What We’ve Learned

February 23, 2020 Update

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We’ve been on our own here in Tiberias for one week.  Only the occasional local to help us when we couldn’t understand something.  Finding that local isn’t always easy since English isn’t as common here as it is in other parts of Israel.

What have we learned in Tiberias?

1. Sidewalks are for parking on.
2. Double-parking is a necessity.
3. Parking wherever you can fit is normal.  We saw a small car approach a parking spot that was too small so he turned his car sideways and backed in because he fit that way.  
4. Traffic lights flash yellow to warn that a red light is about to turn green.
5. Other traffic lights on highways will flash green to warn you that it will soon turn red.
6. At a stop sign, you MUST stop for three seconds, or else!  Do not do the rolling stop we are so fond of in Canada!
7. At a red traffic light, it is illegal to turn right before it turns green.  DO NOT do this! The whole world will start honking at you.
8. Honking your car horn is a delicate form of communication. Sometimes to warn they are passing close by you, sometimes to say “Hurry up!  Don’t sit at that green light all day!” after you waited all of half a second.
9. Pedestrians have the right of way always but especially at crosswalks. I actually feel safer here at a crosswalk than in Canada.
10. There is no such thing as canned soup in Israel.  Powdered but not canned.
11. Grocery shopping takes longer when you don’t know if the picture has anything to do with what is inside the package.  Coffee cream has a picture of a mushroom on it.  Go figure.
12. Car Batteries really do cost 700NIS(about $280Cdn.) or double what I would pay in Canada.
13. Laundry can be dried like it was in the good old days, on a line on your deck.
14. Sunday is the first day of the work week and it’s easy to forget and make an appoint for Monday when you meant Sunday.

What does the Lord have to say about his people when they have been abandoned?  He says “I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak … I will shepherd the flock with justice.” Ezekiel 34:6

We are privileged to be a part of what God is doing to bring back his strays, bind up the injured and strengthen the weak here in Israel.

Shalom from Tiberias, Israel!

George & Frieda Krahn