Israel, Day 5

On Day 5, we started our day on the Mount of Beatitudes for a sermon by Pastor Mark. He of course went through the Beatitudes and talked about how these are people that have their identity in Christ and not in this world. Our sinful selves are marked by idols. On our own, we can go from one idol to another. We conquer one idol only to gain another. For example, you can go from being an alcoholic to overeating (glutony) or smoking to arrogance in overcoming your battle with smoking. So, on our own or even taking advantage of the world's resources, we can conquer one area of idolatry only to cling to another. However, to go from idolaters to worshipers can only happen by Jesus. That was powerful to me. Jesus turns us into worshipers not idolaters; loving Jesus and not ourselves! Awesome! How I need Jesus!

After the service, we took a "cruise" on the Sea of Galilee. That was really fun. I had remarked to a few of my friends that I didn't see how it was possible that the Sea could have gotten so stormy in Jesus' day, when He calmed the waters. It just didn't seem that big. We aren't talking Lake Michigan, here :) Well, God has a way of showing you things. On our cruise, the water was very choppy and the air was very windy. We were blowing all around...nothing dangerous but just a reminder that if it had been storming, those would have been scary waters to be on! We had a blast on our cruise, singing and dancing to some Jewish songs.

Back on land, we had the opportunity to see a 2ooo year old fishing boat that was recently found in the last 20 years. It was really interesting to learn about. Afterwards, we had St. Peter's fish for lunch. It was my first experience having a whole fish on my plate, bones and all! It wasn't that tasty, unfortunately.

The last part of the day, we spent at the Jordan River baptismal site. I'm not going to lie...I was a bit turned off. We had a service here and Pastor Mark baptised quite a few people. That was all really good but the place itself was what I had a problem with. The tourism just got to me. You pay to use their restrooms. You pay to use their white baptismal robes. You are given a postcard when you come that says you have visited the Jordan river baptismal site. You can buy little tubes to be water in from the Jordan River as a souvenir. It just screamed of, "Lets see how much we can make off of Jesus being baptized here." It goes back to what Pastor Mark kept reiterating to us: Its not the place that is holy, its Jesus. It is He that we worship!

More to come...

More on Israel

Our fourth day we went to Caesarea, where King Herod built one of his palaces. This was one of my favorite tour spots. There was an ampitheater, that is still used today, and vast ruins of this old port city. It was beautiful. From there we went to Mt. Carmel and saw where the Prophet Elijah challenged the prophets of Baal. The real God will burn up the wood even though it is soaked. Of course, the Lord God, the true and living God, showed His power and burned up the wood. The view on Mt. Carmel was amazing. You could see Nazareth in the distance, which is a very small village. I think I heard that in Jesus' day, Nazareth would have consisted of 10-15 families. It was also situated off of the main travel highway used in that day, so it was basically secluded from anything major. No wonder people asked, "Isn't Jesus just a carpenter from Nazareth? How could He be the Messiah?"

Afterwards, we wen to a village and had lunch-falafel, shwarma, salads, hummus, and baklava. All you could eat! It was excellent!! It was here at one of the shops that I saw a series of pictures of the NYC skyline from the Brooklyn Bridge! I had to take a picture of it...it was too funny.

That evening, we landed in Tiberias, where we stayed for a couple of nights. I loved Tiberias. Our hotel was right on the Sea of Galilee and it was gorgeous! While the Mediterranean was warm and salty, the Sea of Galilee was a little cooler, no salt, but rocky. I thoroughly enjoyed my swim in the Sea, surrounded by the Israeli mountains. It seemed smaller than I imagined but learned its about 12-14 miles long and I think 7 miles wide? You forget how far you can see when mountains are involved. My friends and I had to keep reminding ourselves that we were in Israel, on the Sea of Galilee! Jesus walked on water here. The disciples fished here. These thoughts were sometimes too much to comprehend. Pastor Mark reminded us constantly that there is nothing holy about these lands. We do not worship these lands, we worship Jesus. This was an important reminder. Being there doesn't make you closer to Jesus or more holy.

More to come...

Greece

Here I am going to embark to show about my trip to Greece and Israel. It was an incredible trip! I met lots of wonderful people and scripture became more alive as I visually saw where these events took place. The trip started off in Greece. We were there less than 48 hours but it was still pretty cool. We flew into Athens early morning and our tour guides were waiting to meet us. We were split into 7 buses. I was on the Purple Bus (later known as the Purple Party Bus :)). We were given a driving tour of the outskirts of Athens, and then drove through Athens. We stopped at the old Olympic stadium and then headed to the Acropolis, which is where the Parthenon and Temple of Athena is. They are magnificent structures but were ultimately for idol worship. We could see Mars Hill in the distance. It was hot and we were tired (basically pulled an all-nighter in the plane) and hungry. We were taken to our hotels and several of us met for lunch. It was about 3 pm and we had breakfast around 6 am on the plane--nothing like croissants and cucumbers :) We found a cheap lunch spot for gyros. I had an incredible pork gyro. We walked around Athens, through the markets, etc. Dinner was in our hotel and then I went to bed by 8 pm. The next day, we got up and drove in our buses to Ancient Corinth. That was beautiful and fascinating. There is a mountain in the backdrop where they would flee to if enemies were coming. We saw where Paul was beaten for his faith. Later that day, Pastor Mark did a teaching on Mars Hill, with the Acropolis as the backdrop. It was amazing to sit where Paul stood before all the important philosopher and leaders of Athens and shared the gospel--its Jesus, not these idols that is alive and full of power. Give Him your life! Other than butt really hurting, as we were sitting on rock, it was a neat time.

That night, around 11 pm, several of us on the trip, left for the airport. We had a 2:00 flight to Tel Aviv, Israel, another all-nighter. Once into Tel Aviv, we went through passport check and made it onto the bus. Our tour guide, Yoni, took us to breakfast on an old farm "kabbutz", which is now a hotel. I wasn't that hungry as my body doesn't handle lack of sleep mixed with caffeine very well. However, it was a site to see tuna salad in the breakfast buffet! One of the things, as a side note, that was interesting about the food in Greece and Israel was the amount of vegetables and cheese at breakfast! I'm used to a lot of fruit so it was an adjustment to eat Greek salad for breakfast. The feta cheese was out of this world good. I've not had anything that good in the US. Back to the trip. After breakfast, we took a tour of Joffa, where Peter has the vision from God that nothing is unclean that God declares clean. This is also the port where Jonah left to escape going to Ninevah. It was a very cool town but once again, after pulling another all-nighter, we were exhausted. We got to go to our hotel early, check in, and eat lunch and swim in the Mediterranean! Our hotel was about a block from the beach. The water was so warm and amazing! It was very therapeutic to lay on the beach and swim in the Mediterranean. We had dinner that night at our hotel. I loved sitting with people and getting to know them. Meal times were some of my favorite times on the trip as we got to sit down and get to know each other. Most of the time, we sat with people on our bus at meals but occasionally, you sat with others from the trip and got to know them a bit. I didn't think I would enjoy being split into buses but it turned out to be one of the best things, especially as someone who didn't know anyone. You really got to know the people on your bus and leaned on them for support, encouragement, prayer, and laughs!! We had so much fun together and I felt so incredibly supported and loved there.

Tel Aviv, as a side note, was incredibly modern and "secular." You didn't necessarily feel like you were in the Middle East or the Holy Lands. At this point in the trip, I was feeling incredibly blessed and enjoying myself immensly but not quite spiritually refreshed. We were running a loaded schedule and going on little sleep. I wanted to maximize my time with people to get to know them and yet needed some time to myself, to pray and read scripture. That night, I went to bed earlier, spent some time journaling, praying, and reading scripture and sleep! Sometimes we can fill our lives with so much good stuff that we don't take the time to do the most important thing, spend time with Jesus. He is the one that truly refreshes, rejuvenates, and fills our lives with meaning and purpose.

More to come...