Israel and Egypt

Hello friends and family. It's been a long time since last posting, but many exciting things have happened in the meantime.

For instance, I went to Israel, Egypt with my dad. It was a two week trip associated with Search Ministries, the organization he works with and he helped lead it. I basically tagged along. Highlights in Israel include the Garden Tomb (where Jesus may very well have been buried for the short time He was dead), the Temple Mount, Hezekiah's Tunnel, Church of the Holy Sepulchre, vendors offering everything for $1, plush hotels, calls to prayer, the Dead Sea, Masada and so much more. Each day began around 8AM and went until at 5PM or so. We got on our bus each morning and let the guides do the rest. It's the way to see the Holy Land, if you ever ask me. Before I went, I expected the trip to be an earth shattering experience for my personal faith. You know, being in the places the Scriptures talk about, where Jesus walked, one would expect a sense of spiritual speechlessness. However, it wasn't as earth shattering as I thought it would be, but it was still significant and I would encourage every believer to go. They are just places after all and the significance of Christianity does not lie in locations but in the Person of Christ and what He did. After seeing, smelling and hearing the places talked about in Scripture with my own eyes, I feel I can read the Bible in color now. It is no longer in black and white and it's an incredible new aspect of my relationship with God.

In Egypt, the highlights included the Pyramids, Sphinx, tombs, the nicest hotel I have ever stayed in, the Egyptian Museum, and the Algerian soccer team we ran into at the airport in Cairo. Cairo itself was sprawling with over 22 million people. The traffic was remarkable.
This Egypt leg contrasted with Israel in that it was not as heavily focused on Biblical stories as Israel was (at every site in Israel there would be a Bible reading), but it was still beneficial in that it provided a focus on the General Revelation of God rather the Special Revelation of God emphasized in Israel. In Egypt we focused a lot on the ancient culture there, which we know so much about because they had a worldview that knew this life was only temporary and preparation for the next life was of the utmost importance. They emphasized resurrection of the body, reflecting the truth that humans are body and soul (spirit). They knew there was a greater power than they and got pretty close to the truth on observations they made from General Revelation.

On the way back, my dad and I spent two days in New York City, seeing the sights and visiting a couple friends of mine, which was great. It was a nice transition back into the US.

That's a short summary of my travels and what I learned. I have over 800 pictures, which would be a whole post/website.