Leave this Life with Empty Pockets

One of my favorite people I’ve meet in Jerusalem is an olive wood carver named Omar. I have now been to his shop 3 times and am planning on going many more. Omar carves pieces of art not only from the New Testament but also church history things as well. Anyway just to tell you about this amazing man, he has meet several prophets of the church and two of his sons have been to BYU. Every time I have been to his shop he has always treated me with so much genuine kindness. After I bought my nativity from him he got ice cream for the two girls I was with and me.

Last Sunday (we have the Sabbath on Saturday here) I wandered over to his shop with a couple of my girlfriends. While we were there he gave Lindsey and I key chains and my roommate, Erin, a Christmas ornament. One of them ended up buying this beautiful piece from him and on the way out, Lindsey asked if he knew of a good Shwarma place nearby. He told us about this place kinda across the street that his nephew recently started to work. He took us there and then bought us shwarma! The cost ended up being almost 50 shekels! He is always giving us stuff and so we commented on it. He said that his goal is to leave this life with empty pockets. Isn’t that so great! He just wants to give so much to people and that is so evident just from meeting him. I hope he gets to investigate the church someday.

Here are some pictures of eating the shwarma with Lindsey and Erin! Thank you Omar for feeding us physically and spiritually.