Friends Across the World

Photo by Duy Pham on Unsplash

Last night Tyler and I attended a young adults Bible study at our church. We started attending this Bible study almost from the first of arriving in Jerusalem and it has become one of our favorite parts of the week, especially for myself. I, being an introvert, can really struggle to make good connections with people if it is in a large group atmosphere. So although church service on Saturday can be a good way to connect it is a much larger group than Thursday night and thus, much harder to connect.

On Thursday night we usually go to the Bible Study a little early and help finish preparing a meal, which is always so delicious. But it is also a great place to start in meeting new people. What better place to meet friends than in a kitchen anyway? Then when we sit down for the meal, there is even more opportunity to get to know someone. Sitting between two strangers, you can either eat awkwardly and ignore them or you can break into conversation and break the ice, making a new friend. 

But another thing that I love about this Bible study is that I am beginning to make friends from all over the world because of it. There are so many people who are here in Israel volunteering for a ministry or organization, here for schooling like my husband, or here on tour. And I get to meet so many of these young people as they join the Bible study. I now have friends from Poland, Romania, Germany, Holland, Honduras, China, Portugal, Brazil, u.s.a. and the list goes on.

The sad thing is that sometimes it feels like I am finally starting to connect with someone or become friends when I hear that they are already leaving. Whether or not I will meet them again on this earth or not, I don't know. But the beauty of it all is that if we ever want to visit one of these countries we now have a friend there. Also, it is beautiful, too, just to simply have friends all over the world!

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