Some of you may not know me personally, but very likely, if you read my blog, you have gathered that I live in Israel with my husband. However, I don't know how many of you actually know why I am living here in Israel or what I am doing here or how we came to be here in the first place. I know I have shared bits and pieces here and there on my blog, but I don't know that I have actually shared the full story of how God brought us to be living here.
The story began about a year ago in December.
My husband had just finished up the fall semester of his last year. Tyler had one semester left of school and we were trying to figure out what was next because his graduation would be upon us before we knew it and it would be time to move on to the next thing. We had ideas floating around in our heads, but those ideas were just not quite satisfactory.
One day in December he had been playing pingpong (which he absolutely loves!) in our school's student lounge over Christmas break and overheard some friends talking about a school in Israel that taught ancient Greek and Biblical Hebrew as spoken languages rather than dead languages. This method of learning the Biblical languages got Tyler really excited and he began to talk to me about this school and their method almost constantly. Ok, Not constantly, but he brought it up a lot. At first my reaction was that it was just another thing that got him excited and it would pass before long. But his excitement about this school did not pass away and he continued to talk about it and I began to realize maybe there was something more to it then just a passing whim.
So we began to pray in earnest about the idea of moving to Israel for two years so Tyler could go to this school where he would get his Master's degree. Here I will be perfectly honest: I had never thought before then about moving to Israel, never even had the desire to go to Israel, so I was not exactly excited about it. Yet at the same time, I could not deny the fact that Tyler was really excited and passionate now about what he wanted to do next - go to this school and then eventually teach college level Greek or Hebrew with this same method. All the different things we had discussed that he could do with his life after graduating college were things that he could do, but didn't seem very passionate or excited about doing and now here was something he was passionate about, yet it meant living in Israel for two years.
We finally decided that it couldn't hurt to apply at the school and see if he got accepted. He applied in March of this year (2019), also applying for the scholarships the school offered, and a month or so later we received word that he had been accepted.
It was clear that God had not shut the door at this point, so we decided that as long as the door was still open, we should keep moving forward with this plan. So we did. We continued to make plans to move to Israel, not knowing how all the details would work out or even if they would, but above all we knew God was directing our steps and opening the doors for us.
August 8th saw us on a plane, flying to Israel with a lot of unknowns ahead of us, but ultimately God faithfully leading us there.
And now here we are about 4 months later living in Jerusalem and about to experience our first Christmas here. I can't say this whole move has been easy; it hasn't exactly been the dream of my life to live in Israel. But this is where God has us and we are thankful for God's faithfulness to us thus far and we know he will be faithful to the end, wherever he takes us from here.
You may be wondering what I have been up to while Tyler is studying and working toward his Master's degree. I have been reading a lot, along with writing my own first novel that I hope will be on its way to being published by the time we leave Israel. I also hope to start volunteering somewhere by next year, filling up my days a little more. I am also taking one class with Tyler, Historical Geography, that gives me the opportunity to go around with his class and visit various historical sites.
I don't know what exactly will be next for us when it is time to leave Israel, but we have seen God's direction in bringing us here and I know that he will direct us when it is time to leave.