There's no place like home!

Home again, home again, jiggedy jog! How wonderful it was to pull into the driveway. Since I haven't blogged since the beginning of December (and I totally blame Facebook on that!), our trip to Israel seems like it just got plunked on our plate. In reality, Luther Rice put together a Holy Land tour. Kenny suggested his services as a videographer with a paid tour. :) That didn't fly, but through God's blessings, Ken and Sandra paid for the two of us to go. We somehow made it off the waiting list and onto the tour AND got my leave on a critical day approved (of course, that critical day ended up being a snow day so all the worry was for naught).

10 days of touring the Sea of Galilee and its environs, the Dead Sea and then finally making our way to Jerusalem. It was exhausting, overwhelming, yet easily makes my top ten list of things that have majorly impacted my life. I don't think I'll sing a hymn, praise song or listen to a sermon or Bible lesson without remembering the sights I saw or the teachings I participated in. I can't wait for Wednesday to see how this trip impacts Kenny's teaching with the youth or for next Sunday when discussions during Sunday school and Ken's sermon will take on a whole new meaning.

My mom, the incomparable Neena the Great, came up for the first 5 days to keep the fires at the old Homestead burning. She and Bill just got done with a River Cruise so her coming up was a true miracle. I don't know that I could have left without her being here...one of those things that you don't know will mean so much until the moment comes.

I hope that we can someone take the kids on a Holy Land tour. I know how it affected me as a 40 year old, I can only imagine how it would have affected my life if I'd done it when I was their ages.

I met so many people that I will remember forever. They have touch my life and touched my heart.

Tonight, as I hit 40+ hrs without sleep (the dozing between stomach cramps on the 10 hr flight between Tel Aviv and Newark doesn't count) I'm emotional and not able to make much sense. Suffice it to say that I wouldn't have missed that opportunity for the world, but as Dorothy said at the end of the Wizard of Oz, "There's no place like home."