This is a nice bus, but...

Miles and miles of hot desert. Winds blow dust and sand so hard that somehow it finds its way into my nostrils as I sit in my back row on the bus. A stray camel and herds of sheep and goats are the only signs of life spotted along the way. We stop for lunch at a random McDonalds and Coffee shop combined with a gas station in the middle of literally no where. You try hard to just breathe through your nose just so that the desert doesn't fly into your lungs. This is not the favorite stretch in our wondrous trip.

I got my guitar out to sing a few songs in an attempt to break up the monotony and get our minds of the drive. It was pretty neat to think about driving through the same area (Negev) with our people that Moses lead his people through thousands of years ago. I can't imagine being out there in the desert on foot. As we sang together to get our mind off the drive I thought of Moses and them singing songs as they journeyed along. I'm sure you'd need things like that to keep from running back to Egypt.

We had two other stops today before we arrived at Jerusalem. Our first one was at Beer Sheva. Beer meaning "well" and Sheva meaning "treaty", Beer Sheva means "well treaty". Dating back to the days of Abraham who built the well in 8th Century BC, this well puts to shame the cutesy little things we imagine or see on flannel graphs in Sunday school. The well was deeeeeep, and huge. Definitely worthy of a protective grate on the top to keep anyone from falling down there. However, if you did fall in, don't worry about the rescue...you won't require one. You fall in and you get to meet Jesus. It was still blowing sand and dust around so we didn't stay long.

After another long ride on the bus we finally arrived at the famous Valley of Ela. Immediately you could see the characters come to life right in front of you. We stopped to read the story in 1 Samuel 17 and sang a song standing right in the dried up creek that David selected his 5 stones from (and yes, I picked up 5 of my own too).

Another 20 minutes and we finally arrived in Jerusalem. Wow, this place is huge! I'm looking forward to walking it all out starting tomorrow in Bethlehem. I anticipate great emotion and deeper meanings to be realized.

Now, to get some sleep.

Till tomorrow, Shalom!

Justin