Friend,

You’ve journeyed with me for over a month now. I thought I’d be writing to you just while in Israel, yet I was surprised at how full the days and how full the mind became while there. Now that my letters have lingered into April, you’ve been kind to tell me how grateful you are to have somewhere to go while you stay at home. 

Our family has been doing a few puzzles this season, especially when the rain falls and dusk gives way to dark. It is addictive as I find where one piece goes after another. The same is true with my processing this trip to Israel. 

I’d like to leave you with some fun facts that I picked up along the way:

• Lot’s wife was turned into a pillar of salt. When you consider where the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were in relation to the Salty Sea (Dead Sea), this connects.

• Some friends and I went to dinner one night not far from our hotel in Jerusalem and passed by the U.S. Embassy. A new one, no doubt.

• Eli Cohen was an Israeli spy in Syria and worked his way up to the Ministry of Defense and lead Israel to win the Golan Heights. While in Syria, he planted eucalyptus trees near the land mines to help out his Israeli people. Check out The Spy on Netflix.

• I wish to have offered you a scratch and sniff of the hyssop in Nazareth that day. I was able to bring home the spice from the market in Jerusalem. I served it to my family with olive oil and bread. 

• I took you with me to Masada, En Gedi, and Qumran. This would have been the very terrain where Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness. The Israelites wandered beyond Egypt and eventually made their way into the Promise Land, Canaan, the land flowing with milk and honey. It would have been this terrain where they wandered. Imagine. Just imagine. 

• The tombs outside the Golden Gate (Eastern Gate) are a part of the Muslim Cemetery. (Left) The tombs on the Mount of Olives are a part of the Jewish Cemetery. (Right)

• Meet Moshe and Don, shop owners and brothers in the Jewish Quarter. My friend and I spent the afternoon shopping throughout Jerusalem to stumble upon this beautiful treasure of a place. Even my friend, Cindy, who was on a similar tour days behind us, was able to go and shop and meet these wonderful people. You know me and maps and anything that has a story. Well, everything in this shop has a story! And Scripture. Needless to say, my family gifts came from this very place!

• Guess what was found in the caves along with the ancient scrolls? 8 of these! Muzuzahs. Not that I have an original, but I do have one made by a local woman named Amalia, who uses pieces of gravel and stone around town. I spotted them on the hotel room doorposts and at many entrances around the city. 

I’ve discovered ways to continue to explore the Holy Land and I want to share those with you. I know some of your trips to Israel have been postponed. Some hope to go later in 2020. Others were with me on the trip and want to continue to connect the dots and explore the land and the text.

• Kathy Gifford’s online study: The Rock, The Road, and The Rabbi, starts April 20 for free. I’ll be doing this each Monday as she releases 6 videos weekly. 

• Kay Arthur does a study alongside a 30 minute Right Now Media video. There are 20 sessions and it comes with a study guide. I hope to do this as well. 

Here are some books and shows that I want to share:

(Note: I cannot endorse all of them, but they do come recommended from those I respect.)

• Ken Costa wrote a recent book about Joseph of Arimathea.

• Me and my son Sam love reading the 4 volumes of Story of the World. If you want an overview of history from ancient times until present, check these books out.

• The Spy on Netflix

• A.D. TV series

• Masada movie from 1981

• Fauda show on Netflix comes highly recommended by our travel guide about the Palestinians.

Friend, as I close out this letter, I want to thank you again for journeying with me to Israel and back home safely. My hope with each letter has been for you to draw closer to God. A part of me is sad to set down the letters as I have gotten to scroll through pictures on a daily basis. I will not, however, set down these memories or my thirst to know God and His Word more.

If you don’t receive notice of my writings, I’d love to let you know when I post again.

I have one more letter to write and that is to Israel, a land I pray I visit again and a people I have grown to love and pray for.

Blessings and peace be upon you,

Shauna

(Facts shared come from the Scriptures and from the tour with Insight for Living Ministries. Imagination from my own heart.)