Good morning, I am up, ready to go...drinking lots of coffee in preparation for my 24 hours of travel from here to Bethlehem, Israel. I have plenty of homework and reading to do in those 24 hours to keep me occupied and enough Dramamine to keep even an elephant from having motion sickness! I hope I am drinking enough coffee.
This trip is a class on Peace and Justice and meets a cross cultural requirement for my studies at Wartburg. We are following in the footsteps of Egeria, a nun who lived in the 300's AD and took a pilgrimage to the Holy land. She kept a detailed journal of the sights, people, customs, religions, and the Holy places along the way. Egeria made many important observations which helped to understand liturgy and worship of the time, as well as helped connect simple people to Christ and the Holy Land.
We arrive in Bethlehem on Friday (tomorrow) which is Epiphany, the day we celebrate the magi arriving in Bethlehem to see the newborn baby Jesus. Sunday we will worship in Bethlehem at Christmas Lutheran Church...for this I am very excited! All week we are busy with studies, lectures, sites, free time to explore Bethlehem. On Tuesday one of the sites we will visit is the Shepherd's Field located Beit Sahour. This is where the angels appeared to the shepherd's to announce the birth of Christ. I am leading the worship service for our group at this site...I have added a link for you to learn more about this place and it's significance. We will spend a couple of nights at the Sea of Galilee and then the rest of the time living in Jerusalem.
Thank you all for your part in this pilgrimage. Thank you for your support, love and encouragement. I still can't believe that I am finally following the call to ordained ministry and in doing so find myself on a journey like this!
Did I mention 24 hours of travel? I need more coffee!
Shalom,
Ang
I am so excited for you! You are following the the journey of Egeria and I shall be doing so, too! Thanks for sharing your itinerary. I will be keeping up to date with you every single day.
ReplyDeleteI will miss you but, in a very real way, I'll be with you!
Julie
PS - Never enough coffee!
ReplyDeleteWe will be thinking of you every day and praying for a great, great experience which we know this trip will be.
ReplyDeleteWow! You are on the first leg of an awesome adventure! I am excited to follow this blog and am thankful you and Julie created this page! Love you and praying for you!
ReplyDeleteI am with you too, so excited for you and so happy you are blogging!
ReplyDeleteYippee! I'm so happy and excited for you. Love you much and can't wait to "hear" more from you on this blog.
ReplyDeleteWell, you are there! I think you arrived at 6:45 am our time which is 2:45 pm in the afternoon in Tel Aviv. I know how excited you are at the moment in spite of the lack of sleep! Have a very blessed time!
ReplyDeleteI am keeping an email of all of the text I would have been sending you. It is already loooooong.
ReplyDeleteHello from Wisconsin! How great to hear from you today through Facebook! I know you are tired and am glad you were able to get some much needed rest (and glad dad's new alarm is so awesome). I have been thinking about all the neat things you did just today--all the sights, sounds, history and HIStory! In the future when you see or read about these places it will all come back to you as if you had just been there AND believe me you will long to return! I am really glad to have an itinerary to follow--thanks!
ReplyDeleteLove you!