :).

Friday, September 4, 2009

Seminary Dont Make No Sense

As you can tell from the title I have been wrestling with the "negative" side effects of coming to seminary. ( don't worry, keep reading, God is good).
When we finally decided to actually move here and be obedient to God's calling in Adam's life, we had a little over 2 weeks to get here, get a place to live and get jobs before his classes started. When we got back from Israel and had still not sold our house we took a week or so to just pray and seek guidance about what we should do. We got mixed answers. Some people said "well stay in your house since you have to pay mortgage and wait til you sell it to move to TX". Others said " Go"...God will work everything else out.
My husband leaned more towards going, I leaned more towards staying b/c it made sense.
One morning during our week of prayer I woke up, went to the bathroom and heard from God. I know....TMI ( too much information). But honestly, God told me "go".I got back in bed with Adam and said " i think we should move to Texas".
So we did and within 3 days we had housing and I had a very promising job offer at the seminary. The drive down to Texas was looonnngg but I was able to feel God's peace and promises the whole way there.
When we got here we moved in and I started working the next day. The work environment in a seminary is very comfortable to work in as we are all believers. However, since I was working in housing I was able to hear people's stories as they signed thier leases only minutes after pulling into Fort Worth with thier UHauls and belongings. The story I kept hearing over and over was that "coming to seminary did not make sense".
This was 100 % re-emphasized at a block party we went to this past Tuesday. One of our neighbors threw it as a way to meet neighbors and hopefully start up a bible study. While talking to people we heard others who had moved here while still paying mortgage on a home, or who had left thier entire family to move 1000s of miles away (some chose to come here instead of a closer seminary).
Then our neighbor who threw the block party was asked where his wife was? Here's what he said : Well, I have been married for 26 years now and we moved here last year as we felt God calling us to full time ministry. He started a degree in the Masters of Divinity program and thought he was heading towards becoming a pastor. Soon, through chapel and others he felt God calling him to full time mission work....overseas. This was apparently too much for his wife and one day as he returned home from class he found that she had packed her stuff and left. She is now sending him divorce papers and each time he refuses to sign them. At first he said " Ill leave seminary, Ill move back home with you". She said No. Then the president of our seminary told him that he had to leave...he had to go fix his marriage. This seemed to be the right move until our neighbor realized that God called him to seminary and until God called him out of it he was staying put. He pleads with his wife and tries to date her but she still sends divorce papers. He tells us that she is a believer, this is just a trying time.
This situation obviously makes no sense. But then again we are told in Luke 9:23 that " he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me."
I would say that many students are moving to seminary as they deny themselves and choose to take up thier cross. I am in no way boasting but am excited that God has revealed himself to us through our frustration with our house not selling. There is hardly anyone here that has come because it just made sense. For that reason God has called us together to bear one another burdens as we are all here to potentially further the Kingdom of Heaven. Our focus is on eternal things as our current situation is not ideal. We long for the day when mortgages, money, jobs with benefits won't matter anymore.

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Jared is a Daddy!!



Jared and Meredith Priset had thier baby girl yesterday. Praise God for a healthy child and godly parents to raise her! Congrats guys!!



And a double blessing is having Dwayne for a grandfather. Dwayne was also with us in Israel. He actually spells it Duane but for the longest I called him D' Wayne...its an inside joke..you dont have to laugh :).