FROM HAIFA – OCTOBER 16, 2010
Shalom chaverim!
Thank you for your responses to my letters, in your faithfulness in prayers for Israel.
Last Friday and Saturday, the long-awaited first rains passed. Thunder crashed and streams of water poured down the streets. All this happened at night, but in the morning again the sun was shining, the land did not give away that at night it drank so much rain, only that the palm trees, other trees, shrubs and flowers had a cheerful view after a pleasant rainfall at night.
Again, it became warm. Yesterday we had the highest temperature of the week +37. Glory to the Most High, the humidity was normal. Starting today, forecasters are predicting a fall in the temperature on about 2-3 degrees! We are also happy for this!
Emily went to study in an ulpan for teenagers. They teach kids there from the age of 12 to 18. Throughout the entire year, they will study only Hebrew. And only the next year they will attend a general educational school. Together with her, there are kids from Canada, France, America, Russia and Ukraine.
All week long we had to do a lot of walking around in the city, looking for an apartment. We got more familiar with Haifa. A worthy, beautiful city, with unusually built homes. It turns out, Haifa has a forest. Of course, it is not the type of forest that we all imagine but nevertheless, it’s a forest, which resembles more of a jungle. We aren’t quite used to seeing thickets of cactus, cacti was usually something we had as decoration for our offices and apartments; or they were planted in small pots standing next to the computer at work. Here, you must be carful when you move about in the city. Out of the blue, you might see big, beautiful flowers on different types of shrubs and trees. Why out of the blue? Imagine for yourself, dry ground, juicy, dark-green leaves of trees and shrubs, it is obvious that they don’t have enough water, and suddenly you see in the midst of a shrub or a tree an enormous bright-red, yellow, purple, blue or pink flowers. They don’t get watered everyday, and to each plant in Israel there is an underground hose, the ends which come up above ground and circled around the stump of the plant. The municipality has a watering schedule for the plants, and it is strictly followed.
What else was unusual for us?
During our search, we had to walk along side a forest, as, the road went this way. The forest is fenced off, so that the animals living in the forest would not come out to the street, where all the interesting action is. Suddenly, in broad daylight, we hear the cries of jackals, reminding us of the cry of little children. They say that you can also hear the grunting of wild boars. Animals here are under protection of the government. Marmots, in family packs, live in cliffs, right next to tall buildings. In the city there are a lot of homeless cats, that don’t look like homeless cats at all. They are fed by all: from people who went out for a walk, or those sitting in wheel chairs, to little children, sharing with them their delicacies. True, I haven’t come across any homeless dogs yet, not even once.
But you know what was also surprising? All these cats and dogs, understand Hebrew, unlike me.
Finally, I want to share with you a testimony. We are all studying Hebrew. Ariel is in a group that is at an advanced level, third level, but Lev and I are at the beginning level. In our group we have about 22-23 people: from Canada, USA, France, Cuba, Russia, Ukraine, Moldova and Belorussia. During out breaks, we come outside to talk, drink, and to have some fresh air. On one of these breaks, I came up to three French women to try to practice my Hebrew with them and also to get to know each other a little closer. Because Russian speakers talk with each other in Russian, and that’s obvious. This was a family: a mother and two of her grown up daughters (their father is also studying Hebrew but in a different group, a more advanced group) The mothers name is Shoental. Suddenly, she comes very closely to us and gently asks us: why did you come to Israel. Then Lev, very calmly answers her, of course in English: my G-d told me to.
You should have seen her eyes! They were wide open and were filled with tears. What happened here! It was as if the Holy Spirit fell upon all of us. Shoental came up even closer and whispered: are you believers? This was half-question, half-confirmation, but very amazing! We all hugged and began to praise the Lord, in which-ever language, we laughed, but with tears streaming down our faces. Everyone around us began to turn around and look at what was happening, but we were all in the arms of our Lord!
Today, we have 5 families in this ulpan that are believers in Yeshua. Praise the Lord! Thanks to Yeshua, wherever we may be, we can see His Hand, through our brothers and sisters, even if we see them for the first time ever. We can connect with each other in prayer, when they hear that we have not yet found our apartment. The love of our Lord in great towards us! Let His Name be forever praised!!!
Friends, don’t pay attention that this letter is being sent to multiple people, write to me anyway and ask questions. I will gladly try to answer every letter.
Wishing you all the very best and may the Lord let you witness His wonders in your life.
With Love, Elena Falkovich
