Well, the day has finally arrived! Today we are leaving on our trip to Israel that the church gave us for my 10th Anniversary as pastor of Community Baptist Church. I am still humbled that the church would do something so wonderful for us. We are so grateful and thankful to get to be a part of such a wonderful church, with such loving people.
We will be gone for 11 days and are so excited to get to walk where Jesus walked and see, first hand, the land I have only read and preached about. With that in mind, there are a few things I wanted to share with you this morning.
FIRST of all, I will not be able to write my daily devotionals while we are on this trip. Not only will we be extremely busy every day, but with the time differences and spotty internet, it would make it very difficult. And I have also had some tell me not to write any devotionals because they want us to be fully focused on taking in as much of this trip as possible without distraction. But, Lord willing, I will resume the devotionals when we get back.
SECOND, we will try to update you on our trip, via Facebook, whenever possible, but because of the hectic schedule and spotty internet, we may not be able to post a lot of pictures while we are there. BUT I do plan to share them all with you when we get back. One of the tips that Dr. Ralph Sexton, Jr. (our guide for the trip) told us was not to spend the entire trip looking through a camera and posting to social media. Doing so may cause us to miss some important sights while we are distracted.
THIRD, AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, please pray for us DAILY while we are gone. This is a long trip and we will spend a lot of time traveling. We need you praying for us. Below are some specific things I have been praying for regarding this trip, and these are things I would like for you to pray for as well:
- Pray for safety as we travel (Flying and in the buses).
- Pray for the airline pilots and bus drivers.
- Pray for smooth travel arrangements, that everything will go according to plan.
- Pray for our personal safety while in Israel.
- Pray for our physical health, that we will not get sick.
- Pray for our physical stamina. We will be doing A LOT of walking.
- Pray we will be able to get good rest each night.
- Pray we will retain the information we learn while on this trip.
- Pray that it will transform our lives, spiritually!
We love you all and are looking forward to getting back and sharing all that we saw and all God did for us on this trip!