Well, I really should be studying for my test tomorrow, but I'm going to take this opportunity to procrastinate and talk about Israel I've been back for a couple of weeks now, and I think a lot of stuff has finally sunk in for me. It's hard to describe a trip like that to someone that hasn't gone, or wasn't there with me to experience what I experienced. My vocabulary is way too limited to try to describe it. Can I suffice to say that it was awesome? Inspiring? Amazing? Way cool? Once-in-a-lifetime?

First off, let me say that the country is beautiful. Completely and totally beautiful. Mountains, lakes, rivers, oceans, deserts, hills, forests, agriculture... Israel's got it all. Yet the awesome thing is, even though Israel is a special land, it seemed like we just kinda saw ordinary, everyday things. The thing that made them extraordinary is that God did something extraordinary there. Whether it was making the sun stand still, or allowing a giant to fall with just a single stone, or walking on water, or suffering in the Garden, or rising from the dead, the only thing that made these places special was Jesus. It made me think of what that makes me. God can take an ordinary person and make them into something extraordinary, just by His presence and His work.

I can't really describe the places we went to, because we kind of went everywhere. All the way south, all the way north, all the way east, and all the way west. We visited Caesarea Maritima, Caesarea Philippi, Megiddo, Nazareth, the Valley of Elah, Bet She'an, Mount Carmel, Gideon's Spring, every major site in Jerusalem, the Dead Sea, Qumran, Masada... and that's off the top of my head. Walking where my Savior walked, seeing what the biblical figures saw... it was almost surreal. It was so awesome to kneel in the Garden of Gethsemane and remember the sufferings of Christ, and realize that He would have still done it if I had been the only one in the world to need salvation. It was surreal to stand in the Valley of Elah and imagine what it would have been like to watch David kill Goliath with a single stone. It was amazing to look out over the side of a boat on the Sea of Galilee and imagine what it would have been like to see Jesus walk on water toward me. It was sobering to walk through the Holocaust Museum and remember why it was that Jesus came in the first place... to save us from doing evil, horrible things like that. It was incredible to walk into the Garden Tomb and not find Jesus' body, and then be able to rejoice in His victory over death. It was inspiring to walk down the Hosanna Road toward the Eastern Gate, imagining what it would have bene like for Him to come into Jerusalem in triumph, only to be betrayed a week later... and then imagining what it will be like to watch Him go through that gate in triumph at His return.

I could talk about Israel forever. I learned so much of their rich history, their struggle to survive as a nation, their constant divine protection... and how they live today. But I really should get to studying. If you want to know more, or have any questions, please PM me. I'd love to talk about it more! Shalom!