There were 30 people on the tour. I'm not really good about meeting people actually. Talia and I would debate all the time on if I was introverted or not. LOL Obviously she was but I claimed I was too. I do not like to be in front of people or the center of attention. Boy did I pick the wrong profession! LOL I've gotten used to it but when I can,  I like to be in the back and observe. That's kind of what happened on this tour. Everyone was very friendly. I met 10 Filipino guests on my van ride from the airport to the hotel on the first day. I especially remember Marcel because that was my French name I picked in HS in French Class. It was as close as I could get to Marsalis! LOL 

I'm pretty sure I spoke to everyone at least once and had dinner with a few of the people. I've heard rumors that I was the quiet one! LOL  Again, everyone was very kind to me. I regret not getting selfies with everyone! I was more focused on the sites and landscape I guess. 

I did meet Jeff and Sue (which by chance is the name of our bus driver at MSU and his wife) . They let me tag along with them and we sat in that back of the bus. We had many conversations and I really enjoyed getting to know them. I count it a blessing to now have them in my life! At the airport coming home, Tim and Michelle joined us for dinner (terrible place I chose to get my food by the way, praise God I did not get sick). I'll leave it there. We also had a good time of fellowship! 

I'm very comfortable traveling by myself as I have most of my life, but the companionship was an added bonus and blessing. 

Barak! There is so much I want to say about Barak! He was our tour guide. As we quickly found out, not only was he our tour guide but the best tour guide in Israel. Literally on the street people would stop and say you have the best tour guide in Israel. Other tour guides would stop and ask for his information. We saw his boss one night and we were raving and she said "oh, I know" . Barak is a humble man and something tells me we only know the half of how important he is! 

So many of us on the trip really felt it wasn't a mistake that we all were afforded the blessing of Barak, but it was meant to be. 

Barak is a Jew. That was one of the things that seemed it was meant to be, because of all my preparation in coming here, books, podcasts, tv shows, there was a central theme developing that you cannot understand the roots of our faith without understanding the Jewish Traditions and culture and alphabet etc.. Funny that the tour was called roots of your faith. 

Nothing is by mistake. That was another theme and lesson learned which you also learn as you study the Bible and Barak helped point out. Jesus did this specific miracle here because it goes back to the Old Testament ... etc. 

Barak challenged what for lack of better terminology is our Disney perceptions of some of the Bible events. And with his expertise laid out his cases. Not that they didn't happen, but not in the way we have envisioned or just the surroundings. 

Barak, was an amazing shepherd leading his sheep! He was protective of us and I believe takes it personally if we were to get lost. He counts 3 and 4 times to make sure he has us. He has the patience of Job and from being with kids on tours for many years I understand the challenge and I learned from watching him how to lead. 

Barak uses humor and had me laughing quite often. (sometimes Willy Wonka humor  if you know what I mean)

Barak is passionate, loyal, very confident and is not phased by anything that would fall under the category of politically correct. You will never have to guess where he is at on any topic or maybe you! LOL 

It's evident that Barak loves his family very much and honors them well.

Barak shared insight into Talia's name and had again some providential moments. 

Barak really wanted us to experience and feel rather than just go to sites. Very much like jazz soloing, it's not about the scales but what you do from your soul with the scales and notes! 

There will be many more insights I'm sure I will gleam as I get more perspective, but the last thing is the way he lead us physically and spiritually was with the Bible! A couple of these pictures I meant to take, the vast majority of them I did not and was trying to get just pictures of the landscape of city streets, etc.. I went through all my pictures and posted each one I found of Barak holding up the Bible for us to follow. Fist of all that has to be tiring. We saw so many guides have like a stuffed animal on a pole or ribbons on a stick or whatever. We were on a Holy Land Tour and Barak chooses to lead us by the Bible. One of the many revelations to me was you really seeing the complex nature of Jerusalem. It did not matter where we were, If Barak was allowed to be with us as a Jew, he was going to be holding up his Bible! Romans 1:16 I'm not ashamed of the Gospel! Then at every site, we opened the word and read. I heard a lot of explanations from other groups of what we were seeing but seldom if any ever saw people reading the word at these spots. 

Barak will always hold a special spot in my heart and will be grateful for his contribution to my Spiritual growth. 

​Thank you Barak! 

​Oh, and Happy 40th!!!!

Travel day and reflection day if I can stay awake! Bus from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv. Tel Aviv to JFK in NYC. JFK to Detroit. Bus from Detroit to East Lansing. And lastly Steve will pick me up to bring me to Home in Lansing! I don't know why this picture posts like that. I had another one upside down. Oh well. Big thanks to Steve and Beth for taking care of Mia while I was gone. I think Mia was spoiled as always when they come over!!! Thank you!

Woke up to a beautiful sunrise. Today was a free day. Happy to share breakfast with Jeff and Sue and Barak. Packed. Jeff, Sue, and I walked the Jerusalem Wall as far as we could. I then went to the market. 

Today we started with the pool of Bethesda, went to the birthplace of Mary, then walked the Via Dolorosa, went to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, and the Garden Tomb. Then we had a time of sharing amongst the group. I included a picture of our bus driver who rivaled our bus driver Jeff at MSU. I can't imagine a worse place to drive a bus then in the old city in Jerusalem. He has skills! Church of the Holy Sepulcher

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Today we went to Bethlehem and went to the shepherds field where Ruth and Boaz met. Then went to the church of the nativity and saw where Christ was born. Our tour guide could not go because it's in Palestine so we met Johnny who I admire much. Then saw St. Peters in gallicantu and talked about the denial 3 times, then went to the last supper room which kind of has nothing to do with the painting lol, then went past King David's tomb which isn't really his tomb. I will comment more  as I reflect on the trip

We woke up at the Dead Sea and then traveled to Masada. Then went to the Mount of Olives, followed by the Garden of Gethsemane. Then went to the Southern Steps where we can be 99% sure Jesus walked on those steps.We then traveled to the Western Wall. Because I had watched the 4 part series on the Abraham Accords on CBN, I recognized former U.S. Ambassador David Friedman. There were some interesting things I learned about Talia's name and a painting connected with what I learned. Maybe I'll go into detail later. 

Another amazing day. There are certain landscapes that remind me a little of CA & AZ. I'm in love with colors and flowers and all these bushes are just so vivid in color. Absolutely love it. We started the day with baptisms in the Jordan River which is very small actually. I didn't get baptized because I already have been but did consider it. Nothing wrong with again professing Christ as your savior. There are 30 of us on this trip and they are like family already. We had worship on the boat and celebrated in the baptisms today. We then went to Beit She'an the largest archaeological site in Israel. The big hill they hung the parts of King Saul on the fence up there when it was there. Jonathan and David made a covenant up there, and I believe there was a fortress up there. Then we traveled through the Jordanian Valley along the border the whole time of Jordan through the West Bank  and ended up at the Dead Sea. I went "swimming" in the Dead Sea and it was one of the weirdest experiences of my life. You just float there is so much salt. I literally could not stand from the floating position and their may be a funny video of this which will not be released! LOL It was the first time it felt like a vacation really. I wouldn't really call this a  vacation. Almost more of a spiritual pilgrimage if you will. The things that you have always just had to believe in faith come alive here knowing you stood where David, and Elijah, and Moses, and ..... and of course Jesus. I do hope to be stronger spiritually and especially emotionally. It still will take a long time to heal and some things are just going to be painful until I'm reunited with Talia but I'm learning from her. I hear her all the time challenging me to trust and do everything I say I believe. I think it is truly the best way I can honor her investment in my life. I truly am blessed. I truly also desire for Holy Spirit to be much more influential and grow deeper. I really have seen what lives can look like when led by Holy Spirit! Thank you for all your support and love. 
​Shalom

Another pretty amazing day! I'm not really going into much detail on a whole lot because internet is taking forever to upload pictures. Today we saw a wooden boat that was found in the Sea of Galilee from Jesus's time. Then went on a boat trip on the Sea of Galilee. It was pretty much a worship service and really special time for all of us. Incredible to think that Jesus had calmed the storm, had Peter catch all the fish miracle, and walked on water here. Incredible. We went up to the Golan Heights where we saw the Syrian border filled with land mines and my phone said it was now in Lebanon's phone service. A real sense of the tension here. To me, this is such a holy place no wonder satan wants to attack it and I will leave it there. Then went to Caesaria Philippi where Jesus said I will build my church upon this rock. Then had Falafel for lunch! :) We visited the mount of beatitudes where Jesus preached the sermon on the mount, then went Tagbha where Jesus fed the 5,000 with 5 loaves and 2 fish, then went to the Capernaum saw Peter's home, and ended with Magdala. It continues to be surreal. Very thankful for this opportunity. Talia is always close to me and I go to call her or text her about every 5 mins as I always did when I would travel but feel this trip is an important part of my healing process. Meeting a lot of nice people. Shalom 

Whew! A truly surreal day! Cornelius and Peter, Herod's place, Caesarea, Mt. Carmel where Elijah confronted false prophets, Giddon and Deborah, Valley of Armageddon, Nazareth, Mt. Transfiguration, where Mary found out she was having Jesus, Cana to see where Jesus performed his first miracle, I am now at the Sea of Galilee. There was more but it's overwhelming to be at these places. My spirituality is based on faith and that is what is called of us. This is where many have a problem, but at this point there continues to be so much archeological findings and evidence, it is making faith that much more stronger. What a blessing to be here. 

I love our tour guide. In addition to learning so much about the past we are learning first hand about the present. Today it was very evident how complicated of a place this is. I won't go into it but the tension is real and our perspective of our tour guide is very enlightening and he doesn't really hold back and he loves his country of Israel. 

I texted my friend Anat and she is actually here in Israel right now. However, I'm going to miss her by a day. It would have been so fun to see her but maybe next time. 

Ok, I'm very tired and we have an early morning call. 
​Shalom 

I was happy to leave the Boston airport and the mice running around me! 

The flight was good but very disappointed the airline would not let me keep my window open. I always get window seats to look out the window. I missed great views and pictures of the alps, England, beautiful stars, a sunrise, etc... Later in the afternoon I finally could open it. 

Did get to see the island of Paphos where Paul was.

So all in all a very long day and the biggest waste of a fall time change. Instead of gaining an hour, I lost like 8! 

I'm in Israel! I was very glad I was with a tour group. It was hectic getting out but we were able to bi-pass a lot of stuff as they just ushered us through which was nice but it was very fast paced. 

I met 10 of the 30 people on our tour leaving the airport and had a nice talk with our driver as I sat in the front seat! Driving here is nuts and motorcycles and scooters just drive wherever they want! 

Tel Aviv is rising up there with other cities like Paris, London, and New York. By rising I mean expensive in addition to being a very modern city. Driving through the city I felt like it was a combination of New York, Miami, and Phoenix. I saw an incredible sunset that of course couldn't do justice with pictures. We met everyone on the tour and had a good buffet dinner before leaving for the old city of Jaffa. 

One hard thing is Talia was a collector of Coca-Cola stuff. Anytime I'd travel anywhere, I'd send her pictures of signs or coke things in airports. Both Japan and Times Square have big digital displays so I'd video it and send it to her so she felt like she was here. There are so many coke signs everywhere. So I still took pictures of some of them to kind of keep her with me in that way. 

Solomon called it the port for Jerusalem and got skilled workers and cedar trees from here I believe. Also Jonah heard from God about Ninava here and Peter came here . 

So it starts. Just to think about that I'm standing where some of this went down! Amazing! 

Very tired. Lots of cats here. My niece Esther is destroying me in Fantasy Football today so I'm glad I'm out of the country for that. 

Much love and swing!

That doesn't look like Israel! LOL Travel day! My good friend Jen saved me a Lyft ride and gave me a ride to the Michigan Flyer. Flew out of the D to Boston and now in the airport getting ready to fly to Tel Aviv. Anytime I've traveled to a place I've read or heard about it comes alive. I've been to so many of my heroes childhood homes and gives me a glimpse of what it was like for them growing up. I've been to historical places, many times for the wrong reasons, and the event comes alive for me like visiting the Lorraine Motel in Memphis where Dr. King got assassinated. So I'm going to visit where Jesus walked, where Abraham and Moses and David lived. Everyone says it's life changing. I'll hopefully be able to blog each day but we'll see what the wi-fi situation is. I will leave you today with something that has been spoken over me many times this week just by coincidence. Shalom! Peace!

Double win tonight! Got to see my Brother Keith and his CD release concert and got to go with Lij! 

I'm going to eventually have an album with all my deer picts but had to post these from the other day!

Well, just like that my 8 year tenure is completed at MSU. Again, so much to say and so little time. A million memories and a lot of thankfulness. Good times Bad times, but I have so many new relationships because of working here and I will be forever grateful for that. I'm going to take some time to heal from this last year and see where God directs me next! Much love!!!! 

Been having a great time with Dwight Adams! 

Went to Columbus for VOA voice of the apostles. I went last year in D.C. under different circumstances so didn't know how I'd do this year but I love to see my brothers and sisters live out their faith. I'm trying to learn. Also was able to see my friend Aaron Diehl play in his hometown and took a little walk! 

If anyone knows me you know how much I love Wynton! Such a blessing and a million memories over the years. Thank you so much Wynton for taking time to hang out with me a day before your birthday! Love ya! 

Took a quick break from J@LC week in Ann Arbor and went down to Columbus to see my friends! Everyone as hospitable as ever! Thank you everyone!!