Today was the second of 3 conference calls that our group of 26 shared in preparation for our journey to Israel. I can honestly say that the meeting made things 'feel real' - as we are about 72 days away from our trip and the excitement for what lies ahead grows.
As I mentioned - 26!! - people will be taking this trip together - 6 of those being our core group. So, I am excited for the chance to share in this experience with several other people as well, and build relationships that will always share this trip in common. A reminder that this journey is a "Discipleship" trip, meaning their is an adult mentor going with each "young adult". For our journey, we aren't specifically pairing up, but more Pat, Anita and I will be celebrating the trip with Bryce, Mason and Cory. In fact, I am pretty sure in some respects, we will be mentored just as much by them as they are by us - and that is a cool thing!
A quick run-down of the phone call:
1. We first went over some trip details, specifically dealing with what to pack, how much to pack, what are the most important pieces to take, etc. Our health goal is to be able to walk 5 miles non-stop per day, and climb 10 flights of stairs. As they mentioned, this task isn't so daunting on day 2 and 3, but more so on days 9, 10, 11 when our bodies begin to physically wear down. PRAYERS FOR HEALTH AND STRENGTH WOULD BE APPRECIATED DURING THIS TRIP!
2. The majority of this conference call dealt with diving into the Historical aspect of the trip. Understanding what was happening around the world during different eras of the Bible. For instance, around 2000 BC is when we think Abraham was called to Canaan - at this point in history, the pyramids had already been built and civilizations were pretty well established. Most of this occured during the Bronze age, as did the time of Moses.
The time of David, around 1000 BC, was the Iron Age, so as armies found better ways to fight and cultures find new ways of doing this, we find Davis conquering much land for God's people. As the moved through the time of the Exile, we see many different cultures dominating the world landscape, culminating with the Romans during the time Jesus arrived on the scene. These are important for us to understand as we will see many different ancient ruin sites and this allows us to be able to connect to what was happening in world history at that time.
The last thing we did was to study the different aspects of the "Jews". Pharisees, Sadducees, Zealots, Essenes, Pagons, Herodians - all of them had their own beliefs and way of thinking the Law should be followed - but what is important for us is to understand that Jesus came and blazed a new trail for us to follow. There are so many parallels already between then and now, which I think will hit home even more during our travels.
So - lot's of info there for you - but as I said, as we drink in this stuff, it escalates our excitement for this journey and what we will learn of God's people, God's plan, and God's power!
May 15 will be our final conference call as we tackle the geography of the land - so not just understanding WHAT was happening, but WHERE is was happening as well. Until then....
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