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Kati just told me that she was concerned about looking like an American tourist, thinking that we would be a target for crime, being taken advantage of, etc.  Turns out, it’s just the opposite.

Radical Muslims target Israelis, not tourists.  I actually had a jew ask me why I was not afraid to have my tattoo for fear of being mistaken as a jew and targeted!

Dress:  Most of what you read about having to cover up and dress modestly is not true.  There are a few places you cannot enter without being properly covered, the only ones we found were churches, the Western Wall, and the garden of gethsemane (because of the church there.)

Safety:  The only place we did not feel safe was in and around the Old City of Jerusalem.  Everywhere else, we felt safer than in the States (no joke).  We saw no sign of theft or crime.  Cars and doors are often left unlocked, people leave stuff on the beach no one touches any one else’s stuff (that was our experience).  I mistakenly left my fannie-pack with my wallet, cards, phone and car keys on a beach lounger and freaked out thinking it was gone, but it was not.

Arabs:  We met three arab men (at different times in Jerusalem) who expressed their disgust with the media, and the hype of division and violence, wanting to just be able to co-exist with Christians, Jews, and anyone.  This, is NOT, however the standpoint of the Arab media, or the radical (religious) Muslims, of which there are MANY.

Arab owners of shops and restaurants are very friendly, hospitable, and a joy to deal with, but they cannot be trusted.  Lots of folks don’t understand the cultural differences of how it is acceptable to them to lie if it benefits them.  For this reason an Arab boy mis-led us to a dangerous part of the city during riots, and charged us money to do so!  For this reason, cab drivers told us that places we wanted to see were closed when they were not, to entice us to have them drive us elsewhere.

Muslim Arab shop owners will gladly charge you 300% of the value of an item if they can.  You will be told “No charge for looking!”, “You are my first customer”, “I will give you the best price”, and other forms of flattery, and they will make you feel loved while they love taking your money.

When an attraction is closed, they will occupy a site and pretend to be a guide.  They may hand you a 3-inch section of olive branch, and then demand 10 NIS for it because “that is how they earn a living”.

Arabs in the Christian Quarter, however, seem to charge a fair price, discourage bargaining, and not be pushy as salesmen.  For this reason, I recommend shopping in the Christian Quarter.

Jews:  This was the most dis-heartening thing for me.  The religious spirit and prideful demeanor of the native orthodox jews makes it darn near impossible to communicate with them, because they won’t even look you in the eye.  I caught a glimpse of their worship, which is joyful, enthusiastic, and energetic, but only among themselves.  I almost envied their ability to “let go” and worship with total abandon, until I remembered how we do it at Global River!

On the other hand, the nicest person we met was Michael, who was about 75 years old, and an orthodox jew from Florida.  He had an amazing perspective of the grace of God in his own life, and was full of joy, and sung us songs as we walked with him through the old city because he was helping us find things for no charge!

Sabbaths, holidays, and outages:  We managed to arrive, stay and leave Israel during more holidays than the law should allow (thank you, Neil!).  The Muslims shut down on Fridays, the Jews on Saturdays, the Christians on Sundays, and the Jews on all the extra Sabbaths that go along with the high-holidays we were there for.  I think there were about four work days during our two-week stay.  This can make it very difficult to find things that you need, like people to check you in, food, and other things that you forgot to pack.

On the other hand, what a lesson we can learn about rest, celebration, family, priorities, and keeping work in it’s place.  America is always open because it is the land of (economic) opportunity.  I feel like we are missing a majorly beneficial component of life for not keeping the Sabbath.

Knowledge:  Don’t assume that Jews and Muslims are well-educated about their belief systems.  They have very strong opinions and beliefs, but when you get into an old-testament discussion with most Jews, you will find yourself on the teaching end, if you are a mature American Christian.  (Just don’t make the same assumption about wisdom!)

Advice:  So in hindsight (as I’m sitting in the airport going home), I say pack all your American T-Shirts, sharpen up your bargaining skills, be bold in your interactions with people.  They are not a shy people.  Leave your pride and opinions at home, and pray for the humility to not judge, and to honor everyone you speak to, Jew, Arab or Christian.  Be willing to allow God to tweak your belief system and “raise you up above the systems of Religion in this world”.

we arrived in Philadelphia at 5 am… and are through customs and security.

we’ll be here till 1:45 &arrive in Wilmington at 3:12pm..

 

we started our day with an amazing breakfast, then went to Solomon’s quarries, where they cut stones out of what is now a huge cave under the old city…the story has it the stones were used to build the first temple.  super cool.

then after a little longer wandering, we headed to the beach where we spent the rest of the day. had a late lunch & watched the sun set over the Mediteranean.

we are now about to board our plane which will depart at 11:30PM and land in Philadelphia at about 5:30am EST.  PRAY that we can get a better connection from Philly…right now our layover is until 1 pm.

it’s gonna be good to get home.

So we are definitely learning to be FLEXIBLE on this trip.

It was yet another day of not getting on the Temple Mount, as most of the Old City is on ‘lock down’.  (you may have seen this in the news?)  There is a HUGE police presence at all the gates entering the city and many entrances, streets and all attractions were shut down.  We are about an 8-minute walk from the Christian Quarter of the city, relatively far from the violence which seems to always happen in or near the Muslim Quarter.  While we were on the Mount of Olives today we heard shots being fired somewhere by the walls (about a quarter mile from where we were).  In talking with some of the ‘locals’, this is common stuff and they just roll with it.  And as far as we can tell it is pretty easy to stay out of the fray if you just don’t go in certain spots.

Don’t worry, we’re safe.  But please do pray for the Peace of Jerusalem.

We did get to stroll around the Garden of Gethsemane today and it was really beautiful, though most of what we saw on the rest of the Mount of Olives left something to be desired.

We then headed to the Jordan River where we baptised each other.  The river itself is really muddy, but the experience was great.  Chris told me to count to ten before letting him up. 🙂

We were literally about 5 feet from the Jordan border as that country starts on the opposite river bank.

Very interesting approaching this site, as it was an active military location and there were caution sign to stay on the road or you might hit a land mine.  This was one of the ‘cautions’ Chris actually heeded on this trip!

We stopped for lunch

and got to meet this handsome fella…

In heading back to the city, we realized we were going to miss the window of opportunity to walk through Hezekiah’s Tunnels, and planned to do that tomorrow… before learning that tomorrow is a ‘double shabbat’, one of 4 that happen all year – we have hit so many holidays… unintentionally.  If we had known, we probably could have planned better… live & learn.

Chris & I headed to the Jaffa Gate to grab a few gifts & some pizza to bring back for dinner while the girls “chilled” at the apartment – it was peaceful inside the walls there.

So, we have learned a lot.  We have enjoyed most of it, but all agree it is going to be good to get home.

Tomorrow we are packing up and heading to a beach south of Tel Aviv where we’ll spend some time (and hopefully find a good shower) before boarding our plane at about 11PM.  We will fly through the night, land in Philadelphia & then on to Wilmington.  If we’re able, we’ll post again…. don’t know what kind of signal there’ll be at the airport or what kind of time we’ll have after getting through customs.

Thanks again for journeying with us… it’s been great having you along with your comments and especially your prayers.  We look forward to hugging you soon –

 

We dressed in our “modest wear” as we were hoping to get to the Temple Mount today, but learned it is closed until tomorrow.  We met a beautiful Jewish man, “Michael” (say it with the Hebrew ‘ch’) who talked with us and sang some Psalms for us in Hebrew… super cool.

He also led us through the Zion gate to Mt Zion, where we saw David’s tomb and went into the upper room.

This is where we deposited the prayers of our friends back home.  We were told we couldn’t put them in the Western Wall, but found out later we could have… BUT – I like where they are better.  Those prayers are sitting under a copper olive tree in the upper room.

(The room built by the Crusaders, is touted to be in the same location as the Last Supper & where the 120 were at Pentacost when Holy Spirit was released…right above David’s tomb.)

Because it is the Sabbath, no photographs were allowed in the tomb room, but here’s the upper room:

We then went to the Western Wall.

**Correction: Chris wasn’t supposed to take that picture AT ALL.**

We took a walk around and then through the city, had a great lunch & then made our way back to the apartment to rest.

And we saw a restoration project being done by UNC Charlotte!

Now, we are about to go back out with no agenda, been resting, cooling off, doing laundry and posting.   It’s 4:02 pm, here, about 9 am for you.

Timna Park was pretty remarkable – we spent most of the day here after checking out of our hostel.  It has a great history of copper mining & quite a few remaining hieroglyphs, one a cartouche of Rameses III laying claim to the area.  It was about 104 degrees.

They had a life-size replica of the tabernacle, which was really interesting.

On the 4-hour drive to Jerusalem we saw lots of date farming

interesting landscapes

a magnesium factory on the Dead Sea

And while driving through what was once Sodom, we saw a sign for “Lot’s Wife”, so we pulled in.

This is her: 🙂

The cave under her was mostly made of salt.

We arrived in Jerusalem at about 8PM.  Our apartment is on a street that is rail & foot traffic only – thank God for WAZE, it got us one block away where we found a parking place.  Getting in to our place on Shabbot was a small adventure, but eventually we figured it all out & tucked in safely for the night.  This place is super well-equipped complete with a washing machine and dryer.  Yay!

 

 

Oct 1

We had no wifi at the Bedouin Camp, so there are 2 posts for today.

(more pics to come when we download tomorrow)

We were awakened this morning by a peahen who thought she was a rooster on the roof of our tent… Chris has a video – it has a really funny call.

Since breakfast wasn’t going to be served until 8AM, we had some time to relax, drink coffee, read the Bible and pray.

We then had the MOST AMAZING breakfast we’ve had as of yet – Chris took some pictures, but this was not the full offerings.  One of the best parts… warm MILK for our coffee (a rare find).  I tried halva, which is a sesame paste that is sweet and has an almost fudgy consistency – quite good.

We drove 3 hours to Eilat, the southern-most Israeli city & the only Israeli city on the Red Sea (actually the Gulf of Aqaba – the “right finger” at the top of the Red Sea.  The views along the way were stunning.

Eilat is very near both the Jordan and Egyptian borders.

After checking into our hostel, we drove about 8 minutes to Coral Beach, which is a nature reserve.  They really protect the reef here & WOW – just a little ramp to the water and the fish and coral were really fantastic.  I have been diving many times in my life & I think this was some of the most beautiful.  The colors of some of the fish were like none I’ve ever seen – “parrot fish” that were a bright purple with turquoise trim, pink and green corals that were magnificent, and the water was so clear!

We all enjoyed our time here – though after about 45 minutes we were pretty chilly, surprisingly – the air here is HOT, but the water is refreshingly cool.

After cleaning up at the hostel, we headed to the beach boardwalk across the street from where we’re staying and found NIGHT LIFE.  Open stages with blaring music, big flashy amusement park rides, shops and more shops, and finally a little restaurant where we had a bite to eat.

The local kitties got our leftovers.

Timna Park in the morning, and then driving about 4 hours to Jerusalem to check into our last place to stay.  (This time in Modern Jerusalem, an 8-minute walk to the Jaffa Gate.)

Hard to believe we’ve only 4 nights left…

G’night y’all.

 

September 30

[notes from Chris will be in brackets]

My day (Kati) began watching the sun rise over the Dead Sea drinking sweet black coffee.  [The coffee here is usually ground really fine the grounds are in what is served, and it is very strong, smaller portions.  Hard to find cream for coffee.]

Breakfast was included in our hostel & very different than any breakfast we have ever experienced.  There was tuna, cheese, salad with all kinds of fixings, toast, yogurt, what seemed to be brownies, hummus, tahini & boiled eggs, among other things.  [the best part of traveling is the cheese!]

Massada was definitely worth seeing… a set of palaces and watchtowers on the edge of what was once the Roman Empire built by King Herod on a mountain in the middle of the desert. It was scorchingly hot in the sun, and we found shade whenever possible and drank a ton of water.

[At most of the archaeological sites, they have a black line painted across the wall, the original stuff is below the line.]

The views were spectacular and the remains of the architecture nothing short of amazing.  This place is better known for the 900+ rebel Jews that resisted the Romans and holed themselves up on Massada surviving on stores of food after the Roman conquest of the rest of Israel.  They eventually chose death over slavery on the eve of the Romans taking their little village- each man killing his own wife and children before taking lots to see who would be the last man to fall on his own sword.

After a quick lunch we took another dip in the Dead Sea, rinsed off & drove through Arat to an oasis where we spent the night.

---

 

Stay at Kfar Hanok-Dim (an oasis!)

[We drove over an hour to go what would have been 10 minutes if we could have cut through the mountains.  The landscape views were spectacular!]

After checking in and resting for a bit, we had a camel ride,

and then a tent meeting where we were greeted with the hospitality of the Bedouins — a coffee roasting ritual, and talked with a man whose family have been there for 700+ years.  He has 3 wives, many camels, donkeys and goats.

We learned that Bedouins greet their guests openly and take the protection of them very seriously.  The 3 coffees served to a guest are: 1. We welcome you in, 2. Our sword (we will protect you while you are here), 3. We are glad you’re here, we enjoy your company, enjoy your time.  None of these cups will be filled to full, and they will be served in very small (smaller than a demitasse) cup – ours were beautiful white china with small pink flowers and gold stripes.  If you are served a full cup, it means ‘we are ready for you to leave.’

They also served a very yummy, very sweet Bedouin tea which was minty.  The girls drank a lot of this.

[oops, Kati has more to say about the camels…] The camel ride was great!  I think my teeth were dusty from my constant smiling.  We all loved it.  I now have quite an affinity for these crazy looking creatures.  They can carry 300+ pounds, run all day & go 1 week with no food or water – and they are just… funny… each with it’s own personality, much like horses.  Their eyelashes and feet are bizarrely beautiful, and they really are graceful.  Who’d have guessed?

Our dinner, which was served buffet style, was a beautiful spread of delicious choices, most of which we could identify.  We ate with a lovely Jewish family from Australia at a low-seated table… what fun.  And, yes, there were cats here too… mostly hovering around the tables hoping for a scrap of something to hit the ground.

 

Our ‘tent’ was luxurious, though warm (we were very grateful for the large fan).  The entire facility was peaceful, welcoming, and beautifully decorated.   This was a very high-class camping experience!

[I hope to find pictures of our breakfast, and finish this post after we have our family-time-on-the-town!]

Yesterday, on the way out of the Old City, I had to run the key back to the room.  When I was on my way back to the car, a Muslim woman was screaming because she was claiming to being mis-handled by Israeli guards.

I had spotted some camera crews and was in the middle of asking one guy if I could give an American Christian perspective, and was half-way through my explanation (pre-filming) when the unrest broke out and all the media people (two video cameras and at least one with normal cameras)  flocked over to the woman who was yelling, and Israeli guards rushed in to do crowd control.

This comes after speaking to several arabs and jews alike who complain the the media covers nothing but violence, and that most of the population wants peace and truth in reporting.   One news crew crew was from the netherlands.  After my challenging them not to just air the “bad news”, they interviewed me and I got to say the following.  Pray that it is aired somewhere!:

That it is clear that all the tension in the city is due to pride and religion.

That Jesus came to deal harshly with both, and bring God to “Tabernacle” within us, in the form of the Holy Spirit.  He spoke against the religion of his day that still causes all the conflict today.

That man does not have to do any religious acts to win God’s approval.  He loves us just as we are, and our sins are paid for.

That although Jerusalem is beautiful and interesting, it is not a “holy site” for Christians, because all that stands today is what was built during the Crusades, it is really a museum for the Crusade architecture.  We don’t get any “closer to God b

We arrived in Ein Gedi at about 1PM & checked into our hostel (which is AMAZING)… here’s the view from our balcony:

And to Emma’s delight, there is a local kitty who likes having her belly rubbed.

Our drive here was good, the scenery stark & beautiful.  We are in the desert…

and we’re right by the Dead Sea!

We went straight to Ein Gedi Reserve (National Park?)  which is in walking distance of our room – and  WOW… it was really beautiful.  Full of beautiful waterfalls, shallow pools, rocks, vegetation and Israeli critters.

 

It was a happy place, full of laughter & delighted squeals.  People with many different languages all enjoying this place and communicating, “will you take this picture of us?”  well enough for it to happen and return the favor.  We enjoyed cooling off in the water …

& were equally impressed with the views of the Dead Sea.

We then headed to a Dead Sea beach.  Unfortunately, the beach that is the hostel’s isn’t open, but we drove south & found a public one with showers… no mud – (maybe tomorrow) BUT I have to say that swimming in the Dead Sea was one of the craziest experiences I’ve had.  You absolutely can’t sink.  We “stood” in water that was really deep & our chests were above the surface.  I sat on Chris to see if I could sink him… NOPE.  I pushed on his shoulders with all I had… No, again.  We ‘water jogged’ & lost our balance with our feet popping up from under us & we felt like corks on the surface.  The water was harsh on all the little cuts we didn’t know we had and stung our lips.  But, oh, it was worth it.

We had dinner at a place in a little mall & then drove back to the room & are about to pass out from enthusiastic exhaustion.  Happy Day.

Massada in the morning, maybe explore David’s caves in the afternoon (where he hid from King Saul) & then on to our Bedouin tent for the night.

Shalom, Y’all.

 

 

WARNING:  do not let your children read this.  This is Chris telling it how it really was.

OK, so yesterday was so freaking bad that I had to stuff my desire to quit and “just keep swimming….”  What was an edgy but exciting challenge for me was emotionally devastating for the girls, and since it is my job to not only take care of them, but make them FEEL taken care of, it was a really really bad failure of a day.

The truth is, for me, I was fine.  I enjoy the adventure, the new experiences, and although ultra-conservative pilgrim-Quaker-Lincoln looking people creep me out when they gather in an angry herd, I really did not feel like anyone was going to hurt us at any time.

Getting into the old city was quite an adventure.  Turns out, it’s not normally like it was last night.  Last night and today were the most holy days of the year, pretty much and the arabas and Jews seem to hate each other, except when there’s a common goal, like taking the money of the tourists!  Let me rephrase that.  The Arabs seem to hate the Jews, and the Jews don’t seem to like anyone…. anyway, I digress.  If I had a breaking point, it would be when I realized that I was not going to be able to continue driving up the steep, narrow alley that I took the car up while trying to escape the children of the corn.  Fortunately, I was able to back the car out, and get it out of their gathering without getting stoned.

Upon arrival at the Dung gate,  (at the Old City where our room is) I had a nice chat with an Israeli gate guard who was from Michigan.  Nice guy.  Turns out they have our really old M-16s, not even the A-2’s that I used in my USMC training.  We basically walked into and through the wailing wall area with all our stuff on the way to our room, and had to press through an angry mob and convince the Jewish military guys to let us get to our hostel.  Our bedroom has an exterior door which remains locked, but is literally 10 feet from the Chain Gate, which only Muslims can use.  There were angry scuffles outside our door for a good part of the night, fortunately, I brought ear plugs for all, so I put the fam to bed and headed out for a tour with two British guys, Andy and Christopher, who were kind enough to take me around and explain things to me.  We got Kabobs outside the Damascus gate, walked past the New Gate, stopped at an ATM, and eventually got over to the Dung Gate *about 2 miles later) so I could get the rest of the stuff we needed out of the car.  Unfortunately, the guards would not let me into the wailing wall area with my pillows and bags, they simply told me to go around, with no explanation of how that would work.  I “accidentally” found the quickest way back to the room and was in bed by 1am.

I felt victory.  I got over my apprehension, got my bearings, and managed to piss off a lot of people in the process without knowing it… mostly my wife and kids, who finally stopped crying mid morning today.

So, after a pretty rough night’s sleep, we set off into Jerusalem for a day of touring.  We decided to start at the Via Delarosa… the commemorated walk that Jesus made from Judgement through 14 stages to the cross.

Today is the Feast of Tabernacles, which is a big deal to the Jewish people & makes things a lot hectic in the city.  We decided not to even try to go near the Western Wall… it was JAMMED.

We set out to find that there are many streets that are guarded by police and they won’t let anyone through.  There are gates only Arabs can go through and the city streets are more like tunnels than actual streets.  It is very easy to get turned around, especially when your way is blocked.

A boy asked us where we wanted to go, led us for a way, then told us to go up and right and we would be there.  He demanded money, Saying this was his ‘business’.  Chris gave him the equivalent of $1.25 or so & he fussed at him that it wasn’t enough.  We walked away.  Then we realized we were horribly lost inside the maze of the Muslim Quarter.  Thankfully, a nice man helped us and walked with us all the way to the beginning of the walk (for no charge).

He and Chris were talking most of the way about how the Jews were trying to take his home, and how they (Muslims/Arabs) like the Christians & Americans.  Along the way we encountered police escorting some Jewish boys through a crowd of screaming Muslims and a group of teenage boys yelling & running crazy recklessly.  The man had us quickly smoosh into the wall on the side to avoid being trampled.  The tension in this place is palpable.

The crazy thing is that as a tourist, we are exempt from the tyranny.  Both Jews and Arabs are fine with us… but they are NOT fine with each other.

We discovered that the Via Delarosa is really just a bunch of idols set along a random road in Jerusalem – nothing documented, nothing original.  And my heart hurts for this place.

I had no idea before what praying for the Peace of Jerusalem meant.  Now I know, and it brings tears to my eyes.

I think Jesus would be (or is) grieved by what people have turned this into… it’s a ‘shrine’ in set places in the name of religion.  “Holy Sites” made up by man… many arguing over who has the right location of biblical events.  Muslims sell Nativity scenes and crosses on the streets for money, but it means nothing else to them.  And Jews look at everyone not ‘like them’ and sneer.

We all wanted nothing more than to get out of the walls of this city.

We exited the Damascus gate, got some lunch (very yummy lamb kabob in a pita with salad, pickles & some green sauce that was terrific stuffed inside)

The cats here are like seagulls…

We then headed to the garden tomb, which was closed (but we know there’s nothing in there anyway :))

We were met at the door by some volunteers that gave us communion glasses & the elements because they thought we were there to attend a Portuguese service being held in the garden.  We walked through the garden and found a bench, prayed & had communion together on this day of the FEAST OF TABERNACLES.

We then walked on and saw Golgotha – it really does look like there’s a skull carved in the rock.

On to David’s Citadel (which wasn’t David’s, but set up by the Crusaders)

we found a lovely jewelry shop and the girls each got a keepsake souvenir.

We decided to come back to the hostel & rest before setting out again later in the afternoon.

On our evening excursion we shopped for a bit in the streets, stopped and enjoyed the view of the Mt of Olives,

pet a couple of local cats,

then exited the city gate

& walked and walked and… saw the beautiful moon,

and walked, and THEN we stopped for a bite to eat… I love food.

(Chris needs to download this picture…)

Back through the Damascus Gate & to our hostel for one more night… pray for quiet or no street life tonight.

On to Ein Gedi tomorrow.

The day can be summarized as making the best of many missteps & wrong turns… or at least trying to.

REALLY.

I took this picture thinking “this is how feel today”:

First on the list for the day was to get stamps for the postcards we wrote to all our friends & family.  After missing the post office twice, we decided to try to find a different one… we finally did after many dips & turns on uphill, crazy curvy roads.  Emma is now feeling nauseous.   Chris went to get postage, and comes back with postcards in hand… no stamps.  Turns out, to get 20 stamps, $100 US.  Uh, yeah.  We’ll be hand-delivering those, thanks.  Well, that was a 45-minute diversion.

We missed Elijah’s caves in Haifa because we set the GPS for Mt Carmel… and well, you know how following a GPS works out some of the time?  Well, that was all the time for us this day.  After about 15 more minutes in the car we pulled over so Emma could recover & try not to throw up after all the curves & hills (we had even moved her to the front with the AC blasting in her face).  We gave her some Dramamine and Pepto & waited.  There was a nice lookout there…

After re-grouping we found Nesser Park which proved to be a challenging hike & a pretty cool suspension bridge.

After our hike, we enjoyed some ice cream before starting our drive to Caesarea.

Caesarea proved to be really neat – we saw the theatre, where the girls danced on stage

Herod’s palace, the colosseum and other ruins:

We ate an amazing dinner at a place called Port Cafe with outstanding views of the Mediterranean.

Then it was on to the beach, or so we thought.  Finding a beach proved to be an exercise in frustration as we watched the sun get lower & lower in the sky.  When we finally found a beach open to the public, we found there was a really loud party on one side, campers on the other.  Trash everywhere.. the water looked beautiful, and we were going to try to make the most of it until we almost got run over by a crazy man in a truck, driving right next to the water…. We grabbed our stuff & left.

It was a little over an hour’s drive to Jerusalem… so we took a few deep breaths & decided to enjoy the ride, watching the bananas pass by.  I had no idea there were so many banana trees in Israel! They’re all under these nets & just right by the highways.

We watched the sun set as we drove and the moon was big and low in the sky.

As we turned off the main highway in Jerusalem, it’s like we hit a ghost-town.  No cars anywhere.  Then a couple of minutes later we see a few people walking in the street.  Then more people.  RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STREET!  Still no cars.  They are all dressed in their black & white, men with these really long curly side-hairs (I’m sure there’s a name for that) and crazy hats.  So these are obviously the very religious Jews… something’s going on…

Now there are tons of them & they are cursing us…   Chris said it reminded him of the movie Children of the Corn.  I didn’t see that one, but it really was bizarre & pretty awful.

We  turn up a street (following GPS still) & discover we are up a very narrow, steep dead end.  Finally, some ladies who speak English tell us that all the streets are closed (mind you, none of them were marked closed or blocked off) because it is a very holy day & we are in the most religious part of town.  We need to get out of that section NOW & don’t go the way the GPS tells us to go.

So we drive out the way we came with Chris’ window open as he says, “I know, I’m sorry, We’re lost.  We’re not Jewish”… etc.

After asking directions several times & making some more wrong turns, we find a place to park just outside the walls of the Old City.  It is dark.  We are tired.  We have no idea where we are.  I just need a good cry.

We put on our backpacks & head to the gate.  (We discovered later, after consulting a map, that this was the DUNG gate.  Of course.)  There was a very nice English-speaking soldier there who gives us directions to the gate near our hostel.

After a few more wrong turns and U-turns, we find the right street, push our way through a screaming crowd, then the police let us through a gate to a passageway that leads to our hostel.

Funny word, hostel.

Let’s just say, it’s not a place we’d stay again or recommend.

So, I dropped my things in a chair, picked up my Bible, went to Psalm 121 and started reading with tears running down my face.

First impression of Jerusalem: “I want to go anywhere else but here.”…

Today was a nice slow start… we left the apartment around 10AM and went for a swim at the beach.

The water was AMAZING – lots of fish to see – we swam out past the masses of people and had a really nice time.  The water in the Mediterranean is saltier than the Atlantic & we effortlessly floated around, looking down at what there was to see below.  Going under to get a better view of the fish was a challenge – but fun.

We worked our way slowly in to shore over a very rocky bottom & found several really beautiful unoccupied shells.

After a quick shower-up we drove to Nazareth only to find out the next tour in English was 2.5 hours away, so we drove to Megiddo and walked around there.  Super cool history dating back thousands of years BC.

Megiddo was built & destroyed 25 times & has 25 different layers of building/excavation. (everything above the wood in the picture below is renovation, but everything below it was original.)

what’s left of the silo

 

The top layer is from the time of King Solomon – what you see at the top of the picture below was the city gate during his time…what’s at the bottom of the picture is 150 years before.

part of the stables & Solomon’s chariot housing still remains.  All you horse lovers, they were well cared for in private stables with their own mangers (feeding troughs)…

yee-haw, y’all…

The coolest part (literally) for us was the steps & tunnel leading to their water source that lay outside the city walls.

186 steps down…

in a narrow shaft and then a tunnel to the spring.  (Sue, you’d have stayed at the top for this one)

and then 80-some-odd steps out…

Megiddo is noted in the Bible as the location of the Last Battle … you may know it as Armageddon.  here’s a shot of the valley:

Nazareth Village was very informative & fun.  They had people dressed in “time period” clothing and performing tasks that would have happened in Nazareth in Jesus’ day.

Emma got to play the farmer, we met the ‘shepherd’ and his sheep and saw carpentry, a kitchen & the weaver.

 

 

here’s an olive tree ‘doing it’s thing…putting out shoots…the root word in Hebrew had ‘Naz’ in it relating both to Nazarath & Jesse’s (father of King David) father…wish i could remember all the details he told us about…truly amazed at how God sets things up.

I think the winepress & olive press were my favorite, as our guide explained how each was used & we even had a human ‘mule’ work the olive press.  (while the guide hee-hawed for him… awesome)

Wine press (done with feet…)

 

Olive press… 4 part process.

 

We did see donkeys there, but they were the lazy, hang-out-under-the-olive-trees kind.   They did oblige & pose for pictures too.

There was a tomb, which was authentic, but not the one Jesus was in (of course…this is Nazareth)

and a synagogue, which was really cool.  In there, our guide picked up a Torah scroll & recalled the time Jesus read in the Synagogue from Isaiah.

 

We then all got a gift of an oil lamp…so our ‘light may so shine before men.’😉

we learned that the paved roads in nazerath were forged by the treds of mules over the many, many years..and as they ‘zig-zag’ uphill to make it possible to ascend with a load, the streets are CRAZY steep & curvy… San Francisco’s got nothing on Nazarath!  (these pictures really don’t do it justice)

We then took a drive north up the coast, did a ‘quick’ grocery stop and found a picnic place to watch the sunset.  WOW.  I don’t think there is a better word for it than PERFECT.

Our picnic…

Back to Haifa, the girls played on the playground right across the street from the apartment, met 2 local boys who spoke broken English, then went and got gelato…

The boys chased us down to get our Skype number.  Emma makes friends everywhere!

And the finishing touch… we found a hedgehog just hanging out in the courtyard of our apartment building (along with the cats…)

Shalom.

Tonight while walking back to our flat in Heifa, we saw an adorable little hedgehog❤️❤️ We looked it up and hedgehogs are native to Israel, and we got to touch it and dad even tried to pick it up, I almost decided to pick it up, but it had pricked dad so I wasn’t talking chances. Here are some pictures!!

 

 

Here you go, Nelsons & anyone else wondering.

The shawarma is the meaty pieces & the falafel are the balls right next to the humus.  This was my lunch yesterday. 🙂

To quote Magen,  “Falafal is little balls of goodness and shwarma is little slices of goodness.”

Kati and I are talking about what to do today….

Beach, Nazareth (with “biblical lunch” in Nazareth village), Megiddo, and then beach.  Hope you all have a nice day as well!

I just wanted to PRAISE GOD for how kind he has been to us during this trip.  He answered all our prayers except for one (that it would rain in Safed during the night).  It is not short of miraculous that Emma’s bronchial and stomach issues all cleared up before we got on the first plane, that we made the last flight with literally not a minute to spare, that we found lunch, food and our first place to stay by 3 pm when the whole town shut down, that we have enjoyed all the major sites we were hoping to see so far, that we got into our present apartment late (on time for us) with a woman owner who speaks not a lick of English, that we found markets open on the sabbath (or found them at all), that we are two blocks from a beautiful mediterranean beach…..

It reminds me of that part of the passover celebration where we recite, “If God had only delivered us from Egypt, it would have been enough.  If he had only parted the sea, it would have been enough, if he had only fed us in the desert, it would have been enough, if he had only…..

He is a very generous God.  He is a GREAT DADDY WHO LOVES to GIVE GREAT GIFTS!  When Emma asks over and over again for something that we hope to do, and in so doing misses the current blessing, I explain to her that I have heard her request.  Enjoy what is.  What is coming will be great, because your Daddy loves to give you great things.

This guy (both of them)

This door.

This fuzzy thing.

The elephant in the rock (as seen by me-Chris)

 

Emma saw a bigger elephant!

And Lastly, how many questions I get from jews on what is “written” on my arm:

Even though Danny Silk’s signature has long since washed away, I believe it is just as powerful. 

When they ask, I say, what does it mean to you?  They have a tough time because this word, pronounced daw-var’ (or daw-baw’ depending on your source) is the root of “da-ber” which means “said” or “speech”.   So they usually tell me, “thing” or that it should be the newer word.

So I tell them what I have already posted here: that it means “WORD”, or action, command, decree, oracle, thing, action, and is used throughout the old testament everywhere God carried out his promise to his people, to save, sacrifice, or fulfill his promises.  Then I tell them that to me, this is JESUS in the old testament, because “In the beginning, the WORD was God, and the word was with God,… the WORD became flesh and dwelt among us.”

I haven’t seen any conversions, yet, but I have been able to plant a bunch of seeds!

We started our day packing up our place in Tzfat, which is a story in itself, which I’ll let Chris tell; then drove to Ginnosar (which has the claim of ‘The World’s Best Fruit” according to our boat captain today.)  We got on a boat like “The Jesus Boat” built to be the same size and roughly shape of the boats in Jesus’ day.  Our captain, David and his brother Joey built the boat out of… get this… North Carolina Pine! (and some ceder and something else i don’t remember)

What a cool experience… It was just the four of us and our captain and his one crew member.

We motored out in this electric boat (very low noise) and anchored.  We all jumped in and had a lovely swim.

David threw an authentic cast net from the same time period (made of wool) and then showed Chris how… we caught no fish… maybe we should have cast the net on the other side. 🙂

Chris tipped our captain with a silver coin he brought from home & it turns out David is not only a musician, but a coin collector as well – (God knew that!)…he was really blessed.  We got to see from the Sea: the Golan heights, Capernaum, & the other places we visited in that area yesterday along with Mt. Arbel, and the Valley of Doves that Jesus would have traveled from Nazareth to Galilee.

We then drove to the most North West corner of Israel  to see Rosh HaNikra.  Our first glimpse of the Mediterranean was on the road up there and – WOW!  Beautiful & blue… Emma wanted to pull the car over right then to go take a swim.  (We didn’t.)

Here’s the view from the top:

I thought we were going to have more time to explore at Rosh HaNikra, but it turns out it’s not really designed that way – we stood in line for a long time to get on a cable car to the bottom to see the grottos (pictured below).

The cable car is the steepest in the world – another cool little fact.

After seeing what there was to see in the caves, we got back in the car for a 45 minute drive to Haifa.  Sundown marked the beginning of Shabbot, which closes down many businesses, but we found a grocery store & gas station that were open.  We checked into our next apartment where we’ll be for 2 nights.

Grocery store olive selection… and you should have seen the cheese!:)

We were so excited to find we have a washing machine here which at this point is much needed.

Chris & I took a walk from the apartment to the beach which is about 2 blocks away and got some gelato (passion fruit, lemon, & mango), sat on a rock watching the waves crash and had a brief “date” while the girls were safely tucked into the apartment on their devices.

 

Beach in the morning & depending on Sabbath closings, we may venture out & tour around inland some more.

Thanks for reading along with us… it’s good to know you all are there praying for us!

This post is for my brother… 🙂

Shawarma is roasted meat on a revolving spit (much like gyro is done) it can be lamb, turkey, chicken, beef, veal or a mix of meats.

They cut it off the spit, smear some hummus & if you like it ‘spicy’ some pepper paste into a pita, stuff the meat in & put in a cucumber & tomato salad.  Then there’s a bar with so many yummy options, both spicy & not.  I chose roasted eggplant, pickled eggplant (which were about the size of a large grape tomato and PURPLE), a cabbage & carrot salad (which had a little kick to it and some really amazing Mediterranean spices), and pickles – adding them one at a time from my cute little bowl – they were all amazing.

Chris accidentally picked a tomato & what looked like jalapeno topping with cilantro, which was good, but really spicy.  I took one bite with that one.

They had a bottle of tahini you could squirt over the whole thing, but i opted out of that.

The meat was juicy and tender with a flavor I can’t describe except to say it tastes like shawarma (I know, that’s not helpful)… like little slices of pork, really (though i know it’s not pork) roasty and just mmmmm.

I have to say that the cucumbers here are amazing… they just taste fresher somehow!!  The tomatoes aren’t much different than home.  Oh, and the pita… let me just say it was the best pita I have ever had.

There it is… and for all of you who have been here  had it – are you celebrating with me? 🙂

Today we had shawarma, a street food from Israel that was eaten by the Avengers😍…

When it is cooking, it looks like a skewer of sliced meats compacted together and hung over a fire to roast.

then the server slices it off and places it on a pita and you can choose toppings, like the ones pictured below…

Once you are done decorating your beautiful shawarma, you eat it! And that’s really all there is.

We started our day in Capernaum (pronounced CAP-er-nom… I’ve been saying it wrong all these years!)  Here we saw the remains of an old synagogue & what is assumed to have been Simon Peter’s home.  Pretty cool.

 

St Francis of Asissi 

and Peter 

 

We loved the flora here – lots of flowers & trees that are very different from North Carolina.  We took some time under a tree to pray while looking over the Sea of Galilee, which I think was my favorite part.  It was REALLY HOT and we found shade whenever possible.

It’s amazing as we walked around thinking that this was the center of Jesus’ ministry for almost 2 years! There are more of Jesus’ miracles recorded in Capernaum than anywhere else in the Bible yet the people of Capernaum were unbelieving… look it up – Jesus was talking to these people when he said had the miracles been performed in Sodom, they’d have believed… BUT this is where He chose to be after being rejected in Nazereth – this is where Simon Peter, James, John and Matthew were called to follow – and follow they did.

We moved on to Tabgha, saw the church that claims the site of the multiplication of the loaves & fishes, though they now believe it happened on the eastern side of the Sea – but they had amazing iron doors & mosaic floors there.

We had fresh squeezed pomegranate juice which was a nice treat…  did I mention the HEAT?

We had lunch at a monastery/resort which is not open to the public, but Chris being Chris talked us in (on the recommendation of a friend.)  There was a crazy amazing cheese on this salad, which professed to be feta but was unlike anything I’ve ever tasted & I have to confess, at the end of the meal I had 22 olive pits on my plate.

There was a trail down to the water, which was beautiful, but our favorite thing to see there was the rock hyrax.  I wonder if they’d notice if I snuck this cutie on the plane?

jumping rocks at the Sea of Galilee…

On to the Mt of the Beatitudes, where a beautiful Catholic church stands.  Our timing was such that we came in on a visiting group singing acapella the beatitudes – i recorded a little of the end, and oh, man… it was really amazing.

The grounds around the church are pristine and my primary thought was that Jesus sure did pick a beautiful place to hang out and do ministry.  🙂

Oh… and the passion fruit slushie – yummy-freezie.  (Man, oh, man was it ever hot.)

Tiberias was sort of disappointing as it is a very large city with not a lot of significance for us.  We did, however, find a great information center and set up a boat ride on the Sea for tomorrow morning.  Chris got a Sim card for his phone which gives him a local Israel phone number, which makes communication here so much easier… AND we swam in the Sea of Galilee on one of the southern public beaches & finally cooled off at the end of the day.  I have to say I am surprised at how much trash there was just… everywhere.  and cats…everywhere.

We didn’t get to dip in the hot springs, but decided it was too warm for that anyway.  The highlight of the evening was schwarma & falafel – street food in Tiberias.  Yummo.

Back to the apartment for one last night in Tzfat & then a ‘Jesus’ Boat ride tomorrow before a drive to the West coast on the Mediterranean Sea.

This afternoon, we visited the old graveyard, a spring, a newer (historical-looking graveyard, and it looks like the current graveyard is far in the distance.

The spring is called Ari’s Mikveh.  Google it.  Signs outside warn “men only” but don’t do you any good if you don’t read Hebrew.  Fortunately, I went in alone.

The spring is apparently used for healing and atonement of sins.

It must be because of the holiday, only three boys were in there, in their underwear (so I had them get out of the picture).

No idea what this says.

And here is the spring.  It is cold, and about chest deep with a finished bottom.

I was instructed to dunk 7 times by the boys, which I did. (Hey, who can’t use more healing and atonement?)

Wow Israel is amazing!!!

I was told about a tunnel… we’re still looking for it!

 

We found a really sweet cat definitely wild. He was lying in a water fountain looking right at us…ok we couldn’t resist! I mean he was orange–seriously–I bet you couldn’t either! 😀

In Israel all the roofs are flat, so I decided to sit on the roof.  Dad came up too. We watched the sun set and it was amazing!

(posted by Emma)

 

We are pretty sure that Tzfat in Hebrew must mean “city of many steps and cats.”  Seriously.  These are just a few of both:

The city is built on a mountain, so there are lots of ups & downs….

 

This lengthy staircase is of particular interest as it was used by the British to separate the Jewish & Arab quarters of the city before 1948.  The Jews, in the battle for Tsfat, outnumbered 10 to 1, defeated the Arabs – who evacuated – in April of 1948.  Notice the bunker at the top of these steps with gun holes & light at the top… there are also still numerous bullet holes in the buildings in town from this same battle.

     

 

It’s 3:00pm and we just had some lunch, so I thought I could educate you on the foods of Israel that we bought, so here’s some facts and opinions on our little Israel munchies:

🍞the bread is made with chocolate, date-fig stuff and poppyseed

🍴most of the pastries are savory, with flaky, salty outsides and a cream cheese like filling

🍠the mangos are HUGE

this  is a regular size plate and the biggest hunk is the pit of the one mango we bought

The figs are super delicious and very fresh, mom usually dislikes figs, but we all love these.

The pomegranate has no bad spots and is delicious

🍫the chocolate cookies are actually chocolate date fig stuff cookies and Emma doesn’t like them, but I think they’re ok

🍅the tomatoes are super fresh, somewhat crunchy, and have pointy ends

🍍the pineapple hasn’t been cut into yet… But it looks slightly different, the leaves are covered in little spikes! 

One of the few things we found labeled in English was this mango passion fruit soda and it is delicious. Dad bought grapefruit soda too, but only he likes that.

What I thought was milk actually turned out to be yogurt

(may we pause for a moment to appreciate the weirdness of that word?YOGURT!)

And it’s somewhat sour with an interesting flavor that I think would be good on chicken. Emma dislikes it.

The granola has not been tried yet.

Passion fruit were available, and I really enjoy them spread on bread with cream cheese, which is softer and easier to spread here.

I think that’s about it!

Thank you for reading this and if you have any questions about food or our trip, feel free to ask in the comments. You can also subscribe to this blog and get notified when we post something new. I will update this shortly after we eat the pineapple 🍍

-Magen Naef🐢

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Emma and I went out twice last night, once before bed, and once at 2 am, which is really 7pm for you.  We looked for the moon, at the stars, and marveled at the quietude of this place.

 

We found a lovely park at the top of the hill (in the mountains).  It used to be a fort built during the crusades, but was largely destroyed during an earthquake in 1830-something that destroyed the whole town.  Turns out the town was rebuild from the stones of the old fort, which is why there is very little fort left!

It’s 4:16 am where you are, 11:16 am here.  Magen and Emma just woke up, thanks to some awful noise being broadcast, or a broken piece of machinery that won’t stop, I can’t figure it out, but it sounds demonic.

We have an abundant supply of food to get us through the day, and a scarce supply of dishes to eat them on.  Better than camping though!

 

We plan on walking around to various local sites, as no one is driving (or doing anything visible!)  I’ll post again after my second coffee.

 

We all awoke at about 11PM unable to sleep, our bodies really confused about the time!  Thankfully, we were able to sleep in – and since there is NOTHING going on in Israel today, we are embracing the day of rest.

It is strangely quiet – there are no people on the streets, as it is Yom Kippur – the highest holy day of the Jewish faith.  It is the Day of Atonement, and most people are in the Synagogues fasting and praying until sunset.

The ‘verse of the day’:

“…for unless you believe that I Am who I claim to be, you will die in your sins.”

–John 8:24, NLT

I am so grateful, and feel so blessed to be here and know I am His.

Selah.  (The Passion translation for this is “Pause in His Presence”)

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Yom Kippur: It Is Finished

 

Hello everyone!

We have finally arrived in Israel and have had a exciting trip… Thanks to my Best Yes small group there was only one crying baby incident at around 8:00 North Carolina time, and it was over quickly. Our flight over the Atlantic was extremely cool- there were personal tv screens with free headphones that were loaded with new movies! I watched inside out, monsters university, avengers age of ultron, and then finally got to sleep😜

Now we’re here in Tzfat and miraculously got to our room by 3:00 when everything shuts down for Yom Kippur. we were completely lost, mom and dad didn’t have their cell phones, and the neighborhood we were in didn’t have many English speaking people. So we stopped and prayed, then kept on asking random strangers for directions! Finally, we met a guy who not only did his best to give us directions, but called the owner of our rental, got in the car with us, directed us all the way there, then walked away, all the way back to the place he met us. We found out after that dad’s wallet had been right underneath his feet- but it was untouched! the people of Israel are so nice, and i was really surprised at the generosity of that man, who was totally an answer to our prayers.

Shalom!

(that’s the word for Hello, Bye, and Peace)

-Magen

p.s. you pronounce Tz in Tzfat like ZZ in Pizza

Monday, 9/21 4:20 PM

We are cruising over the Atlantic Ocean and, so far, our journey has been relatively uneventful.  We had a very close connection in Charlotte & and even closer one in Philadelphia, but our speed-walking skills paid off & we made it…

I have seen little of Chris this trip thus far other than his backside moving quickly down a people mover… but I figure we’ll have time to catch up in the next day or so. 🙂

The only complaint is that we’re in a row of seats against a wall, so they don’t recline much (even for airline seats) & right next to the lavatory… ah, em…  yeah, no sleep gonna happen tonight.

The girls are relishing the cute pillow & fuzzy blanket they found in their seat & the free movies… they quickly selected & plugged in to “Inside Out”…. So much for getting some school work done on the flight.

So, time to sit back & enjoy this 10 hour flight.

We have had the privilege of being part of Wilmington’s Jesus Tent, put on by Ignite Ministries.  This is 24×7 praise and worship and prayer ending on September 23.  Lots of healings, salvations, and Holy Spirit doing what He does!

 

I have set my mind to not let any thought enter of the possible inconveniences that may occur because of our travel during these holidays.  I will instead “soak up” the experience, and thank God that so many of the requirements of the law don’t apply to us gentile believers…. though Sabbath and siestas always sounded good to me!

Here are the ones that will be going on while we are there:

Holiday	Dates	Description
Yom Kippur	Sep 23, 2015 W	Day of Atonement
Sukkot	Sep 28–29, 2015 M‑Tu Sep 30–Oct 4, 2015 W‑Su	Feast of Tabernacles
Shmini Atzeret	Oct 5, 2015 M	Eighth Day of Assembly
Leil Selichot	Sep 24, 2016 Sa	Prayers for forgiveness in preparation for the High Holidays