Freshly Brewed Faith: The Holy Land

As most of you know, I spent the past two weeks in Israel with 39 people (mostly from my church). It was the most life-changing trip I've ever been on. Not only did I have a wonderful time there, but I could feel the impact when we returned home and went to church because I could picture the places that were referenced in Sunday's sermon.

People keep asking me to post a blog about the trip, and I'm not really sure what to say. How can I sum up an experience where I saw so many biblical sites, learned about Israel's history, felt Jesus working on my heart personally in so many ways, and developed new friendships? I can't. Not concisely anyway. If you were to open my journal it wouldn't make any sense to you because my thoughts are scattered and out of order as I'm trying to piece together what I experienced. All I know is that this trip completely changed the way I read Scripture and that Jesus brought me to new levels of healing as I engaged Him on this two-week retreat.

[I might post a few entries from specific days and specific ways Jesus spoke to me, other than that, I apologize because there's absolutely no way I can sum up my trip in words. My advice? Make it a priority to go to Israel. My church is going again in Summer 2015.]

But one thing I know, it really did completely change me as a disciple of Jesus. There's no way a person can visit all of these sites and have all of these experiences and not read the Bible in a completely new light.

I sailed on the Sea of Galilee. I stood on the mountain where Satan temped Jesus. I heard a real rooster crow while standing in the place where Peter denied Jesus three times. I heard a fragment of the Beatitudes while sitting in the same place Jesus taught. I prayed at the pool of Bethesda. I cried in the prison where Jesus was kept before He was crucified. I took communion at the empty garden tomb. I stood on the place where the temple used to be and looked out at where Jesus will return on the Mount of Olives. I saw the soon-to-be Armageddon battlefields from the top of Megiddo. I ate food like people in the Old Testament would have during a dress-up lunch at Abraham's Tent. I walked the streets of Nazareth and Bethlehem. I touched the Western (Wailing) Wall. I worshipped in the Garden of Gethsemane and in Caphernaum. I stood on the hill where Saul committed suicide and saw the area of caves that David hid in. I (along with 14 others) read the Psalms of Ascent aloud while standing on the steps leading up to the Temple. I watched as my friends were baptized in the Jordan River.

And I did other (more cultural and less biblical) things too. I floated in the Dead Sea. I bartered a price for a scarf in the Jerusalem markets. I climbed down Masada. I got my first ever massage. I ate a bunch of foreign foods that I paid for in shekels. I gained a new appreciation for the beauty of nature and for God as Creator. I visited a holocaust museum. I drank a ton of expresso and laughed hysterically with good friends.

These photos don't do it justice. They don't capture the vastness of the beautiful mountains and waters. But here's a little taste of my trip.