Samantha: When Dennis and Barbara Rainey took some of their children and grandchildren to visit Israel, they were intentional about what they hoped it would accomplish. Here’s Barbara.

Barbara Rainey: We prayed a lot for this trip, a lot for each of our kids and for our grandchildren to really catch a vision for the reality and the truth of Jesus and his life and what he taught. That was our vision. It was our dream. It was our prayer.
Samantha: We’ll hear more about “the Rainey family field trip like none other” today. Shortly after their trip, Dennis and Barbara sat down to reflect on a few of the highlights from their time. We heard part one last time on this podcast. If you missed that episode, you can listen at EverThineHome.com/podcasts. But wait, there’s more! Now let’s hear part two of this adventure. Here’s Dennis.

Dennis Rainey: And welcome to the Barbara Rainey Podcast, from Ever Thine Home. Glad you’re back with us. My sweetheart’s back, too.

Barbara: Yes. We’re all here together again.

Dennis: We’re here together. No doubt about it. Still getting over jet lag from going to Israel a couple of weeks ago.

This is really some of our best efforts to pass on the command in Deuteronomy 6. It says, “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one.” And it goes on to say, “You shall teach your children when you rise up, when you lie down, when you go by the way.” There’s actually a word in there indicating that passing on the truth about God and the truth of God should be a burden everyday to your soul.

Barbara: Which is what we hoped to do when we took our kids to Israel. Years ago Dennis and I started talking about this idea not knowing if we would be able to pull it off. Not knowing if it would work. We had the desire to take our kids to the land where Christ walked. The land that he taught from. The place that God chose out of all the places on the planet for his name to dwell and for his presence to dwell with his people. And there’s something about it that we thought, if we could do it, would not just be memorable, but it would hopefully be life changing and heart changing for our kids and our grandkids. So we were finally able to do that in March. In the last episode we talked about some of the things that we did and saw and some of the experiences that we shared together. We have more to tell so we are going to do that on today’s episode.

Dennis: On our way to Jerusalem we stopped on what I consider the riskiest part of our journey. The stop was a botanical garden that contained the trees, the vegetation, and the flowers that are mentioned in Scripture. That sounds kind of out there. But that ended up being a highlight of our trip.

Barbara: Well, you weren’t the only one who was anxious about that. I think the parents of our grandkids (our kids) saw that on the schedule for the day and thought that sounded like it could be really boring. But it was anything but boring. We were quite surprised to find out at the end of the week when we had everyone share some of their highlights, that four or five of the kids shared that as their highlight. As we pulled into this place, it wasn’t impressive to look at. It just was a bunch of acres of trees and bushes and things. There really wasn’t anything to see. All of us were skeptical. All of us had questions. But as we got into it we had a guide that was A+. The guide makes all the difference in the world on any kind of tour that you do. She was energetic. She was a mom. She talked to the kids and she told us about this park that had been created, I think after the six day war. Isn’t that right?

Dennis: Yes.

Barbara: And they bought a couple hundred acres of land and they decided that they were going to plant everything that was mentioned in the Bible and allow people to see the way people lived in the Bible, what they used, and why these plants and trees and things are mentioned in Scripture.

She did her little introduction. It was so cute, I’ll never forget this moment. She did her little introduction in this small, tiny little amphitheater place. We were looking out over the hills and the kids were sitting there kind of twiddling their thumbs. I’m sure they were thinking this is going to be boring.

And then she said, “Alright, let’s go look at things.” And she walked out of the amphitheater and said to the kids, “I want to show you something.” And she picked up this stalk of grass and waved it in front of them. She told them that this is such and such and she said it’s called this and the Israelites ate it.

She stuck it in her mouth and she started chewing on this piece of grass. She said, “It tastes really good.” She said, “Here, would you like to try one?”

Well, immediately the kids were hooked. They were all bending over and picking up a piece of that and it was the cutest thing. But it was also fun and gratifying to see the kids engage with what she was saying. It wasn’t just a lecture. It wasn’t just facts. It wasn’t just more things to learn. It was a way to participate in the stories of Scripture.

We walked a little ways further, and then she stopped and bent over and picked another leaf and stem off of another plant. This one had yellow blooms on it. And she started talking about this mustard plant and how Jesus used it as an illustration in one of his parables. She said, “You can eat the mustard plant too,” and started chewing on a stem from the mustard plant. She showed us the seeds and said you can eat the seeds and she talked about how she gathered them and made her own mustard.

The kids were eagerly chewing on another plant. You know, they are not all city kids in the sense of being completely unfamiliar with anything rural, but they don’t go out in their yard and pick grass and chew on it either. And so it was a totally out-of-the-box experience for the kids to pick things that were growing and eat them and begin to understand that the stories that Jesus told were connected to the land, connected to the vegetation for a reason.

The reason is that this is the way that the people lived. They went out into the field and they picked these things and they cooked with them. The mustard seeds were really tiny. We all looked at them. We all saw them on the plant. We all chewed on some mustard seed. It gave life to the stories of the Bible for our kids and for our grandkids, and even for us for that matter. To see it, to touch it, to smell it, to taste it, it made the stories of Scripture come alive.

Dennis: And I’ve got a question for our listeners that I want them to think about and answer. And I’ll come back at the end of the broadcast and answer it. What are the three most important trees in the Bible? I gave this assignment to our grandkids and I was really impressed with how they searched the Scriptures and found the three most important trees.

It really is more important than you think. There are all kinds of ways God shows up, and he shows up through creation. Nothing is insignificant.

We also went to the Sea of Galilee. You and I had been back in 2011, and while we were out there on the Sea of Galilee on this tour boat that had about thirty or forty people on it, a storm came up. The Sea of Galilee is surrounded by hills and mountains. It is below sea level. It can pick up some ferocious wind. It pushed our boat into another tour boat that was riding waves that were, I don’t know, four feet high. That could have been dangerous.

This time when we went, it was perfectly calm. And I thought that was what Jesus did that night when he showed up in the disciples' lives, and they were terrified. He said a word and the sea was calmed. Then he was trying to calm their souls as well.

And I thought, you know, these are ways these kids are going to grasp the stories of Scripture in specific ways with vivid memories that are etched in their minds. My hope is that when they face issues in their lives, they’ll apply Scripture, and trust Jesus and have faith in him in the midst of the storm.

Barbara: And I agree with you. That was our hope. That was our vision. That was our dream. It was our prayer. We prayed a lot for this trip. A lot for each of our kids and our grandchildren to really catch a vision for the reality and the truth of Jesus and his life and what he taught.

So I think, yes, being on the Sea of Galilee was one of the highlights for some of the other grandkids. They said sitting on that boat and seeing the water that Jesus saw and the hills that he saw and just that experience of riding out there on the sea was a highlight. They loved it because it is virtually unchanged from when Jesus was there. Especially sitting in the boat, because you don’t see the modern buildings, you just see the hills and the pasture land. It was a great experience.

Dennis: One of the fun things that I did (I’m Papa)— when Papa goes and visits the grandkids it is just really interesting, no matter if it is in Colorado with the snow on the mountains and around the houses, or in Nashville, or in Russellville, or in Dallas, or wherever our kids are at the time, I say, “Do you hear them? They’re coming! They are coming out of the woods!” And I will have gone into their rooms and have lined up gummy bears, whole lines and herds of gummy bears in their rooms and I say, “I think they visited your bedroom. Run back there and look!” Of course, this has been done a number of times.

Barbara: Right, they know where gummy bears come from.

Dennis: They know where gummy bears come from.

Barbara: But they love it. Even the big kids love it.

Dennis: If you can believe it, the gummy bears crawled out of the Sea of Galilee! When we were going to look at the Sea of Galilee I went and put gummy bears, this time not lined up but in packages, on the bus in little spots. They got back and it was a hoot. They said, “How did you get those on here?” And I said, “I checked a bag that weighed a whole lot more because of it.” I had three pounds of gummy bears and five pounds of jelly bellies. And we just had fun with that. They showed up again at the end, I think, somewhere in Jerusalem, I don’t remember the spot. But the point is to make a memory with your kids and at the same time etch the biblical principles that are found in Scripture on the souls of your children.

Samantha: Dennis and Barbara have more to tell us in just a moment, including talking about a meal that was particularly special to Barbara. And Dennis will answer his question about the three trees in the Bible. But I’m jumping in here quickly to let you know how you can access photos from this trip and other content from Barbara. It’s by subscribing to Barbara’s “Friends and Family.” It’s just five dollars per month, and you can do that at BarbaraRainey.substack.com.

Once you’ve set your profile you can browse lots of great content from Barbara, including that “Friends and Family” blog with pictures from their trip to Israel.

Don’t forget too, there are still a few copies of Barbara’s epic poem A Love Letter to the Lost in this Land. It’s a poetic overview of the whole story of Scripture from Genesis to Revelation. You can order yours for a donation of $10 or more when you visit EverThineHome.com/loveletter.

Dennis: Well, I just want to use this podcast to say thanks to those of you who read Barbara’s blogs, the articles she writes, all the different things she’s created to help you celebrate the holidays and help you turn your family into a spiritual unit. Thank you for leaving those thanks and thank you to those of you who participate in this ministry financially. We don’t take anything from Ever Thine Home. We raise our own support to do what we do. We are just grateful for the people who help keep us going. We’ve got a very small team. It’s lean. It’s not mean, but it is lean, and it is hard working to serve you with the very best resources we can bring you to help you be effective in life’s most important relationships. That’s God, your spouse, and your kids and grandkids.

Samantha: Again, the two main places you can access this content are EverThineHome.com and BarbaraRainey.substack.com. Now, let’s continue with Dennis and Barbara.

Dennis: You may be sitting there listening to this and saying, “You know, that’s all well and good that you and Barbara could afford to take your kids and they could afford to take the grandkids to Israel. We may never be able to achieve that.” We’d saved a long time to make that happen.

Barbara: Yeah, we did.

Dennis: But we did some cheaper things here in the States that have been real memory makers with our grandkids.

Barbara: Yeah, I think what we’re saying is that there are ways that you can help the Bible come alive for your kids beyond just taking them to church on Sunday. Beyond teaching them to read it. Talk about your faith, talk about what God is doing in your life, and tell your children and your grandchildren how he showed up and the things that he did with genuine excitement. When God shows up in your life it’s amazing! But there are also practical things you can do.

One of the things we did, which we’ve mentioned before in a previous podcast but I think it’s worth mentioning again, is we took our grandkids to the Creation Museum in northern Kentucky in the Cincinnati area. The Creation Museum is really, really, well done. Now the creators of it have also built a life size replica of Noah’s ark. It was just amazing to take our kids and grandkids to that. They loved it and were as wide-eyed over that as they were over Israel.

Again, it’s another way to help your children engage with the Bible stories that help them see that this really happened. This isn’t just a fairy tale. But it really actually happened. It just does a lot for their faith to see the things that are replicas of what really happened. It’s almost like a theme park. They’ve got zip lines and that kind of stuff. So taking your kids to that would be a great investment in your kids’ faith and in your family.

Dennis: At its core it is biblical. What we had fun doing was teaching our grandkids to think biblically about life. In popular terminology it is called a biblical worldview. Looking at everything through the eyes of Scripture results in life making sense. When it’s odd and perplexing, God’s at work.

I wanted our grandkids, and you do too, to have a biblical worldview of life that they are living out all their days. I have no idea what’s going to come their way in their lifetime.

There’s also another great museum in Washington D.C. called the Museum of the Bible. We have not done that. That’ll be our next stop that we make. I don’t know exactly how we are going to do that with all the grandkids having to fly to D.C. These theme parks, and I’ll call them that, are worth the investment and time and vacation money because you are going to go with a purpose and come out of there with a lot of lessons.

Barbara: You can take your kids to Disneyland. We did that and we’re glad we did that. We did that only once. And yet, in the long run, especially for us as grandparents, at this season of our lives, it is more important for us that we would spend our time and our energy imparting our spiritual values to our kids.

Dennis: Yeah, not just entertaining. Well, you thought I forgot about it, but I didn’t forget. Have you found the three trees? Have you thought about the three trees in the Bible?

Well one shows up in Genesis 2. That’s probably the one you got. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And that tree ended up getting Adam and Eve. Their choice caused them to sin against God.

But the tree story doesn’t end there. It goes all the way to the garden of Gethsemane and to the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It says in Scripture, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.” And it was speaking of capital punishment that was around in that day and our Savior’s death, it was forecast in prophecy.

The last one is probably the lesser known of the three trees, but it’s in Revelation 22:14. It’s really kind of cool because it takes the sin that entered the human race with the first tree and the second tree, the cross that Jesus had to die on, and it wraps it up at the end of history with this statement, “Blessed are those who wash their robes so that they may have the right to the tree of life, that they may enter the city by the gates.” Those gates are going to be in Jerusalem. That’s where the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords is going to be. Give your kids and grandkids the assignment of finding the trees in the Bible. You may have to teach them how to use a concordance.

Barbara: Or a Bible app, which is what our grandkids use. They pulled up their phones, they all had a Bible app. They knew how to use them and they found a whole bunch of trees. They found lots of trees before they finally narrowed it down to the three most important ones. But it was a great little exercise for them.

Dennis: Yep. There was a time when God showed up in your life on this trip as we had our last dinner in Jerusalem and we ate at a place that had something very special for you.

Barbara: So our last night, instead of going to the hotel and eating basically the same thing we’d been eating all week, our tour company arranged for us to eat at this really nice, very old hotel in the heart of Jerusalem, called the American Colony Hotel. And I don’t know enough about it yet. I took lots of pictures and I’m eager to make the time to actually learn more about this place and why it’s called that. It’s got a lot of history to it. But I didn’t know any of that when we walked in. I just thought it was a really cool place. The architecture looked like it’s been there for a long time.

So we went into the dining room and had a really nice dinner with our children and grandkids. Then right at the very end, our guide said, “Oh by the way, on your way out of here you might want to stop in the lobby and see some things that are hanging on the wall.” He said, “One of them is the original, handwritten It Is Well With My Soul song written by Horatio Spafford.”

And I looked at him and my eyes were like saucers and I said, “Say that again. Are you serious?”

And he said, “Yeah, the original handwritten words to that song are framed and hanging on the wall.”

And I said, “Why?”

He said, “They just are. You’ll have to go see.” Anyway, he was quite the character. So as soon as we were finished eating I was up and out of my chair and into the lobby. The lobby area was covered with frames all up and down the hallway. I hadn’t even noticed them when we came in, but sure enough, there was a big frame and there was a piece of hotel stationary and on that stationary were handwritten all the stanzas for It Is Well With My Soul. I just couldn’t believe it.

Dennis: That’s one of your favorite songs.

Barbara: It’s my favorite hymn. It was my dad’s favorite hymn. We sang it at his funeral. We sang it at my mom’s, and someday I hope it’ll be sung at mine. But I just love that hymn and the story behind it.

Horatio Spafford was a businessman in Chicago in the late 1800’s. He was married and he and his wife had four daughters and he was a very strong believer. He worked closely with Dwight L. Moody in Chicago and he and his wife and daughters were going to travel to England and were going to join him on a speaking campaign around the country.

At the last minute something happened that he had to stay back in Chicago. Something with his business that was pressing and important and demanded his attention. So he told his wife and the girls to go on, he would come on the next ship. And he took his wife and his daughters to the departure station and they got on the ship and sailed across the Atlantic.

Not far from the shores of England, in the middle of the night when everyone on the ship was sleeping, the ship that they were traveling on crashed into another ship in the dark of night. And the wreck was so damaging to the boat that it sank in a matter of minutes, I think twelve, maybe fifteen minutes. All four of Horatio’s daughters drowned. His wife lived. She was saved because a plank of wood from the ship was nearby and somehow she got on top of it. In the morning light, someone found her floating on this piece of wood in the ocean.

When she got back on another ship and got to shore, she sent Horatio a telegram. It said, “All lost. Saved alone.” That was all that it said to him.

He knew immediately what had happened, and as soon as he could he got on another ship and sailed to England. On his way, over the spot where the wreck had taken place and where the ship had sunk with his daughters in it, he stood out on the deck of the ship and standing there praying and probably crying and mourning and grieving over his lost daughters, the words came to him for this hymn and he wrote them down as a poem. I don’t think he intended for it to be sung immediately, but he wrote down his reflections in poem form. And those are the words that we sing today in this hymn.

They were written on that piece of paper and hanging in that hotel where we had dinner that night. Seeing that in his own hand framed in that restaurant, was really meaningful because, being in the land of Israel and feeling connected to Jesus and seeing that piece of paper with his handwriting that he wrote on the ship, that was a greater connection to him and to the hymn even than there had been before.

Dennis: And I’ll not read all six stanzas, but I want to read the opening stanza and the refrain. And then the final stanza.

When peace like a river attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll,
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,
“It is well, it is well with my soul.”
It is well, it is well with my soul.
The last stanza says, and I love this. The visual of this, I get emotional when I read it and when I sing it.
And Lord, haste the day when the faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll,
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
“Even so!” It is well with my soul.

Barbara: Amen.
Dennis: Amen.

(“It Is Well With My Soul,” Words: Horatio Spafford, 1873. This recording: “It Is Well With My Soul,” Jan Mulder and London Symphony Orchestra, Love Divine ℗ 2013 Jan Mulder)