Israel: In Short

Our time in Israel has been absolutely fantastic. For the first two weeks we stayed in the city of Arad and we would travel to surrounding small towns to teach English to Bedouin children. We would also go and hand out books of Bible stories written in Arabic at a Bedouin market. Both ministries presented their own challenges but they were great times of growth and stepping out of our comfort zones. I’ve also got plenty of crazy stories to tell someday, so get excited.

The next two weeks we spent in Jerusalem and we lived with an Orthodox Jewish man. He taught us alot about the old testament and also about the new. I’ve never known much at all about the Jewish culture so that was really fascinating to me. One day we worked in a soup kitchen and all I can tell you is that it was mad mad chaos. There were old ladies hiding their Hannukah donuts underneath the table so that it would look like they’d never had one in the first place and thus recieve another. Or they’d smack me in the butt and start shouting at me in Hebrew to get them something. All I could do was shake my head and say “Sorry. I speak English” and then they’d look away and go find someone else to help them. To be honest, I was grateful for the first time on the race that I couldn’t speak the native language. But working there was really good because It really challenged me to give grace and to look through the lens that is Jesus’s eyes and love them because he loves them. 

Then we went back to Arad to spend Christmas with our squad and it was great. I’ve had the amazing opportunity to see alot of amazing places in Israel and it has absolutely rocked my world to walk where Jesus walked. My favorite places were En Gedi (where David wrote alot of the Psalms and hid from King Saul), the Dead Sea (legend has it that this is where Sodom and Gomorrah was destroyed and when Lot’s wife looked back and became a pillar of salt, thus creating what is now the Dead Sea), Capernum (which is just off the Sea of Galilee where Jesus spent alot of his time ministering and teaching), Tel Aviv/Joppa (where Jonas fled from to go to Tarshish) and the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem where so much prayer and devotion is carried out. Its been so powerful to be here. Suddenly the Bible has just come so alive and much more real to me. When I read the stories now I’ve got the real picture in my head of what it looks like rather than one my imagination needs to come up with. The Bible and the life of Jesus is something that I have now seen and touched. So much has now leapt off the page. This will change the way I read the Word and visualize it for the rest of my life. I understand Jesus more now because I’ve seen a little bit of where he’s coming from and what he was surrounded with. 

If you ever have the opportunity to come here, I highly recommend it. I promise you won’t be disappointed. The stories you’ve heard your whole life will leap off the page. And really, they’re not just stories. They are truth. These are accounts of real people who lived real lives and had real challenges and real victories. Its also where our faith started and where everything will finish.