Who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?

The David and Goliath Field trip has probably been my favorite. I loved that day! It was spiritual, fun, beautiful and awesome! Just how I like things.

We learned a cool trick with our left hand regarding the geography of the region of the Old Testament. I drew it in my journal, but I'm not sure how well you can read it. The fingernails are the Philistine cities along the coastal plains. The first knuckles are the Hebrew protection forts/cities in the Shephelah or low hills. The second knuckles are the main Hebrew cities in the Judean mountains along the Patriarch's way and the gaps between the fingers are the valleys in between. It's a bit confusing because the thumb is north and the pinky is south, but it is a good visual to understand the geography.

Jenna and I are at Azekah(first knuckle of the middle finger), looking out over the Elah Valley (gap between middle finger and ring finger), where David killed Goliath. The two hills straight up from my head are a natural amphitheater where it is easy to be heard when yelling back and forth. This is likely where David and Goliath yelled to each other then in the valley "David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone".
I read 1 Samuel 17 on the way to the site and that made me really appreciate being there and the discussion that we had there. It is interesting that David would not use Saul's armor because he had not proved it. He used a sling and stone because he was confident with that. It was a small action that he had done again and again, and the Lord used that skill to save His people. David had already killed a lion and a bear in protection of his flock. He knew the power of God from past experience. David left his sheep with someone when he went up to battle- I like that unnamed character. He was likely a friend of David's who would have liked to have seen the battle, but he stayed with the 'few sheep' so David could do his work and gain the glory. There are obviously tons of applications of these lessons in our lives. I love that about the gospel!

Cary and Esther made 'Golaith' out of waterbottles and paper with the face of Chuck Norris. We went down in the Elah Valley and tried to kill him with our stones and slings. David was obviously confident since he only picked up 5 stones. I used a lot more than that, and I never even got close. But with the 40 of us together, we killed him!

I think this is still the Elah Valley. I stole it from someone else's camera. It's definitely Israel at least.