Hey everyone!

Leah and I are back in Jerusalem again after a fast trip through southern Israel. We keep saying to ourselves that the days cannot get any busier than yesterday and somehow our guides figure out how to pack more in. I love it though, and so does Leah. We feel so blessed to be learning so much (our guide is Dr. Rassmussen, who wrote a Bible atlas at the request of Zondervan publishers), and we are not only learning it but experiencing it. Leah and I have made a habit of going through each days pictures with each other and we get so excited to show this person or that person, and are especially excited to use certain ones for teaching someday. Leah takes some awesome pictures and procrastinates homework by adding captions to them once they are on Facebook. Sometime she gets tired of carrying the camera around but then she gets so excited about something (who wouldn't get excited about ancient ruins and biblical landmarks?) that she takes the camera right back.

This short trip of ours took us from the valley of Elah, where David fought Goliath, to the Mediterranean sea, to the Dead Sea, and back again to Jerusalem. Because we saw so much and visited so many sites it felt like we were gone for weeks. Temperatures consistently over 100 degrees makes time feel slower I guess.

Anyway, we visited the valley of Elah, which is located in an area known as the Shephelah, or lowland, as it appears in most Bibles today. This lowland is comprised of disconnected but rolling hills and is the majority of the land designated to Judah in the tribal allotments on the west it turns into the coastal plains, the east the infamous Judean wilderness where David hid and Jesus was tempted also the Dead sea, to the south is the Negev and the Sinai peninsula, and to the north is ofcourse, Jerusalem.

The coastal plain in the south was the area that the Philistine cities were located, Gaza, Ashkelon, Ekron, Ashdod, and Gath. We saw Gath from the vantage point of Azekah, overlooking the field where David fought Goliath. It was amazing to see the hills that opposed each other and how because of the shape of the land it would not be difficult at all to estimate where the Philistine army would have stood facing Saul's army. Throughout the rest of the valley there are many, many, Judean cities that were preserved enough to confirm and further biblical stories and understandings. We observed Lachish, Socoh, and a few others on our way to Ashkelon. Ashkelon is the only one of the Philistine cities to be located directly on the sea shore because the coast in Israel does not lend to shipping at all. Here at Ashkelon we were able to swim and that was so extremely refreshing.

As we moved back east we stayed the night at a place called Mitzpeh Ramon, a city overlooking what is known as the "super bowl" - no connection to the nfl. It's essentially a tear in the earth the drops a thousand or so feet. This significantly altered trade routes in Israel, even still, it alters travel at 28 miles long and about 12 miles wide.

The next day we saw Oboda/Avedat, an important, (formerly) wealthy, east-west trade city. The primary event on this day however was our "wadi walk". A wadi is where water runs through during the winter and typically dries up during the summer, this one had a small stream in it. Here we experienced why most of the travel routes existed at the tops of these wadi's. We had a blast hiking through and then almost straight up to get out, but it was clear that it was not the preffered place to travel.

Im running out of time now, but I will be writing more soon! If you wouldn't mind praying for us that would be excellent. We are starting to feel a bit worn out, I am not complaining, but some rest from God would be great. We will pray for you too, if you send requests!