Israel 2015

I had an amazing opportunity to go on a vacation of a lifetime!  I feel like I way this every year, but, this year it truly was!  A couple of years back...like 2008 or 2009, Richard Rohlfing promised Jen that he would one day show her around Israel.  Fast forward a couple of years and for the last 3 years, my brother has been helping Hume Lake lead trips to Israel with an organization called GTI Tours.  So, Jen met up with Richard in January and said he helping lead a trip to Israel with Bridgeway Christian Church with GTI Tours!!  Perfect!  Sign us up (which is exactly what we did)!  The dates were great for us and so we headed to Israel August 31-September 11, 2015!  We arrived two days before Bridgeway and did some sightseeing on our own and then joined up with them.  They were jet-lagged, we were not since Israel is in the same time zone as Romania!  We saw so many great sites, learned so many new things and what they say is true: when you read the Bible it is in black and white....but, when you go to the places in the Bible and experience and see them, they turn from black and white into color!  We saw and did so many amazing things: crawled through the Caves of Adullam where David hid after he fought Goliath and was fleeing from Saul, hiked through the Wilderness of Zin, took a boat across the Sea of Galilee, swam in the Dead Sea, walked the Via Dolorosa, rode a camel, waded through Hezekiah's tunnels, prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane and stood in the spot where Jesus was born and the place where he died!  Enjoy these highlights of pictures!

At the Damascus Gate

My first Falafel...and boy was it yummy!

A view of the city of Jerusalem

The valley where David fought Goliath

Crawling through caves!

Wilderness of Zin...so peaceful!

We named our camel Elsa in honor of Ruthie

Floating in the Dead Sea

At Masada with Richard

Ein Gedi!  So refreshing after being so hot at Masada!

The Dead Sea

On the Sea of Galilee

Mt. Arbel

Caesarea Philippi

Mt. Tabor is in the background...ironically we both went to Tabor College!

The Western Wall

The Garden of Gethsemane

At the Israel Museum

Our whole group in the Wilderness of Zin

Serious note taking!

Dead Sea mud is a great facial treatment!!

In Hezekiah's Tunnel with new friends!

Grand Baby #8

These two are about to give Heart to Heart grand baby #8! We are anxiously awaiting baby David's arrival....and it might just happen while Jen and I are on vacation!!!! Pray for a safe and fast delivery, a speed recovery for Ioana and a healthy baby!!!

Summer Wrap Up 2015

Summer has come and gone!  But, the memories will be with us forever...

We had a good summer....busy, but, good!

We started out with the Reno and Dental Team.  During this week, I became a dental assistant, translator and hand holder!  We focused on our Transition kids and a group of kids that came up from Rosiori each day.  We saw 69 patients and did one bridge, one crown, ten sealants, 142 fillings and 62 extractions!  Even Ruthie and Emi got in on the action and each had one tiny cavity filled. 

The theme of our summer camps was "We Will Be Victorious!"

We focused on faith, hope, purpose, discipline, purity and perseverance...
We had an obstacle course, stories, crafts, games, snacks and of course the highlight of the summer...POOL TIME!!!

 Everybody's favorite day is pizza day, of course!!

 Celebrating the BTH graduation of Emil!  Ruthie and Emi were the present deliverers!

 

One of my favorite things to do during the summer is teen camp!  This summer we held three teen camps...two of which were day camps and one that was an overnight camp!  The highlight was definitely the activities at Snagov, complete with Angry Birds, a Zipline, a Climbing Wall, and an obstacle course.  The kids had a blast!

One of the highlights of my summer was having a team come from Heritage Bible Church...my home church in California!  They helped us run two of our teen camps!  They made friends for life and had a blast participating, leading, and hanging out with our teenagers!