Our trip wouldn’t be complete without our tour guide Raed. I haven’t mentioned him  much in my blog, but a lot of the information I’ve written about has been from him. He’s incredibly knowledgeable about the country, its history and its ties to the Bible.

He also has some great sayings that make us all smile when he says them. When we’re traveling in the bus and he wants to point something out to us he always says, “Sharpen your eyes to the left.”

He’s also a great storyteller. When he begins a story he pauses for a long time. We all begin to look at each other and wonder if he forgot what he was going to say. Then he will tell an incredibly detailed intriguing story.

He ends nearly every story with, “and that is the glory of this place.” He seems so passionate about what he does and the stories he tells. It’s really wonderful.