For a many years I did not have the desire to go to Israel. Why was that? Perhaps it was because I did not have the money. Perhaps it was because I did not have the Biblical background to take it in. Perhaps it was just because the calling was not there yet.
Israel has been a part of my life for years. From the beginning of my life I have heard stories about the land. I have studied the Bible. As a boy I planted trees in Israel. I have prayed for the people. I have watched the struggles of the young nation as its boundaries are constantly challenged. I went to school to learn more about the Bible and events in Israel from the beginning of time. I have taught about the people and the land (even making relief maps). But yet, there was not the driving call to go to the land.
About eight years ago watching a video on Israel, the desire did come. I began to see how events and geography are tied together. In a video by Ray Vanderlaan I saw how close Nazareth (Where Jesus grew up), Megiddo (Where the last battle will take place) and Mt. Carmel (Where Elijah challenged the prophets of Jezebel) were actually located. I knew it was time to go and see the land for myself.
I began talking to others from my church who wanted to go. But things were not coming together. Other ministers from the area made several trips to Israel, and I had the opportunity to go. But the time was not yet.
Then a member of the church, Tagg Murn, came and said, I know who should take us to Israel. I followed up by looking at John Delancey and Biblical Israel Tours. I found in John someone who loves the Bible, who loves the land, who has the experience because he has been to the land many times, and a man who loves to teach about what we are seeing and connect the Bible and the land. It was time to go.
John came to Peninsula and told us more about the trip. He gave us two books (a devotional and a book that told us the history, the Bible stories, and the archeological finds from each of the places we would visit), and told us what it would take to go to Israel.
Of course I wanted Denise to go. Chelsea and Sarah wanted to go also. The Lord helped us find the money to go to Israel, and we signed up. We also began asking people to go with us. Tagg and Lisa came. Good friends Michael and Inae Parrish joined us. Kenny and Todd Fields also came on the trip. Nancy Rogers, a friend of Denise’s parents who we have known for years came from Great Bend. John opened the trip to others, and a group of 44 people from all over the United States (and two from England) formed to complete the trip.
As the group formed, I began reading. John gave me a third book: Regions on the Run, an atlas, which helped me really understand the land and why things happened where they did. This took me well beyond the old relief maps that I had made in classes. I took the travel agenda and the study book John had given us, and began to look at where we would go day by day. I wrote notes, and looked for more information where I had questions. Then I began to look at the places we would pass between each of the places we were visiting. I made notes, uploaded it to my Kindle and prepared to go. All this served well on the trip. As we traveled, I could look at my notes. Some things were already in my mind through the preparation. I could spend time seeing, experiencing, and learning more. I was able to take pictures (our group had hearing units that allowed us to hear what was being said, while we wandered a bit). The time had come and we were ready to go.
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