Tour Day 3 with the Boys!

Well the Good Shepherd continues to poor out abundantly His blessings upon all of us this week. Today was another great day of touring the Golan area, or Northern Israel. Today, we woke up, each dug into the word on our own time, getting fed before heading out, and then we headed over to Bet She'an and spent several hours there today. Bet She'an is a city that was definitely flourishing during the time of Jesus, although the HaBrita Hadasha (New Testament) never mentions the city. The pictures above are from the Colosseum in the city, where we were all climbing over and speaking from the center. It's really amazing to see the design and intelligence of the people back in the day, how they built the colosseum pefectly to where one person can speak without a microphone and everybody would hear him. The sound waves bounce off the walls, making it to where everyone could hear no matter where they are sitting, and the speaker does not have to worry about shouting or raising his voice for them to hear. This city is also the place where the body of Saul was hung on a wall, after he was beheaded. 1 Samuel speaks of when Godl told Saul to go and destroy all the Amalekites, but Saul didn't not obey the Word of God and he ended up saving the some of the livestock from sacrifices. The amalekites is a picture of sin in the bible, and I love the pracitical application of this story. Since Saul did not utterly destroy the amalekites, later on in a battle, an Amalekite came back to put Saul to death. So you see, when we fail to utterly wipe out any sin in our lives, then the sin will always come back and often even utterly wipe us out! Such a tragic story which much application for us Disciples of Jesus today. Knowing that any leaven can leaven the whole lump, should be enough motivation to flee from sin and temptations, and turn to the Word of the Lord. "I have hidden your Word in my heart, so that I might not sin against You." Psalm 119:111

After this location, we fueled our bodies with a Shawarma, and then headed to Sachme where there are some natural springs of water. We went swimming for about an hour in the beautiful pools and just got to relax there for a while. It was perfect after spending the day out in the HOT HOT HEAT at Bet She'an Ruin Cities. After swimming here, we were heading back to the house, but ended up stopping at the Sea of Galilee on the way at taking a dip there as well. As you see in one of the pictures above... There are now 3 people who have walked on water at the Sea of Galilee: Jesus, Peter, and now You's Truly... haha.. Although I wish I had enough faith to say that it was true, I was actually standing on Sosimo's shoulder's while he kept his head in the water... I thought it was a pretty comical idea for a picture... Anyways, it was a good day in all. We got back to the house and stuffed our faces with pizza, coca cola, and Ice Cream with Chocolate Cake for dessert.

Although today was an amazning day that the Lord has made, there were some trials and tribulations that came our way. Today, before we got out of town, we were told while drive that something was on our roof. We stopped and realized that Pastor John had his shoes on the hood, but unfortunately one fell away. The are we were heading to today, we really needed shoes, because it was dangerous enough with lots of climbing. We drove back and retraced our tracks, and by God's grace, found the other shoe with the socks! Praise God, Pastor John, a sweet sweet man got his shoes back. Also at Bet She'an, Sosimo accidentally stepped on a small round rock, and twisted his ankle. We are pretty sure that it is sprained and as of now he has a bag of ice on it. We also just got done annointing him with Oil and praying for a healing upon our brother. It's great to see that my brother Sosi, has kept his faith in the Lord, sing praises to God the whole day, even though his ankle has been hindering him from going everywhere. Tomorrow we are heading down to Masada, and supposed to be doing some intense hiking so we'll see if the Lord wants to heel his ankle overnight, or if He want to continue to test the faith of Sosi, stretching him more, increasing his Faith in God.... Faith is like a muscle and it must be exercised in order to grow. For each individual, the Lord uses different ways to stretch us and grow our faith, so that we may always keep our eyes focused on Jesus the Christ!

Well this was my day, and incase you are wondering, I have been writing daily, because I am doing a project for a class which I will be able to get credit for. Since Pastor John Bonner, the Director Pastor from Calvary Chapel Bible College Lima in Peru, is here in Israel, he has been taking us on the tours, and Pastor Drew from San diego is doing the teachings. Pastor John will be giving us credit for a class called "Study Tour of Israel" which will give me 2 Credits toward my degree for CCBC. So as you know I intended on coming to Israel for Bible College, but that was canceled, and now the Lord has sent a Pastor here who I have been with this past week, and is giving me credit for a class for Bible College. Funny how God works, and how FAITHFUL He is to me, even when I am faithless. It's really sweet to mediate on the different ways that my Heavenly Abba is always looking out for me, because He loves me so much!

So this is why my blogs have been a bit more lengthy, because Pastor John will be checking them as part of my homework... May the Lord be with you, and continue to draw you closer to Him. Seek First the Kingdom of God....

Nick.