The Old Testament points to God’s salvation of his people. The Old Testament consists of 2,000 years of waiting for a Savior to come. When we wait for Christmas during Advent we are waiting for Jesus’ birth just like the people of the Old Testament waited for Jesus. My visual is a calendar, we wait for a thing to happen and people to come just like people in the Old Testament waited for Jesus’ birth and how we wait for a day to remember Jesus’ birth during the Advent season. We wait for Jesus to come and save us from all the bad things we have done and to restore the world to what it is meant to be like. Through waiting for Christmas we have a better understanding of what it was like to wait for the Messiah to come in the Old Testament

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Israel had a problem with straying from God and what God wanted for them. Someone had to take them back to God and that person was a prophet. One of the most remembered prophets was Elijah. One of the many things Elijah did was to have a sort of a “face of” with Ahab and Jezebel who were the king and queen of Israel. Elijah said that he would make two altars on mount Carmel and each of them would have to summon their gods to make a fire on the altar. Baal the god of Ahab and Jezebel did not send fire because he was a false god, but Elijah’s God, the true God sent fire and burnt up the altar. My visual for this is a man trying to rewind the time of the clock. In our daily lives, a lot of people find themselves not spending enough time with God every day. We feel like we need more hours in the day or to rewind the clock in our lives. Not having enough time in our days to be with God means that there is something in our day that we are putting in front of God. That thing that we are putting in front of God is our idol.

There are 2 different types of kings, Nagid and Melek. A Nagid is a king that is chosen by God, someone like Samuel or David. A Melek is a king that the people of Israel want someone like Ahab or Jehovah who allowed Israel to be taken into Babylon and focused their time and power on war, not God. My visual is 2 cars the car on the right is new, shiny and clean. The car on the left is old, rusted and dirty. For this visual, the car on the right represents a Melek spending his time on the nicest things and focusing on what he wants. The car on the left represents and Nagid, spending his money and time on what God wants and not what the King wants for himself.

In the Bible, there is a 40 year period of time in which Israel is wandering, waiting for the time when they can go into the promised land. In those 40 years, Israel has to trust that God will provide food and water for them. In those 40 years, they wandered in the desert, crossed the Jordan river, destroyed the walls of Jericho and went into Sechem. My visual for this is the Jordan river. Crossing the Jordan river was the most meaningful to me because it helped me feel that God will be with me when I am in the good times in my life and in the bad times of my life. Crossing the Jordan can also symbolize making a big decision and deciding what you are going to do about that decision.

God calls us to do all different kinds of thing, he calls us to live somewhere, act somehow and he also calls us to do a lot of other things. In the Old Testament God called a lot of people to do certain things. Some of the people that God called where Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Some of the calls told these people that if they did a certain thing there would be no more death, mourning, crying, pain, God would take care of them for years to come and that He would be their God and they would be his people. My visual is people doing different kinds of jobs. Sometimes we feel called by God to do different things. In “Salam Neighbor” and “Living on a Dollar a Day” those people felt called to experience what it is like for really poor people and refugees in different countries.

We make promises almost every day. We promise that if they do this will do that, and we also promise that we will do things no matter what. We promise all sorts of thing, most thing that we never do in the end. All through the Old Testament, God is also making promises to his people. God makes 2 types of promises, Conditional promises, and Unconditional promises. A conditional promise is a promise that states that if you do this then I will do that, but an unconditional promise is a promise that says I will do this no matter what. My visual for this is two people making a promise. When we make a promise, most times we try as hard we can to not break that promise, but that is not always possible. Every time God promises something he fulfills that promise.

Doubt is a human thing, we all have or have had doubt in our lives. Doubt is not a bad thing, through doubt, you can grow closer to God in lots of ways. When you have doubt you should bring your questions to God so that He can give you answers and show you what is right. My visual for doubt is a menu, I chose a menu because everything looks so good and you have to choose what you want to eat. When you finally choose you to start questioning yourself whether that is the best choice or if that dish is even going to be good. Just like how to question ourselves about what we should eat we also are always questioning ourselves about our faith. Sometimes I think that preachers, saints or very religious people do not struggle with doubt, but that is not true. Mother Teresa shows us that even the most religious people and those people who work to do good and serve God have lots of doubt in their lives.

God has many different names in the Bible. The names that the people of Israel give God explain his relationship to them. Some of the most common names of God you see in the old testament are Yahweh, which means a loving relational God and El which means the creator God or the powerful God. My visual is a baby because when you are born your parents had to choose a name with a meaning that would fit you. There are so many names that they could choose for you with so many meanings. In the Bible especially in the old testament names have so much meaning and they explain what people do and how they are “related” to God. My favorite name for God in the old testament is Yahweh Tsidkenu which means the Lord our righteous Savior.

Nowi- When he was 4 his parents brought him to the u.s to have a better childhood and life. In 2011 his parents were deported back to mexico for being  illegal immigrants, They can come back in 2020. He can still talk to parents and communicate with them but has not seen his parents for 7 years.

John Apotheker- I first talked with my grandpa. He was from the netherlands. He moved to the US when he was in 6th grade. He said that he took a boat from that netherlands to new york. While on the boat ride he experienced tremendous amounts of sea sickness. It was interesting to hear him tell of how there was no body in the dining room. THe waves were so high that when you walked on the deck you were either running down or climbing up. Back and forth. When he arrived he got his picture taken in kalamazoo. He has 7 sisters and 3 brothers. He lives happily in Holland MI now and has many great grandchildren.

Izzy-Sky was ten when she moved to the United states from Taiwan. When she moved to United states she first lived in new York and she moved to Michigan because her brother got married and her parents moved here

Mani- Mani’s story was really sad  & I really wish I could hear more of it. Manis dad was killed when she was 9 right in front of her eyes. They would sleep in a tree and wear the same clothes for 3 years 8 months and 20 days. They were sleeping in a tree when they took her dad torchered him by beating him up and letting him die then they cut his head off. Mani ran to go tell her mom, her mom had gotten hit by a machete in the arm and it stopped working. Her mom told mani go get your sisters. Her sisters were not  allowed to see their mom so mani had to swim somewhere to tell them to come .

Jim Roskam – Jim Roskam moved from the Netherlands when he was 1. He was able to tell us about his experience through stories his parents told him and what he saw when he went to the Netherlands 2 years ago for the first time after he moved to the US when he was 1 year old. Jim’s parents were alive in WWII and since the Netherlands were under the occupation of the Nazis his parents had a lot of memories of life with the Nazis everywhere. When his dad was in Middle school the Nazis came into his school and took the strongest looking boys and brought them to a field. When they got their the Nazis handed them shovels and made them dig. They were digging graves. The Nazis went to a barn and brought out a line of people. The number of people was the same number of graves the boys had dug. The Nazis sent them away to wait and while the boys were waiting the heard gunshots go of. Soon enough the boys were called back to bury the people the Nazis had just killed. Since all the villages around their were small the boys new lots of people and they wanted to see if they knew any of the people the Nazis had just killed. Before they could look at the faces of the dead people the Nazis threatened that if they looked at the faces they also would end up in a freshly dug graves. So the boys filled in the graves and went back to school with horribly thoughts and picture in their heads. This was only one of the stories I heard about him.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1ZEfizrpJbcVOr5vGAsPr5tiEYGaiBCaNDepxsJx3-oo/edit?usp=sharing Esto es el enlace para mi proyecto de Inmigracion.