Fun times in the Land flowing with milk and honey

*The pictures are in the opposite order that I want them in*

These are just a few more photos from our trip. I think I remember a picture of my parents on this same statue when they came 4 years ago. It may have something to do with the Paxton love for competition that we gravitate to mock horse races??

This is actually one of the places where they would have had Gladiator competitions and stuff like that back in the day. I could almost feel the movie coming to life around me.

Every day brought new vistas to look at... lush green... rolling hills... oasis'... desserts... rocks, rocks, and more rocks...

This path is one that Jesus probably walked on. Really? Did I just say that? I was in one of the places where Jesus was, in Bethany, just outside of Jerusalem. Pretty darn cool. Just another example of the mystical becoming tangible.

The church building you see here is the Church of All Nations that is next to the Garden of Gethsemane. This was one of my favorite stops because, like the name suggests, there were people from all over the world coming to worship Jesus. They were coming to see where tradition says he would have been praying for God to take the cup of crucifixion, betrayal and isolation away from him.

Thanks be to God that Jesus said, your will be done...

Its the little things

I am so thankful for Matt! He got me some amazing towels for my birthday. There are couple reasons why this is special to me...

1) He remembered that I like the towels that Charlotte and Rob have and took the effort to call them and ask what kind they are.
2) He loaded the bathroom up with the new towels after I went to bed so that I found them in the morning with a sweet note :)


It just means a lot that he knows me well enough to do little things that make a difference.

*If you need to puke because of all the cheese in this post I apologize, but I just had to brag on him for a minute.

A surprise... the EMPTY tomb

For some reason, growing up in Sunday school and in my imagination I always pictured the tomb of Jesus to be a huge cave with a boulder 10-20 feet tall in front of it. I pictured the lights coming back on and him standing up straight and then with his little finger sliding a massive boulder back with gleaming lights all around him.

Now, I picture the scene a bit differently... these are pictures of typical tombs in Jesus' day (what I learned is called the first century). What happened was there is a central cave where the body would be prepared and then several shafts along the side of each wall that bodies would be slid into.

So, in order for Jesus to rise from the dead he would have had to shimmy out of a shaft... if he had sat up he probably would have bonked his head. That is an odd image to me for some reason, but it makes the whole process of resurrection a bit more tangible and real seeming, not just a fairy tale...

What were my first impressions from the trip?

This is the first picture that I took... We are on Even Ezer: What goes on here is talked about in 1 Samuel 4. From here we could also see Aphek and Antipatris, which are talked about in Acts 23...

We had just traveled for 30 hours, jumped on a tour bus (the kind you take jr. high field trips in) and were on our way to Natanya for the night. It was hard to pay attention, but the thing that struck me the most was the sky... I think the clouds and sun interact in a way over Israel that I haven't seen anywhere else. You will be able to tell this from other pictures as well...

So, first impressions... not sure what I got myself into... a bunch of old foggies (my parents age) and lots of riding on a bus???

Needless to say, these impressions didn't last very long :)

My scraf

It was a bit chilly in Israel, or at least the temperature changed a lot. I was thankful to have a scarf that morphed into a variety of uses. Several people on the trip thought it was a live, check out the variety of ways this purply fluffy thing kept me warm.

How important was your tour guide to your trip?

In short, if I ever go back I would only want Brian or someone that he recommends to be my tour guide.

Here are just a few of the things that Brian added to our experience.

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• Passion for Christ and Scripture
• Passion for helping Christians gain understanding of our Jewish history.
• Fluent in Hebrew, Arabic, & English
• A wealth of knowledge that never ended
• A great sense of humor
• Humility

Back in Jesus' day disciples would follow around Rabbi's who would teach them from their daily life occurrences. This is pretty much the way we felt with Brian. He just oosed out passion and knowledge from every ounce of his being. I am so thankful that we had him as our guide. 

On top of that he had a sense of adventure... in a later post I will describe a pre-sunrise cab ride, sprinting up Geth-Heper, getting 'lost' in Nazareth, and picking up sticks and rocks to fight off the dogs that could have been the end of our crew... not your ordinary tour guide :) 

Where do I start?

Tuesday night I returned from my recent pilgrimage to Israel. I am still working through digesting the lessons learned, experiences had, and implications for the future. Every day was full to the brim and a bit overwhelming.

I hope to spatter new posts over the next several weeks that share nuggets of fun, awe, and questions still up in the air.

I am very thankful that we were safe the whole time. Thanks to everyone who was praying for and thinking about us.

If you have any specific questions or things you would like to hear about, please comment here and I will do my best to include those in future posts.

Blessing and Peace!