FOOD!!!

Shalom dear friends.

Okay, okay...so we know we were going to post daily until we caught up to our current adventures.  What we should have said was that we needed to get caught up, then we would post daily!! :)

What we'd like to discuss today is of utmost importance.  FOOD!!  For those of you who have been to Israel, you are very excited right now, want to see pictures, and even more so want to come here yourselves to partake of the good of the Land!!

To us, the food in Israel is just as the Bible describes:  a Land flowing with milk & honey.  And remember the story of the 12 spies - the good report showed that it took 2 men to carry one cluster of grapes!!  (See picture above on right - logo for the Israel Department of Tourism).  Well, the produce here is abundant, not just in quantity - but in size!


The shuke (farmer's market) is the most amazing place to visit.  It's so alive!  Want to live & shop like a local? You go to the shuke.  Most people speak very little English there, so we need to brush up on our numbers in Hebrew.  It doesn't do any good to ask "Ka ma?" (How much?) if we can't understand the answer!!!  The people are very helpful, though.  If they didn't have what we were looking for, they would show us what shop to go to.  Once we begin going on a regular basis for our daily/weekly shopping, we'll form relationships and get to know each other.  It is very exhilarating hearing the shop owners calling out their specials and seeing people rushing to get the latest "blue light special".  All we understood was "bananas" and "peppers", but to see the rush of people, we knew some great deal was occurring!!

Dried fruits

"Olive bar"

And for those who have been to Israel should we even say "falafel" or "shwarma"??

We've also become accustom to shopping at the grocery store.  Our first day shopping, our very kind and most helpful grocery clerk (who actually knew quite a bit of English) assisted us in filling out the paperwork for our very own store discount card!  Just like you get in the States at Lowe's Foods or Ingles, etc.  So we can now participate in the sales at the store.   That is when we can figure out what the sale signs say in Hebrew.... so far we've gotten big discounts when we spent over 200 shekels ($56) in one visit, and discounts for buying multiple items, and so on.  This also makes us feel like a local.  We've been back to this store, and had the same clerk at the checkout both times - another relationship to forge.



We have 3 stores within walking distance.  One grocery store about 10 minutes away near a kosher McDonald's and a mini strip mall, including a coffee shop with WIFI.  Then there's also a grocery store at the bus stop we use to go to work and other places too far to walk.

About 5 minutes away there's a convenience mart , which is actually quite big and packed full of items.  We went in there last week just to look around to see what they offered.  While wandering around aimlessly, the owner walked up and said it English, "You're amazed at how much we fit into this small store, aren't you?"  This was exactly what we were thinking!  We all introduced ourselves, and he was very excited to hear we were from North Carolina - his mother lives in Charlotte :) He then happily introduced us to a customer in the checkout line telling her where we were from.  We then found out she lives in our neighborhood as well, not far from us.  We were both very happy realizing these 2 people were new connections put in our path and that we will be building relationships with them in the future.

Meeting the people wherever our adventure takes us -  especially those in our neighborhoods, grocery stores and other regular places of business, is a wonderful "appointed" opportunity to make relationships and friendships.  We constantly have our eyes and ears open and are attentive to what we are to say or do that will influence those around us - remembering the impression we are leaving on them.  This all seems magnified to us here, but shouldn't it be that way for us all, no matter where the adventure He has us on?

We pray that each one who reads this post will begin to look for the many opportunities around them to shine the Goodness within them to a world that is very fast paced and turning very pessimistic.