Experience!

Since being home for a couple days and actually having had time to reflect on my experienes i feel like now is a good time to post my final blog about Israel!

This trip is probably one of the best experiences of my life! I honestly had some of the most amazing experiences of my life and i couldn't of had a better trip! I will never forget the places, people, and the spiritual aspects of this trip. I have learned so much about myself and about God especially visiting a lot of Biblical sights. I have learned that I not only can do anything with God's help, i mean i went to Israel, the Holy Land, the place Jesus walked, if God can give me the funds and the transportation for something of that magnitude than anything with God is possible. I also learned that I can be my own person, and i can pretty much do anything i set my mind too! God gave me a gift to see the Holy Land and i will never take that for granted!

I learned so much about who God is and how awesome He is in the last month than i have almost my whole life! I was thinking the other day about the geographical aspect of the Bible and the actual land that Jesus and the patriarchs have gone through and lived in and it amazes me that God chose this type of terrain and area to have the setting of the Old Testament (OT) and the New Testament (NT). I think that God chose this place because if you look at it in the time of Jesus and the OT then you can see that it was very fertile and also very strategic in nature. Jerusalem is placed almost at the center of everything! That is what made me think about how God placed Jerusalem, His city, in the middle of everything, whether it was at the center of worship, military progress or just being in the middle of traffic for major traveling routes. That is just so interesting to me to think that God did that for a reason! God shows up in the most coolest places, especially in nature! Seriously the land of Israel is just beautiful! It is amazing, looking at pictures can give you the awe factor but actually being there and experiencing it gives you the Holy Crap factor, because it is just beyond words it is so beautiful! God made this beautiful land for His people, He is showing them how much He loves them by giving them this land! God shows love through nature! How awesome is that? Seriously if you don't agree just go look at the mountain someday or go to the woods, lake, plains, it is just beautiful what He has given to us! God also showed up in very unlikely situations, when i was taking communion, they were serving real wine, i didn't really want to take part in the actual wine but i was thinking that it is just a little bit and wont be too bad, but i still felt that I didn't want to do it, and as I was up there the priest took the cup and tried to give me some and it literally wouldn't go into my mouth, like i tried to drink some and it literally wouldn't go in. I am not saying that wine is bad at all, I personally just don't want to drink any and God knew that and He protected me from something I thought would be compromising to me. God is so awesome! JUST AWESOME!!! God showed up when i got hurt, I didn't get seriously injured, thank God, but to be honest i probably should of, God protected me and gave me some of the best care I have ever received from a stranger, the bus driver Khalid, that guy is pretty cool! I think God was working through Him, again God is AWESOME!!! God showed up at the sites we went to! Not a physical presence but you just knew that at those places God's presence was there, no doubt in my mind! Things that we saw and learned is truly a gift from God. So if you didn't get what i was trying to say in the last paragraph then i will say it again...GOD IS AWESOME!!! GOD IS LOVING!!! and GOD is willing to show Himself to all who are willing to open their eyes and see! If you truly want to see what God has for you, just open your eyes! Its that simple, look through the eyes of God and you will truly see what God has for you and for everyone!

Thank you everyone for being so great during this trip and praying for me and for the group, travels, professors, and so on. Thank you to everyone who read my blog, it has been so much fun to tell you about my experiences!

I am not going to get rid of my blog now that i am home i actually like being able to share stuff with all of you, this blog thing has grown on me. I will be posting at random times so check back every once in a while and there might be a new one!

God Bless and DO GOOD!!!!