Joshua

As many people in the world seem to know by now, Stacie and I have been studying very hard for a big Hebrew Comprehensive exam. Basically we had to translate ten chapters from Joshua on our own, (no class time on any of this one) then walk into the exam room and have two different sections of those ten chapters sitting in front of us and we had to be able to translate it. Plus, a number of questions regarding the Hebrew grammar, such as parsing and syntax questions (which has never been clear to me). So we did our part by preparing as best we could.


Studying all day...

...and all night......for about 12+ hours a day for a couple weeks. There were definitely moments of discouragement and frustration along the way, especially as the day drew near and we realized we hadn't prepared anything for the the Historical Geography question (on the Hebrew Comp exam). This question, whatever it was going to look like, was going to be worth 25% of it. This exam is pass/fail, and we need to pass in order to graduate. So the last couple days we crammed about everything we could regarding the overall history and geography of the Exodus and the Conquest (Pharaoh's, dates, conquest strategy, routes, maps, and the archeology of Jericho and Ai).

On Friday, April 25th, Stacie and I finally took the exam. Stacie and I were the only ones taking this exam that day, so they threw us in separate rooms and said "good luck." By this point, many people knew we were taking this exam and many people were praying for us, encouraging us and cheering us on. For those of you who did - THANK YOU! We truly could tell that it was bigger than ourselves.
I mean, I was full of joy all day, even while I was taking this exam. Never stressed, worried or frustrated. Just taking my time and trying to answer the questions thoroughly.

Stacie slugged it out for about 6 1/2 hours before she finally finished. I was in my cell for about an hour longer. So it was a long and difficult exam, but both of us agree that we are so thankful for all the things we had to learn to prepare for this one. There is nothing about all of this that I am like "why do I need to know this???" It's fun stuff, and it's why God called us here.

Thanks to you all for cheering us on through the finish line. We now have one week left of classes and then finals. 2 final exams plus one even BIGGER comprehensive exam on Historical Geography.

Grrrrrrr.

Passover pt. 1 - The Story

Psalm 105

26He sent Moses His servant,
And Aaron, whom He had chosen.
27They performed His wondrous acts among them,
And miracles in the land of Ham.
28He sent darkness and made it dark;
And they did not rebel against His words.
29He turned their waters into blood
And caused their fish to die.
30Their land swarmed with frogs
Even in the chambers of their kings.
31He spoke, and there came a swarm of flies
And gnats in all their territory.
32He gave them hail for rain,
And flaming fire in their land.
33He struck down their vines also and their fig trees,
And shattered the trees of their territory.
34He spoke, and locusts came,
And young locusts, even without number,
35And ate up all vegetation in their land,
And ate up the fruit of their ground.
36He also struck down all the firstborn in their land,
The first fruits of all their vigor.
37Then He brought them out with silver and gold,
And among His tribes there was not one who stumbled.
38Egypt was glad when they departed,
For the dread of them had fallen upon them.
39He spread a cloud for a covering,
And fire to illumine by night.
40They asked, and He brought quail,
And satisfied them with the bread of heaven.
41He opened the rock and water flowed out;
It ran in the dry places like a river.
42For He remembered His holy word
With Abraham His servant;
43And He brought forth His people with joy,
His chosen ones with a joyful shout.
44He gave them also the lands of the nations,
That they might take possession of the fruit of the peoples' labor,
45So that they might keep His statutes
And observe His laws,
Praise the LORD!

Passover pt. 2 - The Rules

Exodus 12

Feast of Unleavened Bread

14'Now this day will be a memorial to you, and you shall celebrate it as a feast to the LORD; throughout your generations you are to celebrate it as a permanent ordinance.
15'Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, but on the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses; for whoever eats anything leavened from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel.
16'On the first day you shall have a holy assembly, and another holy assembly on the seventh day; no work at all shall be done on them, except what must be eaten by every person, that alone may be prepared by you.
17'You shall also observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this very day I brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt; therefore you shall observe this day throughout your generations as a permanent ordinance.
18'In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread, until the twenty-first day of the month at evening.
19'Seven days there shall be no leaven found in your houses; for whoever eats what is leavened, that person shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is an alien or a native of the land.
20'You shall not eat anything leavened; in all your dwellings you shall eat unleavened bread.'"

Passover pt. 3 - 3,454 Years Later

Three thousand four hundred and fifty-four years ago, at the first ever Passover, God instructed the Israelites to eat bread without yeast for a week. So what does this look like today? Here's a few pictures from our local grocery store this last week.

Entire aisles covered up with items containing leaven.

But how do you know what is okay to purchase?

Chocalate spread. "Kosher for Pesach (Passover)."

Stacie standing in front of the cereal aisle - no entrance.

And here are the empty bread shelves.

Here's the Matzah! (Matzote - plural)

Passover pt. 4 - The Sacrifice

A few weeks ago, a good friend of ours (and neighbor) captured an amazing video in the Old City of Jerusalem. It is a video of a Jewish Priestly Passover Sacrifice. To watch this video click here.

WARNING - This video is bloody and quite graphic. Parental discretion is advised.


I think this video is truly an amazing picture of another Passover sacrifice that took place. Paul and Peter both refer to it in the following.


1 Corinthians 5:6-8

6Your boasting is not good Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough?
7Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed.
8Therefore let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.


1 Peter 1:17-21

17If you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each one's work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth;
18knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers,
19but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.
20For He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you
21who through Him are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.

Post Family Visits Israel!

It’s been a while since I’ve checked in. Sorry.

On March 21st Stacie and I took another trip to the airport, but this time to pick up my parents who were coming to tour around the land for a couple weeks. What my parents (and Stacie) didn’t tell me is that my sister Kim was coming with them too!

It was really fun traveling around the country with my family – showing them the world of Stacie and I (our apartment, school, neighborhood…) many archeological sites, we went on some great hikes and visited a few other places – places that weren’t exactly on our initial itinerary.


We toured around the Holy City for the first a few days and even celebrated Easter together by going to a sunrise service at the Garden Tomb. After 5 days in Jerusalem (while Stacie and finished up classes before Spring Break), it was time to get out of the city. We headed for the Shephelah (western foothills) and joined up with a friend of ours who was leading a study tour. We climbed up Tel Azekah – near the area where God used David to defeat Goliath, and then we climbed up Gath – the city where Goliath was from –

and that its when our picture...

our plans…

our itinerary…all changed.

On top of the Tel (man-made hill of city remains), Kim slipped on some loose rock, and fell pretty hard. A doctor was in the tour group we were with and said we needed to get her ankle checked out. So we drove to the hospital – and sure enough – she broke her leg!


So they slapped a cast on her leg and sent us away. Great, so what do we do now? Well we were planning on driving up to Galilee that night for a few days, so we went anyway.
I’ve posted lots of pictures on our Shutterfly account that tells much of the rest of the story.

The broken leg Kim experienced was a bummer…I mean, first of all it’s not exactly a free trip to come visit us. Also, mom, dad and Kim were all exercising and training to be able to do some extensive hiking here. They were driving to hotels in downtown Grand Rapids just to climb the 24-flights of stairs – they wanted to come here and they wanted to go hard and hike a lot and see a lot and learn a lot and…

I learned a lot from these couple weeks as well. First thing I learned – this country is not very handicap accessible. Too many hills, valleys, rough stones, and archeological digs without nicely paved side-walks. I was also again reminded that the “picture changes everyday.” We often like to make our plans – and it’s good to plan – but we cannot hang on too tightly to our plans. In fact, when we were hiking up Tel Gath, someone in the group was asking me about what Stacie and I are planning on doing when we graduate from JUC. My response? I told him about a couple ideas or dreams that Stacie and I have, although nothing concrete, but in the end I said, “ya know, I don’t even know what’s going to happen three minutes from now let alone what next year will look like.” Sure enough, about eight minutes later, Kim fell and broke her leg.

“The mind of man plans his way, but the LORD directs his steps.” – Proverbs 16:9

So the initial itinerary changed a bit. But we truly had a fantastic two weeks together. We wheeled Kim around in that wheelchair to places we’re not so sure a wheelchair has ever been before – like the top of Mt. Arbel for example . We made the most out of what we had and what we could do, we enjoyed the moments we had together, we saw a lot, learned a lot, laughed a lot, (cried a little, slept a little…) – All is well.


Life is a journey. Full of many stories. I mean, that’s sort of what this place is all about isn’t it? We talk about the stories of people of faith who have gone before us on these ancient paths. Now we have more stories of our own to tell - on those same ancient paths.