Final Thoughts...

We're home now. This was a truly amazing trip for everyone. After this experience no one will ever look at the Bible the same way again. I loved getting a chance to know all of these kids better. They are each wonderful! I asked them to each come up with two to three sentences summarizing their experience. Here's what we got...



This trip was such a blessing, I am looking forward to sharing my experience with others. I am looking forward to future experiences I can look back and this trip and say “hey I have been there”. – Leigh






This was the trip of a lifetime and hopehopehope that more people will be blessed with visiting the Holy Land. I love all the people on this trip more than any of them will know. – Matt










This trip was amazing. I thought it was awesome how you could sit and read scripture at the places where Jesus prayed, taught, and evangelized. –Callie

This trip was so much fun! I really loved traveling somewhere where the culture was completely different and learning about how other people live, and at the same time learning about God and going to places that were in the Bible. –Taylor









The trip was such a blast. It was a lot neater then I expected and blew my mind. –Darby











I loveloveloved this trip. It was a journey not a vacation that’s for sure. I’m tired but it was worth it. The Bible came alive and I am praying for Israel. – Diane












This amazing trip to Israel has been mind blowing! I can’t wait to go back! - Leah












I thought it was the most wonderful experience that I’ve ever had. I couldn’t ask for a better trip than this. – Colby










Finally...a message from our seniors...



We really wish that we could come back, but this experience has prepared us so well for life outside SCS. We have had so many terrific memories that we are excited to embark on our future endeavors. - Leigh and Matt

We're Coming Home!

We are all sitting in the Ben Gurion airport at Tel Aviv waiting to board for Atlanta.  We just wanted to post a couple more photos from earlier in the week.  We are excited about coming home and telling everyone more about our journey.

Be safe and be good.

Golan Heights

Hello everyone! Today was a really nice day. First we went to Tabgha, the church of the first feeding of the 5,000.  It was really pretty. Then we drove down the street to St. Peter's Primacy. We went down to the shores of the Sea of Galilee.  It was really quiet and peaceful down there. Afterwards we drove up to the Golan Heights winery.  There was this really weird video that we had to watch at the first of the tour, describing how the wine was made. Haha. We toured the place and watched the barrels get filled with wine. There were TONS of them. After that we went to the bottling area and watched the bottles get filled with wine. We headed over to the wine tasting room where we tasted three wines.  The adults liked most of them, I think. But most of us didn't. Haha. Darby thought they were the "grossest thing she'd ever put in her mouth". I liked all the wines we tasted. There were two white wines and a red wine. The last one everyone liked. It was a dessert wine.  After we tasted the wines, we were able to buy some. We left the winery and drove up to the Israeli/Syrian border. There were some really pretty mountains.  We could see the road to Damascus. It got significantly colder when we went up and saw it though. When we got back to the bus, we started driving [probably the prettiest drive I've ever taken] down to the Hermon Stream Nature Reserve. The Hermon stream is a stream that starts at the foot of Mount Hermon.  The mountain absorbs all the water and it flows down at the foot of the mountain. Those springs create the Dan, Hermon, and Senir rivers that flow into the Jordan river. They were really pretty.  After that we drove over to Tel Dan, another nature reserve. We took a walk through the wilderness. There were flowers from the mustard seed and little ponds.  Well it's Day 8, and our trip is almost over!  :(. It's sad. But I think we'll all be glad to be home. :)

Callie

 

First day in Tiberias

Hey all! We started off the day with a peaceful boatride across the Sea of Galilee. It took a long time to get on the boat because they changed port twice. It was really rainy and cold at first, and the waves were rough, but about halfway through the ride the sun came out and it was very beautiful. Next we stopped at a museum where we saw a really neato 2,000 year old boat. It was found buried in the sand at the sea of galilee by two brothers, and they preserved it with foam. After that, we went to Capernaum where Jesus talked about the Beatitudes. It had been raining off and on all day and was really cold, but by the time we were walking around in the gardens of the church of the beatitudes the rain had gone away. We were all very very ravenous by then, but we still had to go to St. Peter's home and the synagogue. His house is said to be the first christian church, and the synagogue was very interesting. Finally, lunch came, and most of us ordered fish. LITTLE DID WE KNOW, we would get the whole fish. IT JUMPED OFF THE PLATE AND CHEWED MY NOSE! Not really. I got you! :D But it really was the whole fish. It was scary at first, but it was really good. After lunch, we headed to another ancient synagogue, where there wasn't very much left besides the tile. It was really cool.

Lastly, we headed toward the Jordan river where Jesus was baptized by John, where Leigh Stocker was baptized by her dad. It was very sweet and peaceful. It was a grand old day!

-Taylor

Last Day in Jerusalem

Greetings

Today we had awesome opportunities to go to various places. We went to the Garden Tomb, the Holocaust Museum, and the Israel Museum. Throughout our trip in Israel, we have done many things. But today when we went to the Garden Tomb we experienced walking where Jesus was buried, or at least we think. We were really amazed to see how close the cross was to the tomb he was placed in. After we toured the tomb we partook in communion and talked about how this trip has touched our lives and opened our hearts. This really brings the bible to life. Next we visited the Holocaust Museum, it was heartbreaking seeing what these innocent Jews had to go through. We are so blessed to have our freedom in America. Last but not least, we went to the Israel Museum. We saw a small replica of the old city of Jerusalem. It was very interesting getting to see what the city used to look like when the temple was there. We also learned the there were books that written that are not in our bible today. We saw a copy of some of the Dead Sea scrolls. Today when we were traveling to Tiberias, we passed Mt. Gilboa were King Saul and his son Jonathan died.

This afternoon we drove to Galilee and will be here the next three days!

The pictures above are Danny (our tour guide), Leigh, Me, and Mr. Crow aka Spidey; and sign from the Garden Tomb.

-Leah

What A Day in Jerusalem and Bethlehem

Shalom! Today was a very busy but interesting day! This morning we started out going to see the Temple Mount. As some of you may know, today the Dome of the Rock is there because the temple has been destroyed twice. The Temple Mount is on Mount Moriah, which is the highest point where Jesus was tempted. After the Temple Mount we went to the Wailing Wall Tunnels. We got to see the original rocks of the temple which Herod used to build with and they were very different and significant to the

other rocks. After the Wailing Wall Tunnels we went to the Temple Institute. At the Temple Institute is where all of the things for the coming temple are held. They are prepared and ready for the rebuilding of the temple so that everything will look just like Herod's temple looked. After going to the Temple Institute we visited the City of David, which was very neat. This was built on the fortress of Zion. We went underground and saw two tunnels where their water was stored and kept fresh. After all of those events we went over to Bethlehem which was different. Bethlehem is under the Palestinian control unlike Jerusalem who is under the Israeli control. We saw the Church of the Nativity, where Jesus was born. We had to go underground to see the manger, because the church was built on top of it. It was so interesting to see where Jesus was born and this whole trip being able to walk where He walked. On our way back from Bethlehem our bus was stopped and an army man and a police officer came onto our bus. We had just crossed the gate and the Israeli's stopped us to make sure that everything on our bus was safe to go back into the Israeli areas.

WOW...what a day it has been, but it has been very intriguing and I have learned a ton already!

We will talk to you tomorrow!

Leigh

The Dead Sea ROCKS!!!! not old men in speedos........

Woo its Saturday! Unfortunately we had a change of plans today; apparently there are going to be floods in the Dead Sea area later this week so instead of going to Bethlehem we went with the Monday schedule. First we went to Massada (pic above) which is where King Herod built a palace in the desert. And of course when I get to the desert I GET HUNGRY so I'm starving in the desert, but the good news is we weren't there forever :) Then we ate and I was very happy about that. We ate at the cafe at Qumran Visiter Center it was really good. I had a Falafel, which is a pita pocket thing with lettuce, and these meat ball things, and french fry looking things. Qumran is where they found the Dead Sea Scrolls by the way. It was a very interesting sight with a lot of caves and of course it was hot still because we were still in the desert. Then the best part of the day arrived, The Dead Sea, which is really called the Salt Sea. When we got to the Dead Sea we headed straight to the dressing rooms to change into swim suits. Let me tell ya... old men in speedo's was the scariest thing on this entire trip. So, we all got in the Dead Sea and Matt rubbed mud on his face and my mom slung mud all over herself for the picture of course. It was hilarious, then the burning began. I was apparently the only one burning from head to toe, but I wasn't completely alone considering Matt was yelling his face was burning off so we went to the outdoor showers and of course there was a line so the burning kept raging until finally we got to one. Afterwards we all got back on the bus, smelly of course, to leave for the hotel. I was sooooo ready for a shower but the day was a amazing experience and I loved it:D

Diane