Continuing the countdown

Down to six days. Egad!

I hope you have been enjoying the countdown images. I've had a lot of fun experimenting with effects in Photoshop.   It  helps keep me entertained and out of (much) mischief.  

Finally got a few things packed.   Lost the external portable charger that I got for on the go recharging.  Tore the house apart looking for it then found it in a small compartment of my backpack that I keep forgetting about.  The darn thing is a lifesaver if you have a phone like mine where you can't change the battery out.  

Got most everything packed now.  Just a final check on Sunday and it should all be ready.

Been watching the weather in Jerusalem.  It looks like perfect touring weather.  Not too hot, not too cold.  

I am thanking God for this opportunity.  He is so amazing!

A little Hebrew Lesson

So, here's a little Hebrew lesson for you. Don't worry, it's easy. You are going to learn a word you may already know.

In Hebrew, the word for "master" is

Adon

In Hebrew if you want to indicate something is yours (as in "my") you add the sound "ee" to the end.  An example is the wort "to" in Hebrew is "le".  To say "to me" you would say "lee".

Okay, so that bring us to the next step.

If you want to say "my master" you would say 

Adonee

Isn't that cool.  Now you know the basis of the word Adonai which is a name of God.  Is He your Master?

Okay, concentration has gone to smithereens

Have I mentioned that:

1. I haven't been out of the country other than Canada.
2. I haven't flown in fifteen years so I have no idea what it's like to check in now.   I love to fly but haven't had an excuse in years.

Thanks to these two factors, I'm starting to bounce off the walls. Those of you who know me know that I'm normally a calm, quiet laid back person... hey hey.. none of those comments now. 

I'm so thrilled that Sue and I can share our trip with all of you.  That makes it even more special!

Stay tuned...

Passport case embellishment

Okay, so you have to see what Susan did for our passport holders.  Yes, these will be worn under our clothing.  Nope, folks won't be seeing them.  Yup, we coulda used permanent markers to do the job.

But why?  Why?  Because Susan is a creative person and has an amazing sewing machine that can do cool stuff.  That's why.  And this is the result.

This was embroidered on the flap of the case.  Pretty cool huh?  Click on it to see a larger version.  The bottom letters are Hebrew.  

As mentioned in my response below.  Here's the actual Hebrew letters to do my name.  There is now "W" sounding letter so they use a double "V" letter.  Mind you, it is read right to left.  No vowels are used.

While I'm at it, here's Susan Barker in Hebrew:

Just over a week now.

Wow, it's hard to believe it's almost here.  It is like being a little kid waiting for Christmas.  I was just reading yesterday that it's strawberry season in Jerusalem.  YUM!  

We went to Team Barnabus last night at church.  That's a meeting open to all but especially for leaders.  They were handing out the Magnificent 7 awards.  It was so fun.  Alas, Susan got the "Mom of the year" award from all the teens she ministers to each week.  How special.  I'm so blessed to have her as a roommate.  She is such a blessing and what a sweet spirit.

Later I will post a picture of something she prepared for our trip.  Stay posted.

I just stumbled across a picture of  the golden Menorah in Jerusalem on facebook.  Another thing to see while on our visit to the Holy Land.  Isn't this amazing?

Sharing with my friends

Last night I gave out some of the little "business cards" I made with the link to this blog so my friends could follow our thoughts and see pictures of our trip.  I awoke this morning wishing all of you could come with is.  This is the type of experience that one wants to share with all that one loves.  

It has become real enough that when I ponder the trip I get misty eyed.  I will be seeing the land God gave to His chosen people!  I will be seeing where our Lord Jesus walked! Amazing.  

Yesterday Susan and I along with our friend Kathy Mungia looked up where our hotel was in Jerusalem on Google Earth.  We saw where it was in reference to the walls of Jerusalem.  We could see the Dome of the Rock as well as other landmarks on the Satellite view.  Seeing those things brought the reality closer to home for me. Although our hotel is in Jerusalem, the walled city is a much smaller area.  We will not be staying within the walled city.  As we do our travels, I hope to share as much with you all as possible.  

Thank you my friends for being a part of this once in a lifetime excursion.

One more weekend!

I can't believe it.  It's so close now.  

The image shows the Hebrew word for 10.  If you are counting male things the word is aserah, if you are counting female things, it is eser.   Yes, like most languages, everything has a gender.  It seems English is a little different than others in that it doesn't have gender for most things.  I've learned some Hebrew although I wish I had about six more months of practice before I have to use it.  Between my phone apps and my Hebrews for Dummies book, I hope to be able to converse a little bit. It's a cool language and it's neat to learn the language of the chosen people of God.  I am learning a lot from Mango Languages.  It's an inexpensive program that helps one learn languages quite well, it got great reviews and I'm very happy with it.  If you are wanting to learn a language, I recommend this one highly. 

It hit me yesterday afternoon

It finally hit me yesterday afternoon that this is really going to happen.  I was so excited that Will said I was going to drive him nuts.  

This will be my first time out of the country other than Canada.   I haven't flown since 1998 so all this security stuff is new to me as well.  

I'm so blessed to have Sue as a roommate.  She is the sweetest warm heartest darling.   We are going to have so much fun.  She has been to Israel before so she will be able to make sure I see interesting things. 

What an opportunity.  I thank God so much for opening this door for us.  To be able to walk in areas that Jesus walked and see the places I've only read about in the Bible.  I wish that all my friends could go with us.  I hope that this blog will be a way to share the experience so you can all get some of the joy of the trip too.

I am also totally blessed because I have a wonderful hubby who was willing to let me put a dent in our savings for this experience.  He's such a sweetie.  I thank God for him too!

Your email address - it's safe

I've had a couple folks tell me that the system wants  your email address before posting.  This is a check system to help prevent auto spamming the blog.  It's not used for anything other than posting.  Even Sue and I can't see your email unless you choose to make your Google profile public.  For that matter, all we can see is the username or initials you put on your post so it's safe to put your email and comment.  In fact the feedback is more than welcome.

Cell test post

It appears I will be able to post from my cell phone.  This will be nice for short updates.  Kind of like the news... bit of info, pictures  and full story at 11. He he.

Egad! In two weeks... almost there

Wow, in two weeks, we will be a little less than two hours from landing in Tel Aviv.   Israel is 10 hours ahead of us. Does that mean that in two weeks we will be a little more than 22 hours from landing?  Well, we will be adding a day.  No? It doesn't work that way?  Well, golly.  Wait!  I know in 11 days we will be 22 hours... no that isn't right either.  Oh my. Talk about a major body clock adjustment.

Walking how to

Lots of folks have been wondering how I've been able to do the walking that I've been doing to prep for Israel.  Wellsir, it's time to give you a how to on walking with messed up ankles and bad joints.  Ready?  Here we go....

It usually takes me quite a while to get ready so's my tootsies are fairly comfortable.  By golly, I plan on being ready for all that touring.  Woohoo.

I even have some of my buds helping me practice!  Isn't that cool?

Less than two weeks now

I can't believe it is getting this close.  My goodness time flies.  I can remember when this was just an idea.  Next, we thought we were going then we thought we weren't going then we were.  Now it's almost here.  Egad!

It's still not quite real.  I figure it will be real when the plane lifts off.

We have to be at the airport by 4am when we fly.  Poor Will, he is our driver.  I'm sure Sue and I will be so excited, we won't sleep but poor Will.

I'm going to so miss my honey and my family from Community Group but this is definitely a trip of a lifetime.  I know the 10 days will go so fast but I'm glad we will be able to share it with our families and friends here.

Call from World Concern

Today I have been on the phone all day trying to upgrade Suzette and I to no avail after starting to get discouraged I recieved the most amazing phone call from World Concern and the gentleman asked if there was anything I would like prayed for and I said Yes that Suzette and I were going to Israel in 2 weeks would he pray for travel mercies and not only did he pray for this but also for us to come back with the most amazing connection with Jesus that we have ever had. - Sue Barker

Yay! Sue Barker can post.

Yay, we figured out how to add Sue as a poster so you can see her thoughts too.  Hopefully, we will see her posting soon.

We tried to get our tickets upgraded for an affordable cost but it's not looking good for that.  Praise God that He will take care of everything and we will enjoy our flight even in coach!

Two week mark

What do you know.  It's down to two weeks now.  By this time in two weeks, Sue and I will be in the air on our way to Israel.

Called the TSA to see if my itty bitty 1.5" needle for my cross-stitch could be taken on the plane.  Yup, you can even take crochet needles and knitting needles.  Knitting needles? Can't take a fingernail file but you can take knitting needles?  Okaaayyyy.  Hmm.

Sue and I got Skype all set up on our computers. Did you know that Skype has an app?  You can use your cell phone to call on Skype.  That's pretty cool.  Check out the Google play store to get it.  Those of you with the lower class iPhones can get it through Apple I'm sure.  

We plan on posting pictures and our experiences on this blog so keep this on your bookmark.

19 Days

Counting down the days.  Called the credit card companies.  Called Verizon.  I learned I DON'T want to make or receive any calls from my phone while in Israel.  $1.99 a minute.  Ick!