i'm back

and there's at least one item that i can check off the list.....

woo hoo!



so, i'm officially back.....in hanford......sitting in my room......on my bed.

it's rather surreal to be honest. the plane landed sunday, (monday morning if you account for jetlag) my brother drove me home monday, and on tuesday we were down at church and working on vbs decorations. wednesday i was even greeted with a hearty helping of church family at our wednesday night meal and fellowship time.

it's been a busy schedule, yes. but i am enjoying myself. vbs has a very personal hold on my heartstrings.

but back to digesting israel....

• "how was your trip?"
  
• "are you glad to be back?"
• "are you glad you went?"

it's funny to expect these questions for so long and still have no straight answer for them. yes, i'm very glad to be home and with my family. this trip has widely opened the lines of communication with some of my closest brothers and sisters..........but i do miss israel.

silly.....isn't it?......i was there for less than a month.......less than 0.3984% of my total lifetime (1 out of 251 months) and i want to go back?! one sister described it better than i ever could:

you've only just touched the tip of the iceberg. and you know that there's so much more to experience beneath surface. you want to go back because you want to learn so much more than you could in these three weeks.

it's true. i've had barely a taste and now i want the full meal. but i am not in israel for a while. i need to be present here.....and i want to be. i want to share my experience with anyone who will listen. but be warned......i can tell if you are genuniely interested or not. we don't have to talk about israel next time we meet if you are uninterested. i'd love to hear about your last month as well.

as a final parting thought. just because i am back from "the holy land," does not imply the end of this blog. i will hopefully acquire permission to use this blog as a final project for the israel course....meaning pictures and explainations of sights and sounds will be coming shortly.

also, summer camp at big bear lake and rancho la sherpa begins on july 12th, so i hope to continue blogging about that as time permits.

dialogue with you more soon! thanks for staying engaged!