Somedays I have to pinch myself and ask “Is this real?” I can’t believe I’m in Israel (the Holy Lands). I feel so blessed! I mean how many people ever get the chance to walk where Jesus once walked. As my teammate Stacy said in her recent blog, “There is so much depth in Israel, so much history. Jesus walked here. He died here and He rose here. Everything that I believe in, everything I have built my life on started here in this tiny nation. It’s epic.”
Our team is currently living above our contacts’ house, which happens to be overlooking the Negev desert (referred to in the bible as the Negeb). Sometimes I wonder if this is where David, Jesus, or countless other people from the bible once roamed. My teammate Heather mentions these types of things in her blog. She says to look up Genesis 13:1, “…here you will learn that the Negev is where Abram came out of Egypt into after being promised a nation.” She also mentions to look up Joshua 11:16, “…here you will learn that the Negev was part of the mass of land that the Joshua along with the Israelites conquered to be their inheritance.” I love this stuff, but if that wasn’t enough… one morning I was informed by my teammate Erin that twenty something camels were being herded past our house. Almost everyone on our team grabbed their camera and ran down to see the camels in our backyard.
Currently our work here involves helping at a soup kitchen, managing a laundry facility for all the teams, helping our contact with a website and other marketing projects. In case you are wondering, we can’t mention much detail about the work we are doing here (to protect our contact). However, I can tell you about some of the places we have visited so far.
Hezekiah’s Tunnel was built by King Hezekiah to make sure
Jerusalem had water during sieges (2 Kings 20:20).
The Old City of David (2 Samuel 5:9).
The Dead Sea is the lowest spot on the earth and the water is 25% salt,
which makes everyone very buoyant (Deuteronomy 29:23).
Masada is an old fortress on top of an 820 foot mesa near the Dead Sea. It is where 900 Jews
decided to commit suicide in 73 AD rather than surrender to the Roman army.
En Gedi is a beautiful Oasis near the Dead Sea with large rocks, waterfalls, palm tress, desert
plants, and animals. It is believed to be where David hid from King Saul (1 Samuel 24:1-7).
