A few final words

JUNE 1—The Journey to Two Holy Lands is drawing to a close. We’ll be getting up at 2:30 tomorrow morning for a two hour bus ride to Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, which allows us three hours to clear security and be ready for our flight to London. We have a five-hour layover there, and then a long flight to Calgary. I make it home to Winnipeg mid-afternoon on Tuesday, June 3.

This blog has provided something of a chronicle of our journeys. It is far from complete. In fact, I’m staying at the hotel on the final day in order to rest and catch up on some reading and writing projects. So you won’t hear about the exciting places on the agenda for today from me.

We’ve gone a lot of places and done a lot of things in the past 30 days, and we’re going to be hard-pressed to remember much of it. But the images we collected and notes we took will certainly remind us of countless interesting insights and poignant moments. There have been many.

Throughout the summer we’ll be processing the incredible amounts of information and wealth of experience we packed into 30 days in Ethiopia, Israel and Jordan. To grow in understanding is our goal, and it’s safe to say that although we’ve come a long way, there’s a long way yet to go. Our knowledge base is much larger, and we are more keenly aware than ever of how much more there always is to learn.

I may or may not be posting a few more reflections on this blog site. I do plan to leave it online indefinitely. And sometime in the next few weeks I’ll probably flip it around so that it reads chronologically, rather than having the newest post at the top of the homepage. Enjoy it for whatever it’s worth to you. My prayer is that everyone who touches this venture in one way or another will grow in understanding.