Negev Desert

Today we had another long day filled with adventure and admiration. We began our day early and made our way to the southern part of the country to the Negev desert. But before heading south, we walked to the Church of the Visitation and celebrated the holy Mass. At that sight, our Blessed Mother visited Elizabeth and the infant in Elizabeth's womb leaped for joy. We prayed that our hearts be filled with joy of our Lord's presence, too, just like John. Then we prayed for all those who made it possible for us to be there through their generosity, and we began our two-hour drive to the southern part.

Driving south was great because we saw the beauty of the country and how it began to shift from green land to a more desert-like. We arrived at Bersheva and we stopped at the Tel (hill) Beer Sheva, which has remains of a biblical town. It was amazing to be at the sight that witnessed a small part of God's plan of salvation. The sight helped us a lot to get a better idea of what a biblical town looked like; it allowed us to imagine how our fathers of the Old Testament lived their lives. This will be a great memory to go back to whenever we read about a biblical town.

Then we made our way to another historical sight, the Nabatean Kingdom. This kingdom existed before and after our Lord's time, and at one point they embraced Christianity. We saw two ruins of churches that dated about 1300 years; we prayed for the people that worshiped there. Finally, we made our way back to Ein Kerem. It took us about three hours, but we enjoyed the beautiful scenes. We ended the day with a thanksgiving prayer for our safety and for the privilege that God granted us to enjoy the sights we visited.