The Negev (Hebrew for dry country/desert)

The second day on our journey throughout Southern Israel, we went to Beer-Sheva (Beer-Sheba in the Bible) and walked around the remains of an old city. Beer-Sheva is scripture and referenced as the place Abraham and his family moved in and out of. He dug a well there tha is also mentioned in scripture and was a centralized location for his family and flocks to get water as they traveled in and out of the region. Abraham would not stay in Beer-Sheva for very long because of the difficulty of surviving in the desert. This is the land of the patriarchs and often found in scripture in the Old Testament. We traveled around to other vantage points in order to see the vast nature of the desert. We visited Ben Gurion's grave (he was a political leader that did great things for the nation of Israel...you can google him) and were able to see the sweeping valleys and high rises of the mountains in the desert.

To end the evening we stopped at a place called Macktesh Ramon and watching the sunset. This view of the desert was particularly powerful as we read and reflected on the desert. We talked about Moses' journeys through this kind of land and how the Israelites wandered for fourty years in a land that was hot, vast, lacks great water sources, and can sometimes be hard to find food. However, God moved His people around, provided for them with manna, and was sovereign over their lives. We reflected on Psalm 90, a Psalm written by Moses, that reminded us that it's not about the life you are living that lasts, but that it is the work that is done in a life that gets passed from one generation to the next. Within that context, it is always God's work that is being done and although we might think so, it is never our work. This was such a good reminder of how big God is. Looking out over such a vast landscape and reflecting on God's plan over His people and His care for them I realized even more how this life is not about me. The more I learn, the bigger God gets and the reality that I am but a tiny part of His grand plan sets in.

Me and my friend Anna in what would have been a room along the city wall in Beer-Sheva.

This is a well that was dug long ago but probably is not the same well as the one Abraham dug. It goes down 100 feet and if you are quiet you can hear a rock hit the bottom and splash in the water.

Danielle and I overlooking the desert at the gravesite of Ben Gurion

This is Nahal Zin...it was an amazing site where we hiked through the Wadi and up out of the ravine onto the top of the mountain. It was quite the hike and so worth it

So this one is kind of hard to tell what you are looking at. But, if you tilt your head to the right and notice that the blue is the sky, the walls of the rock are on your right and left. There is a deep abyss in the middle that goes far down into the middle of the rock. We hiked from the bottom of that up to the top of the peaks.

This is me and Hayley at the top....It was crazy to look and see how far down we were and how faultlines and water had created this deep wadi.

This would be the vast and dreadful desert.....we hiked around it for three days and were not envious of the Israelites. This is also the site called Macktesh Ramon.

This is an Ibex...we saw tons of them at Macktesh Ramon and in the Nahal Zin. They have an incredible ability to traverse the mountains and basically walk down mountain sides that we would need ropes to repell down. They are amazing animals.

Me at Macktesh Ramon....don't worry...it only looks like I would fall off into the desert. There was a landing of the other side of the wall. :)