Shalom my friends!
I am listening to Christmas Carols as I write to you. I can’t believe it’s already that time of year again! Hopefully all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Even though I was far from home I was able to have all of the good food and enjoy it with friends. We also celebrated the 5 year anniversary of the prayer room going 24/7!
For the past week and a half I have been house sitting for some friends in what is called the City of David. This section of Jerusalem is actually the original Jebusite city called Salem that David captured and made his capitol city of Jerusalem. For a review of some of the history of this place you can refer to my 5th update. I am literally right next to the ruins of David’s palace and the remains of the buildings used by the scribes. It’s amazing and hard to believe at the same time.
Since life in this section of town is a bit different I thought I would take a few minutes to highlight a few of the amusing happenings and oddities here. One of the first things you will notice is that at least five times a day you can hear the Muslim prayer calls, and they are really loud. I will try to record one of these to give you a better idea. There are a number of minarets in this area since it is right next to the Temple Mount and a largely Muslim area. The first prayer call starts around 4:45 am and lasts for 5-10 minutes. This is to call the people to pray, then after they have finished the minarets go off again for several minutes – around 5:15 am. This is repeated 5 or more times a day. Needless to say this makes sleeping a bit trying at times. The other day I was attempting to sleep until 7am and between the minarets going off, the cats fighting outside my window and a Jewish man blowing his shofar and praying loudly, I got very little extra sleep. But even so, I love this part of the city!
My second interesting experience occurred on my way back to the house the other night. I came across a large rat that was making all sorts of loud squawking noises as he ran down the sidewalk. Since we were going in opposite directions I figured it was no big deal, he’s supposed to be more afraid of me than I am of him right? Wrong. As soon as I passed him he turned around and made a bee-line for me. I took and few quick steps to show him I was leaving, but he wasn’t convinced. So, I waited until it was just in front of my foot and then I kicked him just hard enough to send him tumbling backwards. He was about 3/4th the size of my foot without his tail. I have been sure to take my flashlight with me at night since then!
Number three on the list happened last Saturday: I had been enjoying my Shabbat morning reading etc. on the couch for several hours. Then I got up and began getting ready to go meet my friends. After about 2 minutes I came back to the couch and found a tarantula sitting in between the cushions on the couch about a foot to the left of where I’d been sitting. Lucky for him I captured him under a glass and let him go outside instead of smashing him. Thankfully I haven’t run into any other little creatures since. I have included a picture of the tarantula; sorry I didn’t have the camera ready when the rat came after me!
On a more serious note, I would like to give a bit of history that is significant regarding the place we pray from. The room faces Mount Zion which is mentioned a number of times throughout the scriptures and no doubt you have sung worship songs that mention it as well. In between Mount Zion and the hill our building sits on is the Ben Hinnom Valley. It was in this valley that the Israelites once sacrificed their children to Molech. Molech is an Ammonite god. It was a hollow bronze figure with the head of an ox and outstretched human arms. It was heated from within until it was red hot and the children were placed in the outstretched arms to be burned to death. In order to keep the parents from hearing the screams of their children they had priests who beat drums. Because of these sins God cursed the valley and sent judgment on the Israelites. You can read about this in Jeremiah 7, 19 and 32:30-44 (the word Topheth is used at times instead of Molech, it means drum). Over the last 10 years many of the prayer times were focused on breaking the curse off of the valley. A few years ago one of the leaders took a tour of the area with a local Jewish tour guide. When they came to the Ben Hinnom valley the guide explained the history of the valley and how it had been cursed by God. He explained that the visible sign of the curse had always been that no birds were ever in the valley. He then said that for some unknown reason birds had just begun living in the valley again. Needless to say we are so excited that the curse has finally been broken. It is now a beautiful valley.
Recently the Muslims celebrated what is called the Hajj. Every Muslim is to make a journey to Mecca once in their lifetime for this celebration of the New Year. I was told that President Obama’s mother was there this year. We need to pray for that family!!!! During this celebration each family is to slaughter a lamb and if they have too much meat for their family they are to share it with the poor. Hundreds of thousands of lambs were slaughtered about a week ago in Mecca. During this time period we were praying that they would have a revelation of the Lamb of God. I really believe God is going to do a major work in the Muslim nations that will be seen by all.
At the end of this week we will be entering into the Chanukah celebration here in Israel. I will save the details of that until next time when I can give you my firsthand experience of the week long holiday! The Lord bless and keep each one of you and may He bring greater revelation of Himself to you this week.
~Lydia
Pictures: #1 Birthday fun with my roommate (yes I am a year older now)
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