October 25th, 2022 – 8:08pm – Hostel In German Colony, Haifa, Israel:

As I lay here in my very sleep deprived state I am thinking over this incredibly long first day of class, study, and love. Yes… love. Loving the ones around me.

I’ve included below some photos of my hostel room. 8 beds. Some nights all are occupied and some nights only two or three… but very little privacy or sleep for the past three weeks. I am very tired… mentally and physically exhausted.

Men snore loudly. They enter and leave the room all hours of the night and outside is party music from this street where mostly bars and hotels for tourists are. Not conducive to sleep in the least but I’m somehow managing.

After only four hours of sleep I left the hostel at 5:45am… jumped on the 37 bus to the University Oh Haifa campus on top of Mt. Carmel… I arrived at 6:30 and waited patiently for the coffee shop to open at 7:30am… grabbed my coffee from the place called Aroma… then walked to the library…

Due to an “outbreak” of Coronavirus in the dorms… our in person class was moved to Zoom for this the first week. Very disappointing. So I thought I could borrow a laptop from the desk at the library and use it to get on my class zoom call… in a empty room I had booked for this week during my class time. But turns out… I cannot check out books from the library or check out equipment because I am a part-time student. Luckily I have my iPad with me and was able to go to the empty room and connect to the zoom room. But there are no power outlets in this empty room and my iPad was at 40% battery… lucky it held up well… and I was able to join the class and we dove into the lessons. Our teacher, Ms. Mor, is fantastic. She only really speaks to us in Hebrew which is great… she uses plenty of hand gestures and the class book to teach. The little Hebrew I had learned in San Francisco came flooding back and at least I had that to run with today. A foundation laid on which to build today.

Amazing right? How God has been leading me… all the way to a University in Israel.

I was able to use one of the many desktops in the library to complete my homework of which there was a lot of. And then returned to the hostel… wiped out from the day. I do need a laptop but I trust that God will provide one when He sees fit… but so far everything seems to be provided for me. Needs… are all met. Thanks to your gifts financially.

I am still looking for a place to live where I have some privacy and get some real sleep… but God is content for this time for me to be here in this hostel with its ever flowing line of people from around the world.

I have not managed to connect to any Christians here… which is about normal for my journey… if you’ve followed it at all… God seems content to have me to Himself… and to hide me away from religious folk. Not sure the reasons but at this point I just listen and do what I can with what He asks of me.

So prayer and financial needs:

⁃ place to live

⁃ Bills to pay

⁃ Food to eat

⁃ A laptop for school work

⁃ Sleep

Thank you all! My eyes are heavy and I’m fighting to stay awake to write this… I have to be up again at 6am tomorrow to go to class so I’m gonna say goodnight and sleep.