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What Do Retirement, the Desert, and End-Times Have in Common?

May 24, 2021

This isn’t the beginning of a joke about a Baptist, a Catholic Priest, and a Rabbi. No-sir-ee! What retirement, the desert, and end-times have in common is my dear friend Cathy.

Cathy was a nurse for 40 years and her husband was a Chartered Financial Analyst, but when they retired they started working… In a desert and on end-times. (You’ll see what I mean if you keep reading.)

It started when the Southern Baptist’s International Mission Board commissioned one of their three sons and his wife as overseas missionaries. Seeing so many young families who were willing to give up comfortable lives to pursue sharing their faith full-time, often in difficult circumstances, ignited a spark that was already kindling.

Sixty-two and recently retired, Cathy and Dale looked at each other at that ceremony and said, “We need to check into serving as short-term missionaries in Israel.”

Isn’t that what everybody does when they retire? Travel to the Middle East to work in a desert for no pay? Short answer? No.

So, why did they? And why Israel?

Three Reasons

One, being Bible students and teachers for decades gave them a hunger to live in the Holy Land. Two, they had gone with my husband and me to Israel a few years before and were eager to return for a longer stay. And three, Dale had just survived a fight with esophageal cancer, and the couple realized they wanted to live in the moment.

An opportunity to serve in Israel opened up the very day they called to see if they could go.

Their three-month experience proved to be hard work, but hard work that was richly rewarding. They spent six weeks in Timna Park in the Eliat region giving tours of a replica of the Old Testament Tabernacle. (And it was hot. Really, really hot. Like deserts tend to be. My words, not Cathy’s.) She said they shared their faith with people from over thirty countries.

Then they headed north to serve as caretakers of the Jerusalem Prayer Center for the next seven weeks. They lived in the center and worked six days a week.

Cathy says there’s no way to adequately communicate all the lessons she learned. But one powerful truth emerged:

“God isn’t through with us!” she said. “We can still be used in ways we would never have dreamed, and retirement gives us opportunities we never could have imagined!”

Cathy at the Wailing Wall
A view of the city of Jerusalem
Timna Park in southern Israel

Her Favorite Souvenir

Cathy and Dale brought many souvenirs home to remember their stay in Israel, but her favorite is a stunning necklace. In my mind it’s much more valuable than any diamond, and I sometimes wonder how she has the nerve to wear it. I think I would keep it in the safe (maybe she does when she’s not wearing it. Forgot to ask!)

This piece of art is comprised of hundreds of tiny beads and original coins found separately in archeologic digs in the City of David. She explained that it was very popular in Jesus’ era for husbands to give wives necklaces made from black and white beads like hers. The coins include a denarius with the face of Caesar on it. Another is a half-shekel, which was probably the coinage used to pay the temple tax. It has a shofar on it. The necklace’s components are likely more than 2,000  years old.

The RETURN!

As I mentioned, Cathy has a passion for the Bible. (Dale too, but this is about Cathy😉). For as long as I’ve known her, which is 35 years, she’s been fascinated with learning about end-times. Over the past couple of years, the couple poured all the knowledge they’d accumulated into writing a workbook about how to study end-times.

The Return, a 200-page workbook, takes readers like a “travel guide” throughout the Bible. It’s designed so students will, as they write in their Preface, “mine the depths and layers of Scripture for years.” I can personally attest to its quality. Wow, what an accomplishment!

Matza bread
Hillel sandwich
Challa at a stand in the Jerusalem market

Meaningful Traditions

Cathy’s love for all things Bible-related spills over into their family traditions. On Easter she makes a Hillel sandwich, which is named for the famous Rabbi Hillel the Elder. It is an object lesson packed with meaning.

Matza bread, which is unleavened and has a striped and pierced look to it, is used to symbolize Jesus, the bread of life. The filling of the sandwich is made of charoset (an apple and nut mixture) and maror (bitter herbs, usually horseradish). Cathy explained that at first the spice hits you and then the sweetness covers it, representing the harshness of sin and goodness of grace. Here’s a recipe for charoset.

She also makes a mean challa, the Hebrew word for loaf of bread. Traditionally those of the Jewish faith make two loaves of this braided bread to celebrate the Sabbath or holidays.

Cathy uses a recipe that relies on a “handful” of this and that–seven ingredients in all, the number that signifies divinity in the Scripture. It’s pretty cool since everyone who makes it will have a different outcome, symbolizing the uniqueness of each person.

But, if you want some quantifiable measurements, here’s a link to the the Biblical Nutritionist’s video showing how to make it. 

So, there’s a little sampling of my friend Cathy—it doesn’t really scratch the surface of the life of this fabulous woman over fifty!

Did reading her story prompt you to consider your retirement? Knowing what Cathy and Dale did–and continue to do (they want to return to Israel!)–makes me think about what our retirement might look like. What are your plans for retirement? Will it look radically different from your working life?

I’d love to know your answer. We all would! Just leave a comment…

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