Barbara: Hi everyone- welcome to 40 minutes of faith. My name is Barbara Cox and I host this weekly podcast to explore God's word and our relationship with God. Today's guest is Teresa Garcia. I met her in Germany. Teresa was born in Texas, raised in Oklahoma and has lived in 13 different areas, including Germany.
They moved back to Texas last year. Teresa served in the Navy for 14 years, with both active and reserve time. She's been married for 27 years, a military spouse the entire time. And her husband is retired from the air force. Their family of four children is built through nature and adoption. Teresa calls her faith background a Heinz 57 mix because she grew up in the church of Christ, decided as a team that she was a Baptist, which was probably because of the fun summer camps they had. And then went back to the church of Christ in college. She was confirmed as Catholic and after she left the Navy, she became nondenominational, finally figuring out where she fit in.
Teresa's degree is in child development and family relations. And she and her husband have served as associate pastor there's campus ministers and led home groups. Teresa has volunteered as children's ministries coordinator, church greeter, vice president of Protestant women of the chapel. Well, in her words, a patchwork quilt, or a mosaic piece of art. Welcome, Teresa. How are things in Texas for all of you since moving back?
Teresa: The sun's out. It was pouring rain earlier. It's a different weather for sure than Germany.
Barbara: Yeah. Today, our Bible verse is from Psalm 84. The Psalms are just about right in the middle of your Bible. If you want to take a look with us, and I'm going to be reading Psalm 84, verse five from the new living translation: “what joy for those whose strength comes from the Lord who have set their minds on pilgrimage to Jerusalem.” Why is that one of your favorite verses?
Teresa: for me it was always a dream and I don't know why or how it ever came to be that I really wanted to go to Jerusalem, I really wanted to go to the Holy land.
Barbara: And we do have in our minds that this podcast episode and the photos that we're going to show, we really want to express that this was a faith journey part of our spiritual path. And to that end, since you happen to have been, I know for sure, comfortable praying out loud, would you be willing to start us off in a word of prayer today?
Teresa: absolutely. Father God, we just invite you in to this podcast, this recording, this reflection of such a powerful time in our lives, such a beautiful blessing of this trip to Jerusalem, Lord.
And we just pray that we'll be able to convey it in a way that those who haven't been able to go and may never get to go, will truly get to appreciate just how amazing it is to see Scripture come to life to see the places where you traveled and ministered and spoke to people and healed people and did all the amazing things that you did, Lord.
And so we just invite you into our world. We pray that you would guide our conversation and that we would talk about the things and highlight the things that you want highlighted and talked about. So we invite you in and we thank you for this time. Amen.
Barbara: Thank you so much, Teresa. So how did you and your family begin to approach this pilgrimage?
Teresa: I've always wanted to go and my husband didn't share the same feeling. And so we went to the informational meeting and he was like, okay, now I want to go because they shared about it being a pilgrimage of our faith and not just a vacation that we're taking our family. And that clicked something for him.
Barbara: we had done the basic trip together, which was less than a week and that left the opportunity for people to either arrive early or stay later. So there were a couple of parts of the trip that you did that I didn't do, also vice versa. Do you have any pre-trip or post-trip faith experiences or tips that you would want to share with folks?
Teresa: Sure. The very first day we went to the Jezreel Valley, which is where Mount Tabor and Mount Carmel are- it's a very interesting place, it's this really high perch that you're on. And you're able to look out over this Valley and see those mountains. And it's awe inspiring, quieting. I found that a lot of places that there's nothing really to be said, just look and absorb and taking the majesty of it all and just trying to let the peace settle over you, try to absorb it all.
We did a tour of old Joppa. Which was the place where Jonah caught the boat to go out and go spend some time in the middle of a whale. Oh, and we walked by a place where it's supposed to be the place where Peter stayed at the Tanner's house where the sheet came down and made it clear that the Gentiles were part of the story, too. And that was a highlight that I wasn't really expecting. So after that we did go to Masada.
And Ein Gedi and the dead sea. And the impactful thing for me was Ein Gedi, which is where David hid with his men and, it's desert everywhere, and then the dead sea, which you can't drink that water. And it's just made you realize how desperate it was to be there. And then you go up the mountain and you come through and all of a sudden, there's this gorgeous waterfall and it makes the Bible come alive in ways you just are like, Whoa, I get why it was such a thing to find the water and it's there and nourishing you. And living water in the middle of a desert was just amazing.
Barbara: Awesome. For anyone who wants to watch this on YouTube, we've got some photos up. For me growing up in the United States and then living in Germany for many years, I had never seen a real olive tree. So that might seem somewhat inconsequential, but that was still really neat. They talk about olive trees all the time in the Bible.
So it was very hard for me to only pick 17 photos. Any thoughts on the old city?
Teresa: I really loved the old city. I just like old stuff, but it was just really neat to be in those small corridors. So one of my dramatic moments, which was just simple, but I'm in a store and it's a lot of people, it's much more crowded than that photo showed in the market place. And I was in the store doing something and all of a sudden I hear “abba”- like my head snaped, the second I heard it. She's just saying dad. It just hit me so hard. I just was like, Oh, my gosh, to hear that word. It just on a simple thing. You're not expecting it.
Barbara: Yes. I heard that in the outdoor market, too. And probably everybody runs around probably calling Abba here, there, and everywhere. But for me, that was just like straight out of the Bible, even though probably for the folks, it was just everyday life. So a very powerful experience.
And we just want to give you a taste of our journey. And this is the Kidron Valley. I couldn't believe it. Our tour guide was like, here you go. And I'm like, I heard about this before in Kings, Chronicles.
And we've got the Mount of olives in the background and we learned a lot about the socio-cultural situation too, and that's a little bit more beyond the scope of today's podcast, but how people are living both with each other and in strife. So there's conflict and movement toward peace and prayer and a lot of different aspects.
So there's a bunch of Gates all around the city. And again, those we hear of in the Bible as well. You can see the sign arrow's pointing to you here and there. And we went through a few Gates. We didn't get to go through all of the Gates.
I wished I would have been able to spend a little bit more time in Tel Aviv- we had a pretty strict timeline because it was school vacation for children and plus travel time. And our travel agent didn't have us spend any time here. We ended up just arriving half a day early in Tel Aviv and going down along the beach to Joppa, which is referenced in Jonah, Joshua second Chronicles, Ezra and Acts. I don't have a picture now of a tiny little alley, but that was really amazing. Anything else in Tel Aviv that you would want to recommend to folks or the Joppa area?
Teresa: if you can do bicycle tours, I recommend them because you get to see a lot. We did a free walking tour. All you had to do was sign up for it. And they did request tips, which our tour guide was great. So we were happy to give them a tip. But you get a lot of information in a short amount of time, and then go back to places that you want to see more of.
Barbara: We found this pile of rocks with a map on it just outside of Nazareth on this hill. I could not believe it when they said this is Nazareth. This is not what I had imagined
Teresa: where Jesus grew up.
Barbara: it's very well built up. So we were just here for a few moments, visiting a beautiful church. But to show the scope, it's a bustling city and there's lots going on. And our tour bus brought us near the church, and then we had to walk a short distance, but I wanted to show the map also. Then we then proceeded on to the sea of Galilee and Capernaum and Tiberius, and we'll show a few photos of that as well.
I took lots of pictures in Capernaum. It was pretty amazing to think this is where the disciples were fishing on the sea. And I have a picture the water in a minute, but this is a stone when you're looking down, you see a lot of ruins. So there used to be buildings here and you can see walls and things like that. But just to smell the air and see the trees and the plants. That was amazing.
Teresa: Yep. It was really interesting that they think that's where a synagogue was and where Jesus may have actually taught. And to be able to see what that looked like- you have your idea of what church looks like or what it was like, and you're just like, oh, kind of a little stadium, but very small.
Barbara: yeah. And we had a number of prayer and devotion times as well. So on the boat, we had music and one of the chaplains gave a presentation in Capernaum. Another chaplain gave a mini sermon. We had prayers on the bus and presentations on the bus throughout from the official tour guide, as well as from the chaplain. So tell us about the boat, Teresa. Cause I know we loved the boat.
Teresa: The boat was the biggest highlight for me, even though it was a very short trip. I was so struck because the song we were singing, we could have been singing any songs, but the song we were singing was about “I believe.” I believe in you, we believe it's true. And it was just so impactful. I was in tears almost all the time there.
I had a personal thing about the story on the sea of Galilee, where Jesus got in the boat and said, we're cool. Let's go to the other side. And then the storm happened and the disciples are like, what are you doing? Don't you care? And he's sleeping. And he rebukes them and says, where's your faith? I said, we were going to the other side. And I had a pastor preach on that probably 30 years ago, it was talking about when you feel like God's spoken to you about something, we're going to the other side, we're going to do this, but you get in the middle of the circumstances and the circumstances are speaking much louder to you than what he said to you. And are you going to believe him?
Are you going to listen to him and hang on to that? Or are you going to fall apart in the middle- and I had a situation at the time that that's what I was doing. I was completely falling apart and that struck me and I went, okay, he said, we're going to the other side.
And so it helped me hang on. And so to be there where that happened, you have some teachings that you've heard that just really make a difference in your life. And that was one that really made a difference for me. And to be there, I can see where that happened. And you know, this is where Jesus rebuked it and told them, You of little faith, don't you trust me? I said what we were doing. When are you going to believe? And it was so impactful to me for so many reasons, but that place in singing praise and worship, and then we got to dance on the boat and doing some of the Jewish dancing. That was just a beautiful combination of feeling like I'm getting to experience some of my Jewish roots. You know we're part of an adoptive family, but understanding that we've been adopted into a Jewish family, and understanding that Jewish heritage and coming to appreciate that.
Really just learn about it. You know, there's so much I don't know about it. And just the little bits I did learn and things doing the studies before we went and some of the stuff that happened there just like makes it come alive in ways you just can't explain where you're just like, Oh, that's what that means. Why do we not know this? Why didn't know what, tell me this. It just brings the Bible home in ways that I feel like we miss out. I think our culture here, we miss out on so much because we know so little about our Jewish roots. And I think learning that and exploring that is really faith building
Barbara: and faith changing. And by the way, it was a pretty big boat. There were more than 50 of us on there and everybody had a chair or a bench.
And then we had the chance to go up to the mountain where the beatitudes were taught. And this is probably Eurocentric, it's Latin and music. Which is different for me from the feel of the whole area. So this was sort of a contrast, but for many people who have been going to church for many years, something like this doesn't seem sort of foreign, but it was out of place there, but it's still part of church history.
So how were things for you, you and your family for your experience in this garden area where the beatitudes were taught?
Teresa: I really enjoyed going through it. It was another one of those places of absorbing it, I felt like it was a really contemplated kind of garden. I wanted to spend some time focusing on that and then look out over the water and then come back and read and look and see, and just imagining it, letting it come to life for me.
Barbara: and I should amend, they also had many others languages scattered throughout on different signs. It felt like an international welcome. Of course, it was overrun with tourists, but we were part of the crowd of tourists.
Teresa: That was okay to be a tourist.
Barbara: Exactly. So we had another church- the sign in front of the rock Mensa Christi. Mensa means table. So you can do lots of research in John 21:9. It talks about Jesus after the resurrection coming and telling the disciples. Which side of the boat to put their net on and then cooking fish with them. And we have also the Jordan river, which was an amazing experience for all of us.
So I'm interested in your thoughts and recollections and experiences here, you and your family, Teresa.
Teresa: you know, it's really interesting. My daughter was 10 at the time. She still talks about being at the Jordan river and people being baptized. Like it really hit her and she's never really able to put it into words, which, a lot of it is hard to put into words, but she just talked about how it was a special place. And we were really blessed to get to see a lot of places living in Germany, but she still talks about the Israel trip as being her favorite trip for a ten-year-old.
So there's something that happens in the spirit that you can't really put into words but it affected my daughter really deeply being there and seeing the people getting baptized. So That water is cold.
Barbara: there's a song about Jordan river being chilly and cold
Teresa: I'm just going to tell you that water is cold and it can get pretty fast. So you're holding onto stuff like don't let me fall over here.
Barbara: There are Gates, sort of like road dividers, just metal barriers, to keep people in an area. And we also drove past, but didn't get out of the bus at another location. There are two locations that are said to be baptismal locations, but this one was almost set up more as a tourist area, with changing rooms. People who were getting baptized received a thin white garment that they could put on over either a bathing suit or their other clothes. Of course there's a gift shop and there were seating areas.
And our group ended up praying together and singing together. And a lot of people were baptized. There's a couple of different areas. So if there's different groups or different families, but I chose to just take kind of this peaceful image, but it was very powerful, very moving. I'm thrilled that she remembers this trip fondly.
Teresa: there's something going on spiritually.
Barbara: there can be spiritual stuff going on in any of us, in all of us, in all of you and you might not know. So we hold each other in prayer, everyone in the whole world on those faith journeys. So here we are on the Mount of olives looking to Jerusalem. And you can see the temple Mount.
You can see the modern city in the far background, certainly lots of building up. And we learned about burial practices you can see here. There was a camel that some people took a ride on.
I put both these photos on the same page, because there was such a contrast in my physical experience of these two places that then extended into my soul experience of these two places. So we have one location called the garden tomb that's outside the Gates of the old city. And then we have a huge cathedral, the church of the Holy Sepulchre, that's inside the old city and both locations are claimed to be by different historians and faith groups of the location of the crucifixion, the burial and the resurrection. I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Teresa: it felt more formal and more touristy to me. And so it wasn't one of my favorite places, but going to the garden tomb was very moving for me and very peaceful. And we took communion there, which was really impactful to me.
And it was really interesting. We were singing songs and one of the songs that we sang I remember my grandfather singing that song. And this was a hymn and I hadn't heard hyms in a long time. This is not one that you hear all the time.
Barbara: “Because he lives” was that it?
Teresa: Yeah, that's the one. Yes. And my grandpa would just walk around singing hymns. I’ll fly away, and I just remember him singing hymns and it just brought back a memory of my grandfather singing that song.
So it was another moment that was like, Oh my gosh, I'm sitting in Jerusalem at the garden tomb, and I'm hearing a song that my grandfather sang. I felt like so many things were connecting at that place.
Barbara: I felt the same way as you did in both places. It's interesting because they had a little viewing area over a bus station with the view of the hillside that they said was sort of shaped like the skull, Golgotha. And I just thought, well, I guess you got to put your buses somewhere. I would rather not that there was a bus station right there, but it's a huge city. I mean they had the paths laid out and this was another example of how in this location we could have a short worship service. And that was part of the pilgrimage that it wasn't just going to a bunch of museums.
But we went to the Israel museum and it was amazing. I would highly recommend that for everyone. That wasn’t a part of the official tour, but this had many spiritual components and that was very meaningful for us to be able to spend some time there. And that's not to say that you can't find God in the busy places.
Cause you can. God is with us. So it doesn't matter if it's in a big bustling building, but it's just not part of my faith tradition to worship relics, to have a piece of wood or to have the bone of a finger or something like that. So when you said people were standing in line and it's not my place to condemn if that's a profound spiritual practice for them, but it's just not for me.
In fact, in this church, like you said, there was a basement chapel area that was down two or three flights of stairs. I can feel more at peace in the quiet area, but I still want to honor people these days who are first responders or essential workers, they probably really don't get a lot of quiet time. And I would just pray that they can still feel a sense of the spirit in the midst of all the chaos or if your home life you've got extra people in your house since March.
Teresa: We don't ever leave.
Barbara: I don't want to say that we have to create this special kind of environment so that we can have that experience. But anyway, in the garden it's just the epitome of simplicity. So this is a location where each person could go inside the tomb just for a very short period of time. Because there was a line, but somehow there was a sense of abiding instead of just standing around and waiting.
Teresa: Yeah, definitely. Weren't just like standing in line, like Disney world.
Barbara: So here is my final image and I have a story to tell. And I don't know if you also have a story to tell about the area outside the temple Mount that's known as the Western wall, which is a place of prayer.
Teresa: Tell your story.
Barbara: So the sections are separated by gender. So from where we're standing here, for those of you looking at the photo, the left side is the men's prayer area and the right side is the women's prayer area. And I had heard before, but I had a hard time imagining it. You can write a prayer on a little slip of paper and fold it up and stick it between the cracks and the bricks that you can see here.
And there's even plants growing out of the cracks in the bricks and some people wanted to stand close to the wall to pray, and then some people you can see are sitting or standing a little bit further. I felt like as a tourist, I felt a little bit like an outsider. I mean, my faith is very real to me, but I also could see that there were people who had prayer books open with Hebrew writing.
So I just thought, I want to honor the people who are here and I don't want to push my way to the front. So I stood maybe two or three people back. And there was this elderly woman who was talking on her cell phone. And I was very confused by this because I'm like, I think this is a respectful place of prayer.
I don't understand what's going on, but I'm not going to say anything. I didn't understand the language she was speaking, which I didn't understand what most people are saying. So I'm thinking, well, it's not my place to say anything. And the woman was right in front of the wall and she was touching the wall with one hand and she had her phone in her other hand and she was talking with this person and then she turned the phone and she put the phone up on the wall so that the person she was talking with knew that they were right there on the wall. I just thought, wow. You know, we don't have to be in a certain place to know that God is there. We can be anywhere.
Teresa: Yeah
Barbara: I just thought that that was faith. I don't have to be talking to you on a cell phone. I don't have to put the phone with you, you know, in my church or anything like that. But I'm glad I didn't give her a dirty look because it seemed to me like they were praying, right? We're praying really hard, really fervently. In a way that, people's prayer lives, that's their own heart. That's not for me to judge, but I didn't grow up with that kind of fervent prayer. And so I really admired that, that had a huge impact on me being in this place.
Teresa: we had a couple of friends that and some really hard stuff going on at home. And so we I got to do that. I wrote out some prayers and I prayed them and folded them up and stick them in the wall and those prayers are still there. I know there are people that go and pray over the prayers that are there, all the prayers that are in the wall that people have done believe you got to see them happen and to bring them to fruition.
And so that was a really special thing to me to be able to do that. Felt like putting my friends and their situations on the altar. Cause sometimes you need to pray for people and it can just feel like, Ugh, I don't know what's going to happen and how God's going to come through in that situation.
But to be able to be like it's out of my hands and I lay them on the altar and trust them into your hands and know that you will work it all together for your glory, Lord. So that's what it felt like for me there to be able to do that with friends. Place them, their families, their situations there, and know that they can still be being prayed over, so it was very impactful to go there and be there.
Barbara: I'm so grateful to have had the chance to experience it firsthand. And still wanting to lift up the idea that all places are Holy, that God is everywhere. And that my attention was more focused here. How can I bring that attention to my everyday life?
Teresa: We stayed after the trip was over and stayed in a Jewish neighborhood during Shabbat and they don't play about Sabbath- when they say shut down, it is shut down.
Barbara: the weekend before the trip started very few restaurants were open. It just got quiet. Immediately, just stayed quiet. And then, bam, things just picked up again.
Teresa: we watched people hurrying around. We gotta get our shopping done and we gotta get home. I remember thinking, wouldn't it be amazing if we corporately did Sabbath?
It's amazing that it's corporately shut down. This is no joke. And being in the neighborhood we had to walk quite a ways to try to find a place to eat. So we were walking around at night, watching people with big trays of food and they're going to each other's homes and you could walk by and see them up in their apartments or homes.
You can hear them, they're laughing and they're playing games and you can tell they're just really enjoying each other and having that sense of community. And I was a bit jealous. This is something special and wouldn't it be amazing if you could do that here? And host those kind of dinners? I mean, the place we were staying, he was like, you won't be able to reach us because our phone goes off. And so we don't answer our phone for 24 hours.
To have that where you're like, shut off the internet. There's nothing else to do. There's no TV, there's nothing going on. So there's nothing to do, but spend time together and spend time with God. That's a pretty special thing.
Barbara: you used the word jealousy and I read an article, someone else called it Holy envy. And I felt that even when the calls for prayer would go off five times a day, we could hear that in Jerusalem. I thought, I don't probably pray five times a day and we're not told to pray as a work to earn our way into heaven, I know that we have freedom to pray.
We're told to pray without ceasing, but we can pray anytime we want. I bought a journal at the gift shop on the other side of the Lake, and I thought, I want to write in so many prayers. I know that each aspect of faith has many wonderful things, and we see the wonderful things. And then sometimes in our faith, we have strife even within ourselves, never mind between faiths. Do you have any final thoughts for us?
Teresa: the biggest takeaway for me is, is wanting to learn more and understanding my Jewish heritage and incorporating that and letting it deepen my understanding of what the word of God says and understanding like I even bought a new, I just got a new Bible because I was like, pull up my new bookable.
But it is the It's called the tree of life version. And it's written it was a collaboration of people who are messianic believers who wanted to pull out more of the Jewish roots and using the terms Yahweh and Yeshua in the Bible.
I only had it for a short time, but I really enjoy that. And being able to pull up meanings of, okay, what does that mean? It's made it more real to me in ways it's really difficult to explain, but that it's made me more curious. And wanting to know more about my heritage.
Barbara: This was a really special pilgrimage for us, really grounded in faith. Thank you very much for your time, Teresa.
Teresa: Thanks, Barb.
Resources:
Psalm 84:5
Tree of Life Bible
The Rock, the Road, and the Rabbi by Kathie Lee Gifford and Rabbi Jason Sobel
Seamless (Bible Study) by Angie Smith
Finding I Am (Bible Study) by Lysa TerKeurst
Ray Vander Laan www.ThattheWorldMayKnow.com www.studygateway.com
The Bible in One Year, a free Bible commentary app
by Nicky and Pippa Gumbel www.bibleinoneyear.org
Teresa prays, ponders Sabbath, and seeks understanding