New York was a blast - time to get to Israel

 Wow!  New York was a blast and was blessed to see 2 very important things in the first 1.5 days we were there.  If you are on FB, check out my page, it has all the pics...if you not, give me some time, trying to figure out how to put it in a blog format photo album....but its been great..we will be back here in 8 days to close out our trip.

So today, is Wednesday in Israel, its approximately 10:30pm while in Hawaii its 9:30am Wednesday morning.  We got on our United Airlines flight and left Newark Airport @ about 12:30am, Wednesday morning and got into Israel, like 4.5 hours ago...what a flight..long and pretty crazy..a lot of stuff was going on around us in the airplane..not used to all the commotion flying over the Atlantic ocean..but we got here safe and we got through Immigration, got our bags, got through customs and found our guide, Hillel...a guy born in Ohio but living in Israel for over 40 years.  We met our group of 14 (including Brandi and I), a couple from North Carolina and 5 couples

 from Northern California (including David and Monica Stoker who used to live in Hawaii and is our connection to this trip).  Had a great Mediterranean style dinner and will be up and at em tomorrow at 6am. Here is our schedule for tomorrow as we begin our first full day in Israel:

Caesarea, Magiddo, Nazareth, Fransiscan Wedding Chapel in Cana as we stay in Tiberia for the next 2 days.

So looking forward to see the history and culture that Jesus walked over 2000 years ago.

We got to meet and share with the group tonight after dinner, great group of people and we are all first time visitors to Israel except the Stokers..so we are all living this out for the first time.

Lord, thank you for getting us here safely, thank you for your continued grace and mercy. To You be the glory!!!

Our guide shared 2 Psalms with us as we boarded the bus from the airport, and Psalm 122 was so encouraging and blessed:

I rejoiced with those who said to me,  “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”

2 Our feet are standing in your gates, Jerusalem.

3 

Jerusalem is built like a city  that is closely compacted together.

4 That is where the tribes go up—    the tribes of the Lord—to praise the name of the Lord  according to the statute given to Israel.
5 There stand the thrones for judgment, the thrones of the house of David.

6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: “May those who love you be secure.
7 May there be peace within your walls and security within your citadels.”
8 For the sake of my family and friends, I will say, “Peace be within you.”
9 For the sake of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek your prosperity.

Time to go to sleep...more tomorrow..love you all and God bless...appreciate all the prayers.  

Aloha

Sean