The Good and Beautiful

Greetings city dwelling individuals! It is I Samuel Louis Hilgendorf on my 18th Birthday sending salutations from deep in the dessert of Israel. Do not ask how I have invented such technology to communicate with you because that is a very interesting but long story. Well, I suppose you all are not reading this to hear my poetry in writing, but rather the adventures we have experienced. So without further adue: Day three.

The first unbelievable sight was seen before we even got on the bus. Along with many interesting native dishes of breakfast came a vast and beautiful bowl of cocoa puffs, which was accepted with hospitality only American stomachs could give! After a hearty breakfast, we all piled on the bus, and went just outside the city to a vast canyon. It was nearly five miles across, and extended far beyond the eyes reach. After some Kodak moment pictures and a geological explanation by our outstanding Israeli friend and guide, we were back on the bus. We drove about an hour and a half straight into the heart of the dessert. Rather than flat and sandy surfaces like back home in West Texas, this terrain was rocky and mountainous. We drove into what seemed to be a great basin of low mountains. Little did we know but we would be spending the whole day in this one location unlike the past few days. We got off, the bus drove off, and Rabbi Scott went into one of his favorite teachings: Sheep and Goats. Although it was a simple teaching of following the good shepherd and doing exactly as He, the explanation and receiving of the message requires much more physical requirements. To those of you who know of this teaching let it be known it only took a few tries! After this we moved to and ancient mining location. In ancient times, Egyptians would heat rocks of the mountains to over 3000 degrees to extract small pockets of copper. After the copper was extracted, all that would be left were big piles of blackened rock called slag. Rabbi Scott compared these to ourselves: God finds the good and beautiful, the copper, amidst the darkness and sin, the charred rock. He then takes that dark part of our lives away from us which only He can do.

Then came my favorite part of the day. Throughout the day, Rabbi Scott talked about how the dessert was a very special place for the Hebrews and God. This is where God saved them from slavery and took them as His own and started a relationship like man had once had with God, but had lost. Scott designated a time for us to be on our own with God for a little while and let Him speak to us and work on us. We spread out all over the dessert: some in little caves, some under the shade of acacia trees, and some (like myself) up high on mountains. As soon as we broke off, God began to speak to me; not in a dramatic or preaching way, but rather as a friend I hadn’t seen for a while. It had been quite a while since I had a conversation with Him like that, and that upset me. I realized that the disruptions of this past year had really distracted me away from spending time with my best friend. In this world, you can’t FIT God into our schedules, He’s too big for that. We have to MAKE places for Him in our lives. And I’m not necessarily talking about a daily Bible reading. That is equally important but a different conversation. I’m talking about talking to Him as you would a friend. When you are eating, getting dressed, walking the dog, and taking out the trash, God wants to talk to you. He is a Father who just wants to spend a little time with you.

After about an hour, I could tell that people were heading back to the main point. We all gathered together and we hiked to a few more spots: remains of an ancient Egyptian temple, some very cool hieroglyphs, and at the end, a recreation of the synagogue the Hebrews would have used in the dessert from Egypt to the Promised Land. We then had lunch (at 4:00 I might add), and ended the day under an Acacia tree talking about what God had said to us that day.

Thank you for you precious time! I do apologize for length, but anyone who knows me knows that I do things with much detail, and over long periods of time! (This took three hours)!!! Haha. God bless yall, and please keep us in your prayers!