Weekend

Seemingly calm Tel Aviv

The clouds of war still loom over us. Fighter jets roared over our house at 3.30am last week, shaking our windows and waking us up. Tel Aviv looks calm, with beach-goers taking up the last warm sunshine before winter comes. But there is no denying that the residents in this iconic care-free city are nervous of another drone or terrorist attack. I saw videos from our northern churches, of missiles flying overhead and surrounding fields and lands bombed and on fire.

It's still taking time for the demise of our friends last week to sink in. It's so easy to preach about getting over and moving on, but the reality is a lot harder. 

I'm down with a cold or an infection that's making me cough, chest pains and fever. I was caught in a cold draft while walking home 3 nights ago, wearing only a T shirt. Since then I've had a runny nose and all the symptoms above. Lost my voice too. I'll see my doctor tomorrow if it continues. 

Netanya community

Despite my illness, I went to Tel Aviv yesterday for the Chinese Mass, then to Netanya for the Filipino Mass in the evening. It's well over a 100km away and with the traffic, the traveling time was lengthened to almost 2 hours each way. I came home only at 10.30pm and was totally exhausted. The medicine for cold makes me very drowsy. Anyway it's been many years since I last celebrated Mass for the filipino community in Netanya. Many old faces are no longer there. It's a relatively new community of migrant workers. But the choir master is still the same. We spent some time catching up. It was good.