SHOCK!

We have been back from Jerusalem for about a month and a half. Much has happened, much has changed, and almost everything is different. Many people have asked us if we are experiencing any culture shock. The answer to the question is most definitely. Now six weeks later we are slowly starting to adjust, but there have been, and will continue to be a number of things that are quite different that we are sorting through. What’s different you ask? What is the same is more like it.


BIG
The land of Israel is only about the size of New Jersey. They have packed a lot into that small piece of land. Almost everything seemed quite small.

America is bigger. Bigger in land size, car size, house size, store size, road sign size, shoe size, everything size. Now instead of grocery shopping at Super Deal, a 6-aisle (and they were short aisles) grocery store in Jerusalem, we can choose from Family Fare, Meijer or Wal-Mart, which is great because now we can choose from 32 different types of plastic cups – including size, shape and color! (sarcasm) Why do we have to make so many decisions? I just need some plastic cups and I don’t care what color they are! Clear is fine. Always has been. Always will be. Moving on.


WEATHER
In Israel they are experiencing a drought this summer. It hasn’t rained since March, nor will it until October. This is normal, no rain all summer long. But this past winter they didn’t get much rain and by the time we left in mid-June the Sea of Galilee was already at a critically low level, and the long dry summer was just beginning. It’s the largest body of fresh water in the Middle East and the source of drinking water for the Israelis. A small island was beginning to form on the south side of the lake when we left.

We flew in to Chicago on June 14th and the morning of the 15th there was a huge thunderstorm, destroying the neighbors’ carport they used for a graduation party. Then it rained and stormed really hard about every other day for a month. When we were on a short road trip down to St. Louis we encountered another vicious thunderstorm (two within 10 minutes actually) and we were literally driving 20mph on the highway because it was raining so hard, cars were driving with their emergency flashers on, farmers’ fields were flooded and we saw lightning strike a field twice. Welcome to the U.S.


THINGS
Israel is not only deserts and caves and camels. Israel is not a third world country. In fact it is a quite well-developed country. (Example, I have already dropped more cell phone calls in two weeks than I did in two years there…including remote places in the Negev).

Moving back to MI I have heard many people talking about how terrible the economy is here. This economy has affected a lot of people and I am not trying to minimize this hardship for so many, but…my eyes see everyone living in a nice big house with a 2 or 3 stall garage, driving new SUV’s (or at least a newer car) and an extremely important thing seems to be lawn care. By the way it is also noticeably very green here. Green trees, green grass, green plants. It’s beautiful. But I overheard one neighboring telling another, “stop cutting your grass so short, you’re making mine look bad.” Not wrong, just different values, or priorities than where we had been living the past couple years. So I’m still trying to sort through how to view all this stuff, how to live simple and content lives, and not judge other people in the process. God help me.


CULTURE
Jerusalem was/is one of the most diverse places on the planet. There’s the local population of Arabs, Jews (from all over, including Russia, Spain, Ethiopia, America, etc.) plus 2 million tourists visit Israel each year. The bustling Holy City was always packed with pedestrians, car-honking taxis, and tour buses with tourists representing every possible nation, people group, culture and language. Stacie and I enjoyed approaching a group of tourists with their bright colored hats, or scarves, or stickers or whatever group “uniform” they had on, and trying to figure out where they were from – Germany, Switzerland, Nigeria, Russia, France, India, U.S.

Now we live in Zeeland, MI. We don’t see a lot of people. We often say to each other – we see all the houses, but where are all the people? Sometimes we see some tall Dutch folks. Lots of blue eyes and blonde hair ‘round here. I am still looking for that first tour bus to pull down our street with a group of people from Madagascar or something.


RELIGION
Islam, Judaism, Christianity – all packed into the “Holy City” of Jerusalem. A place utterly dominated by the Muslims and the Jews. Only 2 percent of the population are Christians. We lived in a land that was completely littered with synagogues, and mosques. And reminded of it every day when the call to prayer would scream out of those little minarets five times a day, or on Shabbat when all the Jewish people would flock to the local synagogue in their Shabbat attire. There were, however also a number of old churches scattered about the land – but many of them were old church buildings built to commemorate or remember a certain Biblical story or event that took place in that particular area. Many of these churches are simply historical and are not used to serve and/or encourage a particular body of believers (although there are some of those churches too, don’t get me wrong). My observation? As a Christian, I always felt out of place. I mean, I was surrounded by amazing Christian friends at JUC, but overall I felt severely outnumbered by the others. However, this feeling of outnumberedness seemed to strengthen the bond and the love and the passion between the believers living in Jerusalem. The need for Jesus was an obvious, compelling, in-your-face every single day of the week feeling. These people need Jesus.

I have been in the United States now for 52 days. I have not yet seen a synagogue, or a mosque. Churches? Got plenty of them. Driving home from work one day I counted 15 church buildings on the same street covering about 5 miles. In Zeeland there is First Reformed and Second Reformed Church right across the street (Church Street) from each other, not to mention Third Reformed, First and Second CRC, First Baptist and many, many more. There are a plethora of church buildings here, and it seems as though most Zeelanders are church-going people. It is truly an amazing thing after living in the “desert” for a couple years.

HOWEVER, here is some of what I have seen, heard and/or experienced that really makes my blood boil…
One church talking bad about other churches.
Minor topics becoming the major topics.
The domination of one denomination over the all others.
The superiority of one set of theological ideas and interpretations over all the others…
and everyone else who doesn’t agree on these things we want nothing to do with!
So we throw them out and are sure to keep them away from our kids.

THIS has been the hardest thing for me to “adjust” to. But I won’t. I won’t adjust. I won’t participate. I won’t settle for meddling in nonsense. I will love my brothers. I will major on the majors. I will be a part of God’s desire and purpose in changing people’s lives. After living in Israel these past two years, the lens through which I view the world is clearer than ever. People in this world desperately need Jesus.

I wish we’d care less about things like the perfection of our lawn.