Today we make our way back to the states!

For those of you that have been reading and don’t know the faces behind the blog, our names are Cole and Karlie Grubbs and we’ve had the privilege the last couple of weeks to download all of our thoughts onto this page. We hope it’s been helpful getting a glimpse and maybe even learning something from this trip of a lifetime we’ve been on.

Today we make our way back to the states!

Even with it being the last day, we made it count and packed in a few last things. We were able to spend some more time in the Jewish quarter of the old city of Jerusalem for some shopping and a hearing a few final facts and stories from Yehuda. We then toured the Holocaust museum here in Jerusalem and it was very sobering, to say the least. We ended the day with our farewell dinner at an amazing restaurant in the town of Abu Ghosh. We hopped on the bus and are beginning the journey back home.

Terry encouraged each of us throughout the week to identify one thing that we can share when we get back home. So today, we thought we’d consolidate all of the thoughts, information, and stories into our one final takeaway.

I was really moved by what Laura shared the day we visited the pool of Bethesda. Her message was to be about God’s business - John 5. These two weeks have been so refreshing. At first, I was worried about not being able to have my normal routine. There were some harder days, but for the most part, the Lord was so gracious to help me have a one track mind and focus on the experience - on Him. Rather than being able to control my day, I had the whole schedule laid out for me and didn’t really have a choice what I was doing, or when I was walking, or even when I was eating. Oddly enough, it helped me feel more set free to set my mind on our experience rather than all of the details and logistics. Going home, I want to keep living in this freedom and make every step, thought, action, conversation... about God’s business. - Karlie

I’ve been reminded the most of how important it is to continue moving Gods culture along and sharing His story to others from whatever platform we’ve been given. As we sat in the theatron at Scythopolis the other day, we learned that in this ancient Greco-Roman city the theatron was the biggest place where the people would convey and communicate stories and push the values and the culture forward by means of plays of drama, comedy and tragedy.... Whether that message was for the greater good of the people or to manipulate them into a false reality. Our job even in 2020 is to worship and tell the story of God to others and future generations so we may push the culture forward towards Him! - Cole

We are forever grateful to our amazing trip leaders, Terry and Laura Feix, our tour guide, Yehuda, and our incredible bus driver, Ygal. This trip has sure enough been life changing in more ways than we could’ve imagined.

We all feel refreshed, revived, and equipped. We’re excited to be back, to keep pushing God’s story forward, and to find freedom in exclusively being about God’s business.