Day 20 in Israel

I just want to start this blog out with praising God that i am saved. Because only by His grace am i here today, in the Holy Land writing this blog. So as the people read this, just praise God for allowing you to live where ever you are, because God has put you there for a reason. Also it was really encouraging to hear that some of you (Not including my Ma and Pa) are praying for me. I just want to say thank you, it means a lot.

Today:
Alrighty then, Today is day twenty and it has been really interesting. Jesus has reveled to me so many things. Not to rant or anything but I love those days where God just shows himself so clearly through everything, and I mean everything: The Bible, people, His Word, class time. It was pretty intense, because God just showed me things in my life that i need to change and ways that He wants to use me in for the future.

Dorm meeting was intense also... Ryan gave his testimony and it was such a blessing to hear. But the cool thing was me and Doug prophesied over him. It was crazy but the Lord just showed us that Ryan is going to get married and he doesn't have to worry about it. I love how God gives people those encouraging insight to their future.

Pictures:
1- The stash
2- Me playing guitar
3- Doug- Mrs search this was for you!
4- HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM
5- The start of my Jedi braid

Prayer Request
- Ramsey
- Me and faith to believe more
- All the Campus'
- There is a ton of spiritual warfare
- Me, Doug, Ryan, Brian's wives (Being completely serious)
- My old dorm steward is getting married 5 days after our semester is over

Day 19 in Israel

Shalom Family, today is the nineteenth day in Israel. The past three days have been pretty laid back, with nothing much going on. Our second block started today, Doug Sr. is teaching and he is a very good teacher. I do believe living here has changed my perception of the world slightly, or even maybe drastically. Don't get me wrong i love America but we are so caught up in ourselves its gross. If the people here have taught me anything it is the importance of tradition and family. Now you can get carried away of course (just like anything). Another thing that has changed me is God, because that is what He does best. The lord is to good to me and blesses me beyond belief.

One of the cool thing that i learned in class today talking to Steve Waters is, What is the difference between faith, and believing. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for while believing is seeing the evidence at hand. It was a really interesting conversation, full of difficult questions and answers. Our classes are to much fun to be called classes.

Pictures:

1- This made my night
2- Mr. Steve Waters
3- Long story short, we(me and Doug) gave Cameron a tattoo that says Charmanda(nickname for his future wife). Oh and on his neck it says "Red Neck"
4- Me, Ryan, and Jessica
5- We are good students and we do our homework

Prayer Request:
- the peace of Israel
- Me, i need perseverance through trails
- Other campus, including ours
- Ramsey, and what the Lord is doing in his life

Day 18 in Israel

18 days here in Israel wow such a blessing. Today like yesterday i really didn't do much except clean and play kick ball. Our M1's (a job that we do and get a credit for) our housekeeping in a sense. The hotel Owner tells us what to do and we do it. Me and Cameron had to clean a pretty big dinning room. After cleaning we heard the man who owns this hotel's life story. He is not a christian but, he could have fooled me. This man is so nice, nicer then most people i know. Not only that but he also has a lot of stress on him. Basically long story short; The Jews what to take the hotel from him, but it has some thing to do with the Greek orthodox church and their power. Trust me it was CRAZY!

I'm really getting hit spiritual, but Satan is using the people (other students) to just make me... Sad for a lack of a better word, well maybe depressed is better. Well anyways please pray for me in that area. They are not doing anything wrong to me but its a frustrating matter.

One of the questions that got stuck in my head is Why does God allow bad things to happen? Well, is everything God's will? Or does He just allow it? These thing are going to keep me up so message me what you think. either on Facebook or Gabrielkusner@gmail.com

Pictures:
1 Hotel
2 Tree
3,4,5 Bryan and Oleg slack lining

Keep us all in prayer
-Ramsey
-Other Campus'
-The Peace of Israel

Day 17 in Israel

Well it has bee seventeen days in Israel! Okay today was so very tiring I am absolutely beat. We went to Caesarea and walked, and walked, and guess what walked,also though in some running and snorkeling. It was pretty awesome, because i remember going to some of the places and remembering where me and my Father talked and looked out on the Mediterranean Sea.

Today i learned a new game called bible volleyball, basically you just quote scripture back and forth till someone takes longer then five seconds to respond. It was amazing, and i'm alright at it.

In my devotional I have been going through Ecclesiastes, and i would have to say that it is amazing. Just what this person went through. Personally i think it was Solomon but yeah it doesn't say.

Pictures:
1. Me on the wall preaching to Israel
2. The Mediterranean Sea
3. Brain looking out to the sea
4. Me
5. Me(Dad do you remember this is the place where we went and sat down and you talked to that guy who was playing the guitar to his wife or girlfriend)


We all need prayer

-Doug's foot is pretty bad
-All of the campus'
-Students here
-Ramsey and what ever he is up too
-And pray for Israel

Day 16 in Israel

Well it has been 16 days in the Jerusalem. I just have to say this place is amazing and insane all at the same time. Never a dull moment to say the least. God is moving here man in this city, in my heart, and the heart of my fellow students.

Today:

Well Sunday is like our Sabbath day, our day of rest. Basically what that means is we don't really do anything at all. Like today all i did was my final and go sit on the wall of Jerusalem. That's what i took pictures of of today, me and Doug sitting and Jumping off of stuff. I read standing on the wall Isaiah 51 and 52. Man it was pretty amazing reading the bible in Israel

Prayer- while jumping Doug hurt his ankle so please pray that he will be healed quickly.

Pictures:
1. Me
2. Doug on the wall
3. Me Jumping
4. Doug right before he had hurt himself
5. the best card game in the world "threes"
Tomorrow:
A lot of us are going to Caeserea tomorrow and its going to be awesome!

Prayer- I'm teaching a bible study i believe on acts, where Paul might of taught.

I'm super tired so... I'm going to bed.
Please pray for us we are always in need.

Day 15 in Israel

Well, like the title says it's been fifteen days in the Holy Land. There was so much that happened I can't even begin to explain. I mean it was CRAZY, all the things the Lord did today.

Class:
Joel taught the sermon on the mount, and it was absolutely amazing. The thing that i got from it was the part where Jesus talks about not worrying about the future. This part really hit home because lately I have been worrying about the future and future things. Such as my wife, jobs, and what the Lord wants me to do. Yet God showed me to just chill out and live everyday sold out to Him and He will provide. God is so good and He really used Joel to teach me a lot of things. Today was Joel's last day here, it's a bummer.

After class: there were a couple of students that were going to go to a 24 hour worship place. However it was closed or something like that. And I made the suggestion that we go play so worship on Ben Yehuda Street. Not really thinking people would actually want to, well they did. Everyone was really nervous, I mean really nervous. Ryan just started to play His guitar and I my ukulele. In the next 3 hours i have no idea what really happened. We had Christians from all around the world coming up and worshiping with us. I mean from everywhere, like Norway, England, America, Italy, and even Messianic Jews. Another crazy event was that a girl from the school here, her name is Erica met a friend from high school (they both went to the same high school in California, and it has been three years since they last saw each other.)And these guys were on FIRE for Jesus. The one she knew had accepted Jesus six months before. These guys are living in Jordan for a year, with a Family. I don't really know what their stories were about Jordan, however i did find out that the Lord call them there. Another Crazy event was Oleg (student) saw his cousin there also. Cameron (my old dorm steward) did some open air preaching out of Psalms and was able to share his faith with a solider, who was soul searching, the solider was from Connecticut.

We met a lot of people Messianic Jews, and just Christians in general. I do believe that we are going to be going out there every Saturday night from here on out. And we are going to nee more prayer then ever.

Pictures:
1.The beginning of the worship
2.Cute baby number one
3.Wendy leading worship
4.Cute baby number two
5. The three guys who were on FIRE
Prayer Request:

-Ramsey in Jordan
-The 3 young men that were on fire that they would be completely sold out for Jesus Christ and would seek Him all of their days.
-There is going to be spiritual warfare, so please pray about that.
-Saturday nights
-The other Campus'
-Peace of Jerusalem
-the student body here

Day 14 in Israel

Hello form the Holy Land, it has been two weeks since we have been here. Time is going by so slow and at the same time so stinking fast. I believe its because our days are for the most part jam packed. Well things are starting to get familiar around here, starting to know my way around pretty well also.

Today:

Today was really interesting because it is Joel's last full day here. Again it has been such a blessing to have him here for the past two weeks. His teaching are very good full of amazing insight. Tomorrow we will be going over the entire sermon on the mount! Its going to be so exciting; I'm just going to straight up tell you that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

Dinner was at a pizza place and it was quit amazing, we all went out to Joel's going away party. We also had an awesome time of Prayer with him after wards outside of the Jaffa gate.

I really learned something very important doing my homework for tomorrow. It was the part in the sermon on the mount where Jesus is explaining to His disciples not to worry about life. Lately I have been worrying about the future such as : Wife, Jobs, Mission work... However God really spoke to me through that still small voice telling me "I have control, but you don't trust Me enough why?" and I for the life of me couldn't figure why, then it HIT ME, and that is why I have been asking you guys to pray for me. I know now what I must do only through Jesus Christ will it turn out right!

1. Jessica, Cameron, David, Doug Jr. before afternoon class
2. A random street in Jerusalem
3. A HUGE HORSE AND I MEAN HUGE
4. Prayer for Joel
5. The Guy's minus Doug Sr.

Day 13 in Israel

Shalom friends it has been 13 days in the Holy Land! I honestly feel like I have lived here for months. Its the most amazing place on the planet, only because this is God's land. This is where you can go see the artifacts and land marks that the biblical characters saw. I love it, but at the same time i hate it. There is so much tension here, Yesterday if you didn't see on the new some riots broke out. One person was killed and there are a bunch of different stories floating around, so I'm just staying away from it all.

Today:

Well Joel Wingo only has a couple more days left in Israel. It has been a super blessing to have him here. Things sort of are quite around town since Ramsey isn't running around anymore. Also today we had a "TON" of homework, only by the grace of God was i able to finish it.

We also had our first dorm cleaning and meeting, Bryan is turning out to be an amazing dorm steward. He gave us tonight his testimony,and it was really powerful and unique. God really revealed Himself to Bryan through creation(hence the name mountain man). Our dorm it really turning out to be quit amazing even though its we are in a very tight space.

Today wasn't very interesting, sorry hopefully tomorrow will have some more interesting stuff happen.

Prayer Request:

The Peace of Jerusalem
My faith
The students in California, here, and around the world
Ramsey, that God would guild him

Pictures
1-Scripture
2-Doug
3-David and Joel W.
4-A view from the hotel
5-David

Day 10,11, and 12

Well sorry guys my camera died and also my computer. Today is day twelve and it was pretty exciting day. I have been up since 5:30 and its currently 10:30 it has certainly been a long day. I have decided that I need to do my Chuck tracks... 5 down 64 left to do.

Day 10

Where do I begin? Monday morning we woke up and left for the rental car place down the street and had a awesome game of ninja. I do not know who but someone put me in charge of the GPS and the map. I took us the wrong way and we got lost, getting lost is not so bad but where we got lost was REALLY BAD. Well I shouldn't say i got us lost because when I was leading we weren't lost( we were suppose to go east then north yet we went west then north) But when everybody decided to lead we got really lost... IN THE WEST BANK! Yeah we went through the West Bank, it was pretty crazy. We got stopped and everything, yet we didn't know where we were. It was suppose to take us two hours to get to Nazareth it took us 5 hours. When we finally got there we stopped in Nazareth Village. Nazareth Village is a place where they keep the grounds just like that of Jesus' day. Its a pretty cool place our tour guild was a Palestinian Christian girl it was very interesting. We also ate a meal that Jesus' could very well of eaten. Well about an 2 hours later we where in Galilee! I went to bed shortly after getting there I was beat.

Day 11

We woke up at 4:30 (early i know) to go see the sun rise on the sea of Galilee. All I can say is it was BEAUTIFUL! However pretty much everyone was really tried after, and it was just the beginning of the day. We went to the Mount. of the Beatitudes, and had class up there. After sending about an hour and a half there we took off to Peters Church and had our second class there in the grass. short after we went to Peters house... now we did not look around Peter's church but Peter's House was kind of interesting. There is so much that happened I don't want to write it all out sorry. We even hit the spot where many people believe where the demonic pigs jumped of the cliff. Finally when we got back we got some fish and yes, I ate its eyeballs. They were really good actually, the fish is the most common fish in the sea of Galilee. Shorty after I slept like a baby.

Oh man i completely for got one of the most important things that happened. We swam in the Jordan river. It was amazing we were all so very tired but it was very refreshing. I was baptized again but this time it was my way to show the people around me that i want God to lead my life. And to guild me into ministry as a missionary, it was a very emotional time and there was a lot of people that got baptized 12 I believe.

Day 12

For some crazy reason I decided to wake up and go to the mount of Beatitudes for the sun rise. So that's why i was up at 5:30... It was so worth it we read the sermon on the mount. It was quit the experience a breath taking view! We had about an hour and a half before we had to leave. The drive back to Jerusalem was cool view but i fell asleep. Ramsey took off to Jordan today, please keep him in prayer. Oh I got addicted to Chess again. Well I cant think of anything else to write about.

Prayer request:

-The Marietta Campus needs prayer there has been a lot of theft, and hearts not seeking God almighty.
-Where i am to be a missionary, and my faith
-The students here
-Ramsey to follow Gods plan not his own

Day 10 and 11

Hey guys my camera is dead and my computer is dying so i will post whats going on tomorrow when we get back to Jerusalem.

Day 9 in Israel

Well greeting from the epicenter of the world. It is day number 9 in this brown/tan color world. Today I did a whole lot of nothing, besides homework, midterm, and a bunch of games of "Threes" (its a card game that is super addictive). So the group is going to the Galilee tomorrow and staying in a hostel for 2 nights. Its going to be pretty awesome and on top of that we will be having class all over there. I also believe that Tuesday morning we are all going to wake up really early and i mean like 4:30 am early, and go see the sun rise on the sea of Galilee.

So since i didn't do much today I'm just going to go off on some rants. The first on is that everything here is brown or sort of brown maybe tan. I mean the buildings the streets everything. Don't get me wrong I love it but I kind of miss, in America, those weird peoples houses that are like purple or pink. But then again I lived in Arizona and everyone thinks it would be awesome if they painted their houses brown or tan. Why? is it to camouflage your house so that no one can see it? okay, okay I'm done with that one on to the next. The past three days I have thought of some crazy truths about God... The first being God's plan of salvation. Salvation is just down right insane, why would God care so much that He would send His son to die for people that chose to turn away from Him. Not only that but His Son was willing to die for humans! I couldn't handle it any more so I came up with the conclusion that because I am finite that I will never understand anything that a infinite God does.

God is so good, please keep all of us in prayer not just me, we all need prayer. We have started to build relationships with the locals, pray that we would be able to shine Christ to those people.

Also keep in prayer me and my lack of faith.

P.S. if any of you need prayer send me an email at GabrielKusner@gmail.com

last thing i don't know if I will have internet tomorrow at the hostile so you guys might have to wait a couple days for the next update.

Oh the pictures are kind of random: Me, My stash, Ryan opening the door for some cute girl from Christ Church, and not my room but the bigger nicer room, and my bibles and Ipod all i need to survive.

OH PRAY THAT WE FIND A LOCUST SO THAT WE CAN EAT IT!!! We have made a pack with a couple people that if we find one we will eat it, and I am so excited to eat one they are pretty big too! Peace be with you all God bless

Love Thomas