Beginning of catch-up...

Sorry, I was gonna post more, but internet cost a pound for 15 minutes at the hostel, and that just gets ridiculous. So, I'm going to start where I am now an work backwards and forwards at the same time!!
I got to the airport last night and caught up on facebook and email and then went and joined the group from Simpson. We boarded and took off at landed in Tel Aviv this morning at 5:30am, got our luggage and traveled into Jerusalem via van. We got here and I unpacked (novel concept, COMPLETELY difficult living out of a backpack, not the living out of something concept, the hiker's backpack part) and took a shower and SLEPT. For longer than I meant to, but whatever. Ate lunch, and now I'm trying to catch up!!!
I had a somewhat profound thought this morning. The sun was just rising as we landed and left the airport. As it got above the horizon I thought to myself, "wow, this is the sun Jesus saw ever morning, especially those mornings He went out early to pray." This of course brought to mind movie lines (because what in my world doesn't?) from Newsies: "You know, you should see Santa Fe, everything’s different there. It’s all bigger. The desert, the sky, the sun..." She replies, "It’s the same sun as here." And he answers, "Yeah, it just looks different." And he's right - it does:it's bigger and closer and somewhat clouded but more radiant. But the point is that whether the sun looks different or not, the sun I saw come up this morning is the same sun Jocelyn will see when she drives to Orland to work this morning and it is the same sun Doug saw in Thailand when he got up at the ridiculously early hours he does. And rather than that commonality belittling it, this magnifies it all the more for me. Not only is the sun the same here, it will be the same sun when I get back to the states. And that will be the real test, can I live for the Son under the same sun He saw when I'm not where He walked?