Category: Culture

Christian Leadership, Christianity, Culture, Life, Uncategorized

Israel Travel Blog Day 8: Even Though I Walk Through the Valley of the Shadow of Death

Throughout this trip, one of the constant refrains has been how the Holy Land experience of has made brought the Bible to life. One person has said that it has made the Bible go from black and white words to colorful images.

None so more than Psalm 23 and Luke 10:25-37

When we think of Psalm 23 we are drawn to the image of the Valley of the Shadow of Death. I think it is easy to take the image as a symbolic reference to life’s difficult trials and even death itself. We look to this Psalm for assurance at funerals and in struggles, and rightly so. I don’t believe, however, that we think of the Valley of the Shadow of Death as a real place. Continue reading “Israel Travel Blog Day 8: Even Though I Walk Through the Valley of the Shadow of Death”

Christian Leadership, Christianity, Culture, Life, Uncategorized

Israel Travel Blog Day 4: By Land and By Sea

Our second full day of touring was a challenging day. Well, at least that is for me.

Since we landed in Tel Aviv on Monday evening I’ve been dealing with a swollen foot. It comes with the territory when flying for 11-hours and, as well, when you have a right foot that easily swells and sprains. Yesterday’s touring just made it worse, which led to me visiting an Israeli drug store to purchase an Ace bandage.

That seemed to help today, but for most of the morning I was in a lot of pain trying to walk around. The trip to the Holy Land is an experienced filled with walking, so to be down a foot has been difficult. Walking to our boat to tour the Sea of Galilee was an exercise in hopping more than walking. The same goes for our tours of the church that honors Jesus’ feeding of the 5,000 and the one that honors Jesus’ third appearance to the disciples following his resurrection.

One of the things that I committed myself to doing was not stopping. This is an once-in-a-lifetime experience, so I was not going to let a bum foot keep me from enjoying the day.

I’m glad I had that perspective, because today was a wonderful day of holy encounters meeting the presence of God in these sites. Continue reading “Israel Travel Blog Day 4: By Land and By Sea”

Christianity, Culture, Life, Uncategorized

Israel Travel Blog Day 2: What Day is This?

We have arrived in Israel. Physically that is. I am so exhausted from the day-long journey from Lexington to Tel Aviv with an extended bus ride to our hotel to know that I am clearly travel weary. I’m exhausted enough that I left behind my reading materials for my next Residency meeting on the plane.

Oops.

Other than forgetting an important book on the plane, the trip to Tel Aviv was fairly uneventful. There were few moments where it seemed like we were on a roller coaster over Europe, but that and not being able to sleep more than about 90 minutes were about the biggest enjoyments of the flight. Continue reading “Israel Travel Blog Day 2: What Day is This?”