Day 17 - Nazareth

This morning I woke up and told Shamir to go get his deer. I was mid-dream and I knew that we all needed to have a deer, and his deer lost his shock collar and he had to go chase it. So I told him he had better go chase it. I also wanted him to get in the shower so I didn't have to get up that early. But he didn't listen.

After breakfast we left the hotel and headed to the Jordan River. Amyann, Eric, Burtran, Jordan, Billy, Lydia, and Josh were all baptized. They got white robes and it was cool. It was also hot. I almost wish I waited just to get baptized today. It was hot. Horrah for those who got baptized. And the river really wasn't as dirty as I thought it would be. They believe the spot we were at was close to the spot Jesus was baptized. I'm not really sure how they figured that out though, so I'm a little skeptical.

After that, we went to this hotel in Nazareth. It was a drive there, and when we got there, we went up to a "born again" prayer tower the family owns. It had great acoustics. I started playing the piano quietly (hymns of course) and a lot of people said they were blessed by it. Then I had to go outside and film a greeting for Dr. Meyer and Dr. McLeod and then my individual interview. Shawna and I had a few tongue ties but overall it wasn't too bad. That took about 10-15 minutes.

We went back into the prayer tower then and they were worshipping with Lydia and Jordan. It was a pretty powerful time of worship. Then the girls prayed for one of the ladies who works in the ministry at the hotel. They get to pray for a lot of people, since it seems everyone we pray for is female. After that, the lady's sister, Amell Safouri talked to us. She is a lawyer but is working in ministry in Nazareth. She shared her passion and vision with us, and soon after we went out on the mountainside that overlooked the entire city of Nazareth and prayed over it. It was an INCREDIBLE time of prayer. "Can anything good come from Nazareth?" The answer is YES. And we interceded in the faith that God has a great redeeming work in store for Nazareth.

We had lunch after that. It was tasty. We had like a fish fillet, but processed so it tasted like a huge fish stick. Potatoes, french fries, a little bit of salad, and HUMMUS (of course). After lunch I went back up and played the piano a little bit more. Eric and Kevin joined me. Eventually I thought it might be best if we headed back. It was perfect timimg because everyone was leaving at that time. We boarded the bus with Amell and went to where Mary's house was. The built a church there to honor the angel Gabriel visiting her. We were inside where they think was her house. It wasn't fantastically spectacular, and the ceiling was like 20 feet high so I'm not sure the structure was original. But it was kind of cool to think that Jesus might have visited his grandparents on this site.

Then, up the road, we paid a visit to the orphanage. That was very interesting. Most of the kids are on "break" where they visit their actual familes, but for the school year, are taken from them because their families are dysfunctional. Only a few girls were there, who stayed with the nun that was there. She spent about 20 minutes telling us about how difficult her job was, but how she loved the kids. We got to drink grape soda during that talk in a very small, humid room. Then we were to go outside and play with the kids. Well, someone had this "inspired" idea that we should sing with them. So Matt started up "trading my sorrows". That didn't fly. Then Kevin tried this "halalalalalalalalalelujah" song…but it turns out 'la' in arabic means no. So we were singing ha no no no no no no no no no yah. Poor kids.

The girls played with them and eventually prayed over them as us guys got to sit on the benches and look cool as we extended our hands. Lol. As we left we passed a peacock and a couple of chickens that everyone tried to get the peacock to stand up and strut by doing a variety of bird calls. To no avail. But it was funny to hear some of them.

After that, we made the trek to the hotel to drop Ammell and her sister off, and then headed for Mt. Carmel. I fell asleep on the way there, as we had been up since the crack of dawn, or so I thought. When we got there, we recollected the story about Elijah from 1 Kings 18. Then we prayed for God to release that same power Elijah and Elisha had and pour it out on us. Then we took a million pictures over the landscape. It is interesting though, because this mountain overlooks the valley of armegedon. And that battlefield is actually where Israel won a majority of their battles. It's totally flat, but right next to it the hills start, and its just rolling hills after that. That started up the campfire song…boomdeeyaadahh boomdeeyaadahhh….i love the mountains…I love the rolling hills…

(we didn't know all the words though - just the boomdeeyahdah's)

We left soon after and drove to Tel Aviv, where we are staying tonight. Dinner was good - although I am actually craving a homemade peanut butter milkshake from VFCC that I make with vanilla ice cream and melting PB packets in hot water. I am looking forward to having one of those when I get back to the forge.

Dinner was really good. I found out that Matt was oringinally going to attend VFCC, and that he volunteered at Wilmington First with the youth. It was cool. We then got our rooms - Rufus and Shamir tonight. But Ben came and visited for about an hour (to use my camera cord of course). We had a lot of laughs and a good time of prayer. Our room is the only room from our organization on this floor…the rest of the floor is occupied by Jewish kids from England..and right now there are really loud and we want to go to sleep. Shamir is almost ready to stick his head out the door and tell them what's what. Lol.

I think I covered most of it today.

There is this whole theological debate going on right now, but it started yesterday and I didn't finish yesterday's entry yet…but basically it deals with whether of not the Jews will go to heaven if they don't accept Jesus Christ. I personally feel that if we can't stand solid on salvation soley being through Jesus Christ, and we are going to discredit that, we have very little left to stand on. That's all I'm going to say. But I'm really surprised at what some people think - that Jews will get into heaven because they serve the same God, or that (this is the kicker) that we serve a different God than the Jews, and that the God of the Old Testament isn't the God of the NT. Yeah.

I don’t have all the answers. And I know that. I just don't pretend like I do. I have much to learn; that's why I'm here.

Father help me to remain humble and keep seeking truth from your Word.

Shalom from Tel Aviv.