Israel-Jordan-Rome, here we come!

There are now less than two months left before we leave on a trip that is sure to be life-transforming. We are going to see so many sights, sounds and smells! The things that we see will, no doubt, have a long-lasting impact on each one of us in profound ways.

It is the desire of Pastor Paul Brown and me (Pastor Randy Leinen) that this will not just be another great vacation for you. We want it to change your life! The opportunity that you have before you is to see the places of the Bible. You are going to walk where the people of the Bible walked. You’re going to visualize things that you have read in your Bible many times before. But now the visual and the Word of God will be linked together in a way that will amaze you.

As is true of most things in life, you will get out of this trip, “what you put into it.” We recommend going “all in!” That means you should learn as much as you can. This blog site was created so that you can prepare by learning as much as you can about the places we are going to visit, in advance of actually being there. If you do this it will serve to help you enjoy each visit and remember it better when you return home. Our goal is to put a lot of information for each of our trip, in advance! Not only will there be great reference information and pictures in each post, but there will also be reading assignments. That’s right, homework! You don’t need to do the assignments at home. Some of you may choose to do the reading for each day, on the day before we visit each location.

It’s a lot of work, but we think it will be worth it. The blog entry for the first place we will visit, Amman, Jordan, has already been posted. Hopefully we can do two or three posts per week before we leave.

Here is how we would suggest that you take advantage of this blog site:

1. Register for your free account on this site when you receive an email about it.
2. Read each blog entry as soon as you can after it is posted.
3. Make a comment with any questions or suggestions you might have related to each post.
4. Before we visit the sites each day, do the appropriate reading for each post.
5. While you are at the site, or later at the hotel room, post your comments about the places you visited that day. This will serve as a common travel blog for all of us. I’m hoping that you will be able to post picture as well. And don’t worry, our site will be private. Only the people on our trip will have passwords to see and comment.

We hope this blog will be a blessing to everyone! And we hope that this trip will be amazing!

Feel free to email me with any questions at rleinen@gmail.com.