DAY 10

Well, we didn't do much today as it was a travel day. But exciting nonetheless!

We're heading to our last spot (sigh!) The Jordanian side of the Dead Sea.

1^st we had to cross over into Jordan. Pretty scary!

 They took our passports without letting us off the bus except to go to the bathroom. Our Israeli guide and bus driver were not allowed in. Though Israel and Jordan have a peace treaty, they are by no means buddies. So they had a new Jordanian Guide and Driver to take us. Pretty intense guy, but I liked him as he was entertaning.

We did go up to Mt Nebo, where Moses was shown the promised land that he wasn't able to enter.

Here we are on Mt Nebo overlooking Jericho.

As seen below, Inger and I did not always see eye to eye.

But we always would come around.

Then we stopped for lunch.

Most of it was good but the white whipped flan-type thing next to the watermelon tasted like a unrinal cake. Don't ask me how I know. It just made you want to wretch!

Awe! Something from home. Patrick, Inger's new best friend.

I know I promised you pictures of our amazing resort today but will have to post them a little later. Have to start packing now as we leave a tonight and arrive in Cali on Wednesday.

DAY 9

Can't believe it but I hit my head again! Have to get my head out of the clouds.


But what a hoot! The DC was everything we could’ve hope for and much more! (Boy I use a lot of exclamation marks!!!) Can’t wait to tell you all about the DC. But, in the meantime, to prove we were there, here is a picture.

Brother Lett was our GB rep and we caught a moment with him. How encouraging to the local friends (and the rest of us)!

Others may be writing about the DC, but the Israel Branch Overseer explained why we shouldn't be blogging about it. Personal emails are okay but I just don't have time for that. Anyways, that was the day before. By the way, our DC was on Weds, Thurs, and Fri. because the Jewish Sabbath starts Friday night. Before we left Israel, Inger had a meeting of her own.

It was real weird. Though we saw a number of cats throughout our trip, they were always on their own. This night, they all came together. I think they were planning a coupe or something. Prolly waiting around for Catwoman to show up. I didn’t trust the robotic one.

By the way. They do exist!

Now we off for the Dead (Salt) Sea via Masada. This was an optional tour and are we glad we took it. What a story! And now I’m gonna give it to ya.

Jewish Zealots who rebelled against Rome in 66 CE, went to Masada to make a stand against the Romans. It was a perfect location, steep hills that surrounded it on all sides,and rose one to two thousand feet from the valley floor.

As you can see it stands alone as there is no mountain or range of mountains immediately next to it that an army can climb and reach those on Masada. This made it very difficult to conquer. We took a tram up to the top.

But you could also hike up the “Snake trail” which traverses up the mountain. But the going is very steep and there’s no way an attacking army could climb it and still be able to defend itself from being picked off from the army on Masada above. It made this city virtually impregnable. But not impossible.

On top, the mountain was flat and covered about 3 or 4 football fields. There were various structures that housed 10-20,000 people.

 Here is how the Romans completed their 10 month conquest of the city. They had many base camps, like this one well below the city.

Using 15,000 Jewish slaves they built dirt ramps that went up to the city walls. Then they built towers from there that are shown in the picture below.

Next they used battering rams from these towers to pierce the walls. When they finally entered into the city through a couple of holes they made in the wall, they only found a couple of women and children alive. Everyone else was dead.

The women said that rather than surrender to the Romans, the men decided to have each man kill his own family. Then 10 of the men were selected to kill all the other men. Then one of the 10 men would kill the other nine before killing himself.

Apparently the couple of women who survived to tell this story had husbands who would not kill them. They were told by their husbands to pretend to be dead until the Romans came.

Next, we went to Qumran which we are told was a little kibutz (not kibbitz), that had followers that were very spiritually minded. Dating back to the 1^st century, these ones would go through “ritual baths” twice a day in an effort to be spiritually clean. They were also meticulous in their copying of Bible books. We have much to thank these Bible copyists for.

 The story goes that around 1900 hundred years later, a shepherd was looking for a straying sheep in one of the caves. He threw a rock in it to scare out the sheep, when he heard a jar break, like this one. In it was found some vellum with writing on it.

Here are a couple of caves that they found scrolls in.

A long story short, many caves were then found to have copies of Bible books. Caves 1, 4, and 11 we are told had the most complete writings found in them. Here is cave number 4.

 On the Israel side of the Dead (Salt) Sea, it was so lush and green. Entrance into the Sea was a sandy beach with much of the healing mud available. And as you can see, our visit was all business, no play.

Guess who started a mud fight? Guess who got yelled at by the lifeguard? One day your coordinator will grow up!

Don’t get the mud or water in your eyes. Wow! It burns like nothing I have ever had. And I have had paint stripper in my eyes many times. You go temporarily blind and have to be led out of water to the showers to wash it out.

 

This picture is of our tour company rep, Tommy. Just moments after this picture was taken, his Uncle David threw some mud in his eye. Ouch!

The mud and water are very therapuetic. It makes your skin feel so soft and exfoliates it. It also soothes a variety skin conditions. But we just liked floating and playing in the mud.

The Sea is 30% salt water which enables you to float. Oceans are only about 2% salt.

Here is a sister on our bus. We just had to get a picture. It was so much fun.

Sorry, I couldn't rotate this but it is too good to leave out.

But it looks like the lifeguard just left so I’ve gotta go! There are a couple of bros I need to give payback to!!!

Tomorrow, I will show pictures of the amazing resort we are at in Jordan.

DAY 6-8

CLASSIFIED due to being TOP SECRET.

Day 4 and 5

Argh! I was wondering why I was not getting any comments. When I went to post Day 5, I noticed that Day 4 never posted and was pretty much deleted. Double Argh!!!

So I redid Day 4 and am posting it and Day 5 together on Oy Vey-cation! Too, so sorry for the delay in posting but time is so limited and the Internet is so darn expensive.

Well today started with us cruising on the Sea of Gallilee on this boat that was just like those in Jesus' day. Put you in a neat frame of mind.

That is until you hit your head on a board hanging over the dock. Idiot me, getting onto the dock while looking down at my camera I hit my head. Wow! Haven't seen that many stars since I was in Lake Powell with Gregg and Debi.

Gallilee is where Jesus did almost all of his teaching while on earth. Picked his disciples here, walked on water, fed thousands with a few fish and bread etc. The guide said that Jesus only spent about 4 months of his life on earth elsewhere. I haven't checked that out yet but the area here in Gallilee is only about 20 sq miles.

In this picture you see where Jesus gave his Sermon on the Mount. It is the yellow hill in the foreground. Mt Carmel is the long range in the background. We learned that it is not a specific mountain. This is where Elijah defeated the Ba'al worshippers there and where Elisha showed his attendant the angelic forces that were on their side.

Recently they unearthed a boat dating back to Jesus' time almost completely intact. Wish I could say something funny about that but nothing comes to mind.

Then we actually got to step into the Sea of Gallilee. Pretty cool!

I felt Inger needed to be baptized again and she was willing so that's what we did. Hehe!

Here are some sisters that were part of our BSB (Back Seat Bunch). I have been kinda looking out for a few of us sitting in the back of the bus. These two sisters and a couple of Filipina sisters and Inger. Someone said that they were the Back Seat Bunch and the name stuck.

These were the other two sisters in BSB.

 

Saw an Amish girl and her husband? here too so had to take their picture. I got a look from them like I captured their souls in my camera so they quickly moved away. I offered to sell 'em back, but they weren't buying.

In Capernaum we saw Peter's house (or so the church thinks). The Catholics built a church just a few feet over it. And not to be outdone a huge synagogue was built right on top of the old one. Notice in the picture above the different colored stones showing the different synogogues. Below is an inside look at the synagogue.

Ever heard ofthe Jordan River? Take a look below. Doesn't this location look exactly like the ones we've seen in our lit? Supposedly this would have been the most likely spot for John to baptize Jesus.

I just had to wade in. Pretty cool when you think about it. This is where he started it all.

A little (very little), about our bus. On our bus we had CO/DO's as well as a number of Bethelites, so it was nice to be able to sit back, relax, and follow those taking the lead. I will try to get a group picture in here sometime.

We finished our day, meeting some "friends"at their hall. Would love to go into more detail but can't. Catch me when we get back.

Silly antagonists make life very difficult for the friends here. We have even had protesters and picketers. They also take pictures of the local brothers and put their faces on posters with rude or ugly verbiage.

So, I apologize but am not able to publicly post much of anything about our 3 days in Tel Aviv. The last thing Inger and I want to do is "hinder" anything. I will put in the blog what I am able.

Thank you again for all your comments.They are all so kind and funny! We love 'em! Day 5 is coming right up.

DAY 5

I think I've gained 20 lbs on this trip! Prolly won't even recognize me. Breakfast was, again, amazing! Haven't shown you any of our rooms. Here is our view from the hotel in Tel Aviv.

These pictures do not really tell how large our room is.

But off we go to Megiddo. Megiddo is actually little more than a mound which housed 26 successive civilizations, one on top of another. We know it from all the famous battles that were fought there. But the Megiddo (or Jezreal) Valley was the most lush that we have seen so far. Notice this view from the Temple Mount, close to Megiddo.

Here is Mount Megiddo as we approached it.

Here is how they counted the different civilizations that have dwelled here. They cut a slice of pie out of the hill and simply counted.

Even the ants here were huge and had attitudes!

On Megiddo, we were able to climb down into the mound to see their water source. This water helped those who lived here survive if they were surrounded by an opposing army.

All this climbing down and there was a little pool which we hear was much bigger in the past. The picture below was taken on top of Megiddo. Hey B, you recognize anyone in this photo? Not me or Inger, the other guys!

Israel's climate and landscape reminded us much of CA. The desert here reminded us of ours back home. Their coasts, our coasts, their agriculture, ours. Their foliage consisted of plumarias, junipers, avocado, mango (yes mango), and many other trees.

A pretty scarey fish lunch was given us but as you can see below, we had no problem eating it. But again the food was amazing. Jews definitely know how to eat! Watch out Han family! We're gunning for the eating title!!!

This lunch did allow us to take this CUTE picture! We may even be cuter than Ciara! Well, maybe not, but I thought I would try. There was a cat so of course Inger had to feed it. (sigh). Btw, Israeli cats seem to love falafel.

Finally on to Caesarea. This is where I would live if they allowed houses there.

This is where the Pilate stone was found. The real one is in a museum.

The picture below complimented by Inger "Vanna White" is a Hippodrome in Caesarea where they raced chariots like in Ben Hur. It is right on the beach. Those sitting in the seats to the right watched the races as they looked out at the sea. 

Here is a better view of what I am talking about (and not just because I am in it). Hehe!

We have to make a quick getaway now.

But one last thing. This famous Aqueduct was right down the way. 

We miss you all and look forward to sharing with you Convention details when we get back.