Step 2. The Holy Land of Israel….
Ok so step 2 of recharging the batteries…
Do an intensive summer course in the Holy Land.
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| Caesarea Maritime - Herod's big massive aqueduct that brought him fresh water from Mount Carmel |
I know doing something like this may not make a lot of sense,
because it really was mentally demanding…
and physically demanding…
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| Dead Sea (saltiest sea in the world) - so buoyant you can lift someone out of the water without even treading water... |
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| Masada (huge palace/fortress in the middle of the desert) - another one of Herod's natural law defying buildings. |
but it makes complete sense to me…
When you give your life to something or someone, it makes complete sense to me to learn as much as possible about them.
For me that someone is Jesus :)
This Holy Land study-tour has taught me so much about who God is and what He has done for me. It's kind of like seeing a completely different side to someone you love :)
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| Looking out at the Dead Sea from Masada. |
There's nothing like being immersed in a Holy Land study-tour for two weeks…
I was doing this for credit towards my Post Graduate in Ministry Studies :)
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| Looking out over Jerusalem. |
I actually arrived in Jerusalem a couple of days early, so I had to find a place to stay… I kind of felt a little like Mary and Joseph….
Anyways, this rooftop seemed to do the job…
Rooftop housing = early start to the day.
Now this was such an intense course… Pretty much every day we needed to wake up very early to travel down to the bus to be on it by 7am…
Soon thereafter (generally about 5 minutes) our fiercesome leader and teacher, Cindy would be giving us a lecture whilst on the way to our first site.
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| Cindy. |
It was so awesome traveling around Israel and seeing all the places that Jesus went.
Western Wall on a typical friday afternoon.
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| Western wall at night time. |
We followed the journey of His whole life, from His birth place in Bethlehem, all the way through to His death and resurrection in Jerusalem…
Seeing the places where scripture happened really has brought the Bible to life…
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| Sea of Galilee. |
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| Michelle from our group got baptised in the Jordan River. |
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| Garden of Gethsemane. |
The field studies were awesome…
Jesus spent 40 days in the Wilderness.
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| Wilderness. |
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| Southern steps to Temple Mount - these were intentionally made at different widths to make you think about where you were going. |
There was lots and lots of walking and hiking…
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| Walk, walk, walk, walk... |
Each day was soooooooo jam packed…
I never knew how much someone could jam into one day...
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| City of David - King Hezekiah's Tunnel to his water source. |
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| Rabbi Moche - we spent a whole day at the feet of a Rabbi. |
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| Cliff's of Arbel - Herod captured and murdered the Jewish revolts here. |
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| Cliff's of Arbel - this is what we climbed down. |
It's hard to explain how much you gain from a trip like this, all I can say is that it is definitely worth doing.
I can definitely say that this has completely recharged my batteries after a long field service in Africa.
So Israel was step 2. of recharging the batteries…
Stay in tune for step 3. Tour de France…
God is good :)
