Parking Lots

The last few months have been a tizzy.  For a few weeks I slept in a different place each night. Some of those nights were spent at my friend’s friend’s girlfriend’s parent’s house.  Quite a connection, eh?  Others were spent in a room above a church.  A few spent in my car.  Some spent in an employee housing room in Mammoth.  More spent in the UCSD ski team house.  Quite a few days at the Beto-6 foreclosed house. Lastly, and by far the most interesting were the nights I spent with Jarette Capelli in the back of his ’96 Mitsubishi Montero.  My car was the kitchen and his was the tent.

There is nothing like a friend during crazy and unpredictable times.  A person who is in the same place as you, and will share experiences with you.  That dude was Jarette.  We made each day a complete adventure filled with laughs, Jim Croce, hot tubs, cooking pasta and whiskey.

Good friends make life enjoyable.  I can’t even imagine how lame my experience at Mammoth would have been if it were not for Jarette.  I met him in a parking lot.  The same lot that I met my future wife in.  Outside of Canyon Lodge in Mammoth.  He was the parking lot attendant.

I will never forget the times that Jarette and I had together.  Each night we found ourselves the same predicament.  Where are we going to sleep?  Where are we going to cook dinner?  What are we going to do?

I would say that life is meaningless unless there is someone to experience it with.

As a New Chapter Begins… What to look for in a Seminary

Have I blogged recently?

No.

Have I been doing and thinking about things that are worthy of blog entries?

Yes.

Therefore, it is time for me to continue where I left off.  To make sure that my mind does not get lost in the mountains of California.

Hopefully I will be starting seminary in the fall.  Right now my application is in process at Fuller, which is the only place I applied.

Seminary is an interesting place. Its odd to think about it.  To find the type of seminary that is the best fit and has the best opportunities.
For me, there are a few items that I am looking for in Seminary other than a well rounded education.

1. A place where controversial issues are not taught as absolutes.  I would much rather understand both sides of an issue and know how to deal with them.  As a pastor the important thing is not to have the “absolute” answer for every question, but understand where a person is coming from and direct them to God by way of the Bible.

2. Where a strong community of students from various backgrounds gather together.  There needs to be a strong international representation and an outlet for the students to share their experiences and beliefs.  The students can’t be in seminary on their own, but discussing and interacting with their fellow classmates.

3. Strong communication with faculty.  I feel like this one is always a big priority for students, but rarely materializes.  A place where faculty can spend their personal time with students, take them under thing wing and pour out some of their knowledge.

4. Tons of connections with surrounding churches.  One of the most important aspects of seminary is hands on experience.  The seminary needs to set the students up with outlets for ministry depending on their gifting and interests.

I am sure that there are other things that I am looking for.  But those are just a few thoughts.

The Traveler Times

Nearing the end of my journey I have become a traveler who longs for the taste of home.  I have spent the last year either in Ohio or traveling through the middle east and I am ready for it to come to an end.  There is a phenomenon that takes place after one has left home after the age of 19.  Up until the age of 19 a person longs to leave home and wants to break free from the parental rule and figure out life on their own.

But there is a change that takes place at 20 or so.  Note, this theory is not for everyone, but it works for me and probably at least a few other humans that graze this earth.  At 20 a person will be away from home, either at school or some other place and they will long for home.  They will want to be around their parents because they finally realize that the sole purpose of parents was not to stop the good times from rolling, but to raise a child that needs rules and discipline.

Now at 22, I think that I could actually see myself living in Chicago somewhat near my parents.  This is quite a drastic change from my previous plan, which was to live in some crazy country, not a particular one, just one that it far away.

In addition to family another aspect that deters me from living abroad is the language barrier.  Learning an entire new language is hard work that I really don’t feel like putting all my energy toward.  There are many more noble causes that I run after.

Lastly is the good of US of A.  Living in any other country would be sacrificing tremendously.  Things just work better in the US and it is true that each person is free and has the ability to pretty much do whatever they set their heart to.  Plus, we dominate in the olympics.

Buses, Taxis and pick up trucks

This is kind of my rendition of getting to Dahab.  Traveling in Egypt has been quite an experience and I have learned so much that it will take me months to unwind and really understand all that went on.  I would say a huge percentage of the thinking and experience that took place was during the 19 hour bus ride of Luxor to Dahab.  First, this bus ride could have been done in at least half the time in any other country, but with a combination of smoke breaks, picking up hitch hikers, security checkpoints, gas fill ups and fights we were a little delayed.

Traveling in Egypt has given me a deep deep appreciation for the good ol US of A.  where I can get from point A to point B in a reasonable amount of time.  Anyways, on my long and arduous bus ride I was able to contemplate a few things.

The first thing I thought about was how I missed my travel buddy Gabe.  We had traveled Egypt for a week together and had an incredible time and I wish that he could have joined me to Dahab.  In general things are just loads more fun when you can experience them with someone else and he was a solid traveler.

Another thing I thought about was child labor.  Pretty related, I know.  As I was on the bus I looked out the window to see that a majority of the crops in Egypt are still harvested by hand, and by the hands of children.  The children are most likely the sons of the Egyptian man who owns the field.  For the most part, men in Egypt it around and smoke hookah, unless of course they are trying to make me ride in a taxi, take a camel ride or buy something I don’t want. 

Back to the children.  I don’t think that it is necessary bad that they are working in the field as much as my 7th grade english teacher hyped it up to me.  She made me think that child labor was possibly the worst thing that man kind could have ever done.  I think it is good that these kids are working, that is instead of just sitting around.  The real blame for child labor rests of the country that it is taking place in.  The low wages are actually helpful to these people because it can put food on the table, but if they were to be paid the same amount that people are paid in the states than they would be making more money than very respected jobs in these countries.  Instead of people pointing fingers directed at these businesses that are employing child labor they need to also realize it is a problem of the government who is too corrupt to provide for the children.

I can explain this better when I don’t have a ticker counting down the minutes I have left in the internet cafe.

You Know Your Israeli If…

If you have never spend adequate time with Israelis or spend a significant amount of time in Israel then there are a few things that you don’t know about Israelis.

The first area of life where you could consider yourself Israeli would be concerning cleaning, that is, if cleaning is the proper word to use.  Israelis don’t necessarily ‘clean’ as much as they push off to the side.  The mandatory implement that allows Israelis to complete this action is the squeegee.  The squeegee is absolutely essential to the Israeli and can be used in almost any setting.  The preferred usage is after a bucket of water is poured out upon a floor.

Lets say that the floor in your apartment is dirty, well no problem in Israel, the solution is to pour out a bucket of water and then squeegee all of the filthy water into the hallway or in front of your neighbors door and then leave it to dry.  Or, if you are one of the university employees a method could be to dump a bucket of water in the hallway and then squeegee the nasty water right outside the entrance so that every person entering the building must walk through it.

This experience can best be summed up by a simple statement.  Hey roommate, “where is the mop?” Response, “What’s a maup”

Secondly, you know you are Israeli if you drink Nescafe.  A normal coffee drinker will take coffee beans, grind them up and then have hot water run through them.  But in Israel, that is way too much work and will only be done at a cafe.  The single option to drink coffee at home is by getting a spoonful of brown mystery powder from your jar of Nescafe and dropping it into a cup of hot water.  So if you are coming to Israel and thinking that you will experience amazing middle eastern coffee, you have come to the wrong country.  My suggestion is to hit up the local starbucks so it doesn’t go out of business.

Oil

I think that I am finally coming to a realization of the true problem that is taking place when it comes to Oil.

Recently, we have found out that there are billions upon billions of barrels of untapped oil that are just laying out in the depths of the ocean which surrounds the US.  Also, we have the technology to drill for this oil without causing destruction of the ocean. So the question is,  “why aren’t we drilling?”

One reason is because house democrats turned down a bill regarding this matter and I have a theory regarding the other.

A group of Americans led by Al Gore want to ruin America.

They scream about stopping our dependence on foreign oil and at the same time they will not allow us to drill domestically.  It puts anyone who wants to come up with a logical solution into a hole.

I have figured out the way that most politicans work.  They point out a problem, point fingers and make people get scared and then do nothing about it.  It is always the easiest to point out what is going wrong, but the most difficult to fix it.  Thinking about Obama’s platform, I think that it gathers most of its energy (renewable of course) from pointing fingers and turning American’s against their own government.

I would enjoy if each time a politician pointed a finger at Bush or our government they would have to come up with at least a small idea on how to fix the problem.

Photographer?

No, I’m really not a photographer.  As much as I would like to have high megapixel pictures to remind me of how cool I am, it just doesn’t happen.

I’m thinking about hiring my brother to follow me around for a year to document my life. I wonder what the price is for a personal photographer?

Jordan

Not the Micheal Jordan that played for the Bulls, but Jordan the country. 

Last weekend I was planning on heading to Eilot, which is a city in the south of Israel that sits on the Red Sea and my plan was to take the midnight bus on Thursday night and then hang out there for a couple of days. Well, the bus filled up and I was unable to get a seat.

Instead of taking a taxi back home for 30 shekels I planned on sleeping at the bus station.  I stated talking with 3 American Christians who had also missed that bus.  While we were sitting there and talking one of the employees at the bus station told us we had to leave and could not wait at the bus station any longer.  Since these guys didn’t have a place to stay, I invited them to stay at my apartment for the night and then we could head out tomorrow.

So the 4 of us crashed at my apartment for the night.  They also invited me to go to Petra with them.  Why not, I have wanted to go to Petra anyway, why not with some other Christian guys.

After taking a few buses, taxis and crossing the border we ended up in Petra.  Pretty desolate.  It is dessert and mountains, nothing more.  On our journey to Petra I found out that they are hardcore Pro-Palestinian and work for a newspaper in the west bank.  Needless to say we had some heated conversation all throughout our time in Jordan and I did not associate with them when crossing the border back into Israel.

These guys had been working for the newspaper for about 2 and half months and were very adament about their position.  They had become so devoted to their cause that they felt like God had ordained them to spread news about the occupation to the world.  Not only that but they had become anti-Israel to the point of being angered whenever they would see an Israeli soldier.

I will write another blog in a little bit about the Palestinian issue.  Sorry to only give a teaser now, but I have already written more than enough.

Anyways, while in Petra we slept outside under the stars one night and in a hostel the next.  That first night we went hiking through some canyons until dusk when we finally found a spot that was beautiful and gave an amazing view of the starry sky.  We then woke up the next morning, hiked all of Petra which was about 10 miles in all and then stayed at Valentines.  It was a hostel that cost less than $3 dollars per night and we watched Indiana Jones.

A Traveler

The life of a traveler can be seen from many different angles.  And right now I am seeing it from a more relational aspect that has caused me to think more about frienship in general.

As a traveler you meet people who will be in your life for a short amount of time and then they are gone.  It is very unusual for a relationship to be more than just a quick time of getting close and then one or the other leaves.  Here in Jerusalem I have met some pretty amazing people, but I know that it is only going to be short term.  I will have a few great memories with them and then it will be over.

At first I was thinking of this as bad.  But while I was talking with my mother she explained that the locals enjoy entertaining guests from other countries and it is just how it works. I agreed because I like entertaining people from other countries as well.

On a friendship note, one must have more than just traveler relationships.  I have noticed that bad home I sometimes have travel relationships with friends.

An Aqueduct

Today we went on a ‘tee-ouwel’ (excursion in Hebrew) to the old Aqueducts that brought water from Mt. Hebron to the temple.  The aqueduct was cut right through the rock and was at a very small decline until it reached the temple.  The engineering is pretty amazing and the aqueducts were used for a long time, until around 1900 when the Turks tried to improve it, but really ended up destroying it.  So now, there is no water flowing, just a tunnel cut through the rock that is just big enough to walk through. 

There is so much here in Jerusalem that it is almost daunting to try and conquer it all in only a month. I really need to get a book that tells me all of the places that I should visit because right now it seems impossible to check out all that I would like to see.

Last weekend I went to Tel-Aviv.  Much different from Jerusalem, but it is still Israel.  I ended up sleeping on the beach for one of the nights, because that is what people do here in Israel when they don’t want to pay for a hostel.  The cool thing is that it worked fine and it was one of the best nights I have had in Israel.  My guess is that is because the night before I didn’t sleep.

Well, how could one sleep with Liela Lavon going on?  That means white night and all of the shops stay open all night and there are free concerts up and down the beach.  Pretty neat stuff.  Needless to say, I had a good experience with that and met some cool Israelies.  The girls we met didn’t speak much English, so it was just the moment for my Hebrew to shine.  Shine is probably not the right word, but I had about the equivalent to a 4th grade conversation.

Sorry about the lack of pictures, but I am working on it.  I have taken about 10 pictures so far of the trip and I need to find a computer that I can load them onto.  What I really need is a woman who likes taking pictures.  I do not take pictures, not that I am opposed to it, but it just never crosses my mind to get out there and do it.  So I need someone else to do it for me.