I haven’t been blogging much lately because I’ve just been trying to stay afloat. Tonight is one night where I’m not outside the house so I have a few minutes and I was just struck by how many good things happened today.
1. I read 1 Thessalonians this morning and saw more new things. I plan to read the book through each day this month, and I am certain I’ll learn new things every day.
2. At an appointment in Jerusalem this morning, we were granted visas. It was sort of the absolute minimum amount of help that the gov’t here could give, but it is sufficient for our needs and a clear answer to prayer after many disappointments.
3. Walking back from the gov’t office, I spotted a Mountain Dew, only the second one I’ve seen for sale here.
4. Back in my office a friend and former student (f&fs) brought by the complete, finished set of DVDs he made of my Land and Bible trips this semester.
5. Lunch in the dining room was good food and discussion.
6. I got an email from a former IBEXer in the Dallas area who is going on vacation for two weeks the very day we are arriving, and he offered us use of their empty house and car. Just last night Kelli and I had been talking of needing just something like this to soften our landing.
7. Another f&fs stopped by the office to ask if she could stay six weeks this summer and help me with projects and Kelli with things around the house.
8. Everything just came together in a short time on a (secret) project I’ve been working on for many months. Now it feels like something, for the first time.
9. Several students came by and asked for advice on teaching, jobs and relationships.
10. The mail arrived and it contained only checks, no bills.
11. I came home and found out that a f&fs had spent the better part of the day at our house helping Kelli on the rather daunting task of sorting and washing kids’ clothes to give away. A student spent the afternoon here cleaning.
12. I don’t have any reason to be out of the house tonight (so far anyway). I hardly know what to do with myself. I do know this – I’m not going to spend any more time tonight blogging! God has been extremely kind to us today.
Scrapbook gift from Spring 2007 (last week);
this is one of the best presents I have received
Todd – I’m grateful that your day was full of blessing. I’ll be interested to see the project if it’s the kind of thing someone like me would ever get to see.
Glad to hear it Todd.
Praise the Lord! How gracious the Lord is to allow us to experience Him in such ways through his blessings. And I concur with Gunner – what exactly is this secret project? (There are many other Ibexers wondering what this secret of yours is too :-) )
Duh, it’s a secret! Of course no one knows what this mysterious project is. Although the first step to successfully keeping a secret is usually avoiding any acknowledgment of its existence, I have a feeling it’s not a never-to-be-disclosed secret, or else our astute & beloved f&fp (friend and former prof) would not have mentioned it!
Thanks, Todd, for sharing some of your observations of God at work. He always is, but sometimes we fail to look, or fail to attribute things properly. I am very glad for the reminder.
it is so wonderful that God demonstrates His everlasting love to us and in the small and tender ways as well as the big and grand. I only pray that I will in the same way make Him smile today.
Hey, this really has nothing to do with your blog… just wanted to say hi. I have met so many students who have met you at IBEX through the years and I always think… I should try and look him up… so I finally did. So how the heck are you? From what I hear, you are doing an incredible job in Israel. Matt, the kids and I want to come visit sometime. =) Well, I just wanted to say Hi and would love to keep in touch.
That’s all well and good, but I’m warning you, your car will be immediately towed upon your arrival at the DTS campus if you don’t hook me up with some Blackstone info. Any pics of the Blackstone Bible at Herzl’s grave? Any word on the Blackstone forest (supposedly planted in the Judean Hills in 1961)? Come on man – hook a brutha up.
Wow – I think I am now having a bad day.
It might help if you knew the things that I am passionately interested in that I simply don’t have time to do (like find the Gezer boundary inscriptions; I have the exact coordinates, just not the time). Finding a memorial forest in the Judean Hills is like locating a gully in west Texas.
As we say down in Texas, “you in a heapa trouble boy.”
Seriously though, the forest is a long shot, but the Bible at Herzl’s grave is supposed to be public. I’ve emailed several organizations in Israel about this but no one ever mails back.