Holy Land Trip (Recap)

We successfully made it back from our 12-day Holy Land trip (March 9-21).
I apologize for not posting anything to let folks now we arrived home safely.
In talking with a friend from Indiana, he said, “I was following your blog, but you left me hanging in Galilee!”
It was a great trip and we saw a bunch of incredible stuff, but I’m glad to be home.
It took me about a week to adjust to the time change and all the travel.
Even though we’ve been back for over two weeks now, the memories of the trip are still fresh on my mind.
There were so many highlights that it’s nearly I impossible to narrow them down to a list of favorites. However, here’s my humble attempt at a Holy Land Trip top 10 list (going in reverse order):

(10) Jimmy Boling and his comedy relief: the guy is a born entertainer with a great voice and sense of humor; I’ll never forget his debate over having to pay two shekels to use the restroom in a Galilean town (he owes me one shekel by the way).

(09) Sami our Palestinian guide for the Israel part of the trip: his wisdom and knowledge was greatly appreciated.

(08) Anne Frank house in Amsterdam: it happened so early in the trip that it was easy to forget about it; however, it was a very powerful reminder of a very dark period in human history.

(07) Great Pyramids in Egypt: there’s not much to add; these are one of the wonders of the world; it’s on most everyone’s bucket list of things to see before they die.

(06) Caesarea Philippi: located in northern Israel, I thought it was one of the prettiest areas we visited.

(05) Baptisms in Jordan River: Brother Joe baptized Rosie Caywood and Jimmy Boling in the river; a big rat ran past Rosie on the way out of the water; I’m thankful Rosie did not have her glasses on to see this; she would have passed out if she had.

(04) The Region of Galilee: my favorite area of Israel; I could picture Jesus and the disciples out of the water or traveling along the hillsides; for whatever reason, this area seemed to be the most real to me. I want to go back there some day for a study break. Just me, a computer, books and the sea!

(03) Climbing Mt Sinai: After four hours of sleep in one of the strangest hotels anyone has ever stayed in, our group got up at 1 am and left to climb Mt Sinai in the early morning hours; it may have been crazy and incredibly challenging, but it was well worth the climb; there were many lessons about the Christian walk learned (more about that on a later post); on the top of the mountain, a group of Nigerian Christians broke out in worship at sunrise.

(02) Galilee Boat Ride: for me, it was one of the “slice of heaven” moments; it was an absolutely perfect moment: beautiful weather, good friends, good music and everyone having a good time as we rode across the same sea that Jesus calmed the storm and walked on water. How can you beat that?

(01) Communion Service in Garden Tomb: whether this is the actual site of the tomb or not wasn’t important; taking the Lord’s supper there with so many dear friends was an unforgettable spiritual moment.

Let me say again that the Holy Land trip was a really awesome experience.
The trip played out with hardly a single hitch.
The hotels were great; the food was good; the travel was pretty smooth.
I appreciate Joe Cooper (our preacher at Gardenside) for all his hard work in organizing things with our team. Aristotle Travel as well as Biblical & Educational Journeys did a fantastic job in coordinating this trip.
Having been, I highly recommend that every Christian take such a pilgrimage at some point in their life.
God was gracious in allowing me to be healthy and focused. Because of that, I was blessed by the experience of having walked where our Lord walked.
THANKS again to everyone involved with making this trip happen!
Our team reunion will be this coming Sunday, April 12th (6:30 pm @ Gardenside Christian Church).

In Him,
Greg Herriford