Another year filled with learning and adventure. While we didn’t travel to the Holy Land this year, we were thrilled that some of its artifacts traveled to us!

2024 Highlights:

✅ 1,000 subscribers on YouTube! With a total of 45k views this year

✅ 1 trip to see the *real* Tel Dan stele and the incredible exhibit “Kingdom of David and Solomon Discovered” at the Armstrong Auditorium

✅ 1 unique children’s Bible geography lesson written for Rotation.org, called “Daniel’s Exile Journey”

✅ 4 videos created to supplement our study of Walking in the Dust of Rabbi Jesus by Our Rabbi Jesus (Lois Tverberg)

✅ 1 really informative course taken at Jerusalem University College called Edible Landscapes of the Biblical World

Looking forward to new adventures in 2025!

📸 Check out this old picture we found of me getting a globe for my 6th birthday. I loved learning about new places at that age and knew then I wanted to travel and have adventures!

“Then came the Festival of Dedication at Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was in the temple courts walking in Solomon’s Colonnade.” -John 10:22-23.

🔎 Notice the clues in this verse? Jerusalem. Winter. Temple. Festival. Dedication. In Hebrew, the word Hanukkah means dedication. This tells us that Jesus celebrated Hanukkah!

🕎 This year, Christmas and the first night of Hanukkah fall on the same day. Hanukkah celebrates God’s deliverance of his people during the time between the testaments.

📸 Photo: Look closely, do you see it? I took this photo of a hand-carved menorah on the steps of the Library of Celsus in ancient Ephesus a few summers ago. Note that this is a seven-branched Temple menorah, while the menorah used in Hanukkah is nine-branched.