Israel and Jordan

We are going on an OAT trip to Jordan and Israel in just a few weeks, 12-16 travelers. While it is not specifically a Christian group, the itinerary is full of Christian sites. I think it helps us learn by going to a variety of sites.

My husband and I took the OAT Israel tour with the Jordan pretrip April 2011. The entire experience intrigued me enough that I wrote a far too wordy article to ever get published in ITN. In essence, the entire trip was exhausting, but fascinating. We saw the ancient sites of Jordan, including Jerash and Petra, as well as Medeba where King David fought the Moabites and Mount Nebo, where Moses looked into the Holy Land. Petra, probably Sela and Jokeheel in the Old Testament, proved our highlight.

Although we booked this trip seeking a multi-faith emphasis (Christian, Islam, and Jewish), our guide opted to focus on Christianity because the majority of the group was Christian. Thus, we missed the Kabbalah Synagogues of Safed and other non-Christian experiences. We our path followed that of most tour groups, but without religious services at various churches and with a broader historical and political perspective.

Ultimately, our experience extended beyond religious perspectives. I summarized our experience in a photoessay following the trip: We 'drowned' at Rosh Hanikra, saw amazing flowers at Kabbutz Zkfar Haruz, waded in the Dead Sea, jeeped into the Judea Desert, and hiked into the lush oasis of En Gedi. But most valuable was the mosaic of perspectives we gained from everyone we met: ultra-Orthodox David, kibbutz host Reut, Druze hostess Fauzia, Holocaust survivor Sah'ia, Armenian Palestinian Arda, Bedouin Hostess Sara, and our guide Asher. Israel is a beautiful, diverse country with nearly impossible issues to resolve. It's about religion, security, water, and the land...

All in all, this was a good experience, definitely mind stretching.