A day of foundations

Hey friends and family! Welcome to our Israel blog. We’re excited to have you join us in our journey. We arrived safely on Monday night, got a few hours of sleep, and the adventures began first thing this morning!

Today was a day of foundations. We learned a lot of things about the land of Israel that would help us understand the rest of our time better, such as some of their basic exports, wedding and burial traditions, and weather patterns. We were lead by both Pastor Michael and Ronan, the legendary tour guide who many will remember from their past trips. Ronan brings an incredible depth and insight to the trip, sharing a seemingly endless wealth of knowledge, often calling out key passages by heart. Not only that, he’s got a pretty quick sense of humor!

In every location we visited, God had a lesson for us to learn. One of my favorites was at Tel Gezer, where we visited an ancient sacrificial altar. There we learned about the problem with compromise. The Israelites were supposed to drive out the inhabitants of Gezer, but they failed to. Instead they began to intermarry and take on some of their practices and religions. It’s a lesson in the importance of listening and following God, because he can see things that you can’t. As Michael said at this site, “God plus anything else is no longer God.”

We also visited the ancient Biblical gardens, Beth Shemesh, Tel Azeka (which overlooked the land where David is believed to have fought Goliath), and explored caves not unlike those which David his from Solomon in. It was an exhausting day, but a privilege and a joy to be able to walk across the very land where God accomplished so much in the lives of his people. We’re excited to see what tomorrow has in store!