In the Negev Desert

First of all I apologize for the spelling errors! After spending all day hiking and thinking, trying to write this late at night, I know after reading each day, I made some errors, but I think you still will get the spirit of what we are experiencing.

Each day seems to build upon each other and honestly I can say each day seems to top the previous one, today was no exception.

Again we got up early, we arrived in the Negev Desert last night and woke up to a beautiful sunrise.

Out hotel was situated at the edge of a crater and you could see forever. After breakfast, we all loaded up in Jeeps and went down to the bottom of the crater. Our guide was an expert in desert life and all the different rocks around us. Unfortunately, I have never looked closely at the beauty in the desert and we learned so much today, I will never see it in the same light.

Above is a photo of the lesson the guide was teaching us about the crater, August then drew the same picture in the sand and totally understood the concept. (Little ears are listening!)

While we were in the desert, we decided it was the perfect place to place our stones in rememberance of God's faithfulness to each of us. It is an Old Testament tradition to take stones and put them in a special place. It is taken from Joshua four in the Bible. Ken and I have placed stones all over the world and have prayed for each of our kids, their spouses and each grandchild for God's blessing and direction in their lives. We have done this for about 35 years. When we were all in Mexico ten years ago our whole family did this together and now we wanted to do it again.

We all gathered together and prayed for our generations and the generations to come after us.

Ken and I pray this will be a reminder of God's love for each person standing in the circle together.

After our desert experience, we were on our way to another hike through a large canyon. Upon arriving there, we found out the trail was closed because of the recent rains, there was a lot of disappointment, but we did hike from the top and went partly down.

David then gave a faith story about Moses and Elijah, and how different God voice is heard. God's voice sometimes speaks in the wind, fire and earthquake, but in Elijah's case it was in the still smile voice. We were challenged to think about we hear God's voice in our lives. It can be different for all of us. 

As if all we had already done in the morning was not enough, we then went on a camel ride! Yes, I said camel. It was so much fun! We went to a place where there were Bedouin tents and they had camels to ride. We rode for about a half an hour and saw shepherds as we rode. It was a beautiful sight. Some funny moments were when the camels got up, there was a lot of grunting by the camels! We have been eating well, but that is kinda rude!

After our ride we were treated to an authentic Bedouin lunch, we were so hungry, everything was fantastic.

After lunch, a Bedouin man came and told us about the Bedouin lifestyle.

By now it was getting late and we still had a two and a half hour ride to Jerusalem. We left the desert having a new love and respect for the desert dwelling people and the Children of Israel, who wandered in the desert for forty years. 

God continues to lead his people in the promised land.