An inlet and an outlet

Hello y’all!! Hannah here to update you on our third day here in the Holy Land!!!! And let me tell you, it was definitely an adventure. We started this morning with waking up for our last sunrise over the Dead Sea (which was majestic) and packed all of our things to head out of our hotel. Rich took us down to the shore for one last devotion. Jenna talked to us about how the Dead see is so beautiful… but dead. There is absolutely no life living in there. Also that there is only one inlet and no outlet in the Dead Sea. She paralleled that with us Joshua students. As during this whole year all that has been happening was us being poured into by our staff, the community, catalyst couples and speakers. And to the outside world, we look all put together and beautiful and to ourselves we feel beautiful in the sense that we have been doing devos every morning, breathing in the Word and doing community together. But once we get out of Joshua, we can’t stop there. We have to have an inlet and an outlet. I thought that was so inspiring and encouraging to hear this morning. After that we drove to Ein Gedi where David ran away from Saul and he hid in the caves. It was such a great hike up and Ronen and Rich led the way. It was a hot day but not quite as hot as yesterday at Masada. We got to somewhat the top where we stopped under a tree to get some shade and to hear Dewey talk to us. He talked to us a little about David and what his life in the caves and wilderness must have been like being sought out by one of the most powerful men to murder David. We learned that everyone goes through suffering. Jesus suffered, so we are going to suffer. It’s part of life. It’s part of our plan. Then we hiked a little bit more up to mayim chaim… living water. Literally, in the middle of the desert in the mountains there were vibrant streams that were so inviting compared to cisterns that we visited earlier in the trip. It such a cool image of what Jesus wants from us. He wants us to receive living water from Him. Not that gross, dirty water that they store away. Not the world. But HIM. Jesus plus nothing equals everything. After that we had a chance to hang out and swim in the water and then after about forty minutes we hiked our way out to go have some lunch and to head to our new site Qumran. Lunch was delicious as usual and once we drove to Qumran it was mind blowing. This is where not even a hundred years ago they found the Dead Sea Scrolls. How crazy is that?!

The oldest Hebrew text of the Bible ever found. We saw cave 4 where they found the first of the scrolls. We hiked up to a spot above the caves where Rich gave us the choice whether we wanted to keep on hiking for 30 more minutes and to experience where seven past years of Joshua students hiked to leave rocks on an Ebenezer, an altar dedicated to remember what we have learned and how God has moved in our lives. So most of us went up, of course. We were NOT going to miss out on this once in a lifetime opportunity. We trudged up the somewhat formed path and after all of us did such a great job we made it to the top of the world! Not really, but it definitely felt like it! To our left was the Dead Sea and to our right was the wilderness that looked like it never ended. It was absolutely breathtaking. Once we were up there, we were able to pick up rocks to write what we want to happen after Joshua. It was such an amazing experience. After that Rich told us that we were going to sing.. so we sang the Doxology. It was such an emotional time. I’m pretty sure that we all got chills. And then we were able to say the Sh’ma at THE TOP OF OUR LUNGS facing the Dead Sea. I seriously can’t even explain how it felt. It was beautiful! Then we made our way down the path we trekked up and headed toward Galilee where we are going to stay for the next few days!!!

So far what God has taught me is to take every literal step with Him. I can’t do anything on my own. I seriously can’t wait to see what God is going to teach me in the next few days. Shabbat Shalom. J