Hello and welcome to the 2018 Israel Tour blog!

I’m not sure if this is proper blog protocol but before we begin, let me to introduce myself. My name is Lucy and I will be your travel guide during our group’s (we’ve yet to determined a fun group name we can cheer in unison on the bus so TBD on that) journey through Israel. In case I write anything that sounds a little too jet lagged or run-on or rambling, I figured you should know who is responsible. Plus, if I say anything funny or clever....I want to make sure to get ALL the credit!

For all who are family and friends of trip participants, we are so excited for you to embark on this journey with us. Many on the trip have already mentioned that their daughter or friends or parents will be joining us this week - so welcome and I will make sure to step up my blogging game.

As we experience the wonder and history of this unique country - one at the crossroads of Tim (I meant to write time but it autocorrected and thought I should keep because maybe Israel IS at the crossroads of Tim? I’ll need to ask him and get back with you), geopolitics and religion - we want you to have a bird’s eye view of our time together.

My hope is that as we share our special experience journeying where the Old & New Testament happened IRL and walking where the God of the Universe Himself lived, died and rose again to be with us forever - you would be moved. And maybe even enticed to join Terry and Laura next year to experience too. Because I’m not sure if words alone will do justice for what we are about to see.

From just our short time traveling together, I can already tell we have a wonderful group. We are from all over the country - Colorado, Texas, Michigan, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and more. We are all nice people, even after traveling through the air for lots and lots of hours together. We have two wonderful leaders - Terry and Laura - who have already made this trip so easy for us. And most of all, we are all so excited to begin!

When I stood up to stretch during our flight from Newark to Tel Aviv, our flight attendant had the plane window opened in the back. We were flying over the Austrian Alps and boy, were they breathtaking. Needless to say, we are not in OKC anymore. We are international, baby!

Well, that is really all I have for today. The group met, flew from OKC to DEN, DEN to EWR, EWR to TLV and made our way through customs to Israel. More to come as we get started on our tour bright and early tomorrow morning. Until then!

The Sh’Ma
“Hear O Israel;
The Lord is our God
The Lord alone!
Love the Lord your God,
With all you heart,
And with all your soul,
And with all your might,
And love your neighbor as yourself. Amen.”

Learn more about the Shema from TheBibleProject.com

https://thebibleproject.com/blog/what-is-the-shema/