We arrived in Israel and went straight to bed. I of course don't adjust well to time zone changes so I've been awake since 4:15am (it's currently 7:46am) and so I"ve been thinking about this trip for a few hours. A few thoughts before we venture out for our first day of adventure in the lands of the Bible.

1. My hope is that this will be much more than a gathering of more biblical knowledge and facts. My hope is that it will be a great opportunity to gain some excellent insight into what it was like to be a first century person (or a 1400 BC person). I'm enthusiastic about that because I think it will add great context to the Bible and I'm extremely interested in getting into the minds of Biblical characters who aren't so different than you or I.

2. The hotel we are at these first 2 nights is way up on a hill and the view is amazing as you can see from the picture.

3. We are doing this with 55 Young Life people, so it's going to be loud and hilarious.

4. I'm praying for some great moments with Jesus both corporately and personally. Pray with me for all of us!

More later.