Hello Everyone! I hope your summer is going well! I know mine has been extraordinary! God is amazing!
My exciting summer started at Summit with my MIT fam! After Summit I had a week or so of pretty chill time in Boston, during which I must have helped a million people move out (ok more like 15), drove to New York for dinner, volunteered at Commencement (congratulations class of 2011!), went to the biggest party ever (MIT 150!), and spent some quiet time with God before heading out to Israel!
My trip to Israel was amazing! I am actually at a loss of words for how to explain how amazing it really was. For those who know me well, that is amazing in itself! But before I even try, I must thank all of you that supported me, financially and through prayer, in going to Israel. It was truly a life-changing experience, and I owe it to you for investing in me and making this pilgrimage possible.
Again … I really don’t know where to start. I apologize now if this entry is a little long and scattered. I definitely can’t fit everything into one entry, so I might make another one. Anyways, please find me and ask me questions. But beware, once I get started… (lol). There are more pictures here, and soon on facebook. And here is a cool article I am mentioned in!
In coming to Israel, I had to pray and trust God more than ever before. When I first heard about the trip, I didn’t even have a passport! For me, this trip was God driven from the beginning. I knew He was paving the way for me to go on the trip, so I wanted to be sure I was submitting to His will. I realized that I knew relatively little about Israel. I only knew tidbits from verses I had skimmed over in the Bible, and I knew even less about its current condition. Thankfully, I was given the book God Keeps Covenant by Wendy D. Beckett. By reading the devotional, I began to understand God’s covenant with Israel as well as His love for Israel. I became very excited to have the opportunity to visit such a rich and blessed nation. My prayer before leaving Boston was that Father God would give me His heart for Israel that I might not act according to my weakness and shortsightedness, but that I “may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge that [I] may be filled up with all the fullness of God.”
So, I went with Breaker of Dawn Ministries, along with 13 other young adults, warriors in Christ, and future leaders, on a mission trip to Israel. The purpose of the trip was for us to understand more about the eternal promises of the Bible as well as to learn the significance of Israel to the Christian faith. We did over the course of 8 days, what some do in months in Israel. Highlights of the trip include going to Israel’s independence hall, praise and worship on the beach (and lots of other places), going to the Mount of Beatitutes, a 4 hour jeep ride, all night prayer meetings, praying for rain (and it later raining!), baptism in the Jordan, praying for Sudanese refugees, worship on the sea of Galilea, floating on the Dead Sea, riding camels, entertaining Holocaust survivors, going to the garden of Gethsetheme, quiet time in the Mount of Olives, going to the western wall, and praying in the upper room (the room where they believe Christ and the disciples had the last supper). Shout out to our amazing guide Tisha and bus driver Shabi!
During my trip to Israel I learned a ton about Israel, its history and present, myself, and about God and His majesty. But what impacted me most was His presence. I don’t know whether to attribute it to being in Israel, being surrounded by such great men and women of God, or simply the action taking about a week to drop everything else and to seek Him (I suspect it’s a combination of the three with the addition of His grace), but while in Israel I felt God’s presence so constantly, heard his voice so much clearer, and felt his touch so much greater than I ever had before. I am so honored and humbled that the God, by whose tongue the universe was birthed, would place His hand on my life, speak to me, and even allow me to enter His presence. How awesome is our God!
I know that God is real, and He is so much greater than I, or anyone else, can ever imagine. He is such a brilliant God. My pastor was referencing a friend of his when he said something along the lines of: “we are playing checkers while God is playing three dimensional chess.” God’s plan and what he has in store completely blows my mind and is the cause of much excitement! Something that I learned is that God actually desires to use us, and if we only submit to Him, the sky is not even the limit; it becomes a springboard upon which we jump into Abba’s loving arms.
It is easily apparent to me that my life will never be the same. It can’t, nor will I allow it. After seeing God and His word so manifest, how can I walk away unchanged. I have a new fire for God and his kingdom, and a new love for his people, Jewish and Gentile, and a new passion to share with nations the Glory of my God and the Magnificence of my Savior, Jesus Christ. Knowing that through Jesus Christ, God made a new covenant with the peoples of this world, His Children (his chief and most prized possession); that God so loved the world, that He gave his only begotten son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross for our sins, and if we but believe in Him, we shall not perish, but we will have everlasting life! If I learned nothing else through my pilgrimage of Israel, I learned that God Keeps Covenant, exceedingly and abundantly above all we can think or imagine! Hallelujah!
