Travel / Gezer

Finally. Months of preparation, prayer, and perspective have come to fruition. Our entire group has arrived but not all the luggage so please pray for that detail for many of the travelers.

Starting the drive to our first hike, I leaned over to Mark and said, “Feel like reality yet?” His response was “nope”. Me either. I thought when our feet hit the Holy Land reality would hit but it didn’t. Couldn’t wrap my mind around it.

During the drive, we joked that our first hike would be in the neighborhood we saw up to our left. Much to our amazement we ended up driving down those neighborhood streets and the bus stopped. Within seconds Rod was off the bus and down the road. We followed and trekked through rugged rocks, hay, fields, and olive trees. After a nice incline, we found the top of the climb and what a beautiful sight to see…Israel from up high. Reality started hitting us.

Rod started by asking what signs on this hill spoke Spirit to us. The easy answer was wind. The breeze was amazing. The Hebrew word for wind is the same word for Spirit. The other sign of Spirit was the wheat field down below us. Pentecost is celebrated during the wheat harvest.

Rod and Libby went on to teach that our feet were standing on 5,000 years of history at the Tel of Gezer. Gezer shows up in the Bible on a few occasions and was a city that couldn’t be captured by Joshua or David. The city was handed to Solomon from the Pharaoh when he married his daughter. (Literally the passage I was reading in I Kings on the flight over.) The town was a “Chicago” in the Biblical world. We hiked to see the city gate which was a six chamber gate, symbolic of Solomon’s design. Rod explained the importance of a city gate and challenged us to evaluate if our churches and our lives are city gates to those around us in need. Our last stop was to see some standing stones on the Tel. On our walk back to the bus God provided an amazing sunset for us to watch as the red sun disappeared on our first day in Israel.

We were challenged by Libby in the New York airport to find a mirror and look in it. Take a hard look. When we stop back at this same airport on our way home, we will look in that same mirror and see someone different. This is a life-changing journey. Be in prayer for everyone on this trip that God would work on us in the areas we need work. We are excited to see what God will do and look forward to sharing with those we love.

Stephanie + Mark
(A shout out to our kids! Love you and miss you tons!)