I was asked to write about why I am excited to go to Israel, so I’ll do my best at trying to
put my excitement into words!!
I have always had an interest in going to Israel. I would consider myself a very visual learner. I have heard all of these Bible stories my whole life, but have always had a hard time really picturing what they might have looked like. So, obviously the reason I’m most excited is to be able to see the Bible come to life and gain a better understanding for the places of the Bible.
For those of you who don’t know, I am very involved with a thing called “The Salt Company” here at Iowa State. The Salt Company (Salt for short) is the campus ministry of Cornerstone Church here in Ames. The Salt Company meets every Thursday night at Cornerstone. An average week at Salt sees over 1,000 students gathered to worship and learn more about God’s Word every week. Being part of Salt also includes attending Connection Group every week, which is basically a small group Bible study with other guys that live near each other. It has truly grown my faith so much over the course of this year, and it is so encouraging to see so many college kids taking time out of their week in addition to Sunday church to grow in their faith too.
Anyway, this semester we have been doing a series called “The Story So Far”. Basically we are going through the whole Bible chronologically in one semester (Similar to what Faith is doing with “The Story”, only at a way faster pace). As we are going through this sermon series, I am learning more and more about the places and stories of the Bible. This is only getting me more excited to go to Israel and finally be able to see the places where these things took place.
Israel is a land deep in history, not just Biblical history. I took a religion class this fall, and got to learn a little bit about some of the history of Israel. I am currently reading a book that gives a first-hand account of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It is really a quite complicated issue, but very fascinating to study (at least in my opinion).
One really cool aspect of our trip, is the opportunity we have to get to know some Palestinian Christians. We will be spending two of our nights with a Palestinian Christian host family, and it will be really cool to hear their stories and get to know them. On a side note, I’m sure many of you are thinking, “Aren’t you worried about the danger in traveling to the Middle East?”. No, no I’m not. We live in a world full of danger with terrorist attacks happening all over Brussels, Pakistan, Paris, and even in the US. In fact, every time we step out of our house we are taking a risk. That is just the world we now live in, but we can’t let that stop us from traveling. If we live in fear of traveling, then we will miss out on so many great experiences that we could have had, and I don’t want to miss out on this amazing opportunity to go and walk where Jesus walked.
Because of Israel’s deep history, there is so much to see there. Even in our two weeks that we will be there, we will not have time to see a lot of things. As I study and prepare for this trip, I am getting more and more excited every day. Some of the specific sites I am really excited to see are En Gedi (an oasis along the Dead Sea), The Dead Sea, Jericho, The Temple Mount, Jerusalem, The Sea of Galilee, The Jordan River, Mt. of Olives, Gethsemane, Via Dolorosa, and The Church of the Holy Sepulcher (Where the cross is believed to have been).
I’m so excited to go and I can’t wait to share my experience when we get back!
Bryce, son of Greg and Pat Heemstra, is a freshman at Iowa State University.
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