Who do you say that I am?

I have two here and I will hopefully send you a third tomorrow morning to add!

Something that keeps coming up for me throughout this trip is the phrase, "Who is this?" How many times throughout Scripture is our Jesus met with the question, "Who is this?" From the disciples seeing Jesus after the resurrection, to the Pharisees witnessing miracles, to Jesus himself asking "Who do you say that I am?" It's as if this question of "Who is Jesus?" is being brought to the forefront! We are all on a journey to answer this question more fully each and every day, whether through God's Word, or our personal testimonies. But, in Israel, in the land of Jesus himself, I have seen him, his stories, his life, in a way I have never seen before. I have seen Jesus walking on the water in the Sea of Galilee. I've seen him revealing himself to his disciples in Caesarea Philippi. I've seen him healing the centurion's servant in Capernaum. I've seen my Jesus and I want even more of him. "Who is this?" This is GOD. This is LOVE. This is POWER, and MIGHT, and COMPASSION. THIS IS OUR SAVIOR!

Written by Ashley Serin

Shalom from our last night in Gailee. Today was a hard lesson as we explored Caesarea Philippi and Tel Dan. Both sites hosted false god worship in vile ways. In Tel Dan or the City of Dan. We were able to see the altar that the Tribe of Dan would bring their offerings to. Not only where the people not suppose to be in that location but they built the altar so they didn’t have to travel to Jerusalem. The alter was not built correctly so again they were going against what God asked them to do. Everyday, the people of Dan where bringing their offerings to the alter and God was not pleased. As we learned about this story and saw the altar and the city gate into Dan, Matt related to us about how we may go through the motions of religion but are we actually doing it for God? As the generations lived in Dan did the children grow up and ask why are we burning offerings here and not in Jerusalem? This is something that spoke to me as I realized how many years I spent just going through religious practices and not asking why do we do this?

When we returned to our hotel on the Sea of Gailee, or the lake as it called here, we all cooled off in the water for a very special celebration. Three of our teammates got baptized for the first time. We heard their story of how they met Christ and why they wanted to get dunked here in this place. What a powerful time we had celebrating them, being in the very water that Peter and Jesus walked on and growing together in this joyful way.

Written by Rachel Ogden

Today, myself and three others got baptized in the Sea of Galilee. It was such an uplifting and life changing experience. We let go of our past sins and chose God as our present and future focus, Pastor Matt really helped us to better understand that baptism is not just something God called us to do. It is also a public testament of our faith in which we spiritually connect with the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ and anticipate a change in ourselves with new life cleansed from our past sins. I only hope the three of us remember this moment forever as we strive to become more and more like our Savior, Jesus,

Aside from this milestone, we also had the chance to see how wine is made here in Israel by stomping on grapes with our bare feet. Afterwards, we rolled out freshly cultivated dough and made bread together, It was a fun and impactful day to say the least but you can't forget the lessons, history and hearing Gods word, We went to the city of Laish which is later called "Dan." It is a massive area compromised of various herbs and trees, ice cold, refreshing streams, and the stunning architecture of the "King Jeroboam'a Temple," and the "Gate of the Three Arches." The days keep getting better and better but this one will be hard to top!

Written by Lyla Schwanz