Heading out in 52, 51, 50, 49...

24; 52; 56.

It's hard to believe that when we first arrived in Jerusalem, we had 678 days to go before we headed home. Exams for Jon, 24 school days for Kasey, and 52 days until we leave the country for home!

Jon is very quickly approaching the end of his Masters degree. He has finals this week on Tuesday and Friday, and two comprehensive exams, each roughly two weeks apart and completed around the first couple of days in June. He soon hopes to demand the title Master Harkness (lol).

The 24 days of school for Kasey will move quickly. May has only 3 weeks of instruction, followed by review and finals. Finals end on June 2nd and graduation is the 5th.

Kasey has to be at school on the 4th to help hand out report cards. That night, we will head to the airport to pick Jon's parents up at 3 am (the same day as graduation). The Harknesses will be here until the 22nd, when we will (finally) depart for North America. We will all be traveling to Poland for one leg of the flight. Our layover is twice as long as theirs, as our final destinations are different. After about 7 hours in Warsaw, we will travel to Chicago for our next layover. We arrive after 9 pm, and don't depart until 7 am. There will be lots of sleeping at the airport. From Chicago, we head to St. Louis (which will hopefully be reconstructed after the recent tornado disaster).

We plan to spend several days in St. Louis acting as the wedding photographers in our friends' wedding. We met Jeff and Maryann in Jerusalem at The Jerusalem Schools and not only became good friends with them, but watched them meet and fall in love. We took their engagement photos last month and are so happy and excited for them :)

We have concocted a crazy plan upon arriving in St. Louis. Apparently we will step off the plane and head directly to a water park. This is on the 23rd. The wedding is on the 25th, and we head out on the morning of the 26th. Before noon, we'll be with Kasey's family in San Diego.

Because the reality of our departure has become more apparent as it approaches, we have been trying to make the most of the time we have left. On Palm Sunday, we participated in the Palm Sunday Walk, which commemorates Jesus entering Jerusalem by following a familiar path to the one he would have followed from the Mount of Olives into the Old City through the Lions Gate.

We also attended a Passover dinner at a Messianic Jewish village.

Time is passing quickly, and as we rapidly approach our departure date, we have been reflecting on how extremely blessed we are to have spent two years here broadening our horizons and serving the Lord.

Prayer Requests:

• Patience and focus as we near the end -- Jon in his studies, and Kasey in her ministry with the Jerusalem Schools.
• Safety.
• Safe travel for the "Harkni" clan.
• Employment upon our return to the States (which looks promising!).
• Our finances are dwindling.

Praise Reports:

• WE MADE IT! :)