Today, After Four Posts, I Am Announcing My Retirement, by blogger of the month Nathan Douthit

The time has come for me to retire from the game of first-year blogging. I'd like to thank my coaches, my teammates, my fans, and everyone who helped me get to the point I am today. Especially my wife, without her loving support and gracious editing, I would never have been able to write four of these. What am I going to do now? I've always wanted to try to play baseball. Lots of people have made that switch successfully, with all due respect to His Airness, so I'm hoping to sign a minor league contract soon. Maybe I'll save the Looney Tunes from aliens. We'll see. If not, I've been assured MSIH will allow me to come back from retirement multiple times to help boost their ticket sales.

            All joking aside, I have been very glad to write these posts, and thankful for everyone (I'm talking to all three of you) who read them. This was helpful for me in considering the things Kate and I have been through in the past few months, and what we've learned from them. Hopefully they've helped you to think too.

            In my head, there's all kinds of pressure about this final post. In reality, y'all probably don't care. But I decided to write this last post about a question I was asked by a professor at a Shabbat dinner. "What does it feel like to move from the majority religion to the minority?" 

            First, a caveat. Kate and I are evangelical Christians. As such, we believe that following Jesus is more than checking a box marked "Christian" on your census form or medical school application. So, in the good old US of A, we would not consider ourselves a majority, although many people would, which is fine. Either way, when we came to Israel, we knew we were moving to a place with a much smaller percentage of our religion.

            Now, there are many aspects of answering this question, including explaining how we relate to our classmates (both Christian and non-Christian), or how we relate to the Israeli culture at large, or a variety of other things. But what I will write about today is how we relate to the other Christians in the community, specifically, our church.

             The church we are involved in is one of the very few options in this city. We gather either Saturday morning or Friday night to worship together, pray together, fellowship together, and sit under the teaching of the scriptures together. On Tuesday night, there is a group of students (both MSIH and Israeli) that gathers together to study the scriptures and fellowship.

             In the church, there are Russian, English, Spanish and Hebrew speakers. We come from all walks of life, all parts of the globe, but are united together in Christ. As such, I have had to learn many things, not the least of which is flexibility. There are different styles of teaching, different concepts of time, different types of music, and even different languages spoken, but we trust in One God. This can be at times difficult, but the question arises "What other church will we gather with if not this one?" God has given us the local church as a means of sharing in the riches of his grace, and cultural difficulties do not change that. We have been blessed by getting to know the hearts of the leaders and members of this congregation, and we are thankful for it.

             Being the minority is teaching us what we truly hold to be a secondary, cultural thing and what truly knits our hearts together in love with brothers and sisters in Christ. Being a minority is teaching us to love each other and other believers, despite what may rub us the wrong way. Being a minority is teaching us when to speak and when to stay silent. Being a minority is teaching us to be truly and deeply thankful for Jesus and His global Church, whatever form that may take in local churches. 

            I could go on, as God has been faithful to us through this community in many ways, but I think I'll stop for now, for fear of boring many readers. For those of you who read this, and my other posts, thank you. If you're an incoming first year, Kate and I look forward to meeting you, and good luck in all your preparations! Packing note: bring anti-perspirant. It's expensive here, but necessary.

             Let me close with one last statement: there are difficulties attached to attending this school, but as I look back on the last year, I wouldn't change my decision to attend. I will not paint a picture that says the school, teachers, faculty or system is flawless, but I hope and think that it is worth it. I'm glad I am a student at MSIH.  - blogger of the month, Nathan Douthit

10.12.12 by Jacek Jarczynski

It is now almost 10 pm in Beer Sheva and I am unwinding from what was a very productive, exhausting but overall excellent day.  There was much to review for an upcoming biostatistics exam.  My friend Ashley and I put in a solid 7 hours doing practice problems and making sure we were clear on the conceptual ends of the material.  Much was accomplished today and tomorrow will be the final push as far as the studying is concerned.  After tomorrow it will be just a matter of knocking out the exam.  That was the business end of things for the day.  In the evening the books were temporarily retired and I decided to take a walk through Beer Sheva with no destination in mind.  Just wanted to clear my head and decompress.  On Fridays after sundown the town becomes very quiet and there are relatively few cars on the roads.  It is now much cooler in the evening here and most of the time there is a pleasant breeze zipping by.  I was walking down Ben-Gurion Avenue when from a distance I heard the sound of a beautiful melody.  I walked toward the source of the sound and passed by what looked like a wedding reception in one of the gardens adjacent to the street.  The melody was absolutely authentic to this area.  There was so much life and strength in this music and I could hear people dancing and celebrating behind the walls of the garden.  It was like a breath of fresh air.  Music is so essential … I lingered in the area just to listen a little bit longer.  Back in my room now and I am eyeing my bed … I will sleep like a rock tonight and will NOT dream about coefficients of determination nor will I be 95% confident or whatever % confident that the true proportion of a population is within a range of whatever.  I will catch up with the remainder of that business tomorrow!  

Korean Shabbat Extravaganza, by blogger of the month Rebekah Dickman

The invitation. Note the stress on the bowl size.  It really
did turn out to be important!

Medical schools have a reputation of being cut-throat, high-stress situations in which every person is out for number one. If you have to step on a few heads to get there, all the better! Perhaps this is true in some places, but not at BG! Here, we are more like family – and why not? We are 34 twenty-somethings (and a few who are eternally 29), living thousands of miles from family, stranded in a desert of sand and falafel, united by our common desire to make a difference in the world and the desperate wish that someone would get around (already!) to perfecting that machine that will zap Hebrew directly into our brains. What else are we going to do but look out for each other??

Mix Mix rice.  This was the 'translation' we were given
for the main dish which involved a lot of veggies,
rice and a large bow (the mixing vessel).

Enjoying company.  Shabbat was made for hanging
out with friends and food.  Nobody said it had to
be the traditional kind.

With the exception of December, we hardly go a month without having some sort of class “get-together”. January was no exception: Upon returning from break we were informed that the Korean contingent (the boys anyway) had cooked up a scheme to have a “Korean Shabbat Extravaganza”, in which they would make something tasty and as Korean as one can get in Israel. I think they did a pretty good job!

The resultant feast included a lot of fantastic food, and it was a fun way to start out the new semester. I fervently hope that in the coming months and years, we maintain our camaraderie. (And diverse palates!) - blogger of the month, Rebekah Dickman

Prep work.  Part of the prep team creating some amazing
rolls. They were very professional!

The Instigators.  Got to give props to these guys, they
not only put the whole idea together, but
they also helped in the kitchen!  Impressive!