So today we began the storyline we will be following for most of our trip – the chronology of Jesus’ life. Today covered Phase 1 of his ministry – the preparation period. In this period Jesus was born, circumcised, presented, given gifts, forced to flee to Egypt, returned to Israel, followed in his “father”s footsteps as a carpenter, was baptized, guided by the spirit into the wilderness, tempted and victorious over that temptation. So, a very busy, significant time. Luke tells is that this period was around 30 years long. So what did we see you ask?

We started in this ruin, called Herodium. It was a fortress of Herod the Great and overlooks Bethlehem and the Mt of Olives. It was huge and captivating as you can also see the Jordan valley, Dead Sea and Moab mountains easily from the top of the structure. The Bar Kokhba rebellion ended here in 135 AD and also Herod was buried here. 

It was crazy to be in a fortress built by the maniacal king who tried to kill Jesus to protect his turf. A later member of his family is the one who interrogated Jesus before His crucifixion. 

Then we went to Bethlehem and saw a Christian church complex called Shepherds Fields. This was to consider the birth narrative that we will cover in Luke.

This is also likely what the stable/manger looked like – much different than you might expect. More on that in the fall.

Then we headed to one of the possible baptism sites for Jesus’ baptism and John’s ministry.

Then we went on an amazing hike through the Judean wilderness. This is possibly where Jesus spent 40 days fasting and was tempted by Satan. We stopped a few times and we’re taught/prayed and let God lead us. It was incredible. So incredible that we were late to the bus and rushed to dinner. Worth. Every. Second.

We were pretty tired after a hot, long day. Very cool to consider what Jesus did and was led to do during His first 30 years.

Today we started with a quick orientation and then a hike along the current wall that surrounds the old city. This gave us views like this:

We hiked along the wall from the Jaffa Gate, passed the New Gate, the Damascus Gate and to the Herod Gate. This wall was built no later than 1538 but some parts of it are older. It is definitely more Turk/Medieval than the wall in Jesus’ time, but still amazing.

We then caught a bus and left the old city to go to the Mount of Olives. We caught glimpses of the desert/wilderness to the East of Jerusalem on our way to the range called “Mt of Olives.” You can see the olive trees and a massive old cemetery that define the hills from the rest of the region. From there, you can get a spectacular view back looking at David’s city (left) and the old city, along with the Temple Mount and the two valleys that make Jerusalem such a valuable asset to control, influentially and defensively.

From there we headed to the Israel Museum in West Jerusalem (Israeli-controlled but disputed by the UN) and it was an archaeological nerd fest (which I loved). Here’s some photos:

The oldest known inscription of David in an extrabiblical text.

The oldest fragments of Scripture we have.

An Assyrian victory motif after a victorious battle against Israel.

Herod the Great’s coffin.

A crucified ankle bone with the nail still intact.

The Moses seat.

They had the most incredible model of Jerusalem circa 70AD before the Romans destroyed the whole city (and temple) which gave tremendous context to Jesus’ last days and Passion Week.

Read about it here.

Today was great. Pray for those in the group dealing with new climate/food stuff. Tomorrow we start with our 11 day chronological walk through of Jesus’ life/ministry accompanied by the study we’ve been doing for the past 10 months and a notebook filled with our trip leader’s life work (Steve Hudson). We start in Herodium/Bethlehem and end at the baptism site. Thanks again for allowing this trip – can’t wait to preach this stuff when we get to Luke in the fall!

We stayed in Tel Aviv last night at an amazing boutique hotel called Hotel Sadot. We were tired, as it was 1am and we’d almost stayed up for 35+ hours during travel to avoid jet lag (thanks Rich for the advice). We were exhausted but hungry because the awesome juice box we got on our 45 minute flight from Amman to Tel Aviv wasn’t enough.

If you look closely, Shane spilled a bit of apple juice due to how exciting the contents of the magazine were (or juice boxes spill).

So we grabbed a couple biscuits from the free snack bar and a glass of lemonade. I was able to FaceTime the girls (thanks Steve Jobs). We then slept, hoping to sleep until the morning. The beds were super comfortable and we both slept past 10. We ate a sweet complimentary breakfast and got ready for the day. Seriously, Hotel Sadot is amazing!

We got a non-complimentary taxi back to the airport. We tried bargaining to get him to take us right to Jerusalem, but couldn’t agree on a price. At the airport, we got in a sherut (taxi) to Jerusalem and were amazed to find that Trump is helping even the economy here! 

That bumper sticker says “Trump” and I’m not sure if it was licensed by him, but someone made the money!

We then drove to Jerusalem and here’s a couple pictures from the sherut:

We got to the Jaffa Gate. Here’s the wall leading to it:

And then right to our hotel.

We explored the markets in the Old City for a bit and are now back at the hotel for a bit before dinner. Thanks if you helped make this trip possible – it is a dream come true and surreal to be here!!

This is a panoramic photo of Jaffa Gate.This is Jaffa Gate.

Girls, I’m going to see if I can bring a cat home.Heidi, cool door to a residence in old city.Iron plated door to Tower of David.Tower of David, built centuries after David lived. That’s still old.Inside Jaffa Gate.

So under those clouds is Cyprus! We boarded at 9pm Central time in Chicago on a flight with Royal Jordanian Airlines. We laughed at first since their movie titles said “western classics” and we thought the lack of a John Wayne title was suspect – then we realized we ARE “western” to the rest of the world. I concur with their choice of Inception, not so sure about Dumb and Dumber. 

We enjoyed two little meals. I’m too big for a long flight. We were definitely outnumbered as white guys. The hardwood floors in First Class seemed excessive. Those are just some quick thoughts.

One strange thing about the long flight was the lack of sunlight. Shane and I were watching Hidden Figures and he pointed out that the sun would be visible in a couple of hours. However, we didn’t know that they can tint the windows and keep the plane dark for the whole flight. Around noon over the Mediterranean, I wondered where the sun was and started having serious doubts as to whether we’d flown East or West. Yet by 2pm (in Jordan) the sun was shining and then the tint changed in the windows. It’s tough to avoid jet lag and not sleep when the plane is super dark for ten hours!

Now we are in Amman, Jordan, waiting for our connecting flight to Tel Aviv. The airport is beautiful here. However the bathrooms were a bit different as was the McDonalds. We have a tiny bird flying around us inside the airport. Pastor Rich wonders if it is a drone. He was FaceTiming with me when that happened. Check out the pictures and keep praying for us! Tomorrow we start to explore Israel!

Thank you so much to those of you that are helping make this dream trip possible! We will be giving updates here and as many pictures as we can post. Follow along for the latest on our trip!