Thanks to those of you who have been thinking of and praying for us during this past week!  Maybe you have read of the increased tensions in Israel connected with the anniversary of Israel’s formation as a country in 1948?  Last week saw demonstrations and casualties at the Lebanon and Syria borders as well as in the West Bank territories, even close to where we are living.  We never felt threatened, but we did take some precautions about when and where we went Friday through Sunday.

I would love to write about our feelings regarding the situation here, however I need to be careful about what I say on a blog that could be read by anyone doing a google search.  Thus even the place we live is in acronym form in the title above.  The City of… and my youngest grandson’s name is Dave!  I want to write a blog in the near future to give you a bit of a history lesson regarding this place.  It is amazing, and gets more amazing each day as archaeologists uncover more and learn more from what they uncover.  So stay tuned!

Getting back to the “situation” here, let me just say that we don’t choose sides, except God’s side, and He makes it clear that He loves all people of all nationalities and colors. And I will say also that I don’t believe that there will ever be a political solution to what is essentially a moral problem.  Or a humanistic solution.  We tried “Come on people now, smile on your brother, everybody get together, try to love one another right now” in the 60’s and found that we couldn’t do that very well on our own.  But there is one who suffered and died for us to redeem us, to show us the way, and to give us His spirit so that we can, through his transforming power in our lives, see one another (of all faiths, ethnic backgrounds, color, etc.) as precious and valuable.

So here are some pics taken from near where we live, to give you some idea of our circumstances just outside the old city of Jerusalem:

looking east toward the Mount of Olives

And the opposite direction toward the western hill…

Julee on the roof, a nice place to sit in the cool of the evening, and the place we hang our laundry.  There are many fruit trees in the courtyard, giant lemons, at least a couple different varieties of oranges, grapefruit, and other yummy fruit we never had before or know the name of.

Our long time friend Jacqueline Wilson is here in Jerusalem visiting her Mom and participating in the local activities.

My lovely wife, dressed up and ready to go out to dinner last night with friends at a popular and very nice Jerusalem restaurant where we sat outdoors for hours enjoying some good food and a talented jazz trio!