Rethinking

So, upon considering that paying for internet is not something I want to figure into my budget for this trip, I don't think I will be updating on my current trip in the Holy Land.

I will, hopefully, gather together my dizzying cluster of thoughts when I return, and post them on this blog. Until then, I beg for your patience. (I know many of you wait for these words with bated breath and all...)

But, before I go, two quick notes:

[1] The Holy Land is far more complex than I could have ever imagined. Suffice to say, there is a wall that will eventually enclose the birthplace of our Savior and Lord in the Christian church. A barrier to separate Bethlehem from Jerusalem. How can this be right?

[2] I experienced something more beautiful than I could ever hope to relate in an online journal. It was the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. And it was Greek Orthodox. Ben, I wish you could have been there for the service. It was truly out of this world.

I am blessed. I have a whole new concept of what 'peace' could mean, and how elusive it truly is.

What a beautiful and overwhelming place.

Holy, Holy, Holy

I have arrived here in the Holy Land, and instead of writing once when I get back, when I don't have words for the experience, I shall write once now, while I still don't have any words. I'm not sure how many more opportunities I'll have for internet access, so a small computer in the corner of a Jordanian hotel sounds perfect to me.

We are, as noted, in Jordan, and we will cross over the border into the West Bank in a few days. The schedule is absolutely packed, which works well with my lingering jet lag. Tomorrow we ride camels across the desert and explore Petra, where the famous ruins into the side of a massive cliff were made even more famous in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

This is such a phenomenal place, and I will never understand or comprehend it fully, but I will continue to try.

So much of this place reminds me of Africa - so beautiful, so dry, so poor. It is good to be here. I am blessed for the opportunity.

Holy Land, Round 1. Completed.