Day 1 in Israel

Today was my first full day in Israel. Got an early start, 6 am I was up and on the road. 6 am over here is 11 pm on the east coast. I decided I was going to drive to the Dead Sea. I am staying with Larry O'Bannon a former UofL player who is playing professionaly over here now. He lives about 10-15 minutes from the Mediteranean Sea, about 30 mins from Jerusalem, and probably an hour from the dead sea. But I decided to take the scenic route (2 hours) and drive thru the countryside. The first picture below is my rental car with about 9 horsepower, a man on a bike beat me up a hill today. But it does play my ipod which makes driving much more enjoyable.

The first hour was mostly farmland with the occasional town. The picture below is of two camels grazing in a field.

The second hour was all downhill and all desert. Apparently the dead sea is one of the lowest places on the earth.

This was my first glimpse of the dead sea.

The Dead Sea was nothing to write home about, nothing on it but a few hotels. Basically a big body of water in the middle of the desert that you can't drink. Can you imagine being the first person to discover the Dead Sea. You are traveling thru the desert, exhausted, tired. You then come over a ridge and see this

Now thats a beautiful sight til u run down there and realize that you cant drink any of that water. Haha. Ok back to my trip. So once I got to the Dead Sea I turned north and drove about thirty minutes to En Gedi. One of the coolest places I have ever been to. You really have to understand the history and the location of this place to fully appreciate it. En Gedi is an oasis that lies between the desert region and the Dead Sea. It is the place that David and his men hid from Saul in 1 Samuel 23. It is a series of waterfalls and caves. Here are a few pictures:

The last picture is of two boiax, i think thats what they are called. They were running around everywhere. I stayed at En Gedi for a few hours and left as it was getting busy. Drove back thru Jersusalem, which was nothing like I expected. Very modern. The highway system is here in Israel is better than I have seen anywhere, but the drivers are all crazy. Went to a basketball game lasnight. Larry and his team are in the playoffs. Great atmosphere! Reminded me of a PRP- Butler game, but each team had a section of super fans. The had drums, fog horns, flags, banners and never took a break, even when their own team was shooting free throws they were banging on the drums and screaming. Jerusalem scored the first basket and their fans threw confetti all over the court, delayed the game about 5 mins. No one even cared, the refs just laughed. Very cool experience.

Driving thru the countryside today I got to see alot of people in Israel just living. I saw farmers, kids waiting for school buses, construction workers. I know it sounds crazy but I guess I figured life would be easier over here but its not. People over here just like anywhere else are just trying to survive life. It doesn't matter if Jesus walked thru your town or drank form your well. That doesn't make life any easier. One of the devils greatest tools is everyday life. He wants us just to survive, just get by. He wants life to be a constant struggle, to just "get thru" 90% of your life to enjoy the other 10%. But thats not how God intended life to be. Yes, we are going to have troubles, but don't forget about the good news, the bible says to take heart, cheer up, be happy because God is bigger than all of those troubles.

We all know someone who seems to have figure this out, they live life to the fullest. They walk to the beat of a different drum. The person I am thinking about always looks like he is walking in a park with the Andy Griffith theme song in his head. I haven't quite figured it out yet, but I think this comes from the daily reminder of the hope we have in Jesus Christ and the prayer of David to " return to me the joy of my salvation."

I will repost in a few days, just hanging out today no big plans. This 7 hour time change is getting the best of me so far. I will probably get used to it right before I come back. Thanks for reading. God is good!