Heading Home

After 2,341 miles or driving spread out over a week on the road, I finally made it back to the place I like to call home, Alpharetta, GA. Here are some of the adventures I had along the way,

My first stop was lunch at a restaurant called Olives at the Bellagio. A friend recommended it to me and since it was my first time in Vegas, I decided to make it happen. Great view, but unfortunately, I didn't get to see the fountains in all their glory.

I stayed in Richfield, Utah the first night. I think the sunset lasted about two beautiful hours.

I stayed with my parents in Denver the next two nights. Shortly after arriving I found out one of my favorite bands was playing at Red Rocks Amphitheatre those two nights, twenty minutes from my parents' house. I couldn't not go, so I talked my dad into going over there with me. It was an epic night seeing Mumford and Sons in such an incredible venue.

They filmed the show I was at and here they are playing the first single off their upcoming album.


I also got to stop by Nashville to see some friends of mine, the McHughs (thanks for hosting!) and the Ballards.

Evan and I hit the town for some good times (which means dancing was obviously involved).

I came home to these men (among others). I love them and am excited to be doing life together.
"In each of my friends there is something that only some other friend can fully bring out. By myself I am not large enough to call the whole man into activity; I want other lights than my own to show all his facets.” (CS Lewis, The Four Loves)

Recap of my trip to Isreal

It's been over a week now since I've been back in the States. Since being back, I've been trying to figure out the best way to sum up my experience in Israel. I'll start with a few favorite memories, and then I'll try to add some concluding thoughts.

Key wow moments:
The first was when we first made it to Jerusalem and we were driving up Mt. Scopus to get a view of the city. As the city was coming into view, it hit me how crazy it was that I was there.The second wow moment came when we made it to the southern wall of the Temple Mount and saw the Southern Steps. We had heard a lot about where Jesus might have done this or that, but these steps where the first time we encountered a spot where we can be fairly confident that Jesus walked, since these steps would have been the entrance and exit to the Temple Mount.The third wow moment came while being in and around the Sea of Galilee (or Lake of Gennesaret). We stayed on the lake, swam in it, took a boat out on it and had a worship service, and visited many of the towns in the area. The Gospels are full of stories about Jesus' ministry in this area, so it was cool to experience it.
One of the coolest moments (though definitely not literally):
Swimming in the Dead Sea. Although it was 112 degrees and the water was super warm and salty, it was a lot of fun trying to do anything but float in it.
Favorite person on the trip: My roommate for the two weeks, Cody Charland. Always good for a laugh, pleasant conversation, or a travel companion while walking around Jerusalem one night because we were lost (mostly my fault).
Major take-aways:
I went over to Israel after hearing from different people that Israel had changed their life, which contributed to me having a certain expectation about how the trip might impact me. And though I was somewhat skeptical of needing to have this kind of experience, I found myself feeling disappointed when I wasn't emotionally connecting with certain sites and places. I should be affected more than this, right? Well, not necessarily.

One of our professors on the trip, the esteemed New Testament scholar Marianne Meye Thompson, helped me make sense of some of what I was feeling. At the midpoint of the trip, on a Sunday morning, she gave a sermonette while we were on a boat on the Sea of Galilee. She talked about meeting God and following Jesus in ordinary places. Although there are some fascinating things to see in Israel, all in all it's a pretty ordinary place. We don't have to go to Israel to experience Him. He's here with us now, where we are, no matter how ordinary our lives may seem.

Another big thing I will take away from this trip has to do with seeing the land and the historical sites. I don't think I'll ever read the Bible the same. I have already seen how certain stories now seem to come alive in a different way, just by being able to recall what these places were like. It's also fascinating to see how much of what we saw is connected to historical records outside the Bible. There are some really interesting things that are constantly being discovered archeologically that bring harmony to historical records and biblical texts.

The last thing I'll mention has to do with Israel and Palestine. I think I came away with a clearer understanding of some of the issues going on over there, but also now know how much more complex the situation really is. Also, we really only heard from people who were pro-Israel. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but I do know that there is another perspective that I wish could have been discussed more. The problem over there is so complicated that I couldn't offer a educated opinion on what I think is best. I think I do support Israel and the desire that the Jewish people there have for a country to call theirs, though I don't think that argument should be made based on biblical promises.

I believe the greatest need for that area that goes beyond political borders is peace. Some might argue that that will only come when the correct boundaries are set in place or others may say that peace is just an impossible dream. I can't really say how it might come, but I do hope and pray for peace.


For other pictures and video, I recommend this slideshow I put together below. You can also check out my Picasa album, which includes my favorite pictures with info explaining what different places and things are.


Israel trip from David Wilhite on Vimeo.

Trip to Israel

Tomorrow morning I will be heading to Israel for a couple of weeks. I"m going with a group of students and professors from Fuller. We'll be spending time in Jerusalem mainly, but will also visit the Sea of Galilee, Masada, Qumran, Bethlehem, and the Dead Sea. I'm pretty excited about it, especially after reviewing some history and learning more about current happenings earlier this week. I also got excited after seeing the video below and thought I'd share it with you.

Jerusalem | Filmed in Imax 3D from JerusalemTheMovie on Vimeo.

Also, if you're interested, I believe you can see different updates from our trip here

Waterfalls, Rock Jumping and Hiking at Tar Creek

Last weekend, I went hiking with a couple of friends at Tar Creek. It's a couple of hours northwest of LA in the Sespe wilderness. It's a beautiful two mile hike down to the creek. Once you get to the creek, it's about a mile and a half of rock hopping and bouldering through a canyon to get to the end, which is an eighty foot drop-off with a gorgeous view.

One of the best parts about the hike are the many waterfalls and pools you encounter as you go further downstream. Of course we decided to take advantage of come of the jumps and rockslides along the way. Apparently when I jump off of higher spots, my butt takes a lot more impact than it should. According to a chiropractor I saw a couple of days ago, I apparently sprained my tailbone from hitting the water. Believe me. You don't want to do this. It's fairly painful even a week later.

One of the guys I went with is a videographer and captured a lot of video footage. He ended up compiling and editing some of it into a short little video. I thought some of you would enjoy it.



(By the way, the helicopter towards the end was for a lady who had hurt her leg and was unable to climb her way back up. It was pretty crazy)

Yosemite playlist

For this weekend's trip to Yosemite, I made a playlist for Brittany and I. It mostly stems from some people I've been recently digging, but also with some relevant themes. A mixture of mello and merriment:

1. Keep Your Head Up - Ben Howard
2. Little Talks - Of Monsters and Men
3. Down In The Valley - The Head and the Heart
4. Holecene - Bon Iver
5. We Are Young - fun.
6. Only Love - Ben Howard
7. Ho Hey - The Lumineers
8. Mountain Sound - Of Monsters and Men
9. Home - Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros
10. Metal & Wood - Tyrone Wells
11. The Fear - Ben Howard
12. Airplanes - Local Natives
13. Lakehouse - Of Monsters and Men
14. Awake My Soul - Mumford & Sons
15. River And Roads - The Head and the Heart
16. The Wolves - Ben Howard
17. Six Weeks - Of Monsters and Men

Pigeon Mountain adventures

I just got back from a camping weekend with a few really good buddies of mine. We went to Pigeon Mountain in northwest Georgia. We had a good time walking and hiking around the area. However, two of the guys didn't have the best sleep because they somehow forgot their sleeping bags. Looking back, I definitely should have offered my tent-mate Ethan a share of my bag. But at the time it was pretty funny to see him come into the tent around 4am the second night with a camping chair. He set it up in the middle of the tent and proceeded to try to sleep a couple of hours in it. Needless to say, he didn't get much sleep during the weekend.

The goal Saturday morning was to go find the Overlook nearby. Being the navigator with a map, I was finding it difficult to locate where this overlook might be. I directed us to a few different places and we ended up off the mountain and driving around for over an hour. We did get to see some beautiful countryside. But it turns out, the overlook was about 1/4 mile from our campsite. On the map it said "Hood Overlook." Not sure how I missed that one. Here's a picture from it: The highlight of the trip for me was being in a dark cave for close to four hours with these guys. We were making our way through Pettijohns Cave. We shimmied, crawled, and worked our way through all kinds of slippery mess. Having been in there three times before, I was most qualified (though not extremely confident) to lead us to the goal of seeing the waterfall several miles in. Thankfully, after going through the Z-bends (Scott and Dan were champs getting us through that) and getting turned around, we ran into a few locals who helped us get to the waterfall and back.

Here are a few pics from this trip and from years before after coming out of the cave:From January of 2002 with some old friends from youth group:
From late 2000 or early 2001 with some college friends my freshman year:

Advance09 recap

I got back Saturday from Advance09 in Durham. The conference messages along with the quality time had with the guys made for a great time. Props to Whitney for hooking us up with a free place to stay in Raleigh AND for buying the tickets the day after they went on sale so we could sit in the second row, 30 feet from Piper and company. And we actually we able to move up day 2 & 3 where we were about 15 feet from them, close enough to where Piper looked directly at me several times while he was speaking. That will keep your attention. Here's a flash-less picture of him from where we were sitting:The messages basically centered around revitalizing the local church. The two basic ideas that all the speakers seemed to agree upon is the need to live a life of repentance as well as to keep telling people about the person and work of Christ. Most of messages were good, but here were my favorite 3:

1. Bryan Chapell - Communicating the Gospel Through Preaching
2. John Piper - Let the Nations be Glad Part 1 & Part 2
3. Mark Driscoll - Ministry Idolatry

To highlight my favorite, Dr. Chapell began talking about how the love of Christ should compel us to walk with Him. He then started talking about the supremacy and centrality of Christ in the Scriptures. My favorite point in his message came when he began talking about the idea of understanding our position in Christ as God's children. Don't sin because that doesn't reflect who you are. You are God's child. He loves you. That is the motive for fighting sin, not some kind of behavior modification. That thought is incredibly freeing and compelling.

Alright, so for the rest of the messages, click here. And here are a few more pictures:

This was the crew (Matthew not pictured)Here are the guys in front of Duke Memorial Chapel:Finally, we stopped by Greenville, SC on the way back. What a cool city.Click here for the rest of the pictures.

Going to Advance09

Wednesday night, Lord willing, I will be heading to Durham, North Carolina with four other friends to attend Advance09. It's a conference about the power of the church. We'll hear from guys like John Piper, Mark Driscoll, Matt Chandler, Ed Stetzer,Bryan Chapell, and a few others. I'm really looking forward to the fellowship with the guys I'm going with as well as to hear from some of my favorite pastors on the subject of the church. If you're interested, I'll hopefully be twittering throughout the conference about my insights from the talks as well as significant quotes.

Countries Coming to America

This infogrpahic looks at the top 20 countries that America received people from in 2008. It's pretty interesting. I'm surprised the Philippines had as many as they did.

(HT:Tim Challies)

Leading lives of quiet desperation

"The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation...and go to the grave with the song still in their heart." - Henry David Thoreau

I heard this quote again this morning. Thoreau penned this line 150 years ago at a place called Walden Pond. The picture above of Walden Pond was taken this past Wednesday as me and the guys were finishing up our New England tour. Trivia Library says that:

"Thoreau isolated himself at Walden Pond in Massachusetts from 1845 to 1847. His experiences during that time were published in Walden (1854), which Thornton Wilder called "a manual of self-reliance." In a well-known passage, Thoreau stated his purpose: "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation..."

I definitely don't want this said about me. Thankfully, in Christ I know I don't have to. He once promised us: "I came that they may have life and have it abundantly."

NYC/Boston trip

Just got back from a six day journey through New York, Boston, Cape Cod and some other parts of the New England area. I went with my roommates Roy and Scott as well as a friend named Dan. We had a blast. I thought I'd highlight some of the trip with some pictures.

I like this shot. It's the subway station right outside our hotel in Manhattan.
Going to Redeemer and seeing Tim Keller preach Easter morning was awesome.
us at Central Park
Harvard Yard during class change
enjoying the Sam Adams Brewery tour in Boston
me at Fenway Park
us at a beach in Chatham, MA (in the Cape Cod area)
grave site of David Brainerd in Northampton
church in Northampton where Jonathan Edwards preached
A nice surprise at the Atlanta airport :)

Visit Athens in 2009

The LA Times recently picked 29 places from all over the world to visit in 2009. Athens, GA was listed as one of them. I agree with their choice, although not for the same reasons.

(HT:Creative Loafing)

Back from Beaver Creek

For the one person that complained, I apologize that I've been blogless for the last 7 days. I left last Thursday with my family and my buddy Dan to head to Beaver Creek, CO. We had great weather. It snowed a good bit before we got there and was sunny the whole three days that we skied. We skied at Beaver Creek the first and last day and drove over to Vail for the second day. I had a lot of fun using my new camera (Nikon d40) and even got to start and finish This Side of Paradise, once highly recommended by Ethan, and now by me. And I definitely enjoyed the beauty and serenity of God's creation.

Here are some of the pics:

Aspens at Beaver Creek

Dan and I at Beaver Creek
Vail
Fun times in Vail
Vail again
me at Baever Creek

Back from the land of smiles

I made it back Sunday night from Bangkok, Thailand. It was about a 24 hour travel experience, and I was pretty worn out by it all. But, it was very refreshing to JY waiting on me in the airport. Monday and Tuesday were pretty rough. I was constantly tired and wasn't getting much sleep at night. But by Wednesday, I think I was finally back to normal.

The trip itself was great. I actually had some anxiety the week before the trip about some of the discomfort that I would probably experience while over there, namely the heat, food, and just not being in my normal comfortable setting. So, excitement wasn't much of what I was feeling, until I actually arrived in Bangkok.

After stepping off the plane, and having an encouraging ride to our hotel with a Canadian missionary from the Thai church, I knew I was finally excited to be there. The next day, we wanted to get out and about around the city, both to experience the city as well as to get over some of the jet lag. We visited the reclining Buddha, rode on a water taxi, walked through the smelly fish markets, rode on a motorized rickshaw called a took-took, ate some authentic Thai cuisine (for only $1), and finally visited one of the massive malls right near our hotel.

The next day we went to a university campus nicknamed Ram U. It has the most amount of students enrolled in the world, with something like 450,000 enrolled! Basically what we did that day (Wednesday) and when we went back on Friday, was to spend time with the very small Christian club there. We had some good prayer time with them and assisted with them in their goal to get more people to join. The successful, and highly exciting time for me, was when we went out to all the different students hanging around the campus, and just talked to them. But we tried some things at first that were...a little awkward. In order to try and attract people to the group, we were told that we should sing or play a game or something. So, in sight of a couple hundred Thai students, we first sang "Jesus loves me" while dancing to the Electric Slide, while following that up with a little game of "Hokie-Pokie"!! Needless to say, I'm glad everyone agreed after that that we should go out and try to meet people.

The next day we went to a Buddhist school and got taught how to "why" people. This is the traditional way of greeting someone in Thailand, as opposed to the handshake, high-five, head nod, etc. To the left is a picture of Brianna being taught how to "why." We also had some Q & A time between us as we shared about life as an American. We also went to a Christian school Friday morning, where we did a lot of the same thing, but talked more specifically about life as a Christian in America. Here's a picture or our team with some of the students.Saturday, we went to a very poor area of town and dialogued with some kids (8-16 years old). We talked some about sex and the influence of the media on us, but then moved on to some more personal dialogue telling them about our interests and hearing from them about theirs. They all gave us Thai names and my name means "one who has gold," I guess because I told them I work at a bank. I then played a miniture game of soccer with a few of the kids. Then we walked through some of the poorest areas I've ever been in contact with. One of the girls that we were talking with wanted us to show us her home. It was small and only had one bedroom for maybe 4-5 people. To get there, you go through narrow alleys that are paved with concrete but are directly over an open sewer system. It was a very humbling time. It helped us all remember how much "stuff" we have as Americans. Here's a picture with one of the boys I played soccer with, and then of everyone there from that morning.Overall, it was truly a great experience. One of the many highlights for me was getting to know all of the high school students that were on the trip. They all were really fun and had such cool, unique stories. I hope to remain connected with them. Also, the Thai Christians were an encouragemnt to us in many ways, and I do believe we were an encouragement to them in a few ways. We serve a big God, with a big heart for the world. It was a blessing to be able to see among the millions lost in Buddhism over there, that he is really working through a select few to impact that country for Christ. Thanks again to all who supported me on this trip and to all who were praying for us.

You can check out the rest of the pictures here.

I'm here...

...and I'm a little tired. Check out our blog here to hear from our team throughout the trip. That's all for now.

Thailand

Many of you know by now that I'll be headed to Thailand this Sunday, June 1st, and getting back the following Sunday. I'm going over there with 7 of the high schoolers from Perimeter Church along with a guy and girl my age, as well as my dad. We'll be staying in Bangkok and doing a lot of high school and college ministry, as well as ESL classes a couple different nights. Having never been to Asia, I'm looking forward to experiencing the many culture differences, especially regarding the Buddhist worldview that is predominant over there. Thank you to all who are supporting me this on this trip both financially and through prayer. Check back in for updates and pictures later on next week.

And for those who are interested, I've compiled a few stats about the country. Much of the info comes from the Joshua Project:

- The establishment of the Thai kingdom came in the 13th century AD
- Population = 63.5 million people
- 112 people groups
- 51 are Buddhist (50 million people)
- 9 are Muslim (5.8 million people)
- 7 are Christian (142,000 people)
- 76 people groups have less than 2% Christians (47 million people)
- 10 people groups are completely unreached (694,000 people)

Hilton Head

I went to Hilton Head this past weekend for "Rooted", the Gathering retreat. I had never been to Hilton Head before, and my first experience was a pleasant one. It was very relaxing and I got to hang out with some great people. We had four different short sessions where a guy named Gary Purdy spoke. I really liked this guy a lot becuase I related with his story and he brought some great gospel centered truth. It was funny becuase some of the same stuff I had been thinking through last week (see Friday's post) was at the heart of his talks.

One quote has stuck with me that a professor told him one day about the secret to living the Christian life. He said to take a long enough look at your sin to be sorry for it...and then look to Jesus and how God sees you as He sees Jesus...righteous. And that's been my problem lately. I haven't been seeing a lot of my sin. But thankfully God answered my plea for help and revealed to me a ton of self-righteousness that I was embracing. So now, I can look again to the wonder of the gospel and the wonder that God has chosen me to be a part of His kingdom.

Now here are a couple of my favorite people from the weekend, for whom I am very thankful.

Jamie and IOur D-group minus Greg (we missed you buddy). Also, aren't our "Rooted" shirts cool (the dark one with the tree on it)? Thanks Roy and Kara.friend and future roomie, Scottfriends and drivers for the weekend, Caleb and Jackie. This was taken 100 miles east of Macon somewhere off I-16. They also got to feed goats, texas longhorns, geese, a llama, and an emu, somehow all cohabitating in the same pasture.

You can check out more pics here.