OUR LAST BLOG FROM iSRAEL....

I should have made some notes so I could remember some of the many thingns that have happened over the three weeks since I last wrote.  The days here become a bit of a blur.  At the end of a guiding day, I can hardly remember which groups I have guided.  I can tell you that we were busy up until a week before Easter.  Since, things really have dropped off.  Easter and Passover were during the same period of time.  Thousands of Jews come from around the world for the celebration.

The Jewish part of the city is packed.  Even many of the streets are shut down.  That creates big issues for tours trying to get around or even local  staff trying to get to work.  All tourist prices are greatly increased.  That means tours from North America and some other countries are over priced and so numbers drop off dramatically.  Also, many people want to be home for the Easter time with their families.

Most of you will understanding what kosher is all about.  The food to be kosher must be inspected by the rabbis.  Killing of meat must be done in a certain fashion to be sure the blood is drained away.  In terms of the menus, meat and dairy are never served at the same meal.  Lets complicate it one more step.  During Passover this year we had two Shabbats in a row.  The last day of Pssover was a Thursday and that means it is a Shabbat.  The next day is the regular Friday at sundown start.  That means that all transportation in Jerusalem stops for 3 days in a row.  The ovens in hotels are never on during Shabbat.

Ready for one more complication??  Before Passover, every bit of yeast needs to be cleaned out of the house and no yeast permitted for the 8 days.  Unless you have been here, you do not imagine what that entails.  Hotels need to clean any place bread (yeast in any form) might have been.  They purged the kitchens.  Hotels have 3 kitchens in case the dairy and meat might come in contact.  Plastic plates are used during the change over and good bye to the wonderful breads.

That impacts all the grocery stores.  Many smaller stores just close as it is too hard to prepare.  We go to a larger grocery store.  The best thing to do is to do lots of shopping well ahead of the start of Passover.  In the store we do our shopping, they cover over half the shelves with white tarps.  Of course the entire bakery is empty.  I had to ask one of our Jewish staff at the garden, why they would cover things like the frozen vegetables.  It ends up that not only do you need a kosher stamp on products, but during Passover there must be a stamp that shows the product has no yeast.  That is not all.  You have to have  to  pull all your processing equipment apart and  inspect that it has been cleaned.  For many companies, it would cost thousands to pull processing machines apart and have them steam cleaned so they do not bother to do it and you cannot buy what they produce during that time frame.  Of course if you were to go into a neighbourhood that is Ultra Orthodox, they would take things to an even greater level.

I won't even try to explain the last complication.  This is the seventh year when farmers must leave their fields fallow.  That means religious Jews will not buy food that is grown on Jewish owned soil.  Of course there are numerous ways they get around it.  Some only buy if grown outside of Israel.  Others will buy if grown by Arabs.  Some Jewish farmers sell their land on a one year contract to Arabs to farm it for them and get around it.  Such is life in Israel.

Donna and I continue to try to see as many places around the city as possible.  We do lots of walking on our days off.  Unfortunately the weather has not been all that great.  Many of you in Canada have been warmer then us.  Last Sunday was a bit brutal.  We headed for church in the wind and rain.  By the time we had made the 30 minute walk we were soaked.  Our pants , socks and shoes were drenched.  We were very cold by the time we got back home and even our rooms had cooled off considerably.  Stone walls without insulation are not much of a match for our little plug in electric heaters. During that night we had a very big storm.  It thundered continually for hours.  It is not just the big bangs like at home although we had a number of them.  The thunder just rolls around the sky and never seems to stop.  Rain poured down.  By the time I got up at 6 to go out and start cleanup, it had stopped raining for a few minutes.  In some spots there were two inches of hail.  It sure thrashed a lot of leaves and flowers.  Today though we are warm and should be in the eighties tomorrow.  Drops off a bit each day for the rest of the week.

Friday morning we have to have our  suite entirely cleaned which includes all the windows and walls.  We will need to be all packed and will  have our ride to the airport at 8.  hould get into Toronto for a quick change of planes and be on to Calgary for the night.  All being well we will be back home by lunch on Saturday

A couple of days ago we had some shopping to do.  So I took some pictures of our local stores. The first two are of our local grocery store.  Everything is packed in.

The darker picture is behind the counter in our bakery.  They are getting pita out of the oven.  And above is our favorite vegetable store.  so nice to get it all freshly picked.

We had a very good time during all our Easter services.  It was a very busy time and we had over 1500 for the 6:30a.m.  ; about 900 for the next and maybe 350 for the third service.  Then we had to get all the benches back in place to be ready for a regular day on the Monday.

If you want to view the service, go to gardentomb.org    and click on the section for Easter.  Also the Garden just started a Facebook page this week.  Just type Garden tomb into Facebook

I  think I will wrap this up.  Thanks for following along and also for those that prayed for us.  gord and donna

APRIL FIRST IN THE RAIN

It is a wonderful place to be during the easter week.  You might think that there would be more visitors then usual.  It is the other way around.  Easter coincides with Passover, so that greatly increases all the hotel rates and discourages tourists.  Also, many people want to be home for the week before and after Easter.

Not that first time visitors would be aware, but the meals change considerably in the hotels.  Since Passover is a time when Jews are to get rid of all leaven from their homes, That has been expanded to many other areas of life.  Groceries stores stop selling anything with yeast..  For some stores it is too hard to clean the store with the detail required, so they just close the stores for the 8 days.  Others will cover all the sections with yeast products.  No good buns and bread available in hotels or stores other then Palestinian.  Of course, that is where we buy at this time of year.

Hotels totally clean the three kitchens they use.  Any dishes that might have possibly had contact with yeast ( which means all the dishes) are not used.  Disposable plates are all that will be used.

Every home has a huge cleaning process.  Maybe a crumb was dropped behind a sofa cushion, etc.

Last Sunday was Palm Sunday.  After our 2 hour church service.  ( and it might have gone longer but a man collapsed and church stopped as they had to call an ambulance) we came home for lunch.  Then we went down the Kidron valley across from the Mt . of Olives.  We found a spot just a few feet below the Beautiful Gate ( Golden Gate)  in the Muslim cemetery.  About 3 o'clock, thousands of pilgrims start the Palm Sunday route from the top of . Mt. of Olives and down into the Old City.  They carry palm branches, flags and , banners   There are bands leading the way.  Every so often you can hear them singing from across the valley.  In Jesus entry, he would have entered the gate right where we were standing.  Prophecy tells us the gate would be closed and it has been for centuries.

Donna in front of the Golden Gate with Cindy from Montana.  They hope to come up to Gleaners .  I made the picture below extra large so I hope you can see the pilgrims on various parts of the road coming down from the Mt. of Olives.

We managed to get ahead of the crowds coming into the Lions Gate so we would have a chance of getting home.

Last night was our volunteers planning meeting for the services here on Friday and Sunday.  They have done it here for years and so have learned what works and how to be prepared for every eventuality.

Good Friday we only have one service from 9 until 10.   They expect a couple of hundred people but never know how many will come.  For the rest of the day the Garden is open, but we do no touring.  It is a chance for people to wander around and take time for quiet meditation on the crucifixion.  We are on shifts of about an hour on and hour off through the day.  If individuals want to talk with us or pray with us, we are available.

Friday night, the Garden is taking the volunteers out for a nice supper.  Should be special.  Then Saturday is a normal group and guiding day.  We close a bit early and start the process of moving all the benches and chairs for the Sunday services.  For those who have not been here, we have 10 places in the garden where people can meet for worship and communion times.  Most areas have plastic benches.  These all have to be moved to face a platform area near the tomb.

Sunday morning, we are starting just after 5.  We go out and clean all the benches and make last minute preparations.  By 5:45 we will meet for prayer.  All the staff are assigned places to manage people as they start coming in at 6.  Apparently some individuals will have even slept in the lane to get in right away.  The lineup spreads down our long lane and into the street.  ( the street is what used to be the Road to Damascus.) For the first 30 minutes there is music and the service starts at 6:30.  They expect over 1200 people.  That packs the seating areas that will be set up so all can see the speaker and tomb.  On Sunday we do not let people wander in the Garden and to the tomb.  That area would not even be safe as there is a large worship team with all their cords and equipment.  Our job is to manage that with all the volunteers.  Apparently it can be a challenge as some want to force their way to the tomb.

We are hoping a group that came earlier in the week will have gone back to India.  It is a group that believes they have descended from angels.  They all wear white.  They see themselves as above everyone else and do not take instructions from mere mortals like us.  Their guide this week had a terrible time with them.  He even told their leader that if he did not make them behave, then the Garden would never let them come back.  At one point, he had to carry one of the men in the group out of the tomb as he refused to leave.  Such is the life of our volunteers.

When the first group.leaves, we will have breakfast together supplied by one of  our paid staff.  Then it is all hands on deck as we open the gates again for the second service.  At this one we have a communion service near the end.  I have been asked to lead that part of the service.  It should finish about 10:30 and then we open the gates again for the third service.  It is Scandinavian at 11.  While it is going on, part of our staff will clear out areas that are not being used and get benches back in place as we will be back to groups by 8:30 the next morning.

Something that should be fun is a Palestinian Muslim couple supply lunch for the staff each year.  Those that have been to Israel will likely remember Sammy.  He has been selling postcards, hats, olive wood small items, etc. just outside out gate for the last 45 years.  It is a big deal as he carries in a huge platter with lamb and rice.  We all clap and express out appreciation.  There will be chicken and salads so should be a good bash.
Such will be Easter for us.  I will try to get some good pictures for the next blog.  For those that would like to see the first service live, you can go to the CBN network.  It should start at 8:30 in the evening your time.( of course that is Saturday night for you.)  Or it will be posted on the site.  To find out all the information, type in gardentomb.com    Then pick the Easter link.  You will see the additional link for the podcast. They even include the order of service so you can follow along with the singing.  Maybe some of you want to have a home fellowship and get ready for Easter with some friends.

I have had some wonderful groups over the last couple of weeks.  One that sticks out was a group from Hungry.  I thought it would be translation which is harder.  To my delight it was all grade 12 students that speak English.  They all attend a missionary school.  What a great group of kids form all over the world.

I did have some interesting students the week before.  The first group were also from around the world.  They were a great group and likely from the responses they were mostly not believers but all very interested.  The group were all law students from Harvard University.  I finished with them and the next group were again university students.  This bunch were from the States and all MBA students.
Yesterday I had a lovely Mennonite family from the U.S.  They were the old order with the mom and girls all in long dresses and bonnets.  There were 7 children in the family but absolutely attentive to everything and expressing easily their love for the Lord.

We did spend one day at the Biblical Zoo.  It was great.  Again we were with the couple from Montana as we had the same day off.

There are so many animals there.  the picture below is in a very large enclosure.  This only show the giraffes and zebras or some of them.  In addition there were a kind of deer, rhinos and a hippo in the same enclosure.  I think other animals as well.

My shoe was falling apart on a seam.  On the way home We passed a shoemaker.

It was immediate service on his old treadle machine. And all for 20 shekels.  That might be $5.  Now to the right is a big deal.  We had a couple and 2 single men in for a supper- well really a breakfast of the finest food.  Pancakes, fried eggs and BACON.  It took two packages to give us about 3 slices each.  I doctored it up with some brown sugar from Canada.  I think it worked out to about 80 cents a slice.  It was worth every penny.  The Palestinian store just down the street is not owned by a Muslim but a Catholic.  So bacon is available.  Maybe I can talk Donna into one more "feast" before we come home on the 25th.
All for now.  Have a wonderful Easter

We send our blessings.  gord and donna