Israel, day 6

I've been away from this for awhile. The past several weeks have been really crazy with starting back to work, moving, and a college retreat that I was in charge of food on! But I want to talk about my trip before I forget! On Day 6, we started off the day with a church service together by the Sea of Galilee. We sang a few songs and Pastor Mark preached. He talked about Jesus calming the storm on the sea, which after being on the water yesterday on the boat, it was something you could somewhat invision. After the talk, I really wanted to talk to Pastor Mark and just thank him for his faithful service to the Lord and just meet him. I didn't want to bother him as he just told us that he had a stress-induced ulcer. One of my friends encouraged me to talk to him or else I would regret it (and boy was she right!) Natalie, my friend, waited with me and when we finally got up there, she took our picture for us. He was so nice and encouraging. He didn't make me feel like a burden or anything like that. While waiting to speak to him, other members from my bus noticed where I was and joined me so we were able to take a group picture as well with Pastor Mark.

After the service, we went to Beit Shean, a very old city, with layer upon layer of ancient ruins. It was so hot! It was the closest I came on that trip to being physically affected by the heat...it just knocked you out! The ironic thing was in the distance of the ruins, you could see the golden arches of a McDonalds!

After Beit Shean, we headed towards Jerusalem. We drove through the desert and saw nomadic tribal campsites set up along the way. All of the images we saw brought scripture further to light as you thought about David in the Psalms crying out to God, "O God you are my God. My soul thirsts for you; my body longs for you in a dry and weary land where there is no water."

The scene upon reaching Jerusalem was almost breathtaking. Here we were, the "Holy" City. Where the temple stood. Where King David reigned. Where Jesus was crucified and rose again! So much happened here. Our bus stopped at the top of an outlook point of the city and our bus prayed for the city of Jerusalem and our time there. It was a wonderful moment to pray with my fellow brothers and sisters in the Lord.

After our prayer time, we went and got lunch. It was already 2 or 3:00 and we knew dinner wasn't that far behind so I ate fairly light. We made it to the hotel finally--so beautiful! We unloaded our stuff and went to the pool. We needed to cool off from the heat of Beit Shean (by the way, Jerusalem was much cooler, thankfully) and just relax. We had dinner that night in the hotel.

When dinner was over, several people from my bus got together to share about our lives, what's on our hearts, and pray together. I ended up staying up very late that night talking with a few of the guys from the trip and my friend Stacey. We talked about relationships, of course. It was interesting, to say the least.

It was a full day but I relished in growing in relationships with people on my bus--people I keep in regular contact with today!

More to come...