Today I spent the morning and early afternoon catching up with my own life!  With all the travel and activity, it’s been challenging to stay on top of emails, Facebook, blogging and trying to get another container of medical supplies and books off to Zimbabwe.  I was thrilled to find out the import waivers have arrived!  This was the last hurdle to overcome before we could order the container.  Once I get home on Feb. 9^th I will finalize details and we look to start packing Feb 18^th and get the container on the road the 20^th.  I would love to be there in Zimbabwe when the children see all these reading books…over 16,000! Their little faces will just light up.

Who at Facebook decided I could only have 5000 friends?  Of course I had to reach this arbitrary limit while traveling and was scrambling today trying to figure out what to do with all the friend requests Facebook wouldn’t let me approve.  I ended up deciding to bring out of the mothballs the Compassionate Justice “organization” page I created a few years ago but never used as it seemed redundant at the time. Once I updated the CJI page I started redirecting people there.  While it’s all a bit time consuming, I suppose I need to be grateful for technology that allows us the ability to stay current with many people around the world at one time.

Once I was caught up, I headed out into the drizzling rain to an outdoor market just down the road from the hotel.  There’s something about markets that just fascinate me.  I love the variety of people, watching the interaction, the hassling over price and all the vendors hustling to make a living.  From there I headed over to the offices of Dugit (which means ‘little fishing boat’) to meet my friend Avi Mizrachi.  Avi is what many call a “Messianic Jew.”  These Jews in contrast to most Jews living in Israel believe that Jesus was in fact the long awaited Messiah the Jewish people had been looking for over many centuries. They are an interesting group; being Jewish they don’t fit neatly in the traditional European Protestant or Catholic world that has so heavily influenced American church culture.  They also don’t fit easily here in Israel as many traditional Jews consider them traitors to their religious traditions.

Avi and I had a wonderful time catching up.  The last time I saw him was 2008 in Kansas City.  Then we were discussing the concept of reconciliation and his experiences with the Palestinian community.  I recounted one of the stories he told me in my book Saving Zimbabwe. If Jews and Palestinians can reconcile certainly also can the Shona and Ndebele people of Zimbabwe.  As I’m writing I’m reminded of a comment I heard years ago…the ground is level at the foot of the cross!