Tuesday, April 21, 2009

My Jane Austen Day Out




I spent this past Saturday with two of my girl friends- my Welsh friend Catrin and my friend Honor who is from Northern Ireland. Honor lives up in the beautiful seaside town of Malahide and invited us up for the day. She packed a nice picnic lunch for us which we ate while overlooking the Irish sea. Then we took a short car ride further up the coast to another seaside town called Rush where we took a long walk on the beach. The day was perfectly sunny. After the beach we stopped for tea at an Irish lady's house from our church. She showed us her garden of sunflowers which she protects from the snails by putting diced onion all around them. After this we headed back to Honor's house where we unwound with a nice dinner. It was a great day and I am so greatful God has brough these two women into my life who love the Lord and who are so fun to be with. Here are few pictures from the day. The little bundle of joy with the "ginger" hair in the buggy is Honor's son Caleb.

Crepe Night




My recent move has brought me closer to one of my friends here in Dublin who is now just a five minute walk from my flat. Her name is Sandra and she is from France. She has been working with the Christian ministry IFES along with my Welsh friend Catrin for the last year in Dublin. Last Friday night she had me over for a crepe night. How could I resist crepes made by a French woman?! The crepes were delicious and it was fun watching her flip them in the air! I was also able to spend some time with her two Irish roommates who were there, Nicola and Edwina. I really enjoyed them and hope to have finally made some Irish friends. Here are some pics from the crepe extravaganza- in top left: Nicola, Sandra, me, Edwina, & Catrin.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Everything is Mortal but...



I picked up a book a few months back while in Manchester called "The Uniqueness of Israel" by Lance Lambert. I am not familiar with Lambert but I always find anything about Israel fascinating so I got the book. It has been a very interesting read so far. It is split up into four parts- the uniqueness of the land, the uniqueness of the nation, the uniqueness of the city (Jerusalem), and the uniqueness of the Messiah. I have especially like the chapter called "All things are mortal but the Jew." This chapter details how God has preserved the Jewish people throughout all of history. There are two great quotes in this chapter I want to share. The first is from Mark Twain in 1899:

"If the statistics are right, the Jews constitute but one percent of the human race. It suggests a nebulous dim puff of star dust lost in the blaze of the Milky Way. Properly the Jew ought hardly to be heard of; but he is heard of, has always been heard of. He is as prominent on the planet as any other people. and his commercial importance is extravagantly out of proportion to the smallness of his bulk. His contributions to the world's list of great names in literature, science, art, music, finance, medicine, and abstruse learning are also way out of proportion to the weakness of his numbers. He has made a marvelous fight in this world, all the ages; and has done it with his hands tied behind him. He could be vain of himself, and be excused for it. The Egyptian, the Babylonian, and the Persian rose, filled the planet with sound and splendor, then faded to dream stuff and passed away; the Greek and the Roman followed, and made a vast noise, and they are gone; other peoples have sprung up and held their torch high for a time, but it burned out, and they sit in twilight now, or have vanished. The Jew saw them all, beat them all, and is now what he always was, exhibiting no decadence, no infirmities of age, no weakening of his parts, no slowing of his energies, no dulling of his alert and aggressive mind. All things are mortal but the Jew; all other forces pass, but he remains. What is the secret of his immortality?"

The second is from Leo Tolstoy around the same time as he wrote on "What is a Jew?":

"The question is not at all so odd as it seems. Let us see what peculiar kind of creature the Jew is, which all the rulers and all the nations, have together and separately abused and molested, oppressed and persecuted, trampled and butchered, burned and hanged, and, in spite of all this, is yet alive... the Jew is the emblem of eternity. He whom neither slaughter or torture of himself for years could destroy; he whom neither fire nor sword, nor inquisition was able to wipe from off the face of the earth; he who was the first to produce the oracles of God; he who has been for so long a time the guardian of prophecy, and who has transmitted it to the rest of the world- such a nation cannot be destroyed. The Jew is as everlasting as eternity itself."

Florence, Italy


From Venice we hopped a train to Florence which is just over 2 hours away. After seeing Venice Florence was not nearly as impressive but still a cool place to visit. To think of all the history that has happened there (birthplace of the Renaissance) and all the famous people (Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Dante, Galileo- to name just a few) who are from Florence or have spent significant time there is mind boggling! While in Florence we visited a few art museums where we saw a ton of Renaissance art, ate lots of delicious Italian food, saw the Duomo, walked across the Old Bridge, shopped in the Silk and Straw Market, visited the Science museum which holds remnants of Galileo's instruments and his finger, and saw the famous marble statue David at the Academia museum. David is by far the most impressive piece of art I have ever seen. I would say it is worth going to Florence just to see him! I didn't know where in the museum he would be and when I rounded the corner and found myself looking at him I was stunned! Stunned by his sheer size and beauty. As I stood below him I could not believe the great detail- the veins in his arms and the look on his face! Wow, what can I say but glory to God that he would create man with such skills as Michelangelo had! I enjoyed Florence though it was not as beautiful as Venice. I think it is safe to say Italy is my favorite country in Europe to visit.