Looking for Jesus

Fifty two of our Josiah Venture teammates met up at the airport this afternoon to begin a trip of a lifetime.

We are here in Israel, Jesus' home, and where the roots of our faith are! Praise the Lord everyone arrived safely from ten different countries, with luggage. That's a small miracle in itself! But that meant we were actually on our bus on time, headed to our first location of sight-seeing and learning.

Joining us on the tour this week is our friend and tour guide from past tours, Andrey. He will be with us all week. And seriously, this man is like a walking "Google" website when it comes to knowledge about his country! It's a privilege to have him with us.

We headed to Mount Arbel, which is a great vantage point for starting out a tour of the Holy Land. With a view over the Sea of Galilee (or Lake Kinneret, as they actually call it in Israel), it was the perfect place for Dave to start teaching today. 

And getting us all to do a little Bible memorization with hand motions!

As we worked on memorizing a familiar passage, Matthew 28:16, a verse that is at the heart of our ministry (so I think most everyone knows it already!), I was reminded of two things.

One is that our mission is ALWAYS to make disciples. And who IS a disciple? Someone that takes what has been given to them and passes it on.

And the second thing is that we are always to "look for Jesus". In that verse, there is the familiar section that says, "And lo, I am with you always." In the original language, that is actually a command telling us to "Look" for Jesus...because he's with us always.

I've seen him numerous times already today, and am sure He will be with us every step of this trip!