My Israeli Adventures (PART 2)

Hello, lovelies!

I hope you enjoyed the first half of my Israel journey that I wrote about in my last post. In this one I'll be taking you from Day 7 to the final day, and I'm so excited to be able to share more pictures and brief stories with you all.

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DAY 7:

Click HERE to view the rest of Day 7's pictures.

Welcome to the view from the top of Mt. Arbel! I personally this was the most physically taxing hike, though it wasn't extremely hot. (My calves were definitely mooing, as my family likes to say.) We reached the top and RVL told us that he'd climbed this same mountain earlier on in the morning before we got here and prayed for us each by name, which astounded me. Not only did that put a lot of physical strain on him, but also a mental one, and it was extremely touching to hear.

Chorazin was our next stop, and underneath of a church that was built later on was probably the community where Peter had lived, and Jesus may have also lived here for a time.

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DAY 8:

Click HERE to view the rest of Day 8's pictures.

This picture was taken at a synagogue in the region of Gamla, where the Zealot people group was heavily present. Jewish synagogue services are very much based on scripture, and people get so excited when the Torah scroll is brought out that they dance and run to touch it.

This was taken at Caesarea Phillipi, which was thought to be the ultimate place of sin and chaos. This chunk in the wall would've held a GIGANTIC statue of the god Pan, who they believed had a lot to do with fertility and the like. The key idea here was that if you're going to go all in to being a disciple, you have to be willing to go to even a place like this.

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DAY 9:

Click HERE to view the rest of Day 9's pictures.

I had mentioned in part one of this little series that I had two favorite days, Ein Gedi and one other. This is the other. I took this picture after crossing back and forth through the Jordan River, and you can see just how beautiful it is. RVL led us in doing mikveh, which is a Jewish tradition where you rededicate yourself to following the right path. Some people were also baptized for the first time, which was incredible to be able to see.

And here we have Scythopolis. It's one of the ten cities referred to as "the other side" in scripture, and Hellenism was huge here. Hellenism is basically a very self-focused way of living life, and although the city itself was stunning and amazing to see intact, it was a sharp reminder that a Hellenistic view of life is easy to fall into.

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DAY 10:

Click HERE to view the rest of Day 10's pictures.

The beginning of Day 10 took us to Nazareth, where rock quarries and olive trees are huge. We ate some heads of wheat as we made our way to a field that had thorny plants and rocks abundant in the soil. The parable of the sower was our lesson, and after RVL taught we made our way into the field and attacked those stones like our lives depended on it. In the same way that you have to prepare a field to plow it, hearts have to be prepared so that they can bear fruit.

This was taken in Zippori, which was Herod Antipas's capitol. It was another example of how easy it is to get sucked into that worldview, and we also visited a theater where performances of plays and the like would've been held.

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DAY 11:

Click HERE to view the rest of Day 11's pictures.

Mt. Carmel is where this little picture comes from, and it was one of the steepest climbs we'd had, but in a way where there was a lot of gravel and loose stones instead of sturdy cliff pieces like Timna had. We made the Elijah story our main focus, and it was so insane to see things come to life and realize that Elijah had to climb up and down this mountain several times before taking off at a run. That's some serious dedication.

I must say, this is one of my favorite pictures from the trip. It's a view of the Mediterranean Sea from Caesarea Marretima (not quite sure my spelling is correct, but hey), and the water was absolutely stunning. Paul was likely in this place, and the ruins here were also crazy to see.

DAY 12:

Click HERE to view the rest of Day 12's pictures.

The Holy Sepulcher Church in Jerusalem is what you see in this picture, and I was not prepared for the giganticness of the whole thing. Apparently a lot of Christian denominations fight over ownership of this place, and it's actually a Muslim family that holds the key to the doors for it right now to keep it in neutral territory.

Here we have Herodium, which is the place where one of the Herods was buried. It's another example of how all of the worldly kingdoms we've seen so far are in ruins and there's no one carrying on their legacy.

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DAY 13:

Click HERE to view the rest of Day 13's pictures.

Our last day was in the city of Jerusalem once more, and it was definitely a stark contrast in comparison to the mountains we'd been hiking for the rest of the trip. We spent time by a place called the "Father's House," and we also explored Jesus's walk from the triumphant entry to Gethsemane.

This picture was taken at the end of Hezekiah's tunnels, where the water in them went up to the middle of my thighs as we walked (for reference, I'm 5'4", and there were girls shorter than me on this trip). I honestly thought walking through the tunnels was so fun, since we had our flashlights out and it was like a little adventure. We ended our day at the Mt. of Olives, and did communion as a group before singing together one last time.

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Phew! This was a VERY condensed version of my trip, but I hope it gave you a little taste of what I was up to this past month and a smidge. (:

I have plans to make a part three of this series to just give you more of an overview of culture and things I did in the evenings after hikes (like swimming in the Dead Sea!). That post will most likely be up this Wednesday, so I'll see you back here in a few days.

PS: PLEASE remember that my blog URL has changed! I'm still struggling to get old links to be redirected, so bear with me as I try to get Blogger to cooperate.

That is all.

Cheers,