We Have Arrived

Wow what a long flight but we have arrived.  The truth is that once you board an Israeli airliner your trip to the Holy Land really begins.   We met some interesting people and were plunged directly into Hebrew culture right from LAX.  Once we arrived in Israel we were all tired but anxious to see a bit of the land.  We spent 45 minutes driving from Ben Gurion airport toward the foothills of Judea where we got to know our Israeli guide Ronen and our driver Meir.   We then spent an hour at a site called Yad HaShmona, which is a biblical garden about 20 min from Jerusalem.

Rich took some time to orientate us to the land as well as read the story from 1 Samuel 4 where the Ark of the convent is lost in battle and then through the power of God returned to the Israelites.   In the text it says that the ark of the covenant came to rest in the house Abinadab in the village of Kiriath Jearim, which happened to be the area that we were standing.   How amazing from day one to open our Bibles and begin to see the stories come to life.   We finished our time in the garden seeing examples of first century tombs, olive and wine presses as well as ritual baths.   Even though we have only been here a few hours we are already seeing that this trip to Israel is going to help us read the Bible with fresh eyes and as some are already saying in 3D.   From here we drove to our hotel and had a great dinner and as you can imagine we are all looking forward to a good nights sleep.

Thanks for reading and continue to follow our journey!