We pulled into my driveway safe from our Israel/Egypt/Jordan vacation at about 6 PM yesterday. Praise God. It may seem like an excited exaggeration, or you just may not care, but it was absolutely the ride of my life. It blew away any other vacation I have ever been on. The amount of sights and experiences were incredible, I can't even believe it. God had his hand on this trip to make it something really special because there is no way everything that happened, just happened to happen. It was rugged and fast paced. Perfect for a bunch of college kids. But still it was one of the most diverse experiences I have ever had. I don't know how to explain it, I think you will just have to read the blog to find out. I took way to many pictures, and took every moment in with all the energy I could. Now I am absolutely pooped. I kept a journal every night to record everything that happened that day. I didn't even have time each night to talk about everything, and sadly, had to cut out some stuff. It still turned out to be huge. 90 pages by the end of the trip, 3000 pictures, and some great videos. Now, sadly, I will have to cut out more for the blog. It will still be huge. I wish I could shared everything that happened, but it would just be WAY too much. It was just that kind of trip. I learned and experienced so many things, and grew some good relationships. I can't thank God enough for it, especially for getting us back safely.
I will do one post for each day of the trip. I know, it will be a lot, but you don't have to read it. Each day was packed with excitement, though, and it was only two weeks. so I have to. This will not be the case during the 7 week trip to Brazil, sorry, thats too much blogging. Every post will be from the journal entry that day, so there will be about 17 posts. I don't know how long it will take me to get all of them done. I hope they are interesting to you, and I hope you are blessed by what you read.
When we got back yesterday, we immediately went to Pepe's with Angela, Jason, and the kids. It was sooo good. It is strange to come back and realize what has changed after only two weeks. The twins are definitely bigger, David and Ronica moved from Minnesota into their new house in Temple, Texas, Tyler graduated and is in Spain, and Chase Inman has been living in my house for two weeks now. (He is a sophomore at ACU in TXA with me who is the intern for my youth group this summer. We are housing him this summer. Apparently it was creepy while we were gone. He is a really awesome guy and we are really excited about him).
Now I have two weeks to recoup, pack for ACU and do whatever I else I want to do in College Station before I head out of the country again. I am so nervous, but after the experience I just had I am more confident about being out of the U.S. as a foreigner. I know God will do amazing things. I would appreciate your prayers for that trip. Well, its sure nice to be back in "MERICA!" as we liked to say on our trip.
My summer blog for friends and family to stay updated on what I am experiencing and learning during my travels to Israel, Egypt, Jordan, and Brazil.
I totally agree with Stephenos! God did some amazing things on this trip! Like Stephen, I think it was the best vacation of my life so far and I have a hard time believing that it will ever be topped. Not only did we see interesting sight after sight, but we had some eye opening discussions with many diverse people. I am sure Stephen will talk about these encounters in his blog journaling later, but as a teaser I will tell you we talked to a liberal Rabbi from Chicago, an islamic evangelist, a priest, a pressured Palestinian and various bedouin rock dwellers! All in all, It was a very culturally enriching experience (not without it's somewhat unnerving and uncomfortable nudges along the way). As Stephen mentioned, however, I am glad to be back home and my leather couch, widescreen plasma tv, and pool, could not look more inviting. Here's to hoping for some well needed R&R before Brazil (packed with plenty of movie watching). Afterall, the "old man" cough is back (as Stephen puts it)! Dang Egyptian Hooka.....not really though lol....it was probably the Hasheesh.
ReplyDelete...I was joking about that too by the way...but I do have a new Jerusalem mug! So some medicinal hot tea drinking is in order....while I read my newly purchased pocket-sized Qu'ran!
...Oh and everyone better keep up with Stephen's blog journal entries. They are too legit to quit.
...On a final note...periodically I will be posting rather long/sometimes average sized/other times barely existent blog comments upon certain postings of Stephen. After all, seeing as I am spending almost every waking moment with the man this summer, I feel as though I am entitled to put in an extensive, insightful, hopefully somewhat humorous, comment now and then. Thus, you (the reader/friend), will perhaps gain some further knowledge and outlook into our doings!