Welcome to IBEX

My first morning in Israel was slightly rough, because I woke up at 2am and for the life of me could not go back to sleep. Death by jet lag. So needless to say it was a very long day :) We had orientation, and the IBEX staff showed us around the moshav (think dorms… where we are living for the next 3.5 months). Btw, the moshav is beautiful. Israel is glorious in the spring.

We meet regularly in the miklot (a bomb shelter). Meet Benj and his son Yair :) Benj is a professor here and heads the IBEX program with Bill Schlegel, another one of our professors. They lead us alllll around the land.

 We were given Israeli treats and played some games to learn each other's names :) we have a phenomenal group. Praise God for bringing us all together!!!

Our day led to a walking to some nearby towns, Kiriat Jaarim and Abu Ghosh.

We made it to the top of Kiriat Jaarim (other spelling Qiryat Ye'arim). It is labeled in the Bible as Kiriath Jearim and appears 18 times in the Old Testament. It is significant mainly because it is where the Ark of the Covenant was kept for about 100 years before David moved it to Jerusalem. We listened to Natalie, one of the wonderful IBEX administrative assistants, read Scripture and tell us of Kiriat's importance.

A church where we all sang worship songs in acapella.. the acoustics were amazing. 

The lovely IBEX lady leaders :) Wendy and Natalie

We made it to Abu Ghosh, a nearby friendly Arab village, before sundown. It is known as the "Hummus Capital of Israel." cool, right? :)

We made it back for dinner. Eating in Israel is so much different than eating in the States. It has been interesting changing my diet so drastically... ;) except for bread. Eat all the breads!!

Afterwards I went back to my room due to extreme exhaustion and stared at the clock until it was 8:30pm so I could go to bed hahahaha. I've finally adjusted to the time change, so all is well :)