Traveling Together

Here I am meeting our group. People from all over: Oregon, Indiana, Florida, and other fun spots. What else do you do when you sit in O'hare with 2.5 hours before our flight leaves. The nice thing about this is that we are not traveling alone. We have a great group of brothers and sisters of Christ on a "family" vacation.

Our guide, leader, rabbi, or George, went to seminary with me, oh so many years ago. It was really nice to see him again and we are looking forward to renewing acquaintances.

Back when I was in seminary I served as the student body president. So I was asked to give an official "thanks" for a painting that was donated. It was called "The Joyful Procession" and depicted a group of disciples enthusiastically following Jesus. I got a real strong feeling that the group we are with will be a lot like the group in the painting. Everyone seems very enthusiastic and eager to walk with Jesus on the rocky paths where scripture was written.

Preparing for Life

On most occasions when I take a trip I will usually pack my bag a half hour before we take off. However, going to the Middle East has fired me up so much that I packed my bag two weeks ago. In fact all of the preparation that Laura and I have done has been exciting, from reading the books, buying the clothing and gear, to getting in physical shape for the trip. All of this for two weeks of traveling.

This has made me question why I do not do this type of training for life, or I should say the Christian Life. The training has been part of the trip itself, making the trip that much longer and more enjoyable. It has taken some extra money and certainly more time, but it has been quite enjoyable preparing for this adventure.

What if we would work at preparing for the rest of our lives, or say eternity, like we might prepare for a trip of a lifetime? I think this would make life much more of an adventure all the way to the very end. I hope to continue the preparation once we are back from Israel. Only this time I will be preparing for the "other" Promised Land.

Preparing for a Trip

When Laura and I were given a very generous gift from our church to travel to Israel we quickly looked at a variety of options for going there. We decided on traveling with Under the Fig Tree Ministries. This is an organization which takes you to Egypt, Jordan and Israel to follow in the footsteps of the people of God and of our Savior. The teacher/leader is Rev. George DeJong who will serve as our guide. We will be doing a lot of walking and go to places that are not normally on an itinerary to The Holy Land. In fact, our trip will begin in Egypt and pass through the Sinai Peninsula, head to Jordan and then cross the Jordan River into Israel.

The philosophy behind this trip is that we will learn with our feet; that is, we will be hiking almost everyday from 6 to 10 miles, much of it up and down mountains. We will also be reading and taking notes on all of the places we will be traveling to. So in preparation for this trip we have been doing a variety of things.

We have been hiking and running to get into better shape. I like to run so I have been running a little over three miles a day. Laura has been doing some vigorous walking and running stairs. She likes to go to the Grandville Middle School football stadium and run up and down the bleachers -- 34 steps up and 34 steps down up to 30 times in an evening. That is just over 2,000 steps. However, climbing Mt. Sinai will be twice that just to get to the top! Usually we try to save Fridays for a long walk together. We strap on our hiking boots, grab our hiking poles and take off for a hike of four or five miles in the hilliest places we can find. We are finding out that we like both the hiking and the time to talk.


We are also doing a bunch of reading. We have read The Source by Michener which is an historical fiction book about the history of the Jews in the land of Israel. It is an interesting book but can be difficult to read as Christianity is not placed in a very warm light. We have also read The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Jesus by Bruce Fisk. This is an innovative approach to the study of the life of Jesus. It is written from the perspective of a college student who travels through Israel looking to fortress his faith with an in depth study of the life of Jesus in the same places where that life was lived. Laura has also read a novel about Masada called Dove Keepers and I read Who’s Land, Who’s Promise, a commentary about the contemporary political situation in Israel and Palestine. Presently I am reading The Great War for Civilization by Robert Fisk, which is a journalistic history of the Middle East conflict over the past 20 years. We have also been reading the historical books of the Bible from Moses through Jesus.

The most important preparation for such a trip is the opening of our hearts to what the Lord will tell us during this experience. Obviously the Lord speaks the most clearly through the Bible. However, when you take the Bible to the place that it talks about and describes, we anticipate that there will be another level of revelation which will speak to us. It is a revelation which I am sometimes able to enjoy when, in the study of the context and culture of the Bible lands, I all of a sudden experience an epiphany of understanding into the will of the Lord. How much better it should be to travel through this country with an expert teacher who will point out to us so many things which will add understanding to our faith. This will be wonderful.

So our preparation is close to being complete. We are almost ready to hike, climb, see and experience the Land of the Bible.

Packing for a Trip

How do you get ready for a trip to the Middle East?  Well first of all you need some type of luggage.  Even though I have traveled to a variety of countries in Latin America, Asia, Europe and Africa, I have always used an old backpack that my dear wife bought me for Christmas about 30 years ago.  It is still going strong and I could take it on this trip too.  But I thought that this trip deserved something new, so I got a new piece of luggage from Patagonia called the MLC -- Maximum Legal Carry-on.  I figure that going to the Middle East in the summer, when the temperature will be about 100 degrees during the day, I will not need to take too much clothing along.

Laura also got a new piece of luggage.  Her duffle bag of 25 years was stolen in South Africa and she really needed something new.  Actually hers is what I call “pullage”.  I have to lug mine and she gets to pull hers because they took a couple wheels off a roller blade and bolted them to the end of her luggage, turning it into pullage.  Hers is bigger than mine and does not fit in the overhead compartment.  But that is just fine.  If I run out of room I will just stuff something in her bag and she can pull it around for me.

Besides new bags we decided we should get new shoes.  (This trip is getting expensive.)  I have been wearing some Asolo hiking shoes for five years; I mean every day for five years.  They have finally worn out, at least there is very little sole left.  So I thought I would just get a new pair of the same thing.  Can’t go wrong with that.  Laura lost her best hiking shoes in Africa and has not been able to find anything that fits her glass-slipper feet.  Finally, she fell in love with a pair of Keens and has been breaking them in for the last couple of months.  Those boots were made for walking and she can walk all over me.

So now we have bags and boots.  We are almost packed.  Moving up the anatomy we have a few pairs of short, wool hiking socks and also water sandals for when we are not hiking.  We have a couple of convertible pants which we can zip the legs off when it gets hot and turn them into shorts.  Both of us have a few light-weight shirts to protect from the sun.  We also have to take a light jacket along for the night we spend on Mt. Sinai.  Each of us also has our favorite quarter-zip fleece that should work out well.  Oh yes, something for the head.  I still have a floppy hat from Africa and Laura will be crowned with a wonderful sun hat.  I was looking for a fur felt fedora on the order of Indiana Jones, but I can’t believe how hot they are.  Harrison Ford had an air conditioned trailer when he made that movie in Jordan.

There is really not much more to take.  But some extras that we will take along include a camelbak for our water and “stuff” for the hikes.  We have a little camera and I am also taking my iPad so I can take notes and stay in touch with family and church.  And of course we will have our binoculars.  We don’t go anywhere these days without them.  Israel is one of the best birding destinations in the world.  In the land where Jesus told his disciples to “watch the birds,” we want to prepare ourselves to be as obedient as possible.

Now we still have to find out if it all fits into the bag.  After doing a bit of traveling we have developed a Mary Poppins knack of packing everything into our bags so I don’t see any trouble in getting it all in.  We are not really looking to bring home any religious relics from our trip.  No pieces of the cross for us.  We just want to be light and nimble so we can walk in the steps of God’s people and of our Savior for a couple of joy-filled weeks.