Boondoggles.

We have had many people stay overnight in our apt since moving in late August, but not until recently did we have our first official visitors from the States. Lauren and Joy joined us for about 10 days and we toured most of the country with them (picture album from these days are posted in “our pictures”). Just a couple days after dropping them off at the airport, we were back picking up our next set of visitors…The Swan family! We are currently busy again touring around much of the country with them. Many of the things I write about and the pictures we take may seem to have little to do with our academic coursework. Is life over here just a series of “Boondoggles?”

Boon*dog*gle: work or activity that is wasteful or pointless but gives the appearance of having value.

Well for those of you who might be silently wondering (or verbally…Mark) yes we do academic coursework as well. In fact, just recently Stacie and I FINALLY finished our huge Historical Geography Seminar paper. Basic premise of this project was to design a two-week study tour – studying the various geographical regions of the land, (climate, geology, routes, etc.) as well as the specific history, archeology, and stories found in the Biblical Text of each site to be visited on this hypothetical study tour (hopefully to be used someday).


Stacie and I have each completed our own projects and combined total was roughly 380 pages! We spent many many hours of study and research and even chopped down a couple olive trees in order to turn it in, but they are done and we feel thankful to have that one off our plate. Now on our current boondoggle (leading the Swan family around the country) we are already putting these projects to some use.

Charity.

Moses ascended to the top of Mount Sinai for 40 days and received the word of the Lord. In the Torah, God gave a total of 613 commandments to be obeyed, most of us probably couldn’t list all of them if we were asked, which could be problematic, I have a hard enough time obeying commandments I do know, how do I obey commandments I don’t know about? When I think about Moses on Mount Sinai I often pictured him coming down the mountain with two tablets under his arms with God’s “Top Ten” list. One of these commandments we are to obey is regarding Shabbat. On it, do no work. In fact, while the Israelites were in the desert, they found a man gathering wood on Shabbat. They stoned him (Num 15).
Keeping Shabbat is one commandment taken very seriously today in Israel. Everything shuts down. Stores, restaurants, buses…they even sound a horn that rings throughout Jerusalem just before the sun goes down to let everyone know Shabbat has begun. One recent Friday night, with our friends Lauren and Joy visiting us, we thought it would be fun to go to the Western Wall. The horn had already sounded to announce Shabbat and while walking through the Jewish Quarter, a Jewish man came up to me and asked,

“Excuse me, are you Jewish?”

“No, I’m a Christian”

I could tell he didn’t like my response, but it was convenient for him in the end. He started apologizing, explaining, telling me some story that was not clear to me at all but…in the end I could tell he needed me to help him out with something. Sure, why not? He led me to a chained box that needed to be unlocked and moved elsewhere. His responsibility. But the Shabbat horn had already sounded. He was in a jam. In need of help from a non-Jew. So I helped this man move his box where it needed to go, and I’m simply trying to have some conversation with the guy, but he wants nothing to do with me. He told me he has met Christians before and all they want to do is talk to him about Jesus. When the box was locked up again where he wanted it, I asked him

“So what happens to me for doing this for you on Shabbat?”

“Nothing.”

“Why is that? Didn’t God command Christians to keep Shabbat too?”

“No, only the Jews.”

Just then another Jewish man came along the narrow road near the Western Wall and the two of them started talking with each other in Hebrew, trying to ignore my existence, but I’m trying to keep the conversation going. He was done talking to the Christian. My wife and friends were no longer on my tail as I tried to keep up with his hurried pace. So I stopped to wait for them. And he was gone.

No “thank you” for the help. No “Good bye.” Nothing.

Which is ok. I’m still glad I helped him out. Besides, there was a day when a man came up to Jesus and asked Him, “Teacher, (of all 613) which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied by saying “Love God with all you’ve got, and the second is like it: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Stacie and I have been very intentional about keeping Shabbat. It’s been a beautiful thing we highly recommend, but we also know that “Shabbat was made for man, not man for Shabbat.” It’s the spirit of the law right?

Oh, and by the way, the box I carried was a money box with “Charity” written on the front.

Irony.