Sorry it's been a few days!

Hey y’all! These past couple days have been busy with travel and such, and I have been pretty tired at night, therefore why there is no blog for the past two days. So! I’m making up for it now. On Thursday, we had a 3.5 hour drive up to the highest point north in Israel; Tel Dan. Throughout the drive there, it felt like we were literally driving through the Bible. We passed by the Bedowin deserts, the first original inhabitants of Israel, and which is known as the land of milk in the Bible because they were shepherds and their animals, such as camels, goats, sheep, etc., produce milk. We also passed by Jericho, which is called the land of honey because of their agricultural abundance. It’s also known as the world’s oldest city, the lowest city in the world, and the oasis in the desert. Almost the whole drive, we were alongside the Jordan River – Jerusalem’s longest border. And obviously, we also passed by the country of Jordan and the West Bank. Something I found out that some of you might have already known is that the West Bank isn’t actually on the west; of Israel, that is. Geographically, it’s on the east of Israel, but west of Jordan. Pretty interesting… We saw the Moab Mountains east of the Jordan, and it’s highest point, Mount Nebo, where Moses is buried. Then we passed through Somaria, where Mount Gilboa is located, which is where King Saul took his last stand in war and afterwards David cursed the mountain saying that it will never see a drop of rain again. What really got to me about that is when looking at Mount Gilboa, it seriously looks like it hasn’t gotten any rain in forever. It was very bleak and dry, which shows the realness of these stories in the Bible. We also passed by the Sea of Galilee, which I found out is the only body of water that’s below sea level and has fresh water. Next to the Sea of Galilee, we passed through Tiberius, and Migdal, the city where Mary Magdalene lived. When we finally got to our stop, we went to the nature reserve in Tel Dan. This was pretty cool because I didn’t remember going there when we came to Israel about 5 years ago with Uncle Robert, until we got to the top and were at the spot where the golden calf was placed as an idol and animal sacrifices were made. Then I remembered and got really excited! It’s so cool because I remember a lot of places we went to 5 years ago, but I never remembered the history and now that I’m learning all of it, it makes all the sights and stories that much better and more worthwhile! After the reserve, we went to Ceaseria Philipi and learned about all that went down there, and after ate lunch at a Druse falafel restaurant. It was amazing!! My first falafel since I’ve been on this trip so far =] Our last stop was the Golan Heights. Like before, I didn’t remember this sight until I was actually up there, and when I got out of the bus pretty much started freaking out. It was coffee in the clouds!! I got a little emotional at first because I was just thinking about the significance of that spot and seeing the pictures in my mind of us cousins with grandpa in the coffee shop…but it was really cool to be back there. I didn’t have any coffee, but being there was good enough for me. SO FINALLY, after all that, we drove the 3.5 hours back and finally came back home.

On Friday, we didn’t really do anything too interesting. We decided that Fridays and Saturdays of each week were going to be chill days since Shabbat begins on sundown on Fridays and ends Saturday nights. But we did have two people come speak to us, John and Calev Myers, a father and son that run a church here in Jerusalem for Messianic Jews, if I’m not mistaken. They just had a word for us and wanted to speak to us about the culture here and gave us a small sermon. After that, we were free for the rest of the day and I went to the open market strip. I know that’s not exactly what it’s called, but it was pretty cool. SUPER busy because everyone was getting stocked up for the weekend since everything would be closed for over 24 hours, but it was a neat experience. That night, Dr. Hemby, one of the professors here, gave a Shabbat service and afterwards we had a time of worship. During this time, the Holy Spirit was completely surrounding each of us and moved in a huge way. Many people were spoken to and it was an amazing time of worship and prayer.

Today, Saturday, since it was Shabbat, we didn’t do hardly anything. The day was laid back, which was nice for a change, and the only thing we did as a group was go to a church service held by the Myers, who had spoken to us the day before. It was a great service, but was a little difficult to connect to since everything had to be translated.

So, that’s it! This first week has been truly incredible and I’ve grown not only in my knowledge and understanding of the land and it’s history, but spiritually as well. I’m excited for all the new adventures next week holds!