Our little group spent most of the month of February in Israel. We stayed in the town of Bethlehem in the West bank, and got to experience Biblical history come alive in our studies, as well as the modern political tensions in this area. It is incredible to feel the spiritual atmosphere here, charged with tension but, as our team felt strongly during an all night prayer set on the Mount of Olives, also charged with expectation for God to do something amazing among the people of this divided nation. One of the most encouraging encounters for me was meeting a Brazilian missionary named Rodrigo at the house of prayer. He has been working with the youth in Israel for about three years, and was sharing with me how they have begun to see a movement among the youth in Northern Israel who are hungry for the presence of God to transform their nation. In a conversation with some Israeli soldiers I asked them what they thought was necessary to see lasting peace come to their nation. One of them answered me "change has to come from our generation, from the youth. We must learn the value of love and respect, then we will see peace." I thought that was pretty profound, and I've been praying that God, who is in his very nature, love, would reign as the prince of peace here in this nation.

At Peter's house in Capernaum and at the shore of the sea of Galilee.

I couldn't help but feel a little overwhelmed as I read through some of the old testament prophets and some of the gospels in places like Nazareth, Jerusalem, Jericho and others. God has used this land in amazing ways to work his plan for Salvation into human history. While I guess I had read and studied that before it didn't really begin to hit me until I had the chance to walk here. To realize that even the yearly cycles of rainfall in this region were designed by God to teach his people things about His character, just amazing. Seeing things like the significance of the gates in Jerusalem, the watchtowers on the walls and the field where (supposedly) angels announced the birth of Jesus to Bethlehem's shepherds really has enriched my study of God's word, and I definitely recommend a visit to anyone interested.

Inscription in Jerusalem "He is not here, he is risen!"

All night worship on the Mount of Olives.

An issue that is raging here and is every bit as intense as apartheid was in South Africa, or civil rights movement in America, is the Palestinian / Israeli conflict. Getting to meet with Christian Israelis as well as Christian Palestinians was a real privilege, and it was really interesting to get to hear both sides of the Israel / Palestine conflict firsthand from people on both sides of the political issues. Also interesting was having a really nice conversation with someone, then a Christian friend mentioning later "oh yeah, that guy is a member of Hamas..." huh. Studying through the Gospels in the last two weeks has impressed on me God's heart for unity between people groups, as we see Jesus reaching out to Jewish people, Samaritans and Gentiles alike; and his command to the Church echoes this example in Acts 1:8, when he says "you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all of Judea [Jews], in Samaria [Samaritans], and to the ends of the earth [everyone else].

Reading Joshua at Jericho