on the way to church and back

It's....well, not surreal, but slightly disorienting--yeah, that's it--to be riding on a big charter bus up Mt. Carmel, passing the trees and trails of Carmel National Park while the people behind me chattered in Russian, the people ahead of me mumbled in Hebrew, and the bus radio played the Korean pop song "Gangnam Style."

I was on my way to a Messianic congregation located around where the prophet Elijah faced off with all the priests representing Baal once upon a time. There was a group of middle-aged Chinese visitors from the States (Daniel noticed they gave their monetary offerings in USD), sitting just one row in front of me, during congregational worship. A part of me really really really wanted to talk with them, because it's so, so rare to see another Chinese face, let alone 10 of them! But a part of me didn't want to get all ethnically giddy on tourists that probably want to experience the Holy Land tour uninterrupted. I ended up completely ignoring them.

Declan threw up all the donuts and latkes on the sherut ride home. The congregation had handed out these treats in lieu of Hannukah. They were delicious.