The Journey - Final Remarks

First Day

We began on our journey full of energy and strength and filled with the passion to take on the land of Israel. We ended our journey blistered and scratched, tired and drained, but with a deeper understanding and appreciation for the Bible and the journey that Christ took by coming to live in this hot, dry land. Each day we had to trust that God would provide for us and He did. It wasn't always easy and at many different times we were taught the importance of not relying on ourselves and our own ability.

Now being home, were are adjusting to normal life after an experience that will forever shape our lives. I would ask anyone reading this that if they are given the opportunity to travel and experience Israel that they take full advantage of it. It may be out of your comfort zone, but God will use your experience as a strong foundation in your faith walk.

Last Day

Home Again

We are safely back in the United States. We had a very long travel day on the 13th, we were all tired, but glad to be back. Thanks to all who checked in with the blog, prayed for us, and left comments. It was encouraging to know how many people were checking in with us.

As for this blog site, we are still going to be posting pictures and stories. We will share highlights and lessons that we learned along the way, so check it out. It will still be an active site and welcome anyone to participate. If you wish to be a contributor email me from the site and I can arrange that.

The picture of the four of us is in the Old City near the Jaffa Gate. The picture of Keith and I is of us going down into Hezekiah's Tunnel in Jerusalem.

Pictures from the past few days

View from En Gedi

Resting in a cave at Qumran

Cave #3 where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found

Floating in the Dead Sea

We Survived the Desert

We arrived last evening back into Jerusalem from the desert. It was such a great time. We were able to sleep in a cave near Qumran, and even hiked Qumran late in the evening and finished our hike under the stars. We also had a very relaxing day at En Gedi, the oasis in the desert. The second evening we were able to camp at the beach on the Dead Sea. We went floating a couple of times on the Dead Sea, what a great body of water. We are all excited to continue to show the trip through the pictures and tell of all the great stories. More pictures to come...
For those who know Ruben we were able to hang out with him and his wife last night, it is so good to see old friends again.

To the Desert

Sunday morning we are leaving for the desert for a couple of days. We are headed to Qumran and En Gedi for the next few days. Please pray for us as we go there, for health and safety in the heat. We will have some more updates when we return. We greatly appreciate all of the comments on the site.

Meal after climbing Susita

Dome of the Rock

Below Mt. Arbel

Finding our way

Campsite on the Jordan River.

Back in Jerusalem

We have had an amazing time so far and we are happy to be back in Jerusalem. Our muscles are tired and our feet are blistered and the break is much needed. We will be spending the next few days in Jerusalem and then heading to the desert. We have had an awesome time and have enjoyed seeing where Jesus walked. We have had many different God moments where the only way it could have happened was with God's help. Being in such difficult and hot land it has taught each of us to rely on God everyday. We will be able to share many more stories later. The picture above is of us on Mt Arbel.

It is a Hard Land

This has been an exciting trip for me. I was thrust into a new culture that is still tough to get used to but sometimes refreshing. We started out in the hustle of Jerusalem but then worked our way over to the Galilee which really opened my eyes. We walked through the land where Jesus did most of his ministry. I have already heard of these places but to be present at some of the sites brought the written word to life. The quote at the top of the page is very true when it speaks of the fifth gospel being the land. We went through some pretty difficult places and out faith and endurance was challenged but God seemed to bring us through His way rather than ours each time. God was teaching us in those times. I've learned more about the person of Christ more in the last three days than I had learned previously in my life. We now know how Jesus travelled and thus we continue to say, "We learn with our feet."

The Galilee

We are back in Jerusalem for a couple of days for a little rest. The land of the Galilee had many more lessons for us than we thought. After spending the first night in a cave on Mt. Arbel we began our journey to the North and around the lake. On the way to Capernaum we stopped at Eremos Topos cave, a location where Jesus most likely was before he walked to the disciples on the Sea of Galilee. At Capernaum we ran into RVL's group and had a brief, but very good time with them. We then proceeded to hike up a dry river bed filled with thorns that were as tall as us in places. We struggled but pushed through and made it to Korazin just before it closed. It was here that we met Sammy, the park ranger. We bought the rest of his water and he gave us a ride to the edge of the Jordan River where we finished out our July 3 swimming in the Jordan. Yesterday, July 4, had too many God moments, and God providing for us that I can not even write about it right now. But for now, we continually are reminded that God is in control, and he is our shade, bread, and living water.

We Made It

We have made it to Israel. We flew into Tel Aviv this afternoon and made our way to Jerusalem. We are staying at the Cidatel Hostel tonight and are making our way up to the Galilee in the morning. Thanks to those who have left comments so far on the blog. We will try to put up new pictures as much as we can. The picture is of Kevin, Ben, and Keith in our room in the hostel.

Departure Day

So, we have finally made it. The day we leave for Israel. We are excited and anxious to have a smooth trip out there with out any problems. Here is a picture of us Saturday morning at Kevin's before we leave.

Fishing 2007

So here are a couple of pictures from the fishing trip to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan this year with Ryan and Kevin. We had a great trip with about 350 fish that we caught over the course of a few days.

Kendra & Derek's Wedding

This past Friday my little sister got married. It was a great wedding and reception, here is a picture taken at the beach in Holland.

Prayer for Ted

I have not posted about Ted yet. Partly because I still am a little in shock. I have gotten to know Ted in the past 10 months since I have been in California, he is the man to hang out with if you want to hike. Ted had a massive stroke last Friday and is not doing well. Just say a prayer for him, his wife, children, step children and any other family. Ephesians 6:10 says, "Be strong in the Lord and his mighty power".

Ted is on the right in the picture above, and also a picture from the men's retreat blog.

Here is a link where you can get up to date info on Ted.

http://www.caringbridge.org/cb/inputSiteName.do?method=search&siteName=tedgeertsma

San Diego Weekend

Cheryl and I This past Saturday and Sunday in San Diego with Mike, Amy, and Allison. (all teachers I teach with) We had six free Padres/Brewers tickets for Sunday, so we decided to make a weekend of it. Saturday we took the ferry to Coronado Island and walked around the island a bit. We ate at this nice little Mexican food place called Miguel's. It was tucked back between a bunch of buildings, in its own little courtyard. It was supposed to be a 35 minute wait, and this turned into over an hour, but the food was great. After dinner we caught the ferry back and headed to the hotel room. Cheryl and I went and visited Robert and Andrea at their place, Allan and his wife and Kyle and his fiancée were there also. It was really good to catch up with them and to hang out. Sunday morning we headed back to Coronado island to look at Hotel Del Coronado. What an amazing hotel. We walked around there for maybe an hour and then we had to get going to get to the baseball game. The Padres won the game and swept the series against the Brewers, Mike was a little disappointed being from Wisconsin. Denise came to the game with us also, it was great to catch up with her as well. This is a quick post, sorry if it was boring.

A Heart-Stopping Night

Wednesday night I had a late softball game and I was working on some things for school the next day. It was about 11:15 and all of a sudden it felt like a car slammed into the side of the townhouse. I immediately had that feeling inside when you are driving and you avoid an accident. Your heart starts beating faster and you get a little flushed. That is what I felt like. Then I realized that I had just experienced an earthquake. I was done with my work and I went upstairs, Cheryl had felt it as well, probably even more than me because she was on the second floor. About 15 minutes later there was another shock that rattled one of our cabinets against the wall upstairs. Again, it was a crazy feeling where you think that something just slammed into the side of the house. So I can officially say that I am a Californian because I have felt an earthquake.

Men's Retreat

My church had a men's retreat this past weekend which I attended. It is appropriately named a "Men's Adventure Weekend". It was held just out side the town of Bishop, CA. The group campsite that we stayed at was amazing. It was along an ice cold mountain stream and enough room for all eighty men. These were the activities, golfing (not adventurous), fishing, mountain biking, hiking, and off-roading with the jeeps. I participated in the last two (which, of course were the best). Friday there was a lot of us that did a twelve mile hike in the mountains. It was a beautiful day, a good hike and it even came complete with visiting a mine. On Saturday there were four jeeps that went off-roading up in the mountains, it was a spectacular ride, until we had to turn around because of to much snow, right around 11,000 feet high in elevation. In the first picture here it is Kevin, myself, Keith, Ryan, and Ryan's '85 Jeep. The jeep ran like a champ all day. The next picture is looking down the valley where we camped. The campground where we stayed at is in the bottom of the picture. A little disappointing because it was a sweet trail that we were on. All of the men received a copy of the book “Twelve Ordinary Men” by John MacArthur, which discusses the lives of the disciples. I am excited to begin this book. Friday night Steve spoke on the apostle James. Saturday night Doug spoke on the apostle Peter, and how his name was changed, but when he faltered a in his faith it would be reverted back to Simon or Simon Peter. Both speakers had great things to say, and had great questions to follow up with in small groups. The small group discussions were so good, simply to just talk about life among fellow Christian men. Saturday morning we had a short church service and it was another time to challenge us as men and the lives that we live, wherever we are. This is just a glimpse into the weekend. The pictures sum up the weekend themselves, there are more pics coming...

Doing Obedience

I recently finished a reading a book called Mudhouse Sabbath by Lauren F. Winner. It is her thoughts on Christian spiritual discipline. You might be thinking, not another one of those books, but, Winner has a unique twist to her thoughts as she grew up as an Orthodox Jew.
I enjoyed the concise chapters that provided a glimpse into her past as an Orthodox Jew, and the relationship that this has with her new present life as a follower of Jesus.
What struck me the most, (which I think was her main point anyway) was the differences that each religion had. She takes the basis for this approach from Exodus 24:7, “Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people. They responded, "We will do everything the LORD has said; we will obey."” It is the fact that the Israelites said that they would do and then obey, so doing brings obedience. It was the doing aspect of Judaism that separates itself from Christianity. It seemed that this is what she often missed about Judaism. The repetitiveness that comes from Judaism, and this held her to obedience.
I think about this lack of repetitive doing in my life. What is often missed in my life are the actions that I say I am going to do. I am very quick to say how I am going to live and how I am going help others, but it is so much more difficult than that. It is these cliché Christian things I say, but they do not get far past my mouth. I am quick to give ideas, but slow to act on them. Quick to say I will pray for you, but slower to act on them, if I even act on them at all. Where is the obedience?
How do I just to begin to live and experience Jesus in the now? To experience how he would have lived life, and stop talking about how I should or could do this or that. I need to just do. I need to just obey. I will leave it at that.

Fixing the World (and me)

So, Why Tikkun Olam?

I was in Safed, Israel, and saw these words with a picture of the world on the shirt. I have been intrigued with these Hebrew words since I read them off a shirt seven years ago and was told what they meant. What I like about them is the simplicity of the Hebrew phrase (one of many). It is easy to say and gets the point across concisely. What does it mean? Tikkun Olam: “fixing or repairing the world”

When I read what Tikkun Olam means it is easy to think of all of the things that need fixing in the world, and especially in my life. It is easy to discuss the problems of the world, the wars, the famine, the poverty, the diseases, and any other major problems that usually have no immediate effect on my life. But if I need to start talking about fixing the problems my life, this can be more of a difficult topic to discuss. Wait. Me? Troubles? No. This is the part of me that likes to seal off the world. The thought that nothing is going to get me to talk; there is nothing to talk about. Wrong. I am a sinner. I am full of brokenness. There is nothing that I can do on my own to change that fact.

So, as I want to fix the world, and help others who need it, I first need to take care of my brokenness and need for fixing. Once this is done, then, and only then, will I be able to help contribute to repairing and resorting this world that I am a part of every day.

The Inaugural Post

So here it is, the blog, dare to enter the crazy mind of myself.

Why Tikkun Olam?

Stay Tuned...