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I'm hoping that you don't think "That's all there is to Israel". It is more than a piece of land with mountains, valleys, water, cities, and people. The pictures and descriptions I've shown you comprise about 1% of what I experienced on this trip. These next paragraphs may surprise some people.
Warning: Mushy, religious text approaching! Why did I spend $3K to fly to a foreign country that has had internal and external conflict for 4000 years? That is 500 miles from Baghdad? Because I wanted to get a feel for Jesus. 25 years ago, I was a Catholic just finishing the Sacrament of Confirmation. Then questions came and doubts arose. I came to the conclusion that God was a really powerful and unfathomable being and that the only people with even the tiniest hint of His nature were the ones experiencing Love. I perceived Jesus as just a man with a lot of influence. Christians? Misguided. There were a whole lot of misguided people out there, but they seemed happy and relatively content. And I wouldn't be the one to change that for anyone, so I kept my opinions to myself. A decade later, I got a little jealous of these misguided people who were happy and relatively content, so I decided to do some research. I read the New Testament and studied parts of the Old Testament. Once I fasted for four days. I started attending a church service that met in a High School Gym. Every Sunday, I enjoyed a sermon that I could really apply to the way I lived. And every Sunday, they made it sound that having Jesus in your life was the way to be. It sounded like a good idea in my head, but I just wasn't convinced, and it never made it to my heart. A year later, while I was still hoping to get magically persuaded, they completed building their brand new Church Campus. We moved into a nice new church and the atmosphere changed. It was no longer satisfying, even the people seemed different (to this day, I still can't explain how). So I figured, "I gave it a chance", and I'd go and do other things for awhile. Another decade went by. And same as before, I got a little jealous and decided again to do some more research. Found another church and read a handful of "How can you not Believe?!?" books. Attended Bible Study weekly with a small group of guys. No one asked me if I was a Christian, and I never volunteered to set them straight. Yes, it was a lie of omission, but it allowed Christians to be comfortable around me, and it let me Seek without undue pressure. I studied courses on how to bring people to Christ. I planned on being my own first convert. After three years, I realized I had peaked in my Search and was actually starting to slip backwards into the "I gave it a chance, see ya later" syndrome. That's when a trip to Israel came to my attention. Hmmm... I had the time. I had the money. Maybe this was what I was Seeking. Three months later, that Tour was cancelled and I was very disappointed. But now I had a goal, so I searched Online and signed up for this Tour. I went, I saw, I experienced, and I lived, for two weeks, with 27 people looking for a life-changing experience (and it was!). As the Tour was entering its last few days, my heart had still not been swayed, so I determined to step-it-up. I talked separately with three other men on the Tour, asking their point of view on Jesus. What it got me were accounts of three very different relationships. But they all intersected at one point. For all three, Jesus was a living person. On the last night before my flight home, I went to the Wailing Wall. I wanted to get in one more prayer at a place that certainly had God's attention. I was there, forehead on the wall, thinking about how Jesus might have once been at the same spot I was standing. Thinking of all the places where He definitely had been that I'd visited. Suddenly, I felt Him there next to me, praying to God with me. So I asked Jesus for my own relationship with Him. It's that moment when I really "knew" in my heart: Jesus came, what He did, why He did it, and that He is God. Maybe there was a little Wailing involved, but no one got me on film, it was just me and God. Now it's you, me, and God. Currently I'm one of those happy and relatively content people! Too bad it took me so long to come around. Hope it doesn't take you as long. Or didn't take you as long! (End of mushy, religious text!) Click on my picture on the left side of the page to get my email address. Email me questions or observations, I'd love to hear from anyone who made it through this whole website! Kevin Click here to see picts of the Olive Tree Hotel! |