HALF WAY THROUGH MARCH ALREADY

It is hard to remember all the things that have happened in the last two weeks.  There have been a number of wonderful groups.  I had Steve Vaughan and Pastor Jeff from Vancouver Island last week.  I had previously had Steve as part of a Pastor's group I was responsible for a couple of years ago.  Jeff is the present pastor of Campbell River and there were seven of the Campbell River church group that we knew well when I pastor there.  So the one night we took those that wanted on a tour of the old City. 

Yesterday, we toured the sister in law of my best friend, Don Scott.  Had them here for lunch and then they came with us to King of Kings church in the evening.

I am in trouble now as I downloaded all the pictures and I cannot
find a way right now to move them around to put them in some order.  So please bear with me.  Donna and I had a three day weekend and used the Garden car to go down to Eilat by way of Tel Beer Sheva.  It was a wonderful three days.  Then we returned by way of the Dead Sea.  To the right is a rock formation at Timna.  This is the location of the ancient copper mines.   Tel Beer  Sheva is below.

On one of our free days we went down to the City of David.  They are doing a huge excavation.  This used to be a parking lot.  They have found much from David's time.  They will dig a layer of a civilization.  Take out all the aritfacts.  They measure and take pictures and then start again and do the same with each layer of civilization below.

The picture to the left is of a rock formation but in the foreground is the copper mine.  Some believe the mines go back to Solomon's time.  We started our journey near the area where David killed Goliath.  Not far from there are ruins at Beth Shemesh that include a series of man made caves.
Our first night we stayed at Ramon Crater.  The picture will be below.  It is named after the astronaut from Israel killed with the Americans on re-entry.  The have a wonderful presentation in memory of him.  It is a huge water formed crater.

Since the picture above is from Eilat, I will mention it.  The city is near the border with Egypt and is on the northern tip of the Red Sea.  It was lovely and warm.  Over 34C.  We did lots of walking in the evening. Has a Los Vegas feel to it.  Very fancy tourist hotels.  They have great places for diving and wonderful coral reefs.  There is an underwater observation place.  This is just one of many pictures we took through the window.  The park also has massive tanks that have everything from sharks to something over two hundered species of fish.

I wanted to get Donna to the border with Egypt as it was only a short distance away.  You can see it on the right.

Donna wanted to get her hands into the Red Sea.
The yacht in the background is what I am considering buying her but I think I will have to save some more.

The two pictures to the right were taken on a Tuesday.  That is the day along with Thursdays when most of the Bar Mitzvah take place.  This particular day there were many of them heading to the Western Wall.  Family groups come from the States and it becomes a huge production. They will have an entire tour bus and then hire a small band to lead the procession.  When the boy reads the Torah in public for the first time he becomes a man in Israel.  The women's part seems to be to make lots of noise and throw pounds and pounds of candy.  As you can see below, there was enough left on the street that
we could all get a good handful.

We were also into the Purim week at the same time.  It is based on the story of Esther.  They all cheer for the good people in the story and hiss and boo for Haman.  It becomes a dress up time for several days of that week.  You see children and adults all over the city in costumes.

To the right are a couple of University students getting into the spirit of the holiday.


Above I mentioned some caves that are actually at a Tel called Maresha.  They are cone shaped.  They look like some of the highway storage buildings for the salt.  The dig a small hole down through the surface and then cut sandstone blocks for building.  The shape stops it all from caving in.  They have a series of them in this area that are connected and huge.

Below I hope I can show you two road signs you will not find in Canada.  The one says "beware of camels near the road".  The other says "Firing zone on
both sides of Road"  Sorry my pictures are all over the place.  Maybe by the time we get home we will have this Blog business figured out.  Blessings to you all.  gord and donna

MARCH IN JERUSALEM

I had intended to get a blog out much sooner.  Several things happened.  I had a gastro issue for 8 days.  Finally, I got to a doctor.  He was great.  Wish I could take him back to Vernon.  He is only 93 years old and cut back to  part time for the last two years.   All the stomach issue is finally resolved.

Some of you know I have a different taste in music then many of my peers.  Southern Gospel is not my favorite.  I have been "forced" by good friends like Jim Wilson, to listen when I have gone to their home.  Now I am in the inner circle.  We had Mike Huckabee and his many buses here one day.  I guided for one of the buses.  Ends up, I had their soloist in my tour.  It was Larry Gatlin of the Gatlin brothers.  Before they left , he found me to thank me and gave me a big hug.  Still not sure about that genre of music.  I do want some respect now from you Southern Gospel folks.

Many of you know a week ago Friday, Jerusalem was hit with about 6 inches of wet snow overnight.  It does huge damage to the trees.  The Garden has made progress with snow removal.  Besides the push brooms, there was now a piece of particle board about 18 inches by 40 inches.  We could only push the snow a couple of feet before we had to tip the board as snow  was really heavy.  We all worked hard over the next two days to get all our paths and stairs clear.  Some day they may buy a shovel or two.

The snow resulted in damage to the skull at what could be Golgotha.  By Saturday morning, the nose of the skull had broken off and is a pile of stones at the bottom.  Of course, over the last few years with the hard surface stone breaking away from all the vibration of buses a few feet away, it is not surprising.

Donna was finally able to get out of a black jacket last week.  It has been surprisingly cold.  Neither one of us came with enough winter clothes.  One of these days, things will get warm and stay warm.

We attended the Palestinian church were we went our last time here, but for a few reasons we decided to go to West Jerusalem Baptist.  A bit farther to walk but we do not mind that.  The pastor is home in the States so visiting preachers.  Three Sundays in a row have been close to the 2 hours.  Two of the preachers were not easy to understand due to language issues.  Enough said.

In the last couple of weeks we have had two big film crews.  They come when we are closed in the morning.  The one is from Crossroads church in Ohio.  The crew is 17 people.  They are recording for the Easter Sunday service.  The church has 5 campuses and 40,000 people.  The other crew was from another large church doing the same kind of thing.

Big is not always the best.  One day we were not busy.  The next guide ready to go is near to the reception.  It was my turn but I knew we had enough people to cover the groups coming.  When individuals come, they have a brochure or audio guide.  Two English couples came and they were about to head off on a self guided tour.  I felt constrained to ask the receptionist if she would like me to take them.  It ended up, another English speaking couple joined us.  I do not think they were believers and they had lots of great questions.  Ends up with the one English couple ,  he is a Baptist pastor and the other man is one of his Elders.  They knew we were from Canada.  When we finished at the tomb, the pastor's wife wanted to talk.  She has a sister in the Vancouver area.  The sisters daughter had been killed in a tragic hiking accident the week before we left home.  The sister has
been really struggling with God and the church.  There is much more I could say but do not want to share a private story.  During the lunch hour , I emailed my brother and asked if he would follow up if no other person was available.  He replied that he would be happy to do so.  I also wrote a couple that are very loving and compassionate and lived not that many miles away.  They responded immediately and contacted a friend that was living near the family and attended the same church.  God has a way of doing things.  I am in touch with the Pastor in England, and his sister in law really needs our prayers as her broken heart is not letting anyone into her life.

Some of the guides here are retired pastors.  They are interesting people.  Others come from a variety of occupations.  One is a bachelor named Joe Armstrong.  He is a couple of years older then us and is a Texan.  He is such a fine man.  About ten years ago, he made a decision to be serious about his faith.  He is a man that is so gracious.  He loves everyone.  I worked with him each morning this week sweeping the leaves and dirt off our area of the paths.  He is a very humble man.  I knew a little bit about him from others and went on line to learn more.  If you type in his name followed by the word "publisher", there is a lot about him.  He was the publisher of at least 10 major magazines.  The first was Rolling Stones.   He has worked with the Kennedy family and vacations with them.  For a number of years he worked with the news team at ABC.
If you want to get an idea of the man and a great graduation speech he gave in 2012, go to the link below.  It will be in two sections so when the first finishes, be ready to start the second.
( I will put the link in the email)

Paul on the left is an engineer, Ceasar in the middle is a Jewish believer and wonderful young man.  It is Joe on the right holding a bronze of General Charles Gordon, that was an influence on the British buying the property.


I had a very happy surprise a few days ago to welcome a group from Canada and the first person I saw was Ruth Goertzen from Parksville.  She made our day.  Was so good to see her.  Donna was busy in the shop so only had a minute to visit.  Wilf and Ruth along with Reg and Gina were on tour with us a number of years ago.  I am waiting for Reg and Gina to retire and bring groups or even guide here as we are doing.  They will be great at it.

For those that have been to Israel, I am sure you remember how things get taken into the very narrow streets with stairs in the Old City.  The tire out behind it  is the brake.  You stand on it and hope you can stop.  We did not stay to see if they made it down a long series of stairs without spilling.

I am not sure that my email notice regarding updates to the blog page is always going through but  I will try again.  We do appreciate your prayers for our health, safety and ability to serve God well.  We do feel very safe and none of you would be nervous in the streets with us.  God bless.   gord and donna