Day two in the Holy Land is not as bad as Todd made it out to be. But I guess anything is better than “The worst day of your life”, which is how he predicted it would be. I woke up early this morning at the sound of my roommate going to the bathroom and then could not go back to sleep for the life of me. It was nice waking up and not being too tired.

The bathrooms are really small and they are separated. There are three doors side by side, two of them are toilet rooms and the other is the shower room. It was quite the adventure trying to bring all of my stuff into the shower and then realizing that I got shampoo on my shirt and shorts. Needless to say, I survived my first Israeli cleansing.

These first couple of days are full of firsts and so today was my first breakfast. The only extremely weird thing was the raw fish, which isn’t bad tasting, in fact it is very flavorful. I also had a problem with the yogurt. With Hebrew on everything, I couldn’t tell what flavor of yogurt that I had grabbed. Of course I grabbed the one that tasted something like sour cream and had to throw it out. Thank goodness for Yoplait, it saved my life.

We had orientation today. It was basically many hours full of information on what it is like living in Israel and at IBEX. After lunch we had our first class which was Land and Bible with Todd Bolen. It was also long, but interesting to learn some history of Israel and how it fits in with the rest of the history of the world.

Next, I found out about my work study job over here. I will be assisting Todd with some projects that he has, such as editing pictures and compiling information. It was around this time that it hit me that I was going to have a busy semester. No longer will I be able to sit around and do homework here and there, but it always has to be on my mind and so does getting hours in for my job. I am excited about what the Lord is going to do through this and how he is going to push me into areas that I have never had to go before. I know that if anything it will cause me to be more disciplined in everything I do. I must keep things on a schedule or I will drop things. Please pray that I will push the worthless things aside and do only that which is profitable.

Tonight several of us went on a walk to find some ancient Roman ruins, but after walking for over an hour and seeing that the dirt road carried much farther and that the sun was down, we decided to turn back. It went from a 30 minute walk to a two hour hike. Oh well, it was fun.

Tomorrow we are going into Jerusalem. It is the old city though, not the modern one. Those who have gone before are extremely excited about it, so I will have to wait and see what it is like.

More pictures soon!

I think that just the fact that there is something here for people to read answers the question “Will Micah actually blog while he is in Israel?”. But if you read further than you will see that there is more here than just trying to prove a point, but rather a plethora of information for inquiring minds. My time at TMC this last week was enjoyable as I was able to spend time friends that I had not seen all summer. Particularly, Grant, my former roommate, who allowed me to stay in his room for a couple of days and picked me up from the airport on Wednesday. It was good to be able to talk again with David Zimmer. We spent some time together on Wednesday as we swam in the Pacific Ocean and talked about life. By the way, check out David’s new CD, I have truly been blessed by the music that he has written and how God-centered it is.

Saturday morning at 8:30am we left for the Los Angeles International Airport. It was a time of joy and sadness, for even though I was leaving my sister and friends and my whole life up to this point, I was on my way to a great place. I guess going off to a concentration camp is similar, except you aren’t looking forward to where you are going…I don’t know… bad analogy. The excitement was high as everyone regrouped inside the airport, we checked baggage, went through security, and proceeded to terminal 62. The first flight was not that bad, only four hours and I got a window seat. We arrived in Newark, New Jersey around 8:30pm and had a pleasant two-hour layover where many had their last American hamburger and root beer at A&W. Boarding the next flight was a bit more daunting as the rumored flight time was 10 hours. But to our relief it was only 9 hours and 53 minutes. I was in the very, very back corner of the plane. I sat next to a stinky man who was going to Israel for his sister’s wedding. The good thing about being seated there was that I was right next to food that they were cooking…or wait…they don’t cook airline food, well the warming process smelled good and made me hungry. Most of the students had not finished their reading or map assignment and so that filled most of the in flight time, myself included.

Arriving in Tel-Aviv was a very welcoming to our souls. One member of the group became ill the last portion of the flight and is still in bed as I type. It was quite the process getting 31 college students through the airport, with no older authority to provide direction and one student who is sick. We all made it to baggage claim, but then there was a mix-up on where some people were and we stayed on the one side of customs for an extra twenty minutes. Once we had met Todd on the other side and we were all in the bus, it was realized that one bag was not there. Todd and Christie went back inside and were in there for over 30 minutes trying to find the luggage. God is good and allowed the bag to be recovered and we were able to drive back to the Moshav.

During the drive, Todd gave us some introductory comments and things we needed to know. I knew that this semester was going to be interesting when Todd specifically said that we needed to listen to our room numbers, and so I started tracking with him. He goes through all of the ladies and comes to guys list. Now there are two things that distracted me. First was that he said my name first. I wasn’t expecting to hear my name so soon. Second, when he said the name of my roommate, I immediately said in my mind “Who?”. I started looking around the bus trying figure out how I could have spent so many hours with a group and not know one of the 11 guys over here. I then jumped back to what Todd was saying and realized that I missed what room I was in. Seriously, how stupid could I be, to follow everyone else’s room assignments and then when it gets to me, totally space. Oh well. The first thing that I thought of when I actually saw Israel for the first time from the plane, was “God chose this to be the promised land?” We had just flown over many different bits of land, all of them beautiful, and yet this dust desert is where God wanted His chosen people to live? Personally, I would have chosen some place a lot more pleasing to eyes like Washington state. Something else that I realized was that Israel is no longer just some colored maps in the back of my Bible. It is the land that I’m walking on. I guess that is kind of a duh-principle, but it never really hit me until I was on the road that goes to Jerusalem. Well, I’m kind of tired and classes start at 8am tomorrow, so I need some sleep. More to come later!

The wonderful and tasty Jamba Juice has Jambaisms on the side of their cups, which is similar to Starbucks’ The Way I See It. My drink that I had tonight was a Banana-Berry smoothie. It is good every time that I have the wonderful blended fruit beverage. Jambaism #5 is on the side of my cup, it says: “Your body is a temple littering is strictly prohibited.”

The concept is simple, and yet many Christians don’t remember that their bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit (1Cor. 6:19-20). We do not own our own bodies, which is a concept that sets Christians apart from everyone else. The cry of the teens is that they can do whatever they want because it is their own body and life, the chant of the pro-choice women is they are the keepers of their bodies, and even celebrities are asking for privacy to do what they want because they can. Christians must live with the understanding that it is Christ alone to whom our bodies belong. Whether it is in a relationship, a sport, or a service opportunity, you must keep in mind that what you reflects upon the owner of your body. If you claim to be a Christian, then your body is Jesus Christ’s and you must live to make much of Him through it.      The second half of the statement reveals what is the logical conclusion of knowing that our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. If we belong to Him, then we will not trash it with sin. In fact, we are no longer slaves to sin, but slaves to righteousness. So not only are commanded not to sin, but we don’t have to anymore. The truth is that we sin because lose sight of who we belong to and we disobey the command to “Go and sin no more” (John 8:11). May we more accurately see the effects of our sin and to whom we belong.

Check out Steve Camp’s rock-solid comments on John MacArthur’s testimony on Larry King Live. It’s worth the look. You go Johnny.

This post is not to be confused with A New Member in the Family which was referring to an addition to the Higgins family, but rather I am blogging to announce the new arrival of one of my family members to the blog world. Nathaniel has started theluggnut’s blog. Check it, leave some comments, boost the moral for the newcomer.