Good Friday

Thank you, Lord, for what today means to us.

John 3... ^{16 "}For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

¹⁷For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved."

Thank you for the cross Lord
Thank you for the price You paid
Bearing all my sin and shame
In love You came
And gave amazing grace

Thank you for this love Lord
Thank you for your nail pierced hands
Washed me in Your cleansing flow
Now all I know
Your forgiveness and embrace

Worthy is the Lamb
Seated on the throne
Crown You now with many crowns
You reign victorious
High and lifted up
Jesus Son of God
Darling of Heaven crucified
Worthy is the Lamb
Worthy is the Lamb

"The teaching about the cross is foolishness to those who are being lost, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." (I Corinthians 1:18)

Damascus -- Fast Food

In case you get hungry while you are out, there are a variety of places to purchase food. Lamb or chicken schwarma sandwiches were sold in many places. Here is one located in the souq.

The cook shaves the meat in thin slices and wraps it in flat bread.

A variety of pies are offered: cheese, olives, spinach, pizza

Here we are choosing pies in a neighborhood where we went walking with Basheer one day. He is the one with his face turned this way. The shorter one.

Here the guys place their orders.

Andrew and Samer located the sweet shop on the last day we were there.

Plenty more available here.

Pictures from Damascus, Syria
January/February 2009

Pop is 83!

Today is Pop's birthday! See a picture of him and Mema here. He was born 83 years ago in China. I saw an application for his birth certificate while I was trying to find something for Mema the other day. If I remember correctly, it said his mom died when she was only 27. I think Pop was about 5 when she died. He certainly has a great attitude for one who lost his mother at such a young age. I know he is ready to meet her in heaven one day soon. He is so ready to go and be with Jesus. What a sweet, dear man. We had fun the other morning saying "whoop!" at my mom who had just walked by with wet towels and said "whoop!" when they started dripping on the carpet. Hehehe. Pop and I had fun with that. Also my dad said something about the car's problem being "not very great just something benign" (as a joke) and Pop replied, "We came out and the car had one problem. Now it's got nine?!" He and my dad were bantering back and forth even threatening to sell me in order to pay for the car repair bill. It was a pleasant time laughing with them. In fact I smiled so much, my face hurt. I haven't had that experience since we were laughing with some of the gang in Syria.

I wish I could smile today, but right now I just can't seem to muster one. Too bad.

Nothin' could be finer . . .

Yippee! I am happy to report that the North Carolina Tar Heels defeated the Michigan State Spartans in the 2009 national championship game last evening. They are now the college basketball champions! Whoo hoo!



I went to Greenville, SC to visit my grandparents for a few days, but my mom, dad and I watched the game last night and cheered on our team. We live in the county next to UNC and have been fans for a long, long time.

I'm especially thrilled for Tyler Hansbrough (pictured above) since he could have gone pro last year, but decided he wanted to win a national championship. He stayed his final year and the team worked hard. AND WON!

The Tar Heels were favored to win "on paper," but two of the commentators picked Michigan State to win just before the game started. I'm glad those guys were wrong! The game was played in Michigan so there were about 60,000 MSU fans among the crowd of 73,000 people. UNC set a scoring record -- 55 points in the first half!

We had a good time visiting a few relatives in Greenville. Saturday afternoon my uncle Danny and his wife, Evelyn, dropped by. Imogene Daniels was there and we sat around talking about idioms and accents. I especially enjoyed laughing at some of those. It was a short trip. We got there Sunday around noon and left around 2 today. My parents dropped by my sister's house so I could get my car. Michael sold us each an Easter egg for $1 per egg. They are plastic eggs that he decorated and put a piece of candy in. He is trying to raise money to buy a transformer set from Target. He wanted to put a sign in his yard so people would know he is selling eggs. I'm sure I'll buy another at some point.

OK...I think that's all for now. Basically I just wanted to mention the Tar Heels anyway.

Oh, they won by 17. :-)

The Kite Runner - Afghanistan

Today I finished The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. It was such a touching book. Several times I had to wipe tears from my eyes as I imagined myself there, in Afghanistan - a child whose carefree days were over when grownups in the world could not get along. My heart grieved for children like Hassan who were despised for being a different ethnicity, a different religion than the rest. And it hurt for him when he was cruelty treated by the one he adored, the one he considered his best friend even after he was betrayed by him. His response of love and forgiveness and devotion inspire me to become that kind of person. Actually Hassan reminded me of the One I desire to follow.



My heart aches for children like Shorab. No ten year old child should ever have to utter the words: "I want my old life back." I realize this was a novel, but I couldn't help but wonder how much of it were true. How much of this cruelty goes on in more ways and in many more places than this book covered. How my heart grieves right now for those hurting. I have life so good. Indeed God has blessed me and my family while others have very little. I wish I could help somehow.


I believe now I understand why people volunteer to go over there to help. The people capture your heart. God gives you such a special love and tenderness, perhaps part of His compassion for the hurting.

Normally I have been waiting to write book reviews (really just some notes for myself so I can remember what I read) at the month's end, but I had to mention this one now. The end of the month is too far away. I wanted to mention Hassan who blessed my heart with his devotion, and I wanted to mention his son who made my heart ache with his words.

May God give children such as these His joy and love.

Damascus -- The Hammam

We visited a couple hammams while we were in Damascus. Think public gathering place, social time and a mixture of a sauna, jacuzzi and pool. Or as Wikipedia states in its opening paragraph:


The Turkish bath (Turkish: hamam; from Arabic: حمّام‎, ḥammām) is the Middle Eastern variant of a steam bath, which can be categorized as a wet relative of the sauna. The Turkish baths have played an important role in cultures of the Middle-East, serving as places of social gathering, ritual cleansing, and as architectural structures, institutions, and (later) elements with special customs attached to them.



Here is an ancient hammam at Krac des Chevaliers near Homs (about 2 hours from Damascus)

Hammam

Twice we went to currently-operating hammams in Old Damascus. Samer would ask if it were okay for us to come in since it was men's hours and I didn't exactly qualify, and both times the operators welcomed us to come inside and take photos. Samer often used the magic phrase: they came all the way from America, and we were welcomed so graciously. Here is one hammam located in the souq.


Since this was man time and men were loitering around after their relaxing baths, I didn't look around too much. But since the operators seemed to expect and welcome my taking pictures, I took a few of harmless things like the decoration


and the ceiling. In this particular hammam, the workers were so friendly, they started pouring us cups of tea! It was a very hospitable gesture, but I felt funny enough barging into a hammam with only men present plus taking pictures, that I declined for my group. I was too embarrassed to stand there and sip a hot drink.

This was another hammam we visited in Old Damascus.

Another ceiling picture

and one of this decorative table.

I got this next picture off Flickr because I wanted you to see men relaxing after their baths. This is basically what I saw when entering the hammams and why I did not want to loiter. No one was indecent, but I did try to be sensitive to the fact that I was the only female in the place and these guys were trying to relax. I guess.

A person taking a Turkish bath first relaxes in a room (known as the warm room) that is heated by a continuous flow of hot, dry air allowing the bather to perspire freely. Bathers may then move to an even hotter room (known as the hot room) before splashing themselves with cold water. After performing a full body wash and receiving a massage, bathers finally retire to the cooling-room for a period of relaxation. (Source Wikipedia)

Pictures from Damascus and Homs, Syria
January/February 2009

April Fool's Day!

I hope none of you got fooled this first day of April like I did. Andrew got me before eight this morning when he was getting ready to leave for work. Granted, I was preoccupied with something when he came to tell me goodbye. He said "3 things" and then told me he was (1) leaving for work, (2) taking his church clothes with him in case he didn't have time to come home prior to the service and (3) he noticed evidence of a mouse in our upper cabinet, but not to worry because he set a trap. My reaction was "UGH!" since I utterly detest mice and the thought made me shudder. What a mean trick! He said "April Fools!" about the time he noticed I was really disgusted at the thought of a creature in my cabinets. (I have chocolate chips in there!!!)



I took Michael to McDonald's today and we had a great time. He told me what he wanted to be when he grows up. It's in the entertainment field, er, ALL OVER that field actually -- movie star, movie producer, Batman, Spiderman, Bible Man, video game creator...stuff like that. He even told me about some of his ideas for video games and how people could earn different levels.

Yesterday I went to his house and I went walking while he biked nearby. I always enjoy those times of talking with him. He made some comment making me realize he knew he could not have superpowers when he grew up (I can't be SuperMichael here, but maybe in heaven.) We discussed what made Batman and those guys heroes and agreed it was protecting the weak and oppressed and doing good. I shared how he could be a superhero by living as Jesus did, by loving and serving others.

I still chuckle when I think that our conversation concerning King Arthur lead him to put Abe Lincoln in the category of those living in "ancient times."


In crazy, shaking-my-head, kind of news I read about an Australian island, Macquarie, that wanted to protect the bird population so they got rid of all the cats. This caused a rabbit population explosion which lead to a loss of vegetation which the birds needed in order to survive. So this "environmental devastation" ended up costing about $16 million to fix. Now it's been decided that rabbits, mice and rats are bad news (tend to agree) so they are going to drop poisonous bait from helicopters to, hopefully, deal with the rodent problem. I wonder if PETA knows about this.

This month
1. Mail taxes to Uncle Sam and Nanny State
2. Pay estimated taxes to those same two demanding relatives
3. Get driver's license renewed
4. Get car inspected