Plain and Simple: Israel: Day 4, January 8, 2008

Tuesday began with us sleeping in again. Then breakfast and group devotions. Our first watch was 12-2PM. Seat mate 1 led this one. I spent some time soaking (not sleeping this time) and bible reading. I also spent some time worshiping through prophetic songs. We felt drawn to sing and prophecy over the old Jerusalem city and Mount Zion. Also during this watch, seat mate 2 got out his cedar flute and began playing. We felt a call to pray for Native Americans. The overall theme of this set was a deep longing for the presence of the Lord for all people. A lot of what we sang came from Song of Solomon.

After this set was over we again ate sandwiches in the little break room section of the worship room. I had turkey and cheese.

The next set was 3-5PM. During this set, we sung using our prayer languages. I believe we gravitated towards our natural spiritual tongue as we went deeper into worship, the prophetic, and prayer intercession. The scriptures the Lord has us concentrate on were from Ezekiel 33, 34, 35.

Tuesday night was our night to eat out on the town. We got directions for a place called The Focaccia Bar. We parked by a construction site where they were rebuilding a large hotel. There was a huge crane lifting large funnel shaped containers right over the parked van and our heads, and delivering it many floors up. We filled up the parking meter with shekels and walked to the restaurant with the construction going on overhead! At the entrance of the restaurant, our bags were searched and the security guard had a hand held metal detector. He was dressed in what looked like a snowmobiling suit – that was really body armor. The restaurant was situated on the porch of a house, with the house serving as the kitchen/prep area and a coffee bar. The tables were situated among live trees and tall propane space heaters. Boy, did the heat feel so good!

We ordered pizza sized focaccia bread as appetizers. One looked brushed in olive oil and had some olives, dried tomato, and another kind of dipping sauce. The second bread came with goat cheese and sweet red peppers. That was really good. We each got something a little different for dinner – pastas, lasagnas, and fish. I ordered sweet potato ravioli. L ordered potato gnochi. We both couldn't decide what we wanted so we ordered them to share. The sweet potato ravioli was definitely different. It was made with sweet potato dough and was filled with cheese. It was in a creamy tomato sauce (it seemed like they mixed alfredo and tomato sauces together). The gnochi was an experience I will never forget. I am used to the gnochi that we have here, in the states. I was in for a big surprise. I put one in my mouth started chewing and almost threw up. No lie. It was a texture thing for me. They weren't pastay and chewy like they are here. They were little balls of mashed potatoes that dissolved in our mouth. One bite was enough for me.

After the gnochi experience, I was ready for dessert. We ordered 4 and split them all. I had some sort of coconut and chocolate mousse thing dipped in chocolate. It made up for the gnochi.

After we got back to the house, I called home through Skype. It was great hearing my DSH and the kids. M had a web cam for the computer we were using and the kids thought it was really funny seeing me in my pj's. They thought it was even funnier when I asked them if they were ready for bed. They told me definitely not because it was only 2PM. The time change was really hard to get used to for me.

All too soon it was time for bed. We were getting up at 5 AM (10PM states time) for our first watch on Wednesday.