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   Sampson was one of the judges of Israel. One day the Angel of the Lord came to a woman and told her she would have a son. He would be a Nazarite so he could not drink wine, he could not touch dead animals, and he could not cut his hair. She named her son Sampson.

   Sampson did a lot of foolish things. He married a Philistine woman. He touched a dead animal on his way to the wedding. He even drank wine at his wedding. Later, he found out that his wife had married a different man. He became angry, so he caught 300 foxes, then tied torches to their tails and the foxes burned the fields. The Philistines became angry, but Sampson was too strong to kill, so they killed his wife and her father.
   Later, he fell in love with another Philistine woman. Her name was Delilah. The Philistine lords said they would each give her eleven hundred pieces of silver if she would find Sampson’s weakness. Sampson lied to her three times, but the fourth time he told her about his hair. Then, Sampson fell asleep and Delilah cut his fair then she received the silver. At the temple, the Philistines poked out his eyes and when they took him to the party, Sampson asked if they could lean him beside the middle pillar, then he asked God for his strength back, and God gave it. Then Sampson pushed as strong as he could on the pillar and the temple fell on the Philistines.
   Even though Sampson disobeyed, God still used him to save Israel from the Philistines.

   Moses was a great leader. He led the Israelites out of Egypt. He always did what God commanded, even when it was strange. One of those strange times was when God told him to touch the ground with his staff and the dust would turn to lice and he obeyed. Sadly, one of those times Moses disobeyed. The Israelites complained about a lack of water, so God told Moses to speak to a rock, but Moses disobeyed and hit the rock and water came forth.

   Another story in the Bible is about a person named Balaam. The Moabites wanted Balaam’s advice on how to defeat Israel. Balaam asked God what he should do, and the Lord said don’t go with them, but Balaam chose to do his own thing. In order to get Balaam’s attention, God put an angel in the road. His donkey saw the angel and ran off the road. He hit the donkey three times, but the third time the donkey spoke and Balaam realized God was speaking to him. He asked for forgiveness and decided to do things God’s way.

   Sometimes God’s plans seem weird or it seems hard, but we should always obey. I do not want to miss out on all of the amazing things like Moses did. This is why we should always obey God.

   It started like any other day. The sun was shining, the water was clean. I got dressed then went to my job. The Pharaoh greeted me then I went to work. Being second in command is hard work. WhileI was at work, Moses and Aaron asked the Pharoh to let the people go, but Pharaoh said no. Then the frogs came! There were millions of frogs! They were everywhere, in the food, in Egyptians’ hair, and in the homes. We wanted to show that their God didn’t do anything special and our magicians copied this miracle.

   There were too many frogs. Pharaoh and I decided to let the people go if Moses would take the frogs away. Moses agreed and God killed the frogs and the place stunk. We hoped this was the end of the Plagues.

   The death and afterlife were very important for the Egyptians. They were polytheistic, which means they worshiped many gods. One of those gods was Osiris, who was the god of the afterlife. His wife, Isis, was the goddess of the dead and magic. These were two of the main gods they worshiped.

   The Egyptians wanted to get to the afterlife safely. They believed that the body carried the spirit safely to the afterlife; however, if the body decomposes, the spirit dies, and it does not go to the afterlife. So, to solve that problem they invented mummification. First, they removed the brain, then the organs, then they filled the body with spices. They put the organs in four different jars to keep them safe. Lastly, they rubbed salt on the body, then they wrapped the body in linens.

   Pyramids were built to keep mummies in. The mummies were entombed with furniture and food to make them comfortable on their journey to the afterlife. They were also buried with their money and jewelry so that they could be rich in the afterlife. These are ways that show how the Egyptians were obsessed with the afterlife.

Thutmose III was known as the greatest of all pharaohs. He reigned from 1479 BC to 1425 BC. We know this because of the records left by Amenemhat. It was Amenemhat’s job to take notes and keep records for the Pharaohs. His reign ended because he died on March 11, 1425 BC.

Thutmose III was also known as a warrior pharaoh. He captured 350 cities during his military campaigns. The main reason he won so many battles is because of improved weapons. His victories were written on the inner walls at the Karnak Temple of Amun. He spent a lot of time rebuilding Karnak. He also hired royal artists to design a botanical garden.

Thutmose also had two daughters: Nefrubity and Hatshepsut. We are fairly certain that Nefrubity married King Solomon. We are also fairly certain that Hatshepsut visited King Solomon as queen of Sheba. I like learning about people living at the same time as the Bible.

God was sovereign over the lives of the patriarchs. The patriarchs were Abraham, Issac, and Jacob. God promised Abraham a son, and his descendants would be as many as the stars of the sky and the grains of sand. God kept His promise by giving Abraham a son, Issac. Then Issac had Jacob and Esau. Jacob had twelve sons who became the twelve tribes of Israel. It has been about 5,000 years since Abraham, and the Jews are still alive, just as God promised.

I know God is sovereign in my life because he kept me from dying in my mom’s belly. I know God has a plan for my life.

This is how I see God in creation. In the book of Genesis, God told his creation to produce after its own kind. A cat and a dog cannot have a baby. They must obey God’s command to produce after their own kind.

In the same way, plants must produce after their own kind. For example, an apple tree will only produce apples. A grapevine can only give us grapes.

Ancient civilizations did not worship the creator but instead worshipped the creation. I am not like the ancient civilizations. I chose to worship God, the only creator.

I enjoyed learning about Africa on this world tour. My Great Grandparents live in Africa as missionaries, so I enjoyed learning about the origins of Africa. All Africans are descendants of Noah’s son Ham. Sadly, we don’t know much about early Africans, because they didn’t leave many written records behind. Africa has many different geographical features. It has the Nile River, the longest river in the world. It also has the Sahara desert, the largest desert in the world. It also has many jungles. Africa is a big and beautiful continent.

Today was different. I had to get up at 4 o’clock. Today I had a new job. I had to collect stones with two other people. Just then, I could not understand them and they could not understand me. So I talked to everyone in the city and I found everyone who spoke my language. So we chose to go to Africa. We chose to go there because there is a lot of land.

My friends and I chose to live in modern-day Morocco. We chose to live there because it has good land for growing our crops. We are going to raise cows, sheep, pigs, and horses. Also, someday we can go fishing and swimming. I will grow orange trees, onions, tomatoes, cucumbers, and mint. Morocco is on the coast where we fish an swim in the ocean.