These shoes are made for walkin....

After a little shopping trip this weekend, I officially have the 'hiking shoes' that I will be wearing to Israel.    So....starting today and over the course of the next month, I will be wearing them daily to break them in and get them ready to do some serious sightseeing!

Hard to believe, but we are down to one month before the trip!

Trip Orientation Call: Walking in the footsteps of Jesus!

This past Sunday, May 15 - our group had the chance to join in on our 2nd teleconference call with the entire group for the Disciples Journey.

Our focus for this meeting was to haul out our maps and begin to get a better feel for the land before we ever set foot on it.

To the left is what our final maps came to look like: types of land areas, major water sources, valleys, cities we will be visiting, and major trade and transportation routes.

I shared in preparation for this, and still holds true, I felt like a kid in a candy store a little bit.   Eating up the desire to know and experience the place we were going, and not wanting to miss one important detail.

As we began to trace the journey we would be taking, I began to feel myself wondering what took place there, what did Jesus do there, what did the people of the old testament experience there.


Cory shared this map with me today, that took me right back to one of those main reasons I was excited for this trip in the first place.   To see these actual places where Jesus ministry and miracles took place.   Literally, the birthplace of our faith.

The map over to the right basically pinpoints several amazing places from the New Testament where we see these amazing stories of our King!

The Sermon on the Mount, feeding the 5,000, Jesus' baptism, healing the man with demons, walking on water, turning water into wine, where he talks with the woman at the well, where he rose Lazarus from the grave......and on and on!

As we approach the one month and counting point, I have enjoyed (far more than I care to admit) the preparation that has gone into this trip.   The suggested readings that give us insight into the land.   Refreshing on Bible stories to remember the places that were so prominent.   Being reminded of God's story, and how He is an AWESOME God!

Geography Anyone?

Ready for a geography lesson?!?!

This upcoming Sunday, May 15, we will have our third pre-trip conference call/study hour for the Discipleship Journey!   The theme of this meeting will be to dive into an actual map of the land, and begin to identify were different regions are located, where different cities are located, where different sites are located, and also where some different events in history have occurred.

I must confess, when I first went into education, I was oh-so-close to becoming a history/geography teacher.   I have a love for visually learning and seeing things in new places - especially historical ones.   I have a love for the past, because that has what has shaped today.

It has been fun as we have been pouring through our pre-trip readings.  I have been paying closer attention to the names of places, areas, etc. and have been using my good friend Mr. Google to go out and begin to identify where those places are.   It is fun to get a from-the-top view of where God's people were moving at different times throughout the Bible, to get an idea of how the Crusades moved through the land, and even now today, to have an understanding of what areas are wrought with tension.

Places like: the Negev, Judah, Samaria, Galilee.   All the different bodies of water: Dead Sea, Sea of Galilee, Jordan River.   The topography of the land: Coastal Plain, Judean Mountains, Rift Valley, Jordan Mountains.    All of these things give new description and meaning to the stores I have known for so long.   Can't wait to walk the steps of this journey and begin to physically feel the geography as well!