WE HAVE HAD A GOOD SUNDAY: CHURCH AND TOMBS

It is a good thing for me that I try to blog each week as even 7 days makes it hard to remember.  As far as guiding goes, it was a harder week as  fewer visitors.  The days go much faster when there is one group after another.  Two of my favorite groups this week were smaller ones.  I had 7 young men from Switzerland.  All were keen young believers    They were enthused about their faith.  I also had a group of Promise Keepers from Canada.  Their leader, Kirk is the president and he was a part of the group I had in Israel a year ago.  It was great to see him again and lead his tour in the Garden.  I have tried to convey that we get a huge variety in terms of reasons why people come and expressions of worship. 

Below is a group of Indonesians getting on costumes and spreading out banners and flags.  They had one that represented the Golden gate of Jerusalem and they marched

Indonesians
through to anticipate the coming of the Messiah.  Next thing they are wanting three of us as guides to march with them.  It was great to be a part of them.  I also had a young Muslim couple from Quebec.  They had lots of questions.  
Lat Sunday we went to the Old City . It was a great afternoon   We went to the roof of a place overlooking the Western Wall.  I have lots of good pictures but can only include a couple.

The lower one is looking through a glass frame of a model of the temple that would have stood where the Golden dome  is now.
Monday we were off to Bethlehem on a Palestinian bus.  It will only take you to the checkpoint,  Beyond is an area under Palestinian control  We were to be picked up by our pastor but he forgot.  Managed to phone and he sent someone else.  We toured around for the morning and then went to the Bethlehem Bible College for lunch.  They have an amazing campus.  A number of buildings including a very modern teaching center and dinning room.   The first picture is from the roof of the pastor that guided us.  He is in the picture below with Donna.  In the background of the view shot is Herodium, the man made fortress of Herod outside Bethlehem.

Above is the Palestinian side of the checkpoint.  The huge concrete wall must feel like a prison to so many. 
The pastor lives above the church and they were very gracious to us.  His church is called the House of Bread

And to the right you can see one of the towers that is part of the wall. 

To the left is the new building at Bethlehem Bible College.  

We had Monday and Tuesday off as our major weekend break.  Tuesday morning found us taking the light rail system to the Jerusalem Central bus station.  It is a great system.  Buses were leaving every 15 minutes for Tel Aviv.  About a 45 minute ride.  You arrive at a huge bus station.  It is 7 stories and buses arrive on 3 floors.  It is part of a 200,000 sq ft. facility.  We had not been there before and thought we could walk to the beach but found out it was too far.  So into sheroot number 4.  They are vans and function between a taxi and a bus.  We had a great day to be on the beach.  It was plus 27C.  We walked all the way along to Joppa.  Had lunch in a little cafe.  Then it was the long walk back.







You can see Donna above but you did not hear here shout a minute before as the wave came in over her shoes.
Signs are not easy to read in Hebrew.  This one below is sort of  in English.  Can you read "no bating"  is permitted.


                                                             
And above we are at Joppa.  We walked from  where the hotels are in the distance.

Donna asked why I took a picture like this of people a little on the heavy side in the water.  I know I would have been in trouble if I took a picture of some of the others that were swimming.

We wish you could meet some of the great people we get to work with.  Below is Matilda on the left and Miriam on the right.  A great contrast.  Matilda has been a believer for one year and has really grown.  She is raising a young son on her own after her husband left her.  She lives in the Old City as a part of the Palestinian Christian community.  Miriam is a Norwegan Israeli.  She is very much of the conviction that God has given all the land to the Jews and so it would be an offense to God to even negotiate with the Palestinians.  Yet here they are as two Christian sisters walking together at lunch in the Garden.


Below is a very special brother.  His name is Rami.  He works here as our gardener.  At the age of 20 he heard the Gospel on the streets of Bethlehem.  He has had 4 years of Bible School at Bethlehem Bible College.  He has no status in the Israel side of the country.  He can come to work here on a permit allowing him outside of Bethlehem from 5am until 10 pm.  He met his Palestinean |Israeli wife when she was giving out Bibles to Muslims in Bethlehem   They now have 3 kids.  In order to be with him, she has had to give up her Israeli citizenship and do the same for their children       They lose out on a better education and lots of other privileges   It would take much more time to explain  . He shows no bitterness.  When we have Muslims that come to the Garden, we point them out to Rami and he goes to talk with them and share the Gospel.  He speaks Arabic.  Understands English but does not speak it well enough to be able to guide here.  I am praying that one day there will be the means for him to work a bit less and have enough to get some more training in English.  He is one of the finest men I have met.  


After church this morning we went on a special tour of the property owned by the Dominicans.  They do not allow tours by the public and keep the site fairly private.  They have about 40 tombs.  It was very much a learning experience for us as we guide people to "our" tomb and talk about tombs lots of the times.   One of the tombs  in their property is only 7 feet from the one on our side.  They have a huge church that few attend as well as a school for archaeology and Biblical studies.

This week we have the privilege of having the Jutras in Jerusalem.  They are Fellowship missionaries in Poland.  They should pull  into Jerusalem at supper time on Tuesday.  We have switched some days off and it looks like I can guide them on Wed and Thur.  Also I think I have Friday morning free.  Then Sunday is a day off.  It saves them getting a guide here and allows us to serve them a wee bit.  You can be praying for them as they are touring right now in the north in a rented car.  They have the two children with them.  They have fed me at their table and I never expected to return the joy in Jerusalem

Blessings to all from gord and donna 
  

IT FEELS LIKE SPRING....

It is Saturday morning and other then our 6:30 work project, we both have the morning off.  We have a few more staff members then we need at the present time.  Groups have slowed down.  The Nigerians are all back home.  Other countries are just getting going after the Christmas season.
So this morning was haircut time.  We brought our clippers and have a converter from the 220 current.  Our clippers did not get the message.  Donna just about had her hand vibrate off.  The job is done and it feels so  much better for me.

Of course , I may have kept my hair  longer if the weather had not warmed up so much this week.  We are amazed that the flowers in the garden seem to have all sprung back up after the beating in the snow.  Our gardener is Dutch background so is very happy with her first tulip.

She also managed to borrow a chainsaw.  It was not too busy on Tuesday, so they asked if I would cut up the large limb that was left from the tree that was broken in the snow.  After that there was another tree that had a broken top.  All the needles are in the broken section.  Both trees are pines and very brittle.  I was more nervous with the second tree as it is shaped like a snake.  We did not want to break other trees or benches but it was really hard to figure where the weight would be.  I ended up going up a ladder and cutting a section higher up first before taking down the rest of it.  So here are a few pictures of the logging adventure

.The tree above is the one that broke off by the tomb.  The one to the right is the snake tree.  Rami is up trying to cut off the broken piece hanging down so I could go up and cut off the horizontal section below him.  The next picture is finishing this tree.  Then to cut all the logs for firewood which is very valuable here.

Nice to be able to do something I have done before.
It is very expensive here to bring in people to cut trees and right now they have so much work around the city as a result of the snow.

On Tuesday evening a group of us went to the large Lutheran church in the Old City to listen to a Holocaust survivor.  We thought it would be in English but thankfully they had someone translate from the German.  It was very special.

The couple in the middle are the ones that shared.  His family were mostly all killed.  He shared some of the miraculous ways that he was able to get to Switzerland as a young teen and his life had been spared.








We try to get out some evenings or on our days off and keep exploring and enjoying the walking.  This week we went  a block from here to what has been called Solomon's Quarries or Zedekiah's Cave or....We do know that it has been a huge quarry for stones for the temple and walls.

It is just to the left of the Damascus Gate.  You can walk in for over 1000 feet.  Some places it is over 300 feet wide.  

I had Donna stand across from me in one of the quarry areas so you could get a sense of how big the areas are.  The picture above is to try and show you the lines from where they cut the large stones.  The Freemasons use it here in Jerusalem as they see Solomon as being the first Freemason.  I think he would be very surprised.

Another wonderful building is the Hurva Synagogue. It is in the Jewish Quarter of the city.  Has a long history.  Sadly, the Jordanians made sure it was bombed in 1948.  Since 1967 when the Jews again could go into this part of the city, they put up one of the large arches as a way to represent the former building.  In 2010 they completed rebuilding it.  We went in the one evening during evening prayers.  I could go to the main floor area.  Donna had to go up 4 floors to the women's gallery.  There was an elevator but seeing as she does not read Hebrew, she decided the stairs would be a better choice.

The curved building is the old Jerusalem city hall.  It is pocked with bullets as the Old City  is behind me and at times Palestinians would fire bullets at the building.  This is the corner of Jaffa street.  Now the light train runs up just past the building on the left.  Of course no buses or trains today as it is Shabbot.

 Donna and I have been out for supper at this little restaurant a couple of times.  It is just inside the Jaffa Gate.  It is owned by Palestinians and is beautiful and clean.  Come on over and I will treat you to supper....

The picture above is right near where we buy some of the groceries and the stall on the right is all candies.  We live half a block from here.  I know Glenda and Don are looking and wishing they could be walking along here right now!  We were walking in the Jewish Quarter two nights ago and a salesman was displaying his wares on the edge of this stairway.  These are the Yarmulke or Kippah hats that the Orthodox wear.  The black hats are the Ultra Orthodox.

 I have a few others sites to include from this week.  The Ultra Orthodox do not like you aiming a camera at them.  This one above is taken with the camera held at my waste so I did not know if I would get it.  We did a few night shots and sort of turned out.

We will be having our three day break starting tomorrow.  We may take the bus to Tel Aviv and walk along the promenade in the sun....That is if there is still a warm day.  We have not taken a ride on the city train as yet so that may be another thing.  Not sure if we will meet up again with our friend Roni.  He had talked about getting together on Tuesday.  He will be at the Garden late in the week with a group of pastors from Canada brought by Christian Journeys.  We plan to go out for supper with Roni and Brian at that time.  We were down by the Western Wall two nights ago and Roni was walking near us with a group.  He invited us to go with the to the Western Wall tunnels but we did not want to interfere and were showing a new couple the Old City.  This is all for now.  We look forward to having the Jutras from Poland here as of the 29th.  We have arranged our days off so we can guide them for the two days and the Sunday.  Blessings to you all.  gord and donna

IT'S RAIN...IT'S WIND...AND THEN SNOW!!!

The last time I wrote was last Sunday.  I tried all week to get the blogger program to take pictures   So today I had to switch to Google Chrome to make things happen.  I am including some from this week.  We are involved in the daily routine.  The only issue is the weather was anything but ordinary   Things started getting very cold for Israel.  Our apartments have no insulation or things like weather stripping.  The power to our buildings is not enough to have more then one or two electrical heating appliances on at once.  So we have to turn off the water heater tank that sits on the roof.  It supports the solar panel heat we should be getting.  To use the kettle for coffee, the hot water system gets shut down.  We have 3 electric heaters that have the oil inside.  When we do put them on, all other major systems have to be shut down.  We now have the cold penetrating the walls and floors so it is never warm enough inside.  

You have likely heard that Israel had more rain this week then probably happened in any week in the last 50 years.  In with the rain came the wind.  I was soaked with every group I took out to guide.  Umbrellas would have been nice but they would all be wrecked.  We went for a walk on the one morning and there were dozens of them lying on the streets.  It blows inside out- why carry it any further.  Just drop it right there.  I am sure in an hours walk I would have found over a hundred.  Imagine around the country

Many of the shops right around this part of the city are outside with a plastic or umbrella type covering.   Lots of outside cafes.  Junk from them was everywhere.  As you can see below,this is half a block from our place   Every night the street sweepers come out and try to pick up all the trash on the streets.  It took a few days this time.  Wednesday  night we had supper at the Directors apartment.  They were to be on a day off on Thursday so he asked me to look after the morning cleanup crew as there was a possiblilty of some snow.  When I got up and out after 6 there was already 4 inches of very wet snow.  Some of the trees were already under the strain of the weight.  I called the Director and he and his wife came out.  All of the volunteers went to work.  We were shaking snow off the long palm branches as they were touching the ground.  We have several tent structures that we had to get down and some that we had to clean snow off before collapse. Every few minutes we would hear branches break.  Since the entire city traffic was shut down, the staff that live in the area could not come to work.  I thought we would not get open but we tried anyway.  We could only sweep off half the paths due to time and the fact that some areas were not safe due to the trees.  We have four very large pine trees.   They are different then    our pines.  The branches spreed in a very large area at the tops.

Snow was still coming as you can see by the picture to the left.  We warned all the staff that one tree at the top of the stairs that go to the tomb was really dangerous.  We had a new guide come that day from   Singapore named Ben.  He was in his room so did not know.  He had only seen snow once before so he came out after we all headed in for a late breakfast.  He was standing under the tree when he heard the cracking sound.  God was so gracious as he had just seconds to run.  The tree limb was a foot thick and it of course was thick with branches covered with snow.  It would have been well over a

 ton.  It is not easy to see but the green branches in the bottom left are the parts that came down.

Forgot to tell you.  We don't have shovels, axes or chainsaws.  No stores open with the snow

The Director decided we should use a small pruning saw and loppers to tackle the mess.  His wife sort of suggested it was not realistic but Richard said the way to eat an elephant was one bite at a time.  So I can hardly believe it happened but by 1 pm all that was left was a trunk like branch over 20 feet long.  Of course a  couple of us had to guide between shoveling and cutting branches.  Two men from the volunteers used wheel barrows.  They hauled all the branches out to the street and put them  into the city dumpsters.  These are huge containers that are spaced a block apart through most of the city.  They filled two of them.  Good thing the stores were closed as they used all the space

 We had a most cold but blessed day.  Glad it is over.  The rest of the week was recovery and lots of groups.  This morning I had the privilege of speaking at the West Jerusalem church we attend.  Would you believe the three phase power was down to one. That meant no regular heaters.  Second Sunday in the cold.
I have not figured out how to print properly between the pictures.  Sorry about that.  At the bottom you will see us coming back from one of our grocery shopping trips in the cold.  Also a couple of pictures of the huge covered market.  Trust you are all well.  We are doing well.  Donna even was having to help someone else in the shop to solve their problems.  She is doing great.  Blessings.  Gord and Donna

CHRISTMAS AGAIN IN JERUSALEM

It hardly seems possible that it is Sunday again.  Tomorrow is the celebration of Eastern Christmas.  It feels cold enough to be Christmas.  We walk to our local Palestinian church.  It was windy and we got there to find out they could not get the electric heaters to work.  We all met in the only Sunday school room.  All 9 of us.  It was a good service.  I have been asked to preach next Sunday.  We wold like to try some other places for the experience but for now want to encourage this church.  May visit some others the last few weeks here. 

It hardly seems like it was Dec 27 since we last blogged.  The days are very full.  Right now we are on a long shift between days off.  We ended up working on our last day off on Monday as there were more groups then guides.  Now Weglos are back home.  We sure miss them.  They set an amazing stadard for Canadians.  They served and served and served.  Glenda baked when she had any free time.  They would be welcome here any time they could come.  Since we arrived on Nov 29, all the volunteers we started with have gone home.  A new group has started to come.  We go out for supper on Saturday nights.  I am trying to figure out the risks from the menus I don't understand.  Most is either Bedouin or Palestinian dishes.  So far so good but I did see something someone else ordered last night that I am glad I missed.  I was going to insert a picture from last night but it won't allow me right now.  I did start this earlier and when I went to put in the picture, I lost all my work.  The pictures might come seperately if at all.

The guides are assigned groups.  We are given the name of the country, the number of people and the place they may have communion or worship.  Most of us keep the records for fun.  This morning I counted up the numbers.  Maybe my computer problems today are like those in the Old Testament that when the kings counted the army out of pride, they were punished.  Anyway, I now have taken 1835 Nigerians.  They are so special.  Some have so few clothes suited for this weather.  We are now to be headed into another 4 days of rain.  In total I have had 67 groups and 4306 people.  Some groups might be only 2 or 3 and others I have had have been as many as 90.  Takes a toll on the voice but God has allowed me to be able to keep going every day.  Most of the Nigerians are a full bus of about 52 people. 

I have also had some unusual groups.  Somehow I have ended up with some of the VIP groups.  So far I have had the president of the National Rifle Association, president of the Southern Baptists, the Israeli Guide school and yesterday an unusual group from the Phillipines.  They may be VIP in name but everyone gets the same treatment.  The Filipinos came as 39 people.  They were all brought and paid for by one man.  I had never heard of him.  His name is Manny Pacquiao.   I was told he is a boxing champion.  They had lots of young children with them.  The great part is they are believers.  The one lady that may have been his wife paid for everything the group bought in the store.  It was big bucks.  I was talking to our son and Don told me that he is only the most famous boxer in the world right now.  Someone else told me he was paid 15 million plus winnigs for his last fight.  So I guess it was not a hardship to pay the bills.. He is also a  member of the Filipino government.  I did go on line and thought you might be interested in one link from http://www.christianpost.com/news/manny-pacquiao-is-a-bible-quoting-maniac-says-rick-warren-76047/

We are now on better internet wi-fi.  It was so slow and sometimes we would not be able to connect.  Ended up that a modem in our bedroom had not been working and we were getting the signal from another apartment.  Nice to be able to do clear Skype with the family now. 

We are signing off for another blog.  Blessings.  gord