When the LORD brought back the captives to Zion,
Psalm 126:1-3
we were like men who dreamed.
Our mouths were filled with laughter,
our tongues with songs of joy.
Then it was said among the nations,
“The LORD has done great things for them.”
The LORD has done great things for us,
and we are filled with joy.
With tears of joy, I am finally back in Israel. It’s like coming home.
Had a couple delays in flights, but nothing too bad. As usual, I slept terribly on the plane. I flew from Grand Rapids to Newark to Tel Aviv, totaling about 12 hours and 6,000 miles. I was well fed, though, so that’s good. I met up with two others going to JUC in Newark and we stuck together as we weaved our way through Tel Aviv’s airport.
Late in the night on the plane I opened the window blind and saw the small crescent of the waning moon hanging in the distance, serenely giving a faint light to the wing. After the sun was up, we flew over Greece and its islands with its mountainous terrain and clouds floating between us and the ground. As we continued, I saw the southwestern tip of Turkey and then Cyprus in the distance.
We caught a sheruit (a shared taxi – multiple people ride in it to multiple locations within the same city) from the airport to JUC. We were the second to last group to be dropped off. The last was a friendly Orthodox Jew who pointed out various locations we were passing and worthwhile places to visit, which was helpful.
Then the day got interesting. This is the last Friday of Ramadan (the Muslim holy month). There are also some demonstrations that are going to be taking place. Therefore the roads are closed to the Old City of Jerusalem, of which JUC is just outside it. Instead of disembarking triumphantly at JUC’s gate, we were apologetically let off as close as possible and had to walk about half a mile in the hot sun with 100 pounds of luggage wheeling behind us. After breathing a sigh of relief and having lunch, I went back out to help two other students who also had been dropped off like us, but hadn’t gone the right way. Oops. Just getting the blood flowing to keep us awake!
I finally have a few moments to relax. I’m basically running on adrenalin, but to be sitting here at JUC is a truly a dream come true. I’ve prayed for years about the opportunity to come back. The Lord has been so good to me. Who am I, that I deserve this pleasure? It brings tears to my eyes just thinking of it. Bless the Lord!