Day 04 - Negev Desert

Today we shared sacred space and it’s difficult to find words that feel adequate. There were participants who chose to push through fear to try new things. Those who chose to stretch themselves by honoring hospitality over their own personal preferences. Some who shared their hearts with the group with meaningful and moving words. It was a day of the biggest smiles and belly laughs, and also some teary hugs and hard questions. In George’s words, it was most certainly a day that made God smile.

I (Aleah Marsden, trip scribe) can’t quite bring myself to get more specific. It feels like something too precious to share in such a public sphere as social media. But I do hope it makes you curious. If you know one of our participants, ask them about floating on the Dead Sea or camel riding or Bedouin hospitality or, especially, what kind of place Jesus was born into. They’ll tell you. It was a shepherd day, a Bedouin day. A Psalm 23 overflowing cup kind of day—ask about that Bedouin image, too, while you’re at it. An abundance where the goodness keeps coming and nothing is wasted.

That’s the economy of God and that’s what is on full display on the Heart of God Tour. God’s abundant delight in his people, especially those whom the world tends to overlook. Those who by the world’s standards may appear to have less to offer. Today was one of those days where the upside-down ways of God’s kingdom were on full display. Truly, he wastes nothing. To witness the fervent, passionate declaration of one of our participants that in Heaven we’ll all be made perfect and we’ll all be one… Wow.

This is the kind of ministry you support when you donate to Under the Fig Tree. It’s not just another touring company, it’s investing in deep, formative work of God through interaction with the lands of the Bible. May this overflowing cup never run dry.