Israel and beyond

Once again I have been less than timely on posting things to my blog! Right now I am currently in Germany enjoying hard Brotchen, bratwurst and lots of pastries. Germans take their food seriously! I will try and sum up what has happened over the last month as DTS has ended and aftertravel began. After Uganda my team went to Dahab Egypt for team debrief. Relaxing by the blue green waters of the red sea was just what we needed after 2 1/2 months of outreach. The conclusion of our outreach was a good one with all of us leaving with good memories and all of us had grown in our identity in God. The last few days with my team were really good and also sad realizing that this time that had made us so close was ending. In a few hours we would meet up with the other 34 members of our school and disperse amongst them. A real highlight of debrief was that another team was at the same place and my 2 good friends Melanie and Grace were on that team so I got to see them a little earlier! I didn't realize how much I had missed them until I saw them again. On the 2nd of August we made it to Israel no problem with the border thank God! We arrived in the old city of Jerusalem and met up with ther rest of our school! To be honest, I was really overwhelmed by everyone when I had been used to us 9! Over the next 12 days we toured Jerusalem. We saw the garden tomb and the Holy Sepluchure 2 places where they believe Jesus died and was buried. I personally believe it was the garden tomb but ultimately it doesn't matter, it happend regardless of where! It was amazing, sureal and incredible to see all the Holy sites, where Jesus actually was. We went to the Mount of Olives, Mount of the Beatitudes (where 5 others and I recited the sermon on the mount by memory) , saw capernum where Jesus spent a lot of His ministry, some were baptized in the sea of Gallilee, and on the 13th of August we graduated on the Mount of Olives where Jesus gave the great commission to the disciples! Wow. It was very interesting to be in Jerusalem. The tension between the muslims and the Jews is palpable at times but I never felt unsafe. Once we went into a muslim shop and he just randomly started saying hateful things about the jews. It was out of the blue and I was really shaken up by some of the hatred from both sides. Neither side will give in so there will never really be peace until Jesus comes again. Melanie, Grace and I stayed for the wedding of 2 of our classmates and then we headed to egypt to see a friend. Just a forewarning, don't ever travel during ramadon!! All of the muslims are not allowed to eat or drink during the day yet they go about their normal business! They are more angry and prone to violence during this month and we decided to travel into a muslim nation! We got to the border of Isreal fine but ended up staying in Eilat for the night because we couldn't get a visa for Egypt. The next day we got through the border then caught a van ride to Cairo. Unfortunately, our driver was muslim so he was fasting. He was driving like a maniac and finally had to pull over for food because he was falling asleep! Thankfully God was watching out for us because we arrived in Cairo in one piece. The spiritual atmosphere of Egypt is heavy with a mosk on every corner and hearing calls for prayer 5 times a day and readings from the koran in KFC! you can't get away from it! We were in Egypt for 5 days then on the 28th we headed to Rome, Italy! It was such a nice change to be in a western nation and instead of mosks there were churches on every corner! We did all the touristy things like the colloseum and the vatican and just enjoyed relaxing. Venice was amazing also. No cars in the city! That was so nice! On the 7th of Sept we headed to Germany: Frankfurt, Munich, Dresden and Hamburg. All to stay with friend we met from Mercy Ships! We have only had to spend one night in a hostel out of 10! Much easier on the pocket book! Tomorrow we leave for Ireland which has been a dream come true for me! If only I wasn't so tired of traveling! A week in Dublin and then home!! I will offically be home the 27th of September and I look forward to seeing all of you and telling you in person all I have expirienced in the last 7 months and 18 days since leaving home. Please pray for travel mercies for my friends and I. God Bless!