fpc missoula

brian’s Israel pilgrimage…

shalom

welcome to my first personal blog.  i’m not a ‘blogger’ per se, but i thought this would be a fun way to keep in touch with any of you who are interested in hearing about my sojourn in Israel these next two weeks.

i’ll be sharing thoughts and reflections (and if you know me, you’ll expect them to be fairly random and even surreal at times) and hopefully some pictures along the way.  a journey into the holy land via my eyes, ears, heart and mind (kind of like ‘being john malkovich’ only i’m not john malkovich…i’m brian marsh.  nice to meet you)…

if you’d like a more informative, articulate, and ‘accurate’ record of the trip, i would suggest my friend (and trip leader) shane berg’s blog, which will be updated daily (i cannot begin to promise the same for my blog…i’ll write a thought or reflection when i can get my face and fingers out of the falafels long enough to type something of interest).  here’s the link for shane’s blog:

2009 PTS Holy Land Pilgrimage

as for my first entry, what i’ll say is this…as the president of Princeton Seminary, Iain Torrance, addressed us briefly this afternoon in his wonderfully lilting British accent overpowering the room at about -5db (his is a ‘quiet’ wisdom), he reminded us that we aren’t just going on a trip to see historical places. when we pause on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, we will be looking at a view that Jesus saw often in his life, a view that probably became engrained in his memory like Blue Mountain at sunset is for many of us Missoulians, breathing in basically the same air, sitting on the same kind of rocks, taking in the scents that were so much a part of his life experience here as one of us.  and that simple thought gave me chills and brought hints of mist to my eyes.

in so many ways, he really was just like me.

in so many ways, I am really am just like him.

this is going to be some journey…hope you’ll join me for the ride.

shalom of Christ to you,

brian