Groovin’

Good news – after seven years together, we’re still not sick of each other! Ha ha! Our “dating anniversary” was last week. It still seems like not that long ago that we were sitting on the couch in the living room of Micah’s college apartment just after midnight having the “DTR” chat (that’s Define The Relationship, for all you uncool people). And still to this day, we debate whether our anniversary is technically the 20^th or 21^st, since it was so close to midnight. You know it must be wedded bliss when you can argue about the little happy things!

Enough with the sentimental stuff…

As part of our “staycation” a couple of weeks ago, we took a day trip to the quaint town of Brenham, Texas. Since it’s only about 1.5 hours away, I would still count it as part of the stay-at-home vacation. For all of you Louisiana folks, think of it as St. Francisville without the plantations. It is an adorable small town with several cutesy restaurants and quite a few antique shops. We fit in a leisurely lunch and some store browsing, but then headed to the main attraction – the Bluebell Ice Cream Factory! The 30 minute tour was a lot of fun for us first-timers, as we got to see the ice cream production process. Probably the coolest part was watching them make ice cream sandwiches. The day even provided a flashback for Micah, who worked briefly at Dreyer’s Ice Cream factory early in his college years. It definitely gave my sweet tooth a deep desire for a cold treat, so we were thrilled to discover that the tour ended with a free scoop of your favorite Bluebell flavor. It was the freshest tasting ice cream we have ever eaten!

Yes, we even got to wear cool hats. Jealous?

This past weekend was Fallapalooza, Micah’s major fall event for the Tallowood middle schoolers. This was something totally new that he created to replace the annual middle school retreat, an event that couldn’t quite come together because of budget constraints. What a huge success! A week before Fallapalooza, 40 middle schoolers had signed up. By the time the doors closed last Friday night, more than 130 students were in our youth building! Teenagers are always so last minute. The students played laser tag on-site in one of the church buildings, dodging behind inflatable barricades and existing doors and furniture. They loved it! The simple thrill of getting to play no-holds-bar in an area that is usually off limits to their routine activity was major excitement for these guys. Very fun for us old farts to watch!

Did I mention there was a 70’s theme? We’re not just a very groovy church… The addition of Beatles Rock Band certainly completed the retro theme!

-Laura

The Holy Land, Part III

Our second week in Israel was spent “blessing the Holy Land.” Our crew of four adults, three graduated senior girls, three junior boys and one sophomore boy headed to the city of Haifa. Haifa is the third largest city in Israel and it is positioned right on the beautiful Mediterranean.

We worked with a messianic Jewish congregation in the suburb of Quirat Yam called Tents of Mercy.

Throughout the week we sorted food in their pantry, separated tea bags, babysat, organized a library and sorted clothing in their distribution center.

 

We also spent the majority of two days working in a former bomb shelter. The building is in an area known as “Little Texas,” named for the high crime rates, which the Israelis relate to the Old West they have seen in movies. The nickname really amused our majority native Texan group! While the bomb shelter was once used to protect people during the most recent Lebanon war and then used as a daycare, it was now being used as a center for troubled teen girls. Our challenge was to clean and update this bare-bones building into a place where young girls would want to hang out.

Overall, the week of work was amazing. We got to invest in an already established ministry, and hopefully help them expand their reach in the community.

In between projects, we enjoyed our downtime at the beach. Life is tough when you’re watching the sun set from the shores of the gorgeous Mediterranean, right?

At the end of the week, we took in the sights from the top of Mount Carmel. We visited the spot that is believed to be where Elijah challenged the prophets of Baal (1 Kings 18). Micah read the story to us from his Bible as we looked out over the mountainside. It was another moment to remember!

After that, we shopped in the marketplace and took a look at the beautiful Baha’i Temple and Gardens.

On our last day with Tents of Mercy, we attended their Shabbat service. We wore headphones to listen to the English translation of the Hebrew service. Many others heard the Russian translation in their headphones, as Haifa has a large population of Russian immigrants. The service was beautiful, passionate and long! After three hours, though, we said a sad goodbye to our new friends and headed off for our very long journey home.

Overall, it was the trip of a lifetime!

-Laura

The Holy Land, Part II

Our touring continued with two days in Jerusalem, seeing as much as possible. First stop: the Mount of Olives.

The view from the Mount of Olives was breathtaking. We got an aerial view of the Temple Mount and our first good look at many of the Holy City’s sites. The largest Jewish cemetery in the world is on the Mount of Olives, across from a large Muslim cemetery. Scripture says that Jesus will return to the Mount of Olives, enter the Temple Mount through the Eastern Gate and reclaim His earthly throne. Muslims believe that a Jewish Messiah will not defile himself by walking through a Muslim graveyard. That combined with the bricked over gate should stop him, right?

While on the top of the Mount of Olives, we had the opportunity to ride a camel! He was a very odd creature, but it was a fun ride.

We journeyed down the steep mountain to the Garden of Gethsemane. Our first stop was the beautiful Church of the Nations, with its intricate mural. From its front steps, we had a perfect view of the Eastern Gate. We then walked into the garden and saw 2,000 year old olive trees in the area where Jesus prayed the night before his crucifixion.

At the Israel Museum, we saw several of the Dead Sea Scrolls (no pictures allowed) and a giant model of Jerusalem as it would have looked in Jesus’ time. The gigantic replica of Herod’s temple really brought to life what is very specifically described in scripture.

The Garden Tomb is one of the two sites thought to be the spot where Jesus was crucified, buried and resurrected. The face you see in the hill side is Golgotha. At the base of the hill is where most protestants believe the crucifixion took place. That place today is marked by an operating Muslim bus station. Ironic? We toured what is believed to be Joseph of Arimathea’s garden, which is very obviously the garden of a very rich man. A tomb was found there with evidence of one person being buried, but no remains were found. We had communion at the side of the tomb, which was yet another memorable moment!

 

We began our last day of touring with a bang at the Temple Mount. We went through extremely tight security, got an overhead view of the Western Wall and then walked onto the Temple Mount. It was incredible! The Dome of the Rock is beautiful

We walked through Hezekiah’s Tunnel in the City of David, written about in 2 Chronicles.

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is the Catholic location of the crucifixion, burial and resurrection. The church is beautiful with gorgeous Catholic mosaics. The line for the actual tomb wrapped around the entire huge church.

Before wrapping up the day, we strolled up the newly excavated Southern Steps. This was the main entrance to the temple during Jesus’ time, meaning that without a doubt He would have preached on these very steps!

Our final stop in Jerusalem was back at the top of the Mount of Olives. There, we prayed together as a large group one last time before splitting into our service teams. As we prayed, one of the afternoon Muslim calls to prayer rang out loudly. It was a reminder of the difficulties we would face as we went out to minister to the Israeli people.

After we split, our team headed to Haifa for a week. That’s a story for another post…

-Laura

The Holy Land, Part I

In the midst of all these June and early July activities, we were meeting, preparing and praying about our trip to Israel. The weekend immediately following HP&L was a busy one, with our final Israel Saturday morning meeting and our commissioning service. That Tuesday, we were off!

The 16 hour flight was rough, especially when the food made Micah sick. But when we got there it was unreal! We stepped off the plane in Tel Aviv and drove straight to Galilee. That is, after going through customs and scary security. And waiting about an hour for our friend and Micah’s summer intern, Peter, to get out of the customs holding pen. Apparently an “Iraq” stamp on your passport makes Israeli security VERY nervous.

We headed straight to the Sea of Galilee where we were staying at Kibbutz Ginosaur. A kibbutz is a farming community, and this one doubled as our hotel. Let me reiterate that first point – we were staying on the shores of the Sea of Galilee! Where Jesus walked on water. Where Jesus called several of his disciples. Crazy!

 

It would be pretty hard to tell you everything about every site we visited, but I’ll do my best through pictures.

 

Our first stop was Tel Dan, where the tribe of Dan would have settled. A tel is a city built on top of a city, built on top of a city. We walked down a hill and saw layers from the time of Jeroboam, then Abraham and then Ruth and Boaz.

The next stop was Ceaserea Philipi where we saw remains from a temple to the pagan god Pan and a Herodian temple.

Then we visited Capernum, the center of Jesus’ ministry. We walked through the remains of a synagogue where Jesus preached and Peter’s house.

We wrapped up our first day of touring with a quick stop at the Jesus boat exhibit, and then off on a boat ride on the Sea of Galilee. It was an experience we’ll never forget, as we took in the gorgeous sites, perfect weather and significance of our location! Some of our students played the Darabuca drums, while the rest of us danced to Hebrew worship songs. A few of our most talented guys even treated us to some break dancing.

The next day, we stayed in the Sea of Galilee area with stops at the Mount of Beatitudes and Peter’s Primacy Chapel. At the Mount of Beatitudes, our tour guide showed us a certain spot in the hillside overlooking the sea where the acoustics are amazing. The spot now overlooks a grove of thousands of banana trees. Our guide told us to imagine that each tree was a person listening to Yeshua preach the Sermon on the Mount. An incredible image!   

 

At Peter’s Primacy Chapel, we walked on the site where it is believed that Jesus fed the 5,000 with only a few loaves of bread and some fish. At this exact spot in the Sea of Galilee, there are seven springs, making it ideal for fisherman. This is likely the spot where Jesus called several of his disciples and where he later told them to cast their empty nets on the other side of the boat to find the fish. And, of course, while we stood in the Sea of Galilee we could not help but remember that on this same body of water, Jesus walked on top of the waves!

Next we went to Kefar Kedem, an Orthodox Jewish community. Our guide, Mike, helped us dress in Biblical period clothing and then led us to a threshing floor. We learned how to separate the wheat from the chaff and then made our own flatbread. After devouring our fresh bread, we ate the best meal of the entire trip underneath a canopy of grapevines and a thatched roof. We then hopped on a donkey and took a ride! I couldn’t help feeling a little like Joseph and Mary as Micah led me and the donkey down the path.

One stop we had been looking forward to all week was the Dead Sea. Surely it could not be as amazing as people described it to be. It wasn’t – it was better! The sensation of floating on top of the water without trying is indescribable. We even floated out to deeper waters and stood upright – with no ground beneath our feet!

Our final destination of the day was to head up to Jerusalem. We drove from the lowest point on Earth, the Dead Sea, to the highest location in Israel, Jerusalem. So we literally drove “up.” Our guide had been giving us info about the areas surrounding Jerusalem and then she turned on some Hebrew worship songs. We silently passed through a large tunnel and as we emerged, the bus rang with a collective gasp. Immediately to our left was the skyline of God’s chosen city with the gleaming Dome of the Rock at its center, all set in front of the sinking sun. It was a glorious site to behold, and one we won’t soon forget!

And that was just the first three days!!

-Laura

Summer 2009

Whew! What a crazy summer! We have been completely negligent of our blog, but now we’re back with lots to catch you up on.

The summer officially started with the Middle School Lock-in in May. Then the time for camp quickly arrived… and that’s where we fell off the blog wagon. Camp Tallowood 2009 was amazing, but it really feels like ages ago.

Micah with some of our graduating seniors as we waited for the buses of other students to arrive.

The 6th grade boys compete for their first time in Acquire the Tire!

My tribe, Benjamin, throws up their wolve sign during the Tribal Shout after telling the story of the prophet Joel.

The Issachar tribe got the prophet Micah, so their shout included a couple of familiar characters, played by Grace and Joseph.

A few of my awesome girls!! Charlotte and Mary Katherine are a couple of 6th graders who were in my room, and Katy is one of our graduated senior girls.

Soon after camp was HP&L, our middle school in-Houston mission trip (Hopefully that will be getting a new name next year. It just confuses a lot of people!). Micah and I took our students all around Houston doing random acts of kindness, a vacation Bible school, sorting Food Bank donations and working at a homeless shelter. We also hosted the 8^th grade girls at our house. They were wild, and a whole bunch of fun. Especially on our late-night Katy site-seeing trip.

All of us at the Houston Food Bank

Music time during the VBS the students led at an apartment complex.

Addie and her new friend Gia during VBS.

Rec time during VBS.

Tuesday Pool Party!

Alicia, Kate and Kayla at the homeless shelter where we cleaned more than 300 beds, replaced pillows and mattresses and made cards for the residents.

Our HP&L crew of middle schoolers and sponsors!

So that was the first half of the summer. Much more to come about Israel and other stuff soon…  

-Laura

Boker Tov

Good morning from Israel… well, sort of.  It is 1 am here!  Just wanted to post a reminder that we are in Israel and are blogging on our Tallowood student blog.  If you are interested in what we are doing, check it out.  We are on Team Haifa so those posts contain our info – along with the touring posts because our whole group was together for four days of touring in Israel before we divided into five mission teams that spread out all over the country.  Here are a few highlights from our trip so far!

(At the Temple Mount/Dome of the Rock)

(Our Haifa team in the Mediterranean)

(On a camel in Jerusalem!)

Leaving on a Jet Plane

Wow, we have been horrible bloggers lately! It won’t get much better over the next couple of weeks, but I’ll try to give you a little update…

We leave today for Israel! Hard to believe this trip is already here, but we leave in just a few hours… and I’m still shoving stuff in my suitcase! This is a hard trip to pack for, not only with the regular TSA travel restrictions, but we are also restricted by the size of our rental vans. We have to make sure we can fit both people AND luggage in the vans. Not to mention the fact that half of the sites we are visiting have dress codes, so outfit selection has been difficult. Knees and shoulders must be covered, but we need to stay cool in the 100 degree heat!

Anyway, the first few days of our trip will be spent visiting Holy sites and other places of interest, including the Mount of Beatitudes, Caesarea Philipi, Tel Dan, the Sea of Galillee, Capernum, the Dead Sea, the Western Wall, Jerusalem, the Mount of Olives, Garden of Gethsemane, the Temple Mount, Church of the Holy Sepulchre, etc. Whew! Just typing all that made me realize that this is really real!

After all the touring, our group heads to Haifa to work with Tents of Mercy, a Messianic Jewish congregation. We’ll be serving in whatever way they need us, including painting, organizing their food pantry, sorting clothes and babysitting. Their facility also has a youth center, so we should get a chance to hang out with some of their young people and do some activities with them.

Pray that God will give us and our students the opportunity to minister to a number of Israelis – whether it is through our service or through our words. Pray for our safety and our peace of mind.

While we’re gone, we might have an opportunity to update this blog, but our Internet access will be limited. We will definitely be updating the Tallowood Student blog as often as possible – www.tallohoodtoday.com. Each team will be posting, so keep an eye out for the Haifa team posts.

A million pictures and lots of stories to come when we get back!

-Laura

Camp Tallowood

Sorry we haven’t posted in a few weeks but honestly, we are still recovering from Camp Tallowood.  So, if you want to see more about what we did there, check out the Tallowood blog: tallohoodtoday.com

We’ll start posting again soon!

-Micah

Camp is here!

We are just about to head out for Camp Tallowood 2009! Micah and I get there this afternoon with a handful of other adults, our seniors come tomorrow and the rest of the students arrive on Sunday afternoon.

While we’re at camp, we’ll be attempting to blog from the Tallowood Student Ministry web site at www.tallohoodtoday.com. Check it out for info, pictures and maybe even a few videos. That is, if we can get Internet access for long enough out in Texas Hill Country!

Neither of us can believe that this week is already here (well, scratch that – after all the hard work, I think Micah can believe it!). I’m just so glad that I once again get to join Micah and minister to students right alongside of him. I know I probably won’t always get to go to camp or on other youth trips, so I’m glad to have the opportunity two years in a row!

Pray that all 350 students and adults will grow closer to God and have the chance to experience Him doing awesome things in their lives this week!

-Laura

Recovery Room

After several naps on the pull-out couch, we finally feel like our bodies have recovered from a major lack of sleep. Why the insomnia? Our annual Middle School Lock-In!

Friday night, Micah led 153 middle school students, 12 high school student sponsors and 25 adults to four different locations around the Houston/Katy area all throughout the night!

The whole night was a blast for everyone involved. It is the first youth event that we have ever been a part of that has been “sold out.” During the last three days building up to the Lock-In, the “buzz” on this event was wild. It seriously felt like some exclusive night club everyone was trying to get in to. Unfortunately, because of fire code, there had to be a limit. Once all the students who neglected to pre-register found this out, there was a mad rush for the last few spots.

Since last year’s Lock-In attracted about 100 students, Micah planned for a slight increase of 15 or so. We never expected so many to show! The greatest part? Almost half of these kids are not church-goers. So for many of them, this could have been the first time they heard the gospel message! Yes, among all the activities, we found the time to squeeze in a short presentation of God’s word. That is why we do what we do, right?

After starting at our youth building (with a line out the door and wrapping around the parking lot!), we brought the students to CiCi’s Pizza for a nice, healthy meal (ha ha). After consuming a few hundred pizzas, we loaded up the buses and headed to Pump It Up, an inflatable games event space. This was a HUGE hit. One kid had a tooth knocked out (complete with a whole lot of blood), but everyone else was loving it!

From there, we headed over to Times Square, an all-purpose entertainment space. Between bowling, arcade games, laser tag, billiards, dancing to music videos and DDR, the students stayed entertained for hours. I think the ice cream sundaes at 3 a.m. also helped!

Right when we were all starting to crash at 6 a.m., we loaded up the buses to go back to the youth building for breakfast. Doughnuts, cat-naps, basketball and video games rounded out the “night” as parents arrived to pick up their suddenly-tired children.

If you’re interested in seeing a couple hundred more pictures from the Lock-In, click here!

Whew! Now that it’s all over and we have caught up on sleep, we can enjoy a Memorial Day barbeque with some good friends!

-Laura