Our second morning began with a lovely breakfast at the hotel and we pulled out just after 8:00am. The first stop of the day was the US Capitol Building. We parked on the front side of the Capitol and then walked up the hill to the back.
From there we walked over to the Supreme Court building and took a photo of the group.
At the start of this post, I want to acknowledge the school shooting that took place at Covenant School this morning just after we arrived in Washington D.C. Covenant School is less than two miles from the Lipscomb Academy Lower School where my wife Olivia works, and less than three miles from the Upper School where both Kate and Sara attend. Learning about this during our day was overwhelming, and difficult to deal with emotionally. This was especially true considering the many connections those in the Lipscomb family have with the families who lost loved ones. While we still enjoyed our day in D.C., it understandably cast a heavy shadow. I cannot comprehend this act of evil nor the loss of these precious souls. My heart hurts and my prayers will be continually lifted for all involved.
This week I am accompanying Sara while serving as a chaperone for the Lipscomb Academy 8th Grade field trip to Washington D.C. I was able to go on the same trip four years ago with Kate, and am thrilled to be going again with Sara. Olivia dropped us off at the airport at 5:30am to meet up with our group of approximately 125 students, teachers, and chaperones. The group was split into two flights (Southwest & United), leaving at two different times, and flying to two different airports (Reagan & Dulles). Even with all of this going on, the process of getting boarding passes and navigating through security was pretty smooth. Kudos to Bob Rodgers Travel, Southwest and United Airlines for having everything ready to go!
PDF copies of the handouts and notes from my periodic series on Sunday nights at Pleasant View Church of Christ covering the feasts, festivals, and holy days of Israel.
Lesson 1 – Introduction (February 19, 2023)
Lesson 2 – Sabbath (February 26, 2023)
Lesson 3 – Passover-Part 1 (March 19, 2023)
Lesson 4 – Passover-Part 2 (March 26, 2023)
Lesson 5 – Passover-Part 3 (April 2, 2023)
Lesson 6 – First Fruits (April 16, 2023)
Lesson 7 – Pentecost (May 7, 2023)
Lesson 8 – Trumpets (May 21, 2023)
Lesson 9 – Atonement (May 28, 2023)
Lesson 10 – Tabernacles (June 4, 2023)
PDF copies of the handouts and notes from my Wednesday night class at Pleasant View Church of Christ covering Romans.
Live Stream recordings also available for each lesson on YouTube (Links below)
Introduction – Handout and Notes
Chapter 5 – Handouts and Notes
Chapter 6 – Handouts and Notes
Chapter 10 – Handout and Notes
Chapter 11 – Handout and Notes
Chapter 12 – Handout and Notes
Chapter 13 – Handout and Notes
Chapter 14 – Handout and Notes
Chapter 15 – Handout and Notes
Chapter 16 – Handout and Notes
PDF copies of the “Questions for Discussion” and notes from my Wednesday night class at Pleasant View Church of Christ covering the book of Ecclesiastes.
Lesson 01 – Introduction (August 17, 2022) / Stream
Lesson 02 – Chapter 1 (August 24, 2022) / Stream
Lesson 03 – Chapter 2 (August 31, 2022) / Stream
Lesson 04 – Chapter 3 (September 14, 2022) / Stream
Lesson 05 – Chapter 4 (September 21, 2022) / Stream
Lesson 06 – Chapter 5:1-7 (September 28, 2022) / Stream
Lesson 07 – Chapter 5:8-20 and 6 (October 5 & 12, 2022) / Stream (Part 1) / Stream (Part 2)
Lesson 08 – Chapter 7 (October 19, 2022) / Stream (Part 1) / Stream (Part 2)
Lesson 09 – Chapter 8 (November 2, 2022) / Stream
Lesson 10 – Chapter 9 (November 9, 2022) / Stream
Lesson 11 – Chapter 10 (November 30, 2022) / Stream
On select Sunday evenings in the Summer and Fall of 2022 at Pleasant View Church of Christ, we will be having a series of lessons from the Holy Lands. These lessons will be designed to help bring greater context to the narrative of scripture by focusing on the locations in which significant biblical events occurred. If you are unable to join us in person, the lessons will be also streamed via Facebook Live. Slides and notes (annotated slides) for each lesson will be posted below before each lesson. Links to the streams will be posted after the lesson as they are available.
Introduction (June 20, 2022) – Overall geography and archaeological concepts
(Slides / Annotated Slides / Stream)
Lesson 1 (June 24, 2022) – Caesarea Maritima, Tel Megiddo, Jezreel Valley
(Slides / Annotated Slides / Stream)
Lesson 2 (August 14, 2022) – Tel Megiddo, Mount Tabor, Tel Hazor
(Slides / Annotated Slides / Stream)
Lesson 3 (August 28, 2022) – Nazareth Village, Tel Dan, Caesarea Philippi
(Slides / Annotated Slides / Stream)
Lesson 4 (September 11, 2022) – Sea of Galilee, Capernaum, Mount of Beatitudes, Magdala
(Slides / Annotated Slides / Stream)
Lesson 5 (September 25, 2022) – Jordan River, Bet-She’an, Jericho, Qumran
(Slides / Annotated Slides / Stream)
Lesson 6 (October 2, 2022) – En-Gedi, Masada, the Dead Sea
(Slides / Annotated Slides / Stream)
Lesson 7 (October 23, 2022) – Tel Be’er Sheva, Valley of Elah, Herodium
(Slides / Annotated Slides / Stream)
Lesson 8 (November 6, 2022) – Jerusalem Model, Mt of Olives, and Old City of Jerusalem
(Slides / Annotated Slides / Stream)
Lesson 9 (December 4, 2022) – Western Wall, Southern Steps, City of David, Pool of Siloam, Pilgrimage Road
(Slides / Annotated Slides / Stream)
Lesson 10 (December 18, 2022) – Pool of Bethesda, Burnt House, Broad Wall, Convent of Sisters of Zion, Via Dolorosa, Holy Sepulchre, Garden Tomb
(Slides / Annotated Slides)
On July 6 (7pm) at the Pleasant View Church of Christ we will have a supplementary lesson for our new “I AM” sermon series where we will consider the name of God from Exodus 3:13-15. I have prepared slides and a handout for this lesson, and they can be downloaded via the links below. All are welcome to join us at 7pm in person or via Facebook Live!!
Click below to download the handout:
Click below to download the slides:
All, we have a mailing list for anyone interested in news and information concerning future trips to Israel (and possibly other Bible related destinations) hosted by Timothy. If you would like to join this mailing list, please complete the form below. You will receive an initial email and will need to confirm your subscription to be added to the list.
For anyone interested, you can access our family’s photos from our recent trip to Israel via the links below. All photos are separated by day and can be downloaded from the linked site.
These are medium resolution and are suitable for social media. If you would like access to the full resolution images, please contact me directly.
Days 1-3 – Travel, Tel Aviv, Tiberius (May 27-29, 2022)
Day 4 – Zippori, Arbel, Sea of Galilee, Capernaum, Mt of Beatitudes, Magdala (May 30, 2022)
Day 5 – Nazareth Village, Golan Heights, Caesarea Philippi, Tel Dan (May 31, 2022)
Day 6 – Bet She’an, Qumran, En Gedi, Dead Sea (June 1, 2022)
Day 7 – Masada, Beer-Sheba, Valley of Elah (June 2, 2022)
Day 8 – Western Wall, Southern Steps, City of David, Jewish Quarter (June 3, 2022)
Day 9 – Mount of Olives, Pool of Bethesda, Via Dolorosa, Holy Sepulchre, Garden Tomb (June 4, 2022)
Day 10 – Israel Museum, Herodium, Shepherd’s Field, Bethlehem (June 5, 2022)
Days 11-12 – Caesarea Maritima, Jezreel Valley, Tel Megiddo, Jaffa, Travel Home (June 6-7, 2022)
I’ve had a few requests for a printable copy of my 2022 Israel Photo Journal that was posted on this blog. A PDF version with all of these posts can be accessed via the link below. The full journal is 243 pages (146 MB).
Israel 2022: Journal – 243 Pages (PDF copy suitable for printing)
The beginning of the day today was spent on our airplane. I passed the time watching movies (and sleeping through some of them). After a pancake breakfast, we landed in Miami.
Today started especially early because of Covid test requirements to re-enter America. I was very nervous because the last time I got a Covid test, it didn’t really go well. Right after breakfast, we headed over to get tested, and it went far better than I expected, and the fear was way worse than the actual test.
Today was our last day in Israel and I got up at 5:45am this morning to get ready and finish packing. We had to be done with breakfast early to take a COVID test at 7:30am for our return flight to the United States.
After the COVID test we boarded the bus for a long ride to the northern coast and Caesarea Maritima. This was a site we were supposed to see on our first day that was missed but Ami was able to rearrange our schedule so that we could fit it in today along with Tel Megiddo.
I snoozed a bit this morning until 6:40am, and the Sara and I quickly got ready to meet Olivia and Sara for breakfast.
In the dining room I ran into Murad who was our guide on my last trip to Israel. We ran into him again later at the Israel Museum. It was good to see him.
For Breakfast, we had hot food again now that sabbath is over. I combined some eggs with three more cheese danishes. I never eat like this at home!
We boarded the bus around 8:15am for a short drive to the modern city of Jerusalem. Today is Shavuot, which is Pentecost of the Feast of Weeks. The streets were pretty quiet because of the holiday, but we could see many Orthodox Jews heading to the Western Wall.
Today was a more chill day, but I am still exhausted. We’re approaching the end of our trip, but we still had a lot to fit in today. As always, we started with a wonderful hotel breakfast.
I really felt like I hit a wall yesterday and was so super tired when I went to bet last night. Even though I slept well, I still felt exhausted when I woke up at 6:30am with Sara. Thankfully I caught my second wind later in the morning. Breakfast was a bit different since today is Sabbath. Very little hot food, as it had been prepared earlier. I found a wonderful cheese danish and ended up eating three of them. I also had three cups of coffee to try and give me a boost of energy.
We boarded the bus around 8:15am and headed to the Mount of Olives overlooking the Old City of Jerusalem. I had brought my travel tripod, and we quickly got the group together for a picture in front of the city. It was stressful trying to get it setup and use the remote trigger on my phone with so much activity going on around us. However, I’m really pleased with how it turned out. This is absolutely one of my favorite photos from the trip so far. This was when I got my second wind.
Today, I got to sleep in a tiny bit before we started the day, and let me tell you, I needed it. When we get home, I’m going to need to take so many naps (and I’m not even a nap person). Nonetheless, I still got up and had a lovely breakfast.
Sara and I are back to being roommates in Jerusalem because our two rooms are far apart again. We both got up at 6:30am and then met Olivia and Kate for Breakfast in the main dining room, which was pretty uninspiring…even the coffee. Thankfully the rest of the day was filled with inspiration. We boarded the bus around 8:15 and set off for the Old City of Jerusalem.
Today was quite a good day. We spent a lot of time in Jerusalem, and we saw a lot of cool things. The day started, as always, with a nice breakfast in the hotel dining room.
This morning Olivia and I both got up just before 6am. Our two rooms were right next to each other this time, so we let the girls be together last night. This was our only night in Ein Bokek, as we will be staying in Jerusalem for our final four nights.
We met up with Kate and Sara around 6:45am and walked down to the Dead Sea to take a few pictures before heading back to breakfast. This breakfast was not as good as in Tiberius, but had a couple of really good cafe lattes, so all was not a loss. Our group loaded our bags and boarded the bus at 8:15am, and we headed off to Masada.