7 days are so close, and so far away. I want to start slinging clothes into suitcases and backpacks, but that’s still ridiculous. It’s still far too early for any of that. So instead, I will emote on the internet. Thanks for reading.
It seems like I have been waiting all of my life to take this trip. It occurs to me that it's been 30 years since the first time I saw pictures of Petra in a Bible and thought to myself how amazing that place must be. That started me on a different kind of journey; a journey of knowledge.
That was the point when I began absorbing any information I could get about the Bible and the place where it was written. I had always heard the Bible stories and the amazing things that they describe, but until that point, it hadn’t ever seemed real, exactly. I read the Bible through the first time that year, but it was more than that. I began learning about the book itself. I also began actively seeking archaeology news, and became interested in the word in a whole new way.
Now I am going to the place where the Bible was a real thing, not just stories, and where the people inside this amazing book lived and died.
I don’t know what I expect to find there. I’d love to have a spiritual encounter with my god, Yahweh, the god of the Israelites. I want to love Israel, the land, the way that he does. I want to make a dozen new friends, at least, and learn how to say at least a few Hebrew phrases with reasonable confidence. I want to drink Israeli wine and eat Israeli food and breathe Israeli dust and just try to pull as much of it in to me as I can.
I also hope to share a lot of photos, take lots of notes, and describe at least a few interesting people along the way. I want to share the love that I find there, for Israel, for the people, and send some of the joy I experience back home.
People ask me if I have any plans, and specifically, not really. I am meeting up with some Salem-ite friends who coincidentally are there at the same time, and I am eager to get to know my host, a charming, interesting person, a lot better. Outside of these things, I have no specific plans. I have a list of things I’d LIKE to do. I’d LIKE to visit the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and I’d love to visit the site where Ron Wyatt says the crucifixion occurred. I would love to visit the graves of the sons of David on the side of the Mt of Olives as well as the church of the Pater Noster.
I’d like to drive down to the Dead Sea and see Sodom and Gomorrah with my own eyes, and maybe pick me up some brimstone. I’d love to spend more than one afternoon exploring the city on foot; finding new things that I never knew. I’d like to see the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the 911 memorial, and several other significant buildings. I’d like to attend Shabbat in an actual synagogue, but this might not be allowed, as I am goyim. I would, of course, love to see the western wall, and quietly experience that place. I’d like to stand in the Sea of Galilea, and think of Messiah teaching in a boat near the shore.
I’d also like to not do some things. I’d like to NOT lose anything vital like my phone, my wallet, or my passport, so please, please, I pray save me from myself. I’d like to NOT unnecessarily endanger myself or anyone else by any forms of stupidity, and I’d LOVE to overcome my natural social awkwardness and be the social butterfly I was never born to be. I’d also like to blend in, be part of the crowd, in spite of the fact that I am certain my whole demeanor will scream, “American!”
Writing has always been one of my joys, and I commit to taking some time regularly to share my thoughts and experiences as I go. Please, enjoy my blog, and pray for the peace of Israel.
SHALOM!!
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| Sea of Galilea (not my pic) |
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