August 31 - Sunday

Impressions from Dave:

On ingenuity: We have the main Jerusalem Theater and Performance Complex about a block from our apartment. One night this week we heard some very loud music so we strolled over. It was a packed house. I have never seen so many cars packed into one small area – on sidewalks and even in the center of the street on the white center lines, with barely enough room for cars to pass on either side. I’m assuming the police don’t enforce parking laws in this type of situation.?!

More on cultural differences: We met one of the employees of the tour company that the Gathering is using. He’s an Israeli now, but lived most of his life in California and New York City. I mentioned all the horn honking that goes on over here and asked him how long he thought those taxi drivers and regular drivers would last in Los Angeles or New York City. He smiled and said, “One day at the most.” Israel is a noisy culture. The United States is a violent culture.

On humor: How can you tell an American parrot from an Israeli parrot? The American parrot has to sign a ‘photo release’ before you can take his picture; the Israeli parrot charges a fee to take it. (I know, I’m still a rookie at this humor thing!)

On fruit bearing: A couple of weeks ago we visited our leader’s mom who has a beautiful garden for her entire yard. I noticed the pomegranate tree fruit was mostly burst open and most of it on the ground, long before it should have been ripe. I asked about it and his mom said that on a recent trip to Africa, the timer on her sprinkling system malfunctioned and they got way too much water. Two applications came to mind (there are probably many more). The first is our need to be channels of Creator’s love and grace, not just repositories. As the old saying goes, “We can be so heavenly minded that we are no earthly good.” The second is that Creator sometimes takes longer to mature us or others than we think He should, but when we try to push ahead of His schedule, usually something negative happens. (This is dedicated to you, Mom.)

Keep running your race with endurance,
Dave