The Holy Land, Part III

Our second week in Israel was spent “blessing the Holy Land.” Our crew of four adults, three graduated senior girls, three junior boys and one sophomore boy headed to the city of Haifa. Haifa is the third largest city in Israel and it is positioned right on the beautiful Mediterranean.

We worked with a messianic Jewish congregation in the suburb of Quirat Yam called Tents of Mercy.

Throughout the week we sorted food in their pantry, separated tea bags, babysat, organized a library and sorted clothing in their distribution center.

 

We also spent the majority of two days working in a former bomb shelter. The building is in an area known as “Little Texas,” named for the high crime rates, which the Israelis relate to the Old West they have seen in movies. The nickname really amused our majority native Texan group! While the bomb shelter was once used to protect people during the most recent Lebanon war and then used as a daycare, it was now being used as a center for troubled teen girls. Our challenge was to clean and update this bare-bones building into a place where young girls would want to hang out.

Overall, the week of work was amazing. We got to invest in an already established ministry, and hopefully help them expand their reach in the community.

In between projects, we enjoyed our downtime at the beach. Life is tough when you’re watching the sun set from the shores of the gorgeous Mediterranean, right?

At the end of the week, we took in the sights from the top of Mount Carmel. We visited the spot that is believed to be where Elijah challenged the prophets of Baal (1 Kings 18). Micah read the story to us from his Bible as we looked out over the mountainside. It was another moment to remember!

After that, we shopped in the marketplace and took a look at the beautiful Baha’i Temple and Gardens.

On our last day with Tents of Mercy, we attended their Shabbat service. We wore headphones to listen to the English translation of the Hebrew service. Many others heard the Russian translation in their headphones, as Haifa has a large population of Russian immigrants. The service was beautiful, passionate and long! After three hours, though, we said a sad goodbye to our new friends and headed off for our very long journey home.

Overall, it was the trip of a lifetime!

-Laura

The Holy Land, Part II

Our touring continued with two days in Jerusalem, seeing as much as possible. First stop: the Mount of Olives.

The view from the Mount of Olives was breathtaking. We got an aerial view of the Temple Mount and our first good look at many of the Holy City’s sites. The largest Jewish cemetery in the world is on the Mount of Olives, across from a large Muslim cemetery. Scripture says that Jesus will return to the Mount of Olives, enter the Temple Mount through the Eastern Gate and reclaim His earthly throne. Muslims believe that a Jewish Messiah will not defile himself by walking through a Muslim graveyard. That combined with the bricked over gate should stop him, right?

While on the top of the Mount of Olives, we had the opportunity to ride a camel! He was a very odd creature, but it was a fun ride.

We journeyed down the steep mountain to the Garden of Gethsemane. Our first stop was the beautiful Church of the Nations, with its intricate mural. From its front steps, we had a perfect view of the Eastern Gate. We then walked into the garden and saw 2,000 year old olive trees in the area where Jesus prayed the night before his crucifixion.

At the Israel Museum, we saw several of the Dead Sea Scrolls (no pictures allowed) and a giant model of Jerusalem as it would have looked in Jesus’ time. The gigantic replica of Herod’s temple really brought to life what is very specifically described in scripture.

The Garden Tomb is one of the two sites thought to be the spot where Jesus was crucified, buried and resurrected. The face you see in the hill side is Golgotha. At the base of the hill is where most protestants believe the crucifixion took place. That place today is marked by an operating Muslim bus station. Ironic? We toured what is believed to be Joseph of Arimathea’s garden, which is very obviously the garden of a very rich man. A tomb was found there with evidence of one person being buried, but no remains were found. We had communion at the side of the tomb, which was yet another memorable moment!

 

We began our last day of touring with a bang at the Temple Mount. We went through extremely tight security, got an overhead view of the Western Wall and then walked onto the Temple Mount. It was incredible! The Dome of the Rock is beautiful

We walked through Hezekiah’s Tunnel in the City of David, written about in 2 Chronicles.

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is the Catholic location of the crucifixion, burial and resurrection. The church is beautiful with gorgeous Catholic mosaics. The line for the actual tomb wrapped around the entire huge church.

Before wrapping up the day, we strolled up the newly excavated Southern Steps. This was the main entrance to the temple during Jesus’ time, meaning that without a doubt He would have preached on these very steps!

Our final stop in Jerusalem was back at the top of the Mount of Olives. There, we prayed together as a large group one last time before splitting into our service teams. As we prayed, one of the afternoon Muslim calls to prayer rang out loudly. It was a reminder of the difficulties we would face as we went out to minister to the Israeli people.

After we split, our team headed to Haifa for a week. That’s a story for another post…

-Laura

The Holy Land, Part I

In the midst of all these June and early July activities, we were meeting, preparing and praying about our trip to Israel. The weekend immediately following HP&L was a busy one, with our final Israel Saturday morning meeting and our commissioning service. That Tuesday, we were off!

The 16 hour flight was rough, especially when the food made Micah sick. But when we got there it was unreal! We stepped off the plane in Tel Aviv and drove straight to Galilee. That is, after going through customs and scary security. And waiting about an hour for our friend and Micah’s summer intern, Peter, to get out of the customs holding pen. Apparently an “Iraq” stamp on your passport makes Israeli security VERY nervous.

We headed straight to the Sea of Galilee where we were staying at Kibbutz Ginosaur. A kibbutz is a farming community, and this one doubled as our hotel. Let me reiterate that first point – we were staying on the shores of the Sea of Galilee! Where Jesus walked on water. Where Jesus called several of his disciples. Crazy!

 

It would be pretty hard to tell you everything about every site we visited, but I’ll do my best through pictures.

 

Our first stop was Tel Dan, where the tribe of Dan would have settled. A tel is a city built on top of a city, built on top of a city. We walked down a hill and saw layers from the time of Jeroboam, then Abraham and then Ruth and Boaz.

The next stop was Ceaserea Philipi where we saw remains from a temple to the pagan god Pan and a Herodian temple.

Then we visited Capernum, the center of Jesus’ ministry. We walked through the remains of a synagogue where Jesus preached and Peter’s house.

We wrapped up our first day of touring with a quick stop at the Jesus boat exhibit, and then off on a boat ride on the Sea of Galilee. It was an experience we’ll never forget, as we took in the gorgeous sites, perfect weather and significance of our location! Some of our students played the Darabuca drums, while the rest of us danced to Hebrew worship songs. A few of our most talented guys even treated us to some break dancing.

The next day, we stayed in the Sea of Galilee area with stops at the Mount of Beatitudes and Peter’s Primacy Chapel. At the Mount of Beatitudes, our tour guide showed us a certain spot in the hillside overlooking the sea where the acoustics are amazing. The spot now overlooks a grove of thousands of banana trees. Our guide told us to imagine that each tree was a person listening to Yeshua preach the Sermon on the Mount. An incredible image!   

 

At Peter’s Primacy Chapel, we walked on the site where it is believed that Jesus fed the 5,000 with only a few loaves of bread and some fish. At this exact spot in the Sea of Galilee, there are seven springs, making it ideal for fisherman. This is likely the spot where Jesus called several of his disciples and where he later told them to cast their empty nets on the other side of the boat to find the fish. And, of course, while we stood in the Sea of Galilee we could not help but remember that on this same body of water, Jesus walked on top of the waves!

Next we went to Kefar Kedem, an Orthodox Jewish community. Our guide, Mike, helped us dress in Biblical period clothing and then led us to a threshing floor. We learned how to separate the wheat from the chaff and then made our own flatbread. After devouring our fresh bread, we ate the best meal of the entire trip underneath a canopy of grapevines and a thatched roof. We then hopped on a donkey and took a ride! I couldn’t help feeling a little like Joseph and Mary as Micah led me and the donkey down the path.

One stop we had been looking forward to all week was the Dead Sea. Surely it could not be as amazing as people described it to be. It wasn’t – it was better! The sensation of floating on top of the water without trying is indescribable. We even floated out to deeper waters and stood upright – with no ground beneath our feet!

Our final destination of the day was to head up to Jerusalem. We drove from the lowest point on Earth, the Dead Sea, to the highest location in Israel, Jerusalem. So we literally drove “up.” Our guide had been giving us info about the areas surrounding Jerusalem and then she turned on some Hebrew worship songs. We silently passed through a large tunnel and as we emerged, the bus rang with a collective gasp. Immediately to our left was the skyline of God’s chosen city with the gleaming Dome of the Rock at its center, all set in front of the sinking sun. It was a glorious site to behold, and one we won’t soon forget!

And that was just the first three days!!

-Laura

Boker Tov

Good morning from Israel… well, sort of.  It is 1 am here!  Just wanted to post a reminder that we are in Israel and are blogging on our Tallowood student blog.  If you are interested in what we are doing, check it out.  We are on Team Haifa so those posts contain our info – along with the touring posts because our whole group was together for four days of touring in Israel before we divided into five mission teams that spread out all over the country.  Here are a few highlights from our trip so far!

(At the Temple Mount/Dome of the Rock)

(Our Haifa team in the Mediterranean)

(On a camel in Jerusalem!)

Leaving on a Jet Plane

Wow, we have been horrible bloggers lately! It won’t get much better over the next couple of weeks, but I’ll try to give you a little update…

We leave today for Israel! Hard to believe this trip is already here, but we leave in just a few hours… and I’m still shoving stuff in my suitcase! This is a hard trip to pack for, not only with the regular TSA travel restrictions, but we are also restricted by the size of our rental vans. We have to make sure we can fit both people AND luggage in the vans. Not to mention the fact that half of the sites we are visiting have dress codes, so outfit selection has been difficult. Knees and shoulders must be covered, but we need to stay cool in the 100 degree heat!

Anyway, the first few days of our trip will be spent visiting Holy sites and other places of interest, including the Mount of Beatitudes, Caesarea Philipi, Tel Dan, the Sea of Galillee, Capernum, the Dead Sea, the Western Wall, Jerusalem, the Mount of Olives, Garden of Gethsemane, the Temple Mount, Church of the Holy Sepulchre, etc. Whew! Just typing all that made me realize that this is really real!

After all the touring, our group heads to Haifa to work with Tents of Mercy, a Messianic Jewish congregation. We’ll be serving in whatever way they need us, including painting, organizing their food pantry, sorting clothes and babysitting. Their facility also has a youth center, so we should get a chance to hang out with some of their young people and do some activities with them.

Pray that God will give us and our students the opportunity to minister to a number of Israelis – whether it is through our service or through our words. Pray for our safety and our peace of mind.

While we’re gone, we might have an opportunity to update this blog, but our Internet access will be limited. We will definitely be updating the Tallowood Student blog as often as possible – www.tallohoodtoday.com. Each team will be posting, so keep an eye out for the Haifa team posts.

A million pictures and lots of stories to come when we get back!

-Laura

Shabbat Shalom!

Have I mentioned that we are headed to Israel this summer? If not, it’s not for lack of excitement, but rather uncertainty about whether we would both be going on this trip. But, all uncertainty is now gone and God has provided for me to go along with Micah to Israel!

This July, we are headed with a group of Tallowood high school students and adult sponsors to Israel to first tour the Holy sites, and to then serve.

We will be touring Holy sites in Nazareth, Galilee, Jerusalem and elsewhere. Our entire tour is not quite nailed down, yet, because we have discovered that Israelis are a lot more laid back than we are as Americans. Travel agents and tour guides are not very quick to nail things down; not to purposefully hinder our travel, but because their culture is not as uptight and regimented as ours. We could probably learn a lot from them, but I still hope we have all the details soon.

The Western Wall – remains of the temple in Jerusalem.

After that, our group is splitting up into six. Micah and I, along with another couple, are heading up a team of eight students in Haifa (see the map above, on the northern coast near Lebanon). We will be heading to this Israeli port city to serve with Tents of Mercy for seven days. 

Haifa sits on the Mediterranean Sea and is believed to be the site of Elijah’s showdown with the prophets of Baal on top of Mount Carmel (I Kings 18). It is also the site of the mountain caves where Elijah and his apprentice Elisha probably lived (2 Kings 4).

Haifa from the top of Mount Carmel

While in Haifa, we will be working in Tents of Mercy’s food pantry, babysitting for their ministers, cleaning beaches, interacting with students in their cultural center, ministering to Holocaust survivors and attending to whatever other needs arise.

This weekend we had the opportunity to worship with Congregation Beth Messiah, a Messianic Jewish congregation here in Houston. The title of this post comes from the greeting we received from everyone at Beth Messiah. It simply means “Sabbath Peace.” Their congregation believes, as we do, that “Yeshua” is king and messiah and we all have the opportunity to have a personal relationship with Him. However, they celebrate their heritage and worship according to Jewish custom.

The experience truly blew us away. We were amazed by the way every little detail of the service related to scripture – blowing the shofar, reading from the Torah scroll, praying for the land of Israel, dancing in celebration, wearing and praying under prayer shawls, etc.

I could go on and on about how great the service was on Saturday, but this post is getting long. Our students got a lot out of it and seemed to come away with a greater appreciation for what we will experience in Israel (Well, maybe they appreciated it more after they all had naps. A two hour service, plus two more hours of meetings on a Saturday morning was rough for them… ok, for us too!). Micah and I decided that we have to go back some time and worship with them again!

Much more on Israel to come, I’m sure!

-Laura