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