Days 58-64

    After a long week it is good to be back in Beirut, although it is kinda sad to see this week come to an end. We left Beirut Wednesday and went to Tyre and stayed there until Saturday morning. Wed. - Fri. night we stayed at Said's with his family (Said was out of town). We mostly just hung out together, as he had the car so it left us without easy transportation. Thursday Hanan and I went for a bite to eat by the sea while Sean got the kids McDonalds. This was a treat for all of us! It was nice for us two moms to just sit and chat without a zillion distractions. The sea is so beautiful and the weather was really nice outside. Inside, however, the houses are quite chilly. They are all made of concrete so it holds in the cold like a refrigerator. Friday afternoon we babysat the youngest girl while everyone else was at work and school. Isaiah got to have his first real bath in 3 months! We give him sponge baths but we haven't had a bath tub for him to really splash in. (and the sinks aren't condusive for baths). Anyway- at first he didn't know what to do, but within 2 minutes he was splashing and laughing! Then I got a hot bath! Oh my! I just soaked in hot water... what a treat!
    Saturday morning we got up early and headed to another friends house, that lives in a village. This was our first time to see this village and it was so beautiful! I have some pictures that I will post tomorrow, but they won't do it justice. Beautiful mountains, valleys, and streams. They were grape vines, pomegranate trees, orange trees, pine nut trees, olive trees, fig trees, jasmine.....   Narrow, cobblestone streets  that winded through the village and houses that were 100-500 years old.... And lets not forget the castle.... a crusaders castle  from around 1300 AD. Unbelievable! I could have gotten a little apartment right then and there and never left! Our friends had a Christmas tree up and a wood burning stove. It was so cozy and comfy. Their children played with Isaiah and loved on him. It was so sweet. In the evenings we all gathered in the living room for devotion time. We all sang hymns and Christmas songs, then the man of the house opened the Scriputures.  After the kids went to bed, the adults stayed up, drank tea, and fellowshipped. What a blessing! What a gift from our Lord! Yesterday Noah and Sean were supposed to go out and visit some of the Beddouin villages but the family we were staying with got a truckload of wood (and i mean a truck load!). So the rest of the evening all the guys were unloading and stacking wood. Afterwards we all ate a big pot of homemade soup and continued with our nightly ritual.... adding brownies to the mix. We were supposed to come back to Beirut last night but the guys were so tired we stayed over again. This morning we left early and barely made it back in time for our Arabic lesson. Actually if our teacher had not been late, we would have missed it! Needless to say, our brains were mush for class. Today has been spent at the apartment. I cooked dinner and played with Isaiah. Now I am ready to go to bed at 8:30! I am exhausted... and I'm not even the one who loaded wood yesterday for 4 hours! There is so much we want to do this last week. Please pray that the Lord will give us wisdom on how to spend our time. It is definitely going to be hard to leave. There are people we have grown to love. Please pray that the Lord will give us wisdom on what the next steps are. Praise the Lord that He is the Light unto our path. We don't have to know exactly where the path goes, but we can trust that He will light each step of the way... even if it is only one step at a time. Our time here in Lebanon has been so wonderful. There have been ups and downs.. but I am SO grateful! Please pray that we will walk in obedience with joy and surrender.