Traditiiioonn!!!!

this has been possibly the most multi-cultural weekend of my life.

i attended the first ever, and only, Russian Messianic Jewish Corps-- i completely felt like i was in a different country-- everything in Russian, or Hebrew, with various Orthodox traditions...kissing the Tora, dancing around holding hands, praying towards the east... i felt like i was in Fiddler on the Roof.
while i was sitting there, praying, trying to understand what was going on, a woman came up to me and put her sweater over my legs...and it was then that i noticed that every other woman there was wearing a floor length skirt, and i was wearing shorts. oh man, i have never been one to cause scandal by the way that i dress, but apprently it was just too much for her to let it go.

great news though-- this was the first Shabbat in the history of this congregation when a woman gave the interpretation of the Tora reading-- yea woman preachers!


i really connected with some soldiers there, and we had a powerful time of prayer with them-- the language barrier didn't matter.
and we have yet another person living with us now-- his name is Andre, and he is from Israel. so i've had many interesting conversations with him, mostly about the difference between being a Jewish believer, and being a gentile Christian.

so then we brought our Russian, Hebrew friend Andre to a Puerto Rican corps-- this entire meeting was in spanish. that was a rockin time-- those Puerto Ricans sure know how to do church.
it was so rough though-- i was trying to piece together the little bits of spanish i know, and translate into english, for Andre, for whom english is his 3rd language.
geez Louise. some people are such under-achievers.

i think i want to be a linguistics major in uni...

Das vidania, y muchos gracias, shalom!
--olivia