From here its a local call

From Holy Land

One of the first impressions of Israel is the non-commercial atmosphere. There is not a Starbucks, McDonalds, or Wal-mart on every street corner. In fact I only saw a handful of McDonalds and zero Wal-marts. I don’t know how they live. Can they really be God’s chosen people without a Wally-World?

At least one big corporation has gotten their hold on this fertile market of the fertile crescent. Coca-Cola. You could get a Coke just about everywhere and often in glass bottles. It was $3 a bottle but it was cold and tasted like home. You could also get an Arabic Coke or a Hebrew Coke depending on where you were. No difference between the two except the language on the bottle.

I didn’t really get “home sick” while I was there but I did think of home every time I saw a Coke or a Coke sign. It made me want to call home to just say “Hi.” But it is quite expensive to call Atlanta from Israel and there’s an 8 hour time difference so that only gives a small window when the family would be home, awake and ready to talk. So I did the next best thing. I purchased internet time at the hotel and sent emails. I didn’t get much response from the crew but I felt better knowing I’d made contact.

It reminded me how lucky we are to have prayer. We don’t have to worry about God being busy. Of course He’s busy but He’s omnipotent and cares about us making the smallest contact. I was glad that even though I couldn’t talk to my family everyday, I could still talk to God. And as our tour guide told us, “Prayer from here is a local call.” Amen.

Until Everyone Hears,