Dear faithful,

Today was the last day of our trip. I am writing to all of you on the airplane and hope to send this message out as soon as I land. The entire time in Israel & Palestine was truly gift given from God. Through His grace we have safely completed the first trip of college students from Orthodox Christian Fellowship (OCF) to the Holy Lands. 

Our last 24 hours was very eventful. We first visited the church of the Annunciation, where Mary the Theotokos was told by the archangel Gabriel that she was to conceive the Son of God. It was very appropriate since the night before we celebrated the Akathist service remembering Gabrielle's salutations to Mary. We actually were able to drink water from the spring by which she sat when encountering the message from God's angle. We then went to the location of miracle of the wedding in Canaan where we bought some gifts and saw the outside of the church. Unfortunately we were not able to enter into the interior of the temple because the local priest did not receive us very kindly, but that is a whole other story. Since this was the only full day of seeing sights we somewhat quickly proceeded to our next destination which was the location of the sermon of the mount. It was a beautiful place but somewhat foreign to the landscape since it was a facility run by Catholic monks therefore quite different from the many Orthodox churches in which we had been. We were blessed to have Bishop Savas of Troy read the first part of the sermon of the mount. It must be mentioned the key role his Grace played on this trip. His knowledge of scripture and history was constantly enlightening our journey through the Holy Lands. His leadership and guidance truly transformed our springbreak work trip to a spiritual revitalization. In addition, his Grace's joyful personality brought a level of ease to our experience which was refreshing to all. 

Now after getting a quick exposure to the western commemoration of the sermon on the mount we traveled to the shore of the sea of Galilee where we went on a 45 min. boat ride. It was very calm and peaceful while his Grace read the appropriate corresponding scripture. We even were able to raise our American flag on our little vessel, which made us all nostalgic as we sang the national anthem. After completing our ride we had a "traditional" fish fry to fill our stomachs and remember Christ's resurrectional meal with the disciples. We then went to the Orthodox church of the "Seven Apostles" that ate with Christ. It was very beautiful with icons almost covering the church from top to bottom. One of the highlights of that visit was have a rock skipping contest on the lake of which I was tide for first. This completed our tour of Galilee, so we returned to Bethany to the 4 Homes of Mercy (4HM) only after stopping in Jerecho to buy some more gifts. At 4HM we had dinner, packed, said our goodbyes and headed to Jerusalem once again and experienced possibly the most "epic" part of our trip, service in the Tomb of Christ.

We arrived at the Holy Sepulcher at around 11:30 PM. Both the bishop and I were invited to serve at the Divine Liturgy by the Patriarch of Jerusalem. We entered the holy place of the Patriarchal Cathedral, which is located opposite the Tomb of Christ, and waited to be vested. It seemed an eternity till the head monk provided us with the appropriate vestments. After vesting I quickly learned that I was the youngest priest out of the 22 clergy serving (3 bishops, 14 priests, & 5 deacons). This meant I was to be last in line in order of seniority but first to lead in any procession, therefore as the matins/orthros ended I headed the entrance from the altar of the Patriarch to Christ's tomb. Words cannot describe my thoughts during this moment and through the entire liturgy. I was both humbled, and awe struck by the reality of the experience. How did this happen that I would be so blessed to serve at the Tomb of our resurrected God? In the midst of it I also had to battle the weakness of the flesh and not let my fatigued feet and sleep deprived body cause a lack of attention to this unworldly event. Once again I was able to persist not just because of God's kindness but because of the fortifying example of bishop Savas' endurance as he proclaimed "Lord save the righteous". At the appropriate time the clergy all received Christ's body and blood at the altar just 2 feet from His tomb and then the hundreds of faithful part-took of this life-giving gift. The Divine Liturgy concluded and the group prepared to leave. Now through the compassion of one generous monk the entire group was allowed to venerate Christ's tomb for the first time. Our time in the Holy Land had become complete. We all know that there is a God and He cares for all His children.

At 4:00 AM we were on the bus to the airport. Unfortunately our group does not have the best of luck at airports since once again we were detained for our volunteer work with the Palestinian people, but after two hours we were on our way. God truly cared for us and all your prayers fortified our willingness to do God's will.

Please continue to pray for all of us that we safely travel home.

In Christ,
Fr. Nick