Sit and Be Fit, Here I Come!
Holy Land Tour - Blog Day 11
BBB is back again!!! We are back at our hotel, Nof Ginosar, for our second night and its 10:30pm our time which is 2:30 San Antonio time. Today was filled with beauty in God's creation, laughter, prayer, and lots of learning from "Becca T. Great". We went to several sights today that provided great photos even though the sand storm affects are still in place. Fitbit readings for today were: Stairs - 40, miles - 7.2, and steps 17,536. Although this may not sound like a crazy day considering all the high steps and stair count of previous days, but remember we hiked down a super steep mountain yesterday so some of our (ME) legs are not recovered….at all. Going down 1 step sends shockwaves through my body at this point. We all decided once you get going everything is fine, but if you stop and start…trouble. Tomorrow is our last day of study and we will be heading back to Jerusalem for our last 2 nights before heading home. Bitter sweet for some of us. We can't wait to get back, but don't want this amazing experience to end.
Fun facts for today…
Today were the day folks. Today blister #3, Bubbles, had its time in the Sea of Galilee. It was after a long day of hiking and climbing so we were all extremely surprised to see just how grown up Bubbles had become in one day. What a strong little sucker. We are still holding out hope that he will find another dwelling sooner rather than later. As we were anticipating the "baptism" of Bubbles later in the afternoon, we had an unexpected loss. My 2nd pair of sunglasses had somehow received the gift of flatness via someone's rear-end. Papa T saw my poor injured gasses and pulled out the band aid kit that was so thoughtfully packed for him by Momma T. He went to work on them and in a few minutes time we had a "semi-repaired" pair of sunglasses. Off we go on the first hike and not 10 minutes in, the glasses hit the floor and the fall took them out. There was no turning back at that point. We found the closest trashcan and laid them to rest. Odd that in the same day we lay to rest our old sunglasses we also baptize Bubbles. CRAZY! It's the circle of life peeps. See pics. #RIPSunglass2
Our bus drive's name is Achmed (sp?) and he is THE BOMB! He is noted as the best bus driver in the middle east and every time we stop anywhere the store owners and other bus drivers come to him as if he was the pope of busses. Tyler Bryant made a great suggestion and that was to rewrite the lyrics to Roxanne and put his name in its place. So, here I go…
Achhhhh-med
You don't have to run all the red lights
Those days are over
You don't have to sleep in the bus tonight.
Achhhhh-med
You don't have to drive us through the night
Walk the streets for pita
You don't care if it's wrong or if its right.
Ok, so maybe I'm not a songwriter. But, I gotta tell you, this man can DRIVE a bus. He backs that thing in and out of parking spaces. He can turn that thing on a dime, it seems. We are safe with him and we all love him. (He may or may not like to run red lights, lol)
Ok, let's just take a minute to discuss the level of function, or disfunction, in my legs today…After hiking down Mount Everest yesterday I informed yall of my fear of leg failure. Well, good thing for the bones today because the muscles have gone on strike. They are refusing to negotiate anymore so we are strictly functioning via our strong healthy bones. Every time we get out of the bus, there are yells and screams as the devil is trying to set fire to my legs. Satan Be Gone! I am going to pray tonight for peaceful negotiations between my leg muscles and my leg bones and hopefully both will show up for work tomorrow. Otherwise, this girl is gunna look like the inflatable stick man in front of the car dealerships everywhere. If we don't get this conflict resolved soon, Sit and Be Fit will be my only option. Lord, hear our prayers! #LegsLikeJelly
Now for the good stuff…
We started off at Dan where we got to see the largest of all the headwaters and the most plentiful spring in all of the middle east. This is the water that feeds into the Jordan River. You wanna talk about beautiful? This place was a paradise. Gorgeous green land and breath taking waterfalls. Becca read to us Jeremiah 8:16 and we discussed how sometimes the things that are easy and beautiful can distract us from listening to our Lord. This was a great analogy for some of us as we LOVED this land, but also understood that this land was something that took their focus OFF of God and created a false sense of power and control. CRAZY! These pictures will blow you away.
We left Dan and went to Mount Bental to eat lunch and attempt to see the panoramic views, but due to the lingering sand storm we were not able to see nearly as much as is usual for that spot. We were also able to see a large cave and took some great pictures in some of the niches built into the walls. Once we were finished up at Mount Bental, we headed down the road to Banyas Waterfalls…HOLY HAMBURGER! This place is gorgeous. We walked a bologna ton of stairs to get to the falls, but it was totally worth it. Some team members chose to stay at the bottom and take in everything and avoid those crazy steps. The water was clear and powerful. The landscape was straight out of a movie. The hike was like 1000 needles being pushed into my thighs at every second turn and every stair. But, even with that pain, it was WELL worth it. We have a partial group shot of all those that hiked down to see the falls. We were also able to look into some old bunkers. Those pictures are also really cool to look through. It's absolutely crazy what these people of ancient time figured out. While down there we also saw that someone had carved/scraped the shape(ish) of Texas in the side of the cliff. Looks cool, but not cool. #IFallYouFallWeAllFall4aWaterfall
We left the beauty of these places and headed back to our hotel to change into swimsuits and head to the beach. Only problem, there isn't really a beach. A few of us still put the swimsuit on, walked into the Sea of Galilee and stood there for a few minutes, then decided to head to the pool. Oh well, we tried. (Bubbles got "baptized") Dinner was great, then we had a team meeting that included small group prayer time. This was well needed and very well received. Now as I wrap up my 3rd to last blog for you fine folks, it is 12:30am. We will see you soon, and thanks for all the prayers. Enjoy these stunning pictures from this truly majestic land.
Sarah Morris
Jelly-filled Leg Blogger
PS...Pics on FB - find the pic of the "ghost" looking image. There was ZERO light in that bunker, people. Just saying.
