At JUC

Here I am in the little computer lab at Jerusalem University College. There are only 5 computers and I have a feeling the EMU students will be using them all quite frequently, much to the chagrin of the semester long JUC students. This place is beautiful! I'm going to guess that we're within 400 yards of the old city of Jerusalem. Yesterday we had a free day to explore the old city and I was surprised at how small it is, but even so, with all the small windy roads I got lost. By the end of the 2 weeks here hopefully that won't happen.

Leaving Beit Sahour was a bit sad. After 3 weeks in one place I finally started to feel comfortable! I could wander the streets and talk with random people and really feel at home. Then we had to leave. I guess that's just part of the semester. At least we had 3 weeks there instead of our rapid pace through Egypt and Jordan. And now we have 2 weeks in a place that is relatively comfortable because it's fairly characteristic college life.

JUC is really small! Our group has doubled the student population on campus! There are less than 70 students here for the semester, but only half live in dorms. Our meals remind me a lot of PYC, but without cabin tables. There's a ping pong table here, an answer to prayer for Brent and I! There is also a basketball hoop outside that a bunch of us used for over 2 hours yesterday with HORSE and Knockout. The gardens are so stunning! We ate lunch on the grass yesterday! It's been quite a while since I've sat on nice green grass.

Today I was blessed to be able to attend East Jerusalem Baptist church, where 6 EMU students went to spend a day with Mr. Sarriot! The Baptist church is going through renovations, so we actually met across the street in a 7th Day Adventist church (reminds me of CMF in a way!). I think over half the congregation was visitors to the church and as a result we didn't actually fit in the meeting room. I didn't mind though! It was so nice to have a service in English with songs I knew and a sermon I could understand!

After church Mr. Sarriot took us out for lunch to Jericho! We had driven through Jericho before, but now we were able to walk the streets and eat the food. We were joined at lunch by a German couple that also attend East Jerusalem Baptist. I'm not entirely sure what there's positions are but it's something to do with the German Embassy, which provides them a diplomatic ID card and helps tremendously for Israeli checkpoints! Even with the ID we had to wait 50 minutes to get through the checkpoint. I felt so bad for the Palestinians that may be waiting upwards of 4 hours to get through. It just doesn't make any sense.

Tomorrow we start our 2 week intensive course, which our leaders say will be the hardest part of the semester. Looking at the syllabus I believe them, but it's all on Biblical geology, geography, archeology, etc., so it'll be interesting enough to overcome the difficulty. I hope I can use a computer often, but I may not be able to. Even as I sit here, there are 2 people waiting to use 1 of the 5 here. So I'll be signing off!