Christmas, JFK, & Day 1

This first trip post will be long. Setting the scene will take some time. Hang in there with me. It will all makes sense by the end of my very last day. Don't just rush over the many desert pictures. Really look at them. I know they won't be as powerful as really being there but know that some of the most important people in the bible were living and walking among these desert valleys. They were REAL people discovering a very REAL GOD! This was their land and this is were they encountered The One and Only!

I will start this journey with my Christmas!!!!



I headed to my parents pretty early in my Christmas break so that I could have several days with them and rest up before my trip! We had a great time. NO STRESS, NO AWKWARDNESS....just the 3 of us hanging out. I loved it! We went to the movies, went to eat, walked outside, and rested!

Christmas Eve we had a knock at the door and was soooooo excited to see these two sweet friends!!!!!

Mom and I had just been sitting around the dining room table, drinking cider, and talking when we saw the car drive up. They were on their way to Laura's parents house. It was so fun for them to surprise us!!!!!! WE LOVED IT!!!!



Christmas morning dad built us a fire and we drank coffee and opened presents.

mom and dad!



yes.....dad totally got another gun.....we live in gun country. ha





mom with the gun and her pink robe. this pictures just makes me laugh. she and I are not big gun lovers! she looks so dangerous hahahahhaa jk



we had mini pizzas (our favorite) for breakfast and my grandmother's awesome lasagna for lunch!!!



I was not supposed to get many gifts this Christmas because of my trip. But mom and dad totally surprised me with some fun stuff. Like a super cute bell for my bike, a heating mattress pad and mom gave me her place settings of her grandmother's china. It's the Lenox cream with the gold.....it's the pattern I want when get married. At first I got emotional because you don't get stuff like this unless you are getting married. But mom is right, might as well get it out of the attic and start using it! I am sooooooooo excited!!!! Plus, I really love that it was my great grandmother's!



My AWESOME PARENTS!!!!!!!!



and a family pic!



Then it was time for me to leave. I cried....like I always do before a big trip. I get nervous and stuff. Mom and Dad prayed over me before I left and I instantly had great peace. This trip was PART OF GOD'S PLAN FOR ME! So, Christmas day evening I headed to a hotel so that I could park my car for free and be shuttled to and from the airport. I hardly slept. 1. because i was excited and 2. because I really don't like staying in a hotel room alone.

I was up around 3am and at the airport by 5.30. I met the group and was so excited to spend the day traveling and eating airplane food. What we did not know was that the snow storm, covering half of the world, was going to bring us to a CRASHING halt. We flew to NC and then to JFK. I was really praying on that flight. It was the worst flight I have ever been on. We were bouncing all over the place. They told us we could not land at JFK and that we would go back to NC. Then they told us we were going to land. When the wheels hit the runway I thought we were going to never stop sliding. seriously. so scary!

But God protected us! We said hello to JFK airport and proceeded to stay there for about 33 hours.....snowed in and with little heat.



our plane....oh we were so sad.




We kept hearing several stories (about us leaving) but about 11pm the airport was totally closed (food places too) so we scouted out a place to sleep and tried to get comfortable.

this is us, under restaurant tables trying to get warm.




I could NOT sleep. There were lots of people with all kinds of languages being spoken. I kept feeling like I was in the middle of a CSI New York episode. Some one was going to be killed at an point. Ok that is kinda dramatic but it was so interesting to me to be locked in....no one goes in and no one goes out. They even ran out of toilet paper. And yes I got a hold of one of the workers to let them know it was UNACCEPTABLE to go hours without tp. Anyway, we did not leave until the next evening. YIKES. I thought i was going crazy!

Here is our plane when we finally got on!

Sadly, the drama did not end. We flew 8 hours to Munich. Found out there were no flights leaving till late and we were put on a plane to Istanbul Turkey. ha! From Turkey we flew in to Tel Aviv. What a mess. Then we realized that NONE OF US GOT OUR LUGGAGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We later found out it had gone to France. really??? Oh Lord help me.

The only thing I had going for me was my carry on suitcase. I had all my jewelry, boots, jeans, makeup, several shirts/sweaters, pjs, and hair straightener. Boy was I so glad I packed so much. Many of my group members had nothing. I ended up going 8 days without luggage. Anyway, we got there and then had to drive 2 hours to Mitzpe Ramon to catch up with our group. I want to praise my JFK group. Not everyone in our group was with us at JFK. Some came from Singapore and one from Florida. But our JFK group NEVER complained!!! NOT ONCE! It was a real bonding experience for us and we were able to REALLY get to know each other.

I am EXTREMELY VISUAL so i will be posting a map with each day so show you where we were. The yellow will be the route and the red will be the area we visited! I hope that will help this trip come alive to you!

we arrived really late to our hotel. Here is the room i shared with Esther.

They saved us dinner! I LOVE LOVE LOVE THE FOOD IS ISRAEL!!! You will see rice, meat, lots of eggplant and peppers. yum yum! They love veggies and love to marinade them.

that night we slept hard but not for long. The next morning we were up early to start our first day!!!!!! Every hotel we stayed in severed breakfast and dinner. It was always buffet style and boy do they put the food out!!!!!! i ate so much on this trip. I was in HOG HEAVEN!!!

our own van that became home away from home!




Dr. Donald getting pumped up!!!!!



This is my " I am so happy to be clean" smile hahahha



So, we were a day behind in our learning. But our wonderful guide, Yoni (from ARKANSAS), caught us up quickly and I never felt cheated from losing a day!

After breakfast the first morning, my verse of the day was this..... "HE KNOWS THE WAY I HAVE TAKEN; when He has tested me, I will EMERGE AS PURE AS GOLD. My feet have followed in HIS TRACKS." Job 23:10-11 .................. Is that not the most perfect scripture ever?

Especially after what we had gone through to get to Israel. Not even just the airport stuff but my entire story of GETTING THERE! I could cry just thinking about it. HE KNOWS THE WAY....He knows the way I have taken. He knows. And at the end of following His tracks I will emerge as pure as gold. AMEN. First verse on my first day in Israel....changed forever!

As you can tell, i have A LOT to share. Be patient with me and my sporadic writing! ha! Ok, below is a blurry picture of Bedouins in the Negev.....

There are about 110,000 in this area. What is a Bedouin???? semi-nomadic Arab tribes indigenous to the Negev region..... they live by rearing livestock in the deserts . They straight up live off the land like in bible times....minus the few that have a tv hhahahahhha. They are Tent communities that do not rely on modern amenities. There is little water in the Negev which means little bathing for them. LITTLE EDUCATION goes on. I don't know a lot about the Bedouins but they have multiple wives and there is a HUGE human trafficking and sex slave system that the Israeli government is trying to get rid of. I heard that Israel is like a stopping point in the smuggling of women. I would like to do more research in this area soon. The women have such little rights. It's really sad.

Now look at this.....this is the Negev- Zin valley to be exact! (En Avedat national park)



The Negev covers over half of Israel. According to the Book of Genesis chapter 20, Abraham lived for a while in the Negev near Kadesh. Later the northern Negev was inhabited by the Tribe of Judah and the southern Negev by the Tribe of Shimon. The Negev was later part of the Kingdom of Solomon and then part of the Kingdom of Judah. Super COOL!!!




"When Moses sent them to explore Canaan, he said, “Go up through the Negev and on into the hill country. See what the land is like and whether the people who live there are strong or weak, few or many. What kind of land do they live in? Is it good or bad? What kind of towns do they live in? Are they unwalled or fortified? How is the soil? Is it fertile or poor? Are there trees on it or not? Do your best to bring back some of the fruit of the land.” (It was the season for the first ripe grapes.)So they went up and explored the land from the Desert of Zin".....Numbers 13 19-21
This is where they were......

a model of the Zin ...this is our guide Yoni

Me in the NEGEV!!!!!!!



Dr. Steve and Ashley

a few animals. We saw little birds or animals..




Numbers 20....Water From the Rock

"In the first month the whole Israelite community arrived at the Desert of Zin, and they stayed at Kadesh. There Miriam died and was buried.

Now there was no water for the community, and the people gathered in opposition to Moses and Aaron. They quarreled with Moses and said, “If only we had died when our brothers fell dead before the Lord! Why did you bring the Lord’s community into this desert, that we and our livestock should die here? Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to this terrible place? It has no grain or figs, grapevines or pomegranates. And there is no water to drink!"



Moses and Aaron went from the assembly to the entrance to the Tent of Meeting and fell facedown, and the glory of the Lord appeared to them. The Lord said to Moses,“Take the staff, and you and your brother Aaron gather the assembly together. Speak to that rock before their eyes and it will pour out its water. You will bring water out of the rock for the community so they and their livestock can drink.”

So Moses took the staff from the Lord’s presence, just as he commanded him. He and Aaron gathered the assembly together in front of the rock and Moses said to them, “Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?” Then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff. Water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank.



But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them.”

These were the waters of Meribah,a where the Israelites quarreled with the Lord and where he showed himself holy among them.....".

Amazing right.....






ok so there is so much i could share. But

1. I'm not that smart to know it all.

2. I'm def not a theologian and do not claim to be.

3 . I am just sharing what my brain retained and what I wrote in my super cute journal my mom gave me.

All that to say.....this is just a snack of info, not everything, and I know that.




One of the cool things Yoni taught us was the Hebrew words and meaning for certain things. Like the Hebrew word for Wilderness is Midbar.....meaning wilderness/uninhabited land. From the root word davar meaning "word" or "thing". Together it is wilderness word. Yoni poses the question "how many people receive a word from God in the wilderness...both literally in the wilderness and figuratively in the wilderness.?"





This really hit me. Here we were in the middle of NOTHING and yet God provided water to Moses. Rocks and dirt.....rocks and dirt. As if they would have said "look at this place. There is NOTHING. No hope, no future, no possibilities" and out of the rocks God provides water. They were only putting their trust and hope in the SEEN not the UNSEEN! The water was just below them.

I think we can all relate to how the Israelites were feeling at some time in our walk. God has led us out of one place to another and we when we look around we say "WHY? WHY AM I HERE....don't you see this is the place of zero hope".....we are in the wilderness and we begin to believe our God has forgotten us. All the while He is working under the very ground we stand on to bring forth something that will quench our thirst. We can't see it and we might go forever without even a hint of Him working......but He is at work. Faithfully at work!





Some of the big caves that have been there for EVER!!!!



after some learning, it was time to climb!!!!

Dr. D and Grace!!!!! Dr. D is a prof in the College at SWBTS. He teaches Greek and Latin. His darling wife Grace is in medical school! I loved being with them. Such a fun couple!

what am i doing? who knows hahahhaha. hugging the rocks because i was so glad to be there hahaha

Joe, a pastor from Florida

our PRECIOUS friends from SINGAPORE!!! Shelen, Shirley, and Jason. Shelen and Jason are married and both went to SWBTS. Shelen works for Focus on the Family Singapore and Jason is a Pastor. Jason has a BEAUTIFUL VOICE! Shirley is Shelen's sister. They were so much fun!



and The Smith's hahahahahhaha posing, of course!

climbing higher and higher

amazing to me that men and women of the bible spent time here!

i'm a lover of trees and Israel had some really cool ones!

still climbing up and sweating like crazy ha



MADE IT HALF WAY!!!!!!!!!!! just look at that view behind me! Welcome to the NEGEV!!!!

the climbing path we took




that sweater i have on is from walmart! it was awesome!!!




another cave....can you believe they would live in these...crazy




and we made it to the top!!!!




Esther and I...

Ashley

Yoni teaching

our first group pic!!!!!!

I know....your thinking "there is more??? really caroline" yes. This was all one day. Get some coffee and relax. Our next stop was to Adedat.....the greatest Nebatean city in the Negev. As you can see below...it lies on a limestone hill overlooking the desert. AND in this picture you can see a sand storm/rain storm coming in!!! It was so cool to watch.




As many of you know, there was a very established Spice Route from Arabia to the Mediterranean. This Fortress was established about 3rd century BC.




This was a pretty amazing site. The 2nd pic down is what they think to be one of the very first baptistry's. The small hole, at the top left side of pic, is what they might have used for infant sprinkling. Very interesting.





This was a fast stop to see some of the spices that would have been on the spice route. Shelen is holding Frankincense. The map below her is the Spice Route

These next 2 pics are out of order. They are from Avedat. It turned REALLY COLD and rainy while we were there!!! That is me inside the church.

a tomb



OK SO THEN IT WAS TIME FOR LUNCH!!!!! At this point we were sooooooo hungry. We headed back to Mitzpe Ramon for our very first taste of a FALAFEL!!!!!! It is considered street food. Here is the street vendor about to let us sample Shawarma...shaved chicken that has been grilling. Some shawarma is lamb but we saw mostly chicken in Israel because lamb is expensive.

This is a Falafel...inside of a homemade pita they place several fried balls of spices and chickpeas. They look like hushpuppies. They put hummus, salads, a red hot sauce and just about anything you want. THEY ARE AMAZING!!!! There is not many fast food chains in Israel. Especially in the little towns. This is their fast food. I loved it!!!! ps....their pita bread is nothing like our pita bread.....IT IS WAY BETTER!!!! oh my word, their carbs over there and BUTTER rock my world!





I had to run into the market to pick up something and saw this.....olives for life!!! Another love of mine! olives, salad peppers, and pickles every where we went! YUM!!




We drove past the Great Crater.... was caused by erosion. amazing




We made one other stop and then it was back south to the city of Eilat. As we drove we could see this beautiful mountain range of Jordan. It was amazing to watch the terrain change. Before we new it we were in straight up desert lands.

We stopped at a dairy farm in the middle of nowhere and had the BEST ICE CREAM EVER...minus the fact that the entire place smelled like cow poop. ha! It was soooo good! They had fake cows every where. interesting



made fresh every day and it was owned by Believers!!!



I got coconut cream and snickers!!! yum

As we kept driving toward the Red Sea, we began to see lots of Israeli Army training places. Tanks everywhere and lots of soldiers. GUNS GUNS GUNS! I thought that was pretty cool. I tried to take pics from the bus but they are blurry. Anyway, we made it to the resort city of Eilat. what is to come....we head to the Jordan and the amazing Petra!

Long...i know. I love you for reading. His mercies are new each morning...I really really really learned that on this trip! Can't wait to share more! See you soon!