Day 03 - Qumran, Jericho, Qasr el Yahud, Wadi Kelt Overlook

“The grass may wither and the flowers may fade, but the word of the Lord endures forever” Isaiah 40:8

We started our day in Qumran, where we learned about the Dead Sea Scrolls. In 1947, a shepherd boy was looking for his lost sheep and he stumbled upon a cave filled with ancient writings (later, we pondered God's poetic choice in using a shepherd boy and a lost sheep). Upon further discovery, there were 25,000 fragments found across 11 caves at Qumran that totaled 900 different manuscripts. These found manuscripts held 99.8% accuracy when compared to the Old Testament. What a crazy amount of physical proof of the validity of our God!

After Qumran, we traveled north along the coast of the Dead Sea, then we traveled west on our way to Jericho. We were amazed yet again by the physical evidence that supports the Bible, as we saw more archaeological evidence. We re-enacted Joshua leading the Israelites around Jericho for seven days sounding trumpets. Studying this story affirms that obeying God and what He asks of us is so crucial to our walk with Him. 

Afterwards, we casually had lunch at the Jordan River, around the spot that scholars believe John the Baptist baptized Jesus. 

Our incredible trip leader, Stacie Post also had a birthday today!!! After a morning of singing and a decorated bus, she decided to treat all of US to ice cream after lunch to celebrate HER birthday. What. A. Lady. 

Our last destination for the day was to Wadi Kelt/ Nahal Prat (Jeremiah 13:7) where we talked about Jesus spending 40 days in the Judean wilderness with no food or water while being tempted by Satan. 24 straight hours of travel followed by three 12+ hour days in the desert have left us feeling pooped, but we couldn’t be more grateful, because it has helped us put into perspective what is must have been like for Jesus to suffer for that long and not give into temptation—and he didn’t have hiking boots and a 2.5 liter Osprey water bag strapped to his back.

We ended our time at Wadi Kelt with the story of the Good Samaritan and how we are called to ve’ahavta (“and you shall love” in Hebrew) above all else. Yes, it’s so cool that the specificities in the Old Testament are proven to be true like we saw in Qumran and Jericho, but none of that even matters if we as Christians do not live our life’s loving the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength AND loving our neighbor as ourselves. 

After some quiet reflection time on the desert mountains, overlooking wild camels, St. George Monastery, and some shepherds with their flocks of sheep, we headed back to the bus and checked into our hotel in Jerusalem. 

As we round out our time in the desert, we wait in joyful anticipation for the things to come. Seeing the Word with new eyes, understanding, and meaning after THREE days makes us wonder all that the Lord will teach us for the remainder of the trip, and we simply cannot wait.