It's a Small World After All!

Yes, you can thank me for getting that song stuck in your head for awhile. But seriously, this has been more true today than ever before!

I went on a little outing around Jerusalem today with my mother and two other co-workers. Our adventure started with a tour of some famous sites in the city. We walked through Hezekiah's Tunnel. That place is super sweet but really dark and really tight. I never get claustrophobic, but I found myself a little on edge if I stopped to think about our situation for very long. But all in all the tunnel is so cool I had to just marvel at it. If you ever go to Jerusalem, it is something you gotta see!

We also stopped by the Wailing Wall (aka Western Wall). We visited it last Friday evening, but it was resting because Shabbat had started so we couldn't take pictures of it. This afternoon was much less busy so we were able to walk right up to it. This is one of the few places in Jerusalem that I can really feel a Holy Presence despite the busyness that surrounds. Also a good thing to put on your to do list if you come here. 

Then we had to make our way home so that we can buy food for dinner. On our way back we stopped at a store owned by a man named Shaban. He is Old City famous so if you come here make sure to stop by his place. He always offers us something cold to drink! Today we had a delicious strawberry-banana juice. In his store were half a dozen other students, one of whom was waring a Jerusalem University College (JUC) t-shirt. My first time in Israel was 3 years ago when I took a 3 week course at JUC. We struck up a conversation with them and quickly found out some fascinating things....

"Hey, where you guys from?"

"Oh, the four of us are from Indiana."

"Really? Where?"

"Marion."

"IWU?"

"Yeah....?"

"I'm from Taylor!"

Look at that... Jesus bringing about reconciliation between rival schools in the middle of Old City Jerusalem. 

Then we turned to the other girl in their group.

"Where are you from?"

"I go to school at Bethel in MN."

"Really? We know tons of people there!"

We then proceeded to list of names of a bunch of people we knew before discovering she was actually roommates with one of my brothers good friends from high school! It's really a small world after all!

As we left one of the girls said, "Bye! Oh this is sad, we might never see you again!"
"That's ok." I replied. "I'll see you in heaven."
"Amen!" she cried after us.
And so we will. It's sad to say good-bye to friends, but I know I'll see you on the other side.