God of Rain

Yesterday I took my first step on the land of Israel.

Granted it was in the airport and I didn't really see much of anything on my drive from Tel Aviv because I instantly fell asleep, but just the fact that I'm in Israel fathoms me.

We were greeted with great darkness, it being about 6:00. The first thing we all did, after dropping off our luggage in our rooms (which the school makes them sound much worse than they are), was we had our first kosher dinner here at the Moshav YadHashmona. I was expecting kind of weird food in a not so divine place, as the impression was that we would be roughing it for the next three and a half months; but really, we live in such a beautiful place. It has a very camp-like, communal living feel, as many of the buildings here look like cabins. They say apparently the food gets worse as time goes along or something like that, but all I know all I ate was delicious. Much better than most of the stuff I eat at home. We had a buffet of food and I have to say that I was actually excited to eat fresh vegetables, a luxury we don't have in Kodiak.

After starting to get settled into my room, where I'm rooming with a very nice and sweet girl named Molly Johnston, there was a loud roar outside my window...a thunder storm fell upon Israel. Flashes would zap outside every so often and it was pouring down rain. Now usually I would complain about the rain, since it rains all the time in Kodiak, but being in this new land it was completely new to me. So instead of writing my paper I walked around for an hour or so, took some photos, and just felt the rain fall upon me and listened to the thunder in the distance. I also tried to catch some thunder, but tragically failed. I had a wonderful sleep though and a great breakfast this morning, which was partially eaten in the dark because there was a power outage. That was pretty fun too. Last night was an awesome first experience though in Israel and I'm excited for what the Lord will bring in the months to come. I still can't believe I'm here. I have to remind myself daily that I'm waking up in Israel, learning more about God and His land that He first showed Himself. That's amazing. Today is orientation day. We've already played some games to get to know each other and gotten to see some of the grounds. Next is lunch (yay!) and then our first class of the semester, Land and Bible. We're also going into the hill country really near to us into a town called Abu Ghosh and exploring around there, despite the rain that will probably fall on us. Until my next adventure.

Shalom.

Hodu l'adonia ki tov...

{Give thanks to God for He is good...}