The Holy Land of Israel

[The Old City in Jerusalem, Israel]

We spent the first three weeks in Jerusalem studying the Bible. We worked on the Old Testament from Joshua to Ezekiel! It was amazing to really study that part of the Bible and be able to see the history of Israel. I was able to picture everything I was reading because I was there to see the modern rebuilt cities and everything around it for myself. It was no longer just studying the Bible but I was able to live around the cities and visualize what the Bible was talking about! I was also really challenged in my photography while I was here! We had a speaker here that talked about the heart of an artist. It seriously renewed in me the fact that God has given me a gift that I need to be using it to touch the world. So through that I was able to really push myself and work really hard on my photos and taking pictures in Jerusalem almost everyday! On top of that we got to experience the snow here. It was wet and slushy but we still had fun trekking around from home to class everyday in it.

[Morgan, Tara, Naphtalie, Emily, and me out in the snow]

We lived right outside the West wall of the Old City and were able to be in the city everyday if we wanted to. It was so awesome to experience the culture there, and really see the division within the Old City. There was such a difference in each of the four quarters, it amazed me. We literally walked from an area of shops after shops with people yelling everywhere to this calm clean quiet family area. You can also really see the way people here have gotten caught up in worship of things, instead of God Himself. People expect to come to Israel and be so much closer to God, but the fact is that God isn't here in these places more then He lives in us everyday. Coming here you get more knowledge of what happened in the time of Jesus and can get more of a picture of where Jesus might have walked. Yet no one really knows exactly where anything was when Jesus was here. They have guesses but the city has distored and rebulit 4 times, so there are layers upon layers over this land.
Then there were things like the Wailing Wall, Mount of Olives, Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and Doom of the Rock! They were all so different within each other. To be able to see how Jesus would have walked from the Mt. of Olives and then into the town, was beyond my belief and totally blew me away!

[Dome of the Rock]

[The pool where Jesus told the man to pick up his mat and walk]

Fountain for cleansing at the Wailing Wall]

[Some of the millions of papers in the Wailing Wall]

[Burning candles in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre]

[Women lighting candles at the Holy Sepulchre]

The last week we were in Israel we split up into teams and traveled around to see the parts of Israel we hadn't been able to see. My team and me spent 3 days around Galilee, a day at the Dead Sea, and then part of a day at the Dome of the Rock. It was amazing to see more of the places that Jesus went and how He traveled from one place to the other. To be able to get a vision for what the Dead Sea and Galilee really looked like. Things are different now and updated and modernized but it was really being able to see the culture here so that I could understand the culture better.

[ On top of Arbel Mountain]

[Arbel Mountain]

[Arbel Mountain]

[The Ruins in Bet She'an National Park]

[The Theatre in Bet She'an National park]

[The Dead Sea]

[The salted rocks at the Dead Sea]

[Dead Sea shore with salted Rocks]

[The Sea of Galilee]

We volunteered at the Nazareth Village, where they dress up like the 1st century people and live like they do so that people can get a visual for how it really was. As they give people tours of the village they tell the history of Israel straight from the Bible and are the only people that tell the full gospel message completely open. It isn't just a place for tourist but is a missionary to these people and an opportunity to preach the gospel to every person that walks through their doors. While we were there we got to see the tour first hand and then got to help them around the village. The boys got down and dirty doing yard work and the girls cleaned up around the village and made the lanterns for all the visitors.

[Roof top of a lookout tower]

[Olive tree]

[Roof of the house made with wood, stone, and mortar]

[The oil candles some of us put together and package]

Sinai Desert

While we were in Egypt and heading to Jordan and Jerusalem we were given the opportunity to climb Mount Sinai. We didn't do it because it is something to check off a to do list but we really wanted it to take us deeper with studying the first five books of the Bible and have God take us to a new height with Him. To really be able to understand what Moses did by climbing the mountain twice to get the tablets from God! 

We started climbing the mountain at 1 am because we wanted to see the sunrise at the top (what photographer won't do to get a good picture)!!  We were wrapped up in multiple layers, coats, gloves, scurfs, hats, and even blankets going up the mountain because it is still winter and absolutely freezing when the sun isn't up. I was determined to get up the mountain with my own two feet the whole way up but I knew with my heart rate and chest problem still not being 100% God was going to have to carry me up that mountain. So that was my prayer as I headed up the mountain. As much as I believed that God could get me up the mountain it just wasn't God's plan for me right now in life. 

I climbed for about an hour until my heart just wouldn't let me up any farther. At that point I was frustrated and didn't understand why I couldn't just get up the mountain but after one of my friend/staff paid for me to ride a camel the middle part of the climb. During that time I struggled with God and really just felt Him tell me that it wasn't about me getting up the mountain by foot but my heart to get up the mountain. That I had the heart which is exactly what He askes of me right now in life. That I am willing to do anything and everything for Him even when I can't physical do something because of money, equipment, or health. He taught me that its what's on the inside of my heart that He cares about. So I took the camel to the bottom of the 500 stairs that lead to the top. Climbed the stairs with God carrying me every step of the way! 

When we got to the top we tried to sleep for an hour or two but it was simply too cold. So we curled up in blanket and sleeping bags together waiting for the sun to come! Around 5:30 the sky started to change colors and about an hour late the sun was shining bright right at us. I was amazing at the site of the sun and felt God whisper that one day soon the sun would rise in my life! That He has amazing things planned for my life and I just have to keep waiting for the sun to rise! I know that when it does it will be beyond anything I ever imagined in my life!! 

Right after we climbed the mountain we drive about an hour to the middle of no where and met some of the Sinai tribe people with camels. We loaded all our stuff onto the camels and headed into the desert, where we spent the rest of that day and half of the next day. It was an experience of a lifetime and let me tell you it definitely took me and my camel so time to get comfortable with each other! At first it was not my favorite thing the world to do and completely different from riding a horse. However, in the end I loved it. 

[My Smelling but oh so faithful camel]

After we traveled around on the camels  and hiked around in the rocks, they cooked for us and we spent under a little canopy. It was so cold and we were so tired that we went to bed at 8:30 that night, trying to not freeze. The view that night was amazing! I didn't know that many stars were even in the sky. Its amazing what happens when there are no city lights and buildings around. Its like nature comes alive! After that night we eat breakfast and took the camel ride back through the desert to the cars. It was hard and tiring but something that I can say I did and have a better understanding of the people that live out there. 

[Rock formations in the Sinai Desert]

[All of our uncomfortable faithful camels]

Cairo, Egypt

To start off the year my team met in Cairo, Egypt where we spent our first two week studying the first five books of the Bible. We were able to go into the city and explore a little bit here and there but mostly spent time in the little city of El Maadi. God blow my mind as we studied the five books. I think we overlook those books very easily and don't realize how much is in them. We learned a lot about the Egyptian history and culture which put the books into context and gave me a clearer understanding.

[Boat on the Nile River. Cairo, Egypt]

[Man crying in front of the Temple. Cairo, Egypt]

[Market in Cairo, Egypt]

[Guard on a camel at the Pyrmaids]

[Me and Melanie at the Prymaids]

[Me in front of the Prymaids]

There is a place in this world where people not only have jobs working in other peoples garbage but they live in it also. As we walked through the streets of Garbage City, I was blown away that these people live in this place and know nothing else in their lives. They live in a city that has big walls and door on both ends of it that seem to separate it from the rest of the city and they live among the trash. But if that wasn't enough to blow me away, I noticed the looks on these peoples faces. The men and women were more proud of what they do then anyone I have ever seen. Their was no shame in their world for doing what the rest of the world would find shame in. Then there were the children that were beaming with joy! Not feeling sorry for themselves that they live in the world that they do or don't have the newest toy. Instead they are happy and love their lives. 

[The Streets of Garbage City]

[Rooftops overlooking Garbage City]

I feel in love with this city and God really gave me a huge heart for them.  While we were there me and two other girls on my team met these two little girls that took us into their house. To get into their house we had to walk through the first level where trash was everywhere, up a flight of stairs that were still covered in trash, and inside a three room house. Their home had barely anything in it. In the first room there was two couches/beds that I couldn't even tell what they were made out of. The second room was as big as a walk-in closet that was there extremely run down kitchen that didn't work. The third and final room had no furniture in it and piles of rag clothes, blankets, and other tattered things. It was amazing to see their home and the friendship that these girls gave us. I will remember them and hope to visit them again when we go back to Cairo in about a month. 

[Christina and Me with two girls in their home. Garbage City]

[My crazy curly hair friend and me]

[Little girl sitting in front her front door]

[Little boy sitting in the back of a truck]

[Little girl laughing at her little brother]

Selcuk, Turkey

While we have been in Selcuk, Turkey God gave us many opportunities for our team to minister in the community. We made contact with the Governor, who was very excited about us being there, and wanted to work with us! He gave us an opportunity to take pictures around the town of the women, men, villages, ruins, and many other things. As we went around the town taking photos we were able to build many relationship with the people. We weren’t just any foreigners, but we became friends to these people and were really able to understand their culture. So many things in the muslim culture are misunderstood and we were able to brake down those walls and see things for what they really were. 

After we took extreme amounts of photos we put together a selection of pictures that we thought God could use to touch the people. The theme God gave us was exposing beauty and that was exactly what we aimed for. In each of the photos we put a word that matched that photo and the theme of the whole exhibition. 

[My exhibition photo meaning friendship]

[Hanneke and John Paul putting up photos]

[The exhibition. Photo: Christina Tyler]

During the exhibition we had many of the people come to look at the photos. Some that we had seen before and some that we had not! It was a time of being able to minister to the people and sharing with them what we were doing there. The people were very excited to see the way saw their world and how we could take something that they saw everyday and make it look beautiful. It was not only a blessing to them but also to us.

Greece

This last month I was beyond pushed academically while we studied the New Testament through the Inductive Bible Study method. I was determined to get the most out of learning and really driving in deeper into God's Word! God pushed me so hard and I was really able to see myself rise above what I thought I could do. However, the best part wasn't even about my own abilities but really about the depth God took me to. He showed me a lot of who He is through looking at the history of the Bible. That He is still the same today, able to do all the same miracles and wonders that He did back then. Challenging me to expect Him to do those things in my life and the lives around me today on a daily bases because He didn’t change, we did! 

[Cafe in Athens, Greece]

[Old Coins in the market. Athens, Greece]

 

As we have been studying we were able to see exactly where Paul was in many of the book in the Bible! We were able to be at some of the places he was in a lot of the passages. Like in Acts 19 when he was in Ephesus at the Theatre preaching about all the idolatry that was going on, we were right there standing in the exact place that Paul and the disciples were. A lot of the stones are now missing and fallen down, however, it really brought home all the passages that we as Christians have read for years! It was such a personal thing to be able to see it in person, imagine all of it in my head, and then to try to capture it with my camera!

[Ruins in Corinth, Greece]

[Ruins and old church in Athens, Greece]