As we traveled from the Shephelah to the Negev many things changed; not only the landscape but also our skin color as well. Looking out and seeing all the desert land was how most of us pictured all of Israel to be. I know Israel became a lot more real for me today while walking through the Ramon crater where our Jewish ancestors wandered for most of their 40 years. After hiking a few miles through the desert, we made our way to the Wilderness of Zin. This place was incredibly gorgeous, and after walking a few steps we sat underneath the shade of a Terebinth tree, the only tree like it in the whole place. Marty spoke on how God can redeem anything after immense indiscretions. God will make us into oaks of righteousness. Getting out of the Wilderness of Zin was no walk in the park. This was the most difficult part of the hike for me; we hiked up steps almost directly vertical, and climbed up ladders to get to where we needed to go. We panted and hurt, but praised God when we became victorious as we made our way to the top. And then took our very cool picture with our Aviator glasses on.

When I look back on my life it’s the little things that make the difference. Though this saying has been drilled into our heads all the more this year. It’s true about the places that we go. Tel Arad seemed like a pretty normal site, and it was one of the first times we had the chance to sit in a duplicate of the temple that had been built and then filled with sand when Hezekiah decreed that all the worship and sacrifice should be done at the temple in Jerusalem. After heading out from there we walked into what seemed like an everyday pasture. The reason was that the Bedouin’s lived on the other side of the field and they were willing to take all 65 of us in and give us some of the greatest sweet tea and freshly baked bread. This culture had remained unchanged for thousands of years. Their hospitality was an inspiration to us all and the way that they dealt with strangers, crazy. They were willing not to ask questions but instead take us in and serve us. Later that night we went into the dead see and floated our sore muscles away, and everything burned…

Bunches o’ Love,

Jared Lucht and Kayli Graciano

Click here for pictures from our trip

Click here to read past Israel blogs

PS just so you know tomorrow evening we travel later into the evening so we might not be able to make a blog post. If so we will make sure to make up for it the next day

Audio from one of todays talks