But Timothy has come to us just now. He has brought good news about your faith and love. He has told us that you always have happy memories of us. He has also said they you long to see us, just as we long to see you.
II Timothy 3:6
As I was reading this verse today it reminded me of my past week in Israel. All of us that toured over there are having happy memories, this day, of all that we saw, felt and learned. I know that I am counting the days until Rodney and I can go again. I am sure the others are feeling the same.
As much as I loved being where Jesus walked I kept thinking of our family and friends we left at home. I kept wishing that all of you could be there with us. I would see things that would remind me of you. For instance, Rodney's sister's family and some wonderful friends from Minnesota are very devout, loving Catholics. When we were in the Church of the Annunciation and saw this beautiful statue of Mary. All I could think of was "I wish Amy and Anne could see this". I especially thought of Anne when we were in St. Anne's Church. (This is the church home of Mary's mother.)
When I saw how the women of Israel dressed, worked, loved their children and worshipped our God, I kept thinking of the ladies of our Bible Studies. I wished that you all could be there to see for yourselves how much we are alike in living our lives.
Our group loved to sing hymns whenever we were in the different churches. The accoustics in these buildings was amazing. Everytime we sang I knew Rick and all of our choir members would haved wanted to be there to sing with us.
And of course we thought of our boys all the time. Whenever we saw the Israeli soilders we thought of our Phillip. How he loves and protects our country like these military people do theirs. We thought of Riley as we walked past music stores. The words were different but the beat was exactly what Riley loved. We brought some of it home for him and we were right, he really does enjoy the music. We also thought of Riley whenever we ate. We kept catching ourselves saying "Riley would want to eat this!"
So as much as we relished walking in the footsteps of Jesus we loved how the thoughts and memories of our family and friends kept coming with us, reminding us of how lucky we are to have you in our lives.!!
Blessings!!
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