Day 4 morning in Bethlehem

We spent the first part of our morning at a local shop that makes olive wood bible scenes, learning how they make the scenes. John, pictured below, is part of the Nissan family who owns and operates the business. He also speaks Aramaic, the language Jesus would have spoke, and led us in The Lord's Prayer in the lanugage of Jesus. You also can see some of the pieces their artists make.

One of the crafstmen at work below...

Jesus and the children...

Jesus washes a disciple's feet below. The last picture is one of their "special editions" that uses a hollowed out olive tree trunk to look like a cave for the nativity scene. These pieces start around $1500.

The rest of the morning took us on a tour off the Herodium, the mountan fortress built by King Herod so he could "look over" Bethlehem as their Roman king. He could see most of Judea from this man made mountain. The views from the top are stunning.

The fortress from the ground as we approach is above. On our hike too the top we encountered this shepherd with his one month old lamb.

We enter the fortress from the top and the lower photo is looking down into the Herodium.

Herod built this home ampitheater to entertain his guest, as well as an olympic sized pool. You  can see Bethlehem in the distance. The final photo is the tomb of Herod found iin 2007.

Day 3 in the afternoon near the Dead Sea

After Masada we headed to Jordan river and the traditional site of Jesus Baptism. The river is very low as there have been few rains this year so instead of getting all the way in the river a number of our folks got in the river with me up to our knees and reaffirmed our baptisms. Below is a picture of us as a group, as well as a picture of the site with a church located on the Jordan side of the river and the time of renewal for Kenny Schramko, one of our members who almost died 6 months ago from a brain aneurism and has made a mirculous recovery. As part of our time here we read the scripture together of Jesus baptism and recounted the Holy Spirit descending upon Jesus like a dove in this place.

Our lunch was spent in Jericho, the oldest city in the world. There we could see an old sycamore tree planted to remember Zacheus who was invited to come down from his tree by Jesus so they could eat together.

After lunch we spent time at the ruins in Qumram where John the Baptist may have spent time as part of the Essenes. The monastic community spent time away from people to be closer to God. They would enter the Miqvah, a ritualistic bath, several times a day to make themselves ritually clean before God. This community also was the place where the Dead Sea scrolls were discovered in 1947. A young boy tossed a rock into a cave and heard a crack. He found several scrolls and actually took themm to a cobbler to make shoes out of them as scrolls were scribed on leather in the first century. Luckily, the cobbler recognized some of the writings and instead made the young man some shoes from other leather! They found every book of the bible in this collection of scrolls except for Esther as that book does not menntion God. Below you can see a Miqvah and some of the rooms at Qumram, while a picture of some of the caves is on the cover of the blog. 

Our final stop of the day was at the Dead Sea where we were able to float a bit. The Dead Sea has shrunk quite a bit the last 10 years and several nations are workiniing together to save it. The mud from the sea can be spead on your skin, allowed too dry and then washed off too add 10 years to your life, well, not really! We tried it anyway :) You do have to be careful not to get your head in the water but floating is not a problem as you can see.

Day 3 in the morning at Masada along the Dead Sea

We began our first day off pilgrimage at Masada, a fortress built by King Herod and later used by Jewish leaders as they revolted against Rome in 70 AD. 

We took a tram to the top of the fortress that is now a national park in Israel and serves as a rallying cry for survival.

As you come to the top of the tram there is a catwalk built which takes you to the top. From the top you see a stunning view of the Dead Sea.

Below is another catwalk built to take you by the cisterns which held water for those living in the fortress.

In the photo below you can see our group looking over the edge of the fortress towards the area where the Romans arrived for the great showdown in 74 AD as they built a battering ram to enter the fortress that was being controlled by leaders of the Jewish Revolt.

There were many rooms like the one below constructed on top of Masada too house people and food that was stored. There was even a synagogue for worship.

The Jewish flag stands atop Masada reminding visitors of the pride felt for those in the revolt who would ratther die than live as slaves in the Roman Empire. This event was remembered in the Hollywoood  blockbuster Masada featuring Peter O'Toole if any of you would like to see more of the fortress or that conflict. The flag below stands atop Masada today.

It's all good

We had an eventful time getting to Israel today, or is it tomorrow? Or yesterday? We are 9 hours ahead of Mountain Time here in Israel and on top of that our flight was delayed another 9 hours. We actually  took of from JFK but 30 minutes into our flight we had to turn around as one of our engines caught on fire! It was put out quickly and the 747 we were flying has 4 engines and can fly on just one so we were never in real danger...at least that's what the pilot said. We ended up heading back to the airport and spent the night on the floor of JFK. Our entire group were great troopers and we finally arrived here in Israel at 3 a.m. local time and are now headed to our hotel in Bethlehem. We'll get cleaned up and then begin our first day of touring by going to Masada, Qumram, the Dead Sea and several other sights. We have a great guide and our bus has free WiFi so I can post blogs from our bus...how cool is that? For now I'll sign off but please check back in tomorrow...or yesterday...I'm tired and confused :) We all thank God for arriving here safely and we greatly appreciate your prayers.

Journey to the Holy Land

TToday we embark on a jouney to the Holy Land! There are 40 of us traveling as part of a group from First United Methodist Church iin Durango, including my son Thomas and my mom Judy. I will try and post something each day of our jouney that I have time.

Day 1:

We are currently in the JFK Airport in New York and our flight to Tel Aviv departs in about an hour, just enough time to fill you in on our first day. We had the entire day to spend in NY and our first stop was the 9/11 memorial. It was a powerful experience to visit the sight which once held two massive towers that now contains two beautiful pools sitting in that footprint. You cann see the South Pool below. C.J. who is traveling with us commented that the water "seemed like tears from those who lost their lives" as we looked at the names of firefighters from truck 52 who lost their lives trying too save others.

You can see the names of each of the survivors engraved on the marble slabs as you walk around the pools. My favorite moment was seeing the "survivor tree" pictured below in front of the newest World Trade Center building. 

This tree was the only tree from original WTC gardens to survive and all that was left was 8 feet of stump with all the branches being torn away. The stump was taken to a tree farm outside the city and nursed back to health. It is now more than 30 feet tall and each spring provides a magnificent display of white blossoms in the new WTC courtyard in between the two pools of the memorial. The tree stands as a syymbol of a triumphant spirit and rebirth.

We then were alble to walk to the edge of the city and get this stunning view of Lady Liberty as the sun broke through the clouds. Before heading back to our hotel and then onto the aiport we stopped at the Navy Memorial and the American Indian museum. Thomas wanted to take this picture below of this stunning statue as part of the memorial.

My next post wll be in two days as we fly all night tonight and then lose 7 hours in the time change! Thanks to each of who will be following our journney. Please keep us in your prayers for the days ahead. Peace, Jeff