I am alive. Hehe.

Hello all! I am alive. Sorry for the lack of correspondence, but we have been beyond busy & have had some late evenings. I have tried to upload some pictures, but the process is going entirely too slow. So we leave where we are currently at & we are moving to a new place right along the Sea of Galilee! So hopefully there I can upload some pictures. We shall see. I will go backwards in time on this blog. Starting with today and then I will discuss yesterday then the day before. Today was Sabath so it was literally that. And let me just tell you all it was totally needed! This trip is not for the weary. We woke up later 8:30am. Did a study in the prayer garden here which was an amazing study. Then it was followed by a church service with the Christian Jewish congregation here. Then nap time for 3 hours!!! Then we did another lesson in the prayer garden on the olive oil press & it's relation to the Bible. Again, amazing! Our teacher/tour guide Arie is probably one of the most amazing teachers of the word EVER! After that we made the trip to Tel Aviv & ate along the Meditterean sea. Ummm so good. Had some Gelato, ummm so good again. Then we did a lesson in the place in the Bible called Jappa. Went to the port where Jonah set sale. We had a late night tonight, but it was a fantastic, restful day. Yesterday's start was a heavy start. We want to Jerusalem's Holocast museum. I am not a fan of anything related to the Holocast. Not that anyone really is I suppose, but I could go the rest of my life without ever seeing another image of those horrific events. The hardest part for me was when our tour guide shared the story of many mothers with their babies & how the Nazi's were trying to save bullets. Our guide went into detail on how they killed both the mother & baby with one bullet & what would happen if they didn't get the baby in the shot. Afterwards we saw some pictures of mothers holding their babies getting ready for this moment & could not contain my emotions. I was broken. I turned my head set off & began to wrap in the corner. To think of what those mothers must have been thinking. I can not even write how they were to kill them because I will begin to wrap again. I was pretty much done with the museum after this. What a horrific day it was. After this we went to the site of David & Goliath. Now this was awesome. Tow truly see the Bible come to life. We practiced throwing rocks with actual slings that they would have used right in the spot of the story. Pretty crazy. Yesterday was a shorter day than the past ones because Sabath started at 6 & we had to be back. Whoooo onto the day before that. This day was crazy cool to. We started our long track to the Dead Sea/Masada. We first went through a check point that two days prior to us going though there there was a terrist attack. So when we went through it there were about 5-6 Israeli shouldiers with machine guns standing guard. Not too long after that we came to a stop. There was a military group of men along side the road, Arie said something not good happened here. As we passed these men you could see a van had been burned to crisp. Not sure still what happened, but Arie said it had to be a terrist situation cause of the military that we're ther. CrAzY!! Thank God for his traveling mercies! We finally reached our first destination an oasis in the middle of the desert. It's this crazy water fall/spring that King David liked to go to. And I know why. We hiked up to this place & got into the water. It was amazing & beautiful! And literally right in the middle of the desert. After this point we went onto Masada. What a views from the top. This was once one of King Herods homes & then belonged to a Jewish community that later committed suicide so that the Romans would not be able to kill them once they reached the top. Of course this is the short short version of both stories. It was cool cause they found tiles from King Herolds floor still in great shape. Don't worry I have pictures. After this we headed to the Dead Sea which we floated in. Craziest thing ever! Probably one of the top 5 craziest things I have ever done. We all began to rub the sand from the bottom of the sea onto our skin & made a "spa like" experience out of it. Of course Randy lost his wedding ring along the beaches there as well as the shirt he was wearing (if you know Randy at all, he looses pretty much everything) so we had to turn around once he realized he had lost his ring. Luckily it was found without too much trouble. And to his family, yes, I did give home the Willis head shake. Spiritually I could sit u der Arie's teachings for the rest of my life. He truly has been given the gift of teaching. Mentally I will need months to meditate in everything that we are learning. Physically I am tired, but also sense God giving me a supernatural energy. Please continue to pray for health, energy & focus for me. Boston is feeling much better. He got a shot sadly, but his health is on the up & up. You all are wonderful! Please comment or ask questions at any point. It is nice to know you all are out ther :). ~Eleanor~

This was going to be a picture blog today, but....

Ha. Well I spent the last hour trying to upload some pics, but alas nothing. So tomorrow I may just try to do one of the following: email you all some pics or send you a link to my Facebook page (which I don't think you have to have a Facebook account to view tham). We will see what I come up with. Today was so cool, so amazing, so hot, so long, so hard, so fun, so thrilling, so challenging & in the end so peaceful. Which hopefully all of you have been praying for peace for me. That was a ton of emotions but it was truly my day. Lemme first say we walked close to seven miles today, Mathis was up & down hills. It was long & hard. We first went the Eastern Wall & the Temple Mount. Both were extremely interesting to me. People's religious beliefs are something to try to understand I think. Today I tried to get as much understanding as possible. The amazing part to me was literally on one side of the wall is the eastern wall and on the other is the Muslim dome of the rock. So real. Both places required men & women to cover themselves. I wore a long skirt & a sweater over my shirt. We went to the City of David, this was where I experienced something crazy cool, amazing in fact. We got to walk through Hezikkiah's tunnels. These were the tunnels he built secretly to keep the City of David with water. They have been found & have running water going through them. So our group took the tour. It was so cool! Have I said that already? Hehe. I wish you all could have joined us, cause its simply not possible for me to tell you. We also went and visited the Pools of Bethesda. We did the Southern steps, western wall, holy sepulcher, Jaffa gate, the Jewish Quarter & the upper room. All walking mind you. Our guide is Arie, he is 64 & never once seemed to struggle. This guy is crazy in shape. I wish I had time to go into detail about each place, but I am falling asleep writing this post even now. Ha. Please be in prayer for Boston, found out tonight that he is not feeling well at all. :( until next time. ~Eleanor~

The short version.

Well perhaps this will be the theme more often than not, but I made no promises :) I am extremely tired. I got no sleep last night... I was wide awake. So tonight's sleep is coming upon me sooner than later so this post will be short & yet again lack a picture :( However I was able to post one on Facebook. Blogging is a bit more difficult with the iPad. Tomorrow I hope to use my beastie lap top to up load some pics & put. Them on here. A for today, wow is not appropriate. After our first morning session I thought to myself well I can go home now. I was already filled, challenged & extremely humbled. Also, thankful I am on the winning side! Seeing the city of Jeruselem really paints an incredible picture that I believe each of you should witness face to face. I found myself saying after the first session, "Even all creation will sing His praises". I think after today I walked away with the thought that our God is a very intellectual God. Which, yes I knew of before, but I think only in part... Today it became oh so much more real. He knew every step he was taking & had such an emmense strategy for his days here on earth. BUT what baffles me more is that he had such emmense strategy for his death. None of his steps in his final days were accidents. He thought out each one & took them carefully. I could take the time to describe it to you all, but that just won't work. I think that is why I am a form believer that every Christian should make it here if possible. Even if it's not possible pray that God would make a way for you to come. We visited several places today, walked several miles & even stopped for a cup of joe. We visited: The Mount of Olives, Mount Scopus, Dominus Flevit, Gethsemane, Ciaiphas Home, Garden Tomb & took in the view of Sherpherds Field which is near King Heralds tomb & Bethlehem. I am amazed at how hilly/mountainesc this place is. How white washed every building is. How the Jews & the Muslims interact (or don't). How divided the city still is after thousands of years. There was an interesting point today in the Garden Temple, there we had just gotten done with viewing the tomb where a great deal of people believe Christ was barried & raised from we were beginning to take communion there (which is an entire blog post within itself)& loudly over several speakers the call to prayer came on throughout the city. What an inserting moment in my life that I will never forget. To think that all religions will pass away, but the God that I serve will remain for forever. Some of you might be thinking was it not incredible to view the tomb where Jesus was barried & rose from? And while yes that was awesome, He is not there anymore! He is risen my friends & that fact was even more cool. When I walked inside that tomb it was empty, vacant, lonely, abandoned... BUT my heart was not. I did not find Him there becaus He is risen & alive inside of me. You don't have to go to Israel for that revelation, but for some reason that moment in time was extremely poignant for me. A new layer of revelation. So again, let's all pray that tomorrow I will have enough energy to upload some pics for you guys. Thanks for the encouraging notes! I know I will continue to need them. Thanks for your prayers they have truly been felt today. Please continue, this is no walk in the park. Love to you all. ~Eleanor~

We have arrived. Period.

Well we have arrived at last! Wow! The first thing I must say is the place we are staying at reminds me of a log cabin in the great Colorado mountains! Which, if you know me at all you know how much I adore the Rockies. Side note for my mom & dad.... it smells like pine here, it's dry weather, pine trees and right now we are sitting on a rock type structure overlooking some mountains... you would love it mom & dad. We left our house Sunday morning bright & early at 4amish. Got to New York City at 10amish. We hit the town. We took some time for a meal in Little Italy fantastic! Then the ladies headed over to Chinatown & got us some knock off name brand purses. Yes we did haggle them down. After that we took in a broadway show called "Jesus Christ Super Star". We were all less than impressed with this particular show. Sadly. We had amazing seats, seventh row from the front so at least we had that. After the show we went onward to Central Park & then Ground Zero. Freedom Tower was huge & amazing. I mean HUGE. It was so great seeing Ground Zero at this state because I have seen it from the rubble stage, to rebuilding, to seeing the final building not yet quite finished, but getting there. We headed back to Newark to board our plain to Israel. It was interesting cause you had to go to a special area with extra security because of Israeli law. The flight was less than interesting. We slept & watched movies that's about it. Once we got close to Israeli air space we were prohibited from getting out of our seats. Interesting. So that's our getting here in a nutshell. It is a spectacular evening right now. We're overlooking one of the most beautiful spots outside of Tel Aviv. They have it as a national preserve & I can see why. I am weary, a little sick still, loopy but oh so ready for this moment that will mark my life. I can't wait to take a shower so good bye for now. ~Shalom~ Pictures to follow another day. I will try to post one to Facebook tonight if this iPad will let me.

The prayer of the righteous man availeth much...

(Pictured: NASA photo of the Cairo, Tel Aviv & Amman. Tel Aviv, where we will arrive is in the upper right area. You can also see the Nile throughout this photo. Cool huh?).

Hello All!

Well we are really on the countdown for this trip. I am so encouraged & excited with the response that some of you have taken in my little life right now with this trip. You each are amazing & I wish I could take you with me. My theme song right now for my life is "I Need Thee Every Hour". Ha. Seriously,  life right now is just cRaZy!!! I am sure some of you can understand that statement. Please be in prayer for our travels that they would be smooth & without any 'bumps'. We leave before the crack of dawn on Sunday morning. Our flight leaves Houston International at 5:40am. So we are planning on getting there at 4am & those of you that know Randy & myself... well this will be a stretch. :) Pray for God's healing touch on both Randy & myself. We are both snotting/coughing/sneezing/scratchy throat & everything right now so we need to be 100% by the time we take off. Please be in prayer for our housing situation. The moment we land we will get our little boy & begin packing like there is no tomorrow & moving into our new casa (wherever it may be, ha). Yet another prayer, a major prayer for this mama. Pray for Boston. This will be his first time away from both Randy & I for more than 1 week. He has a good case of separation anxiety so the hand off to my parents may be a bit rough. So just be praying for him & that God would help him during this time. I believe he will fantastic, being spoiled by his Marmie & Pappy! In fact, he may get bored once he returns home with us. :) Heck, pray for me & my separation anxiety from Boston. Hehe. I am completely excited about this trip. I am excited to step where my Lord, Savior, friend & most Holy God stood. It doesn't even seem real that this is going to happen. I want you each to know that this is beyond my wildest dreams & you all are a part of making that happen whether through prayer, financial support or both. So thank you times a million. My blogs on this trip may be short, jumbled with feelings/emotions, not very often, too often, full of horrible spelling, grammatically incorrect... whatever, but know that they will be from my heart. I will do my best to post UNEDITED photos from the trip as often as possible. (The photographer in me hates to put unedited photos up, but I can hear my mother saying "we don't care what they look like, we just want to see them"). If you wish to leave a comment please do so. To myself or for our entire group, I am sure we will need the encouragement. Just remember to sign your name in your post or else we won't know who it is from. You can create an account if you want so that it will automatically sign your name, but if you wish not to just sign your name at the end of your comment. Again, thank you all for your support. More to come......................

~Eleanor~