Goodbye

 We had supper on the way to the airport

 we thanked Nadav and Egol

We shared our top 5 

El AL flight to NYC

 we had a long wait in NYC

so we put our feet up

almost all of us had swollen ankles 

 This is why we had to wait, 

a very small plane couldn't take the whole group in one time

some of our Top 5:

Of Rocks and Rabbis

5. We learned that Rabbi's get VERY upset if we don't follow EXACTLY in their footsteps.

4. The more we followed in our Rabbi's footsteps, the more we learned aboutour ultimate Rabbi, Jesus.

3.We learned that Israel is a land of rocks. We must have climbed at leasthalf of them.

2. Herod used these rocks to build a kingdom for himself, that the world would know there was a Herod.

1. We learned more about our ultimate Rabbi who is THE rock- the anchor ofour lives. As opposed to Herod's rocks, He is the rock of Daniel 2, the rock cut not by human hands but by God's design. While all the kingdoms of this world will crumble and pass away and we saw their ruins, His kingdom will last forever and all knees will ultimately bow to Him. On this trip we have recommitted our lives to Him-to live in such a way that the world may knowthat Jesus is lord and worships Him forever.  

Toddism's

#5 "There once was a Rabbi..."

#4 "God is in this place"

#3 "You Bless me"

#2 "Aaaaagh!"

#1 "Come, Lets go."

Future #1 will be... "Eh"

You know you've been to Israel on a GTI study tour when you've ...

5. climbed mountains with "sticks" (hiking poles to us in Canada) despite the Rabbi's protestations.

4.  put your feet in all kinds of waters:  the Mediterranean, the Jordan, the Hezekiah tunnel, Ein Gedi and the Dead Sea to name a few.

3.  climbed so many mountains that you should've reached heaven.

2.  descended the depths of every cistern and tunnel on the GTI itinerary.

1.  Set out 3 liters of water daily (sorry, don't know how to convert that into American gallons anymore) in 47 degree temperatures (too many degrees Fahrenheit to count.)

S - story, standing stones, sticks...SHEPHERD'S STAFF

T - teaching that deeply inspired us

I - INSULA!!!!!!!

C - Cultural context that made everything 3-D for us

K - Knowing NOT where we were going next

 

5.  2,800 kms  - we travelled by bus

4.  800 litres - the fuel our bus consumed (Israel gets most of its gas and oil from Russia and other eastern block countries - not surprisingly Arab countries wouldn't supply Israel)

3.  900 pitas - the lunches we ate (14 days - 60 people plus the pitas at our farewell dinner)

2.  420 litres - of pop and juice that we drank at lunch (Coke, Diet Coke, Sprite, Mango, Grapefruit and Banana-Strawberry)

1.  3,600 litres - of water that we drank on our hikes (300 6-packs of 2 litre bottles) that works out to 1,800 bottles, 60 litres per person, over 4 litres of water per day per person (I drank 6 litres on Timnah-Mike)

P.S. Actually the numbers came from our bus driver, and he was amused because in his eastern mindset he had never considered this important, but neither had anyone asked him before!  Of course we westerners must know this!