Big Day!

Hello to all!

What an amazing day we had today and what sights we got to see! We began the morning with a devotional by the Dead Sea. We then hopped on a bus and drove up to Masada. Once we made it atop the fortress, Boaz, our Israeli tour guide, gave us the entire story of Masada and its significance to the Jewish people. After hiking up, down and around the palace, we made our way down the serpantine trail (long, steep hike down the mountian) back to our bus. We then drove up to En Ghedi and hiked into Wadi Argot - a place where it is believed David hid while Saul was pursuing him. We had a special moment as we learned about living water (as opposed to the dead water we swam in the day before) that you'll definately need to hear about. After hiking back out of the wadi (no small feat either), we had a late lunch and made our way to Qumeran (where the dead sea scrolls were discovered). We learned much about the Essene way of life and their influence on our scriptures today. After all that, we made the 2 hour drive up to Tiberias (southwest side of sea of Galilee) to our hotel. We are all pretty exhausted, again, but are excited for our day tomorrow.

Israel needs rain, badly. We do not. It's supposed to be rainy and cold tomorrow, so we're hoping the Lord will be gracious and give rain to all the places where we are not. :)

Everyone continues to remain in good health and good spirits! We continue to see God's favor and blessing wherever we go. Thanks for your prayers and thoughts!

I have internet access at this hotel and will be able to post again about this time tomorrow night. I hope to include special messages from the group so they can say hello. I wish I could post pictures, but that's not a possibility here.

Shalom!
Matt