Letter From Emily 3/30/24

Shalom and Boker Tov Good Hope Family Fellowship, 

I pray you are all doing well. I am so thankful for the letters I received from several of you. They encourage and strengthen me every time I read them.

As you all are very aware at this point, my parents visited at the beginning of this month. It was wonderful to be with them in person and surreal being able to share my little world in Jerusalem with them.

It was very impacful for me to revisit Biblical sites I'd been to at the very beginning of the Zealous program alongside my parents as they experienced it for the first time. Being just over halfway through the program, it was insightful to see those places again having grown and my desires changing since I had last been there.

I had two opportunities to go out and serve this month that I'd love to share with ya'll. First, I got to go with a large group of BFP staff and pick avocados. Most of the workers that would have done the picking have fled since the war started and they're are very short-staffed. They were very impressed by and thankful for the work we did.

The second opportunity I had was joining the Feed a Child Department as they visited schools to deliver Purim baskets to the children Bridges for Peace gets to support. During the celebration known as Purim, it is common to exchange sweets and other treats. If the Feed a Child program didn't support these kids, they would most likely be left out of this tradition.

More than having treats, Purim is a celebration of the story of Ester. I'm sure it brought a roller-coaster of emotions for many people this year to celebrate God's faithfulness and protection of the Jews while they're in such a similar position once again. Hope and mourning at the same time. 

For our excursion this month, we went to Ein Gedi, where it is believed David was when he hid from Saul. We hiked there in preparation for the Jesus Trail (40mi hike) we're doing next month. I really enjoy hiking and very much enjoyed being outdoors for the day.

This past Friday we enjoyed more outdoors by having a Shabbat picnic. We enjoyed fellowship, Challa and burgers, and sang worship songs.

I miss you all.

Blessings,

Emily