I'm back

Yes I know that it has been almost a week since my return, but I thought I'd just throw out some sort of a conclusion. I think that I am back on pacific time now and am excited to share all of my experiences with everyone. There are so many stories to tell and things that I have realized over the last few weeks. The trip back went fairly well there were of course the good bye tear. Hopefully we will see each other again on earth, but if not there is always heaven. even though we are now back we still have the opportunity to communicate with the girls we have met via facebook. Pray for them and for all of Israel because there is so much unrest in that country.



We stayed in Jerusalem the night before we left. The Back to Jerusalem project had their closing time the night before. It was again awing to be with this group from around the world and hear about their ministry in Israel and to worship on the Mount of Olives. The incountry staff also recognized our group. We knew that we were the first group of women to come to the country, but we didn't realize what that meant to the staff that we were willing to come.

The morning before we left we were able to go see some sites that we had previously missed. We all went to the garden tomb which is a much better suggestion for Jesus' burial than the other place we went to. You could see the skull in the hill and the site where the tomb was was in an old grape garden. It was pretty cool. Things to keep in mind though while you are there: The city has grown and been built since bible times so the road you are walking on probably wasn't there and, and one of the staff said, all they really know is that this is the Sea of Galilee. We also re did part of the Via Delorosa that we had previously missed and got some shopping done. Probably the favorite thing I bought was a pair of earings with mites on the end. If you remember your bible stories the widdow gave her last mite to the church and Jesus said that she gave more than the wealthy man.

I look forward to seeing everyone whether in the near future or sometime in the next year hopefully!

Closing times

I'd say that it doesn't feel like we have been here for almost 2 weeks, but then again, we have done so much that it seems like we have been here longer. This summer has been such a whirl!

Yesterday we spent the morning touring old Nazareth. This is a place within the city that was an empty lot that was excavated. They discovered an old farm at the cite and have now built it up to what an old nazareth farm would look like. There are actors/workers that run it the way that it would have been run 2000 years ago. It was great to be there and see this. Our tour guide was a christian and every spot we stopped at he use scripture to apply to the tour. In the afternoon, we had our last match. I am so gateful for air conditioner now because the gym we played at had none. I was sweating while not running around and everyone else was drenched. After the match we had the opportunity to share what we are about with the group and give them DVD's. The place where we played was close to the Mediterainian so afterward we took a refreshing dip in the sea. The dip didn't last long though because we did not realize that it was jelly fish season so we scurried out a couple of stings later.

Today, the staff that lives here wanted to take us on a tour so we went up several mountains where the view was amazing and overlooked the valley. We went to Capernaum to where Peter lived and to Peter's church where they say is the place where Jesus called Peter to feed his sheep. Last stop was the Jordan River. I love swimming, but that was one body of water that I was happy to stay out of. The river is on it's way to drying up and is a little dirty. It is so good to see these sites because it really helps the Bible to come alive. This has been an amazing trip and it has been exciting to learn the Bible in a visual way and also to be able to share it with others. I am excited also for future tours that will come here because now we have established some contacts for future teams.

Tomorrow we are leaving Nazareth and heading to the Mount of Olives to meet up with the back to Jerusalem project for one last time of praise and worship. We will spend the night in Jerusalem and fly out late Tuesday night. I am excited to go home and share my trip, but I am also going to miss being here, my friends from the trip, and the girls that we have been working with. I'll put pics up when I get them!

Keynote concert

We continue to have morning clinics with the same group of girls. We are having a great tiem building relationships with them. One of the girls said today that these have been the best 3 days of her life. Keynote, which is the music ministry of Campus Crusade, is in town doing a few concerts. We went to one tonight and invited the girls to come with us and close to 20 showed up! This is so exciting for us to have these relationships. They have even found us on facebook and are adding us as friends. Yesterday we took a tour of downtown Nazereth. The coach of the local team and several players also acompanied us. We saw both churches of annunciation (yes...there are 2), Mary's house, and Joseph's house.

As a team, we are starting to feel a little worn out. Please pray that we continue to be energized. The matches that we had scheduled have mostly been canceled, but we do have one saturday agaist what we have been told is good competition. Also pray that that will not fall through last minute like the other ones have. We are also down a player now that Laura, one of the players, has left for the US for young life camp.

If you have heard about the bulldozer rampage in Jerusalem don't worry because we are not there, but prayer for Israel/Palestine peace is always important because there is so much unrest here.

Have a good. I am very tired and going to bed now!

The Sea

Today we had a morning clinic in Nazareth. There are 3 age groups and we will be working with them for the rest of the week. Our afternoon mathc was canceled so we took a last minute trip to the Sea of Galalee. It was the perfect day for a swim in the water that Jesus walked on! Nazareth it a bit more humid than Jerusalem, but it is also more green. It is all beatutiful!!

The "party" that we had the last night in Jerusalemwent great. It was not as much a party, but more like a meeting. The speaker was great. At the meeting we met up with the rest of the back to Jerusalem project which I discovered was much bigger than I thought it would be. It was not college students, but staff from around the world. It was amazing to be singing with everyone speaking their own language. We had some of the people we had played with come and they were interested in what the speaker talked about.