Arrival+first day!!

   We made it!  All flights were uneventful, and nobody lost their bags :)  When we arrived at Yad HaShmonah, the moshav where we're staying, we were able to unpack, have dinner, and go to bed.

   The adventure started this morning with orientation.  We were told how the IBEX program works and were shown around the moshav.  After lunch, we went on our first walk to Kiriat Jaarim, the site where the Ark of the Covenant sat for one hundred years!

Walking the route that the Ark most likely would have traveled on!

View of Kiriat Jaarim from the road.

   Right next door to Kiriat Jaarim is the Arab village of Abu Gosh.  While we walked through, we stopped at a church that was once a Crusader fortress!

The door of the church...why don't our doors look this fancy?:)

Inside.

   That was all the excitement of today, but tomorrow we get to see Jerusalem!  Shalom!