Allowing Comments / Introductions

Hi all,

I realized while looking at settings that one needs to have a Google account to post on the blog.  Oops, sorry about that.  It's a setting that is set by default.  I changed it so that you can post comments to your heart's content.

I'm also still having issues with getting others who don't have a gmail account to be able to make posts so that's why I'm still the main poster on the blog.  Hopefully it hasn't been too boring.

Oh my, I should post a few pictures since I have a post.  Don't want it to be boring.

How about some of the folks from the trip?  I haven't gone into much detail about the people so here's a good time to do so.

Oh my goodness.  I just went through the pictures and have a bunch.  Ready?

Let's start with a very important person of our group.  Irit Doron (that's pronounced eereet).  She was pressed into service because the group we were a part of was so big that they divided it into two buses.  Her knowledge of the places we visited and the information she shared was immensely valuable.

One could tour the country without a guide but I wouldn't recommend it for the first visit.  There are so many bits of information that she shared, not only while we were at locations but on the bus between them.  If you read Anita's post, you know what I mean.  Anita was writing furiously while Irit was telling us information.  I think if I had it to do over again I would have a little recorder and anchor it to Irit's neck to get every tidbit of information she gave us.  Even with all the notes, I feel as if I've lost some of it.

Next is our driver Gabriel.  I don't remember his last name.  His English was pretty weak but he spoke volumes with his terrific smile.  Sadly we lost him as a driver half way through the tour, he had another tour to drive for.  He was a joy for that first half though.

Of course, I have to introduce you to Pastor Sam Newman, who agreed to be our pastor for the tour.  He was recruited when we wound up with an overflow bus.

Pastor Sam had some excellent messages to coincide with different parts of the trip.  Not only could he give a good message but the man can sing as well.  He led us in several songs a capella.

I have a video of Pastor Sam baptizing all of us.  Bless his heart, he did such a good job.  After he was done, we were looking for someone to baptize him as well.  It is the Jordan after all.  The place where John the Baptist baptized Jesus.  Well, Sue volunteered for the job and she did a great one.   Here is a video of several of us being baptized in the Jordon River.

Thank you Pastor Sam for all that you did for us on the trip.  Your messages made the tour even more poignant.

If you read Anita's post you might remember her talking about a Muslim man in charge of the Church of the Ascension because there are so many churches in the same building.  They wanted someone who was a an outsider to be in charge so there would be no favoritism.  This is the man she spoke of.  If I have my notes right his name is Waji Nuseba.   He is also a friend of our guide Irit.  I think she knows all the interesting people in Israel.  She's such a doll.

How about our Nazareth guide?  I totally forget his name but he was wonderful.. He is a soft spoken Messianic Jew and had such fascinating information for us about Nazareth, the vineyard, the trees, Jesus, many of the words.  He is a fount of information.  I actually video taped our entire trip through Nazareth which I'm glad.  Eventually I will transcribe the whole thing.  I would put it up but ack, the video is terrible since I was also taking notes and taking still shots while recording video.  I needed another head and three more hands.   Then again, some folks think I need another head already.

Oh dear.  I just realized I didn't get a picture of Tim and Ginny Powell.  They were our "buddies" on the bus.  We all had buddies we were responsible to make sure they were on the bus after each outing.  They are the sweetest, nicest couple.  You can see them in our group picture on the post about the purple bus group.

Here are Jake Bennett and Marie Stoltze.  Jake and Jim Savage (who I also don't have a decent picture of) are chaplains at Friendship Village which is a retirement village.  Marie is one of the residents there.  We fell in love with all of the residents in our group.  It was like having a bunch of Moms.

Jake has a tender and serving heart.  After we visited the garden tomb, I broke down in tears because of a deep touching of the Holy Spirit.   Jake was right there ministering to me while I shared with him some of the thoughts I have.  He was there for many of us during the tour.  He was like a loving son to the residents of Friendship Village.

It was so cool because during our tour, Jake's wife sent him a video of his son taking his first steps.  Technology is wonderful at times like that.  Although Jake was in Israel serving others, he was still able to see his son's first steps almost right after they happened.

You met Joseph (Yoseph) in one of our first posts from Israel.  He was so cute that I had to tell you a little more about him.  He, like many Israelis is fond of the United States.  He said that Israel is the 51st state.  I do hope that we, as a country will continue to support Israel.  We met Joseph in Netanya after an air raid siren went off close to where we were all standing.  He was excited to practice his English which, I must admit is MUCH better than my Hebrew.  Joseph was one of our first experiences in Israel.  What a great start to our tour.  

Here's Abraham in his tent.  We were Guests of Abraham for lunch that day.  His tent is made of goat hair.  The interesting thing about goat hair is that when it gets wet after a rain it becomes waterproof due to swelling of the hair fibers.

You will note the authentic garb on Abraham.  I'm sure that those pants that look like jeans were woven with the finest wool from his own flock of sheep.  On the right, is a group of us sitting around the table, reclining for some of us which is the way people ate back then.  You can see Abraham teasing Sis Allaire.

Here we have pictures of us riding camels.  On the left is Sue and I with Eliazar (Abraham's servant) giving us a hand.  Riding camels isn't terribly hard but the getting up and down part is a bit tricky.  The rump rises first and tries to tilt you forward off the front of the camel.  You can see us leaning back to keep our seat.  There are hand holds in front of each of us to help.  In spite of thorough instruction, Eliazar was careful to make sure that we didn't flip off on our faces.  You can see his hand in front of Sue to make sure she stays on the camel.  On the right you can see, from left to right, Goris Ewell, Mark Ewell (the hat behind Goris), me, Tracey Savage and Jim Savage.  Oh, I said I didn't have a decent picture of him but this one isn't bad. 

Since that ride, we all received licenses of authorized persons to ride a camel.  I'm sure that will come in handy some day.

This is Goris's husband Marc.  Marc and Goris are missionaries in China and Marc also works for Wycliff as well as a photographer for some travel magazines.  Is there nothing this young man doesn't do?

By the way, see that camera bag?  He toted that thing all over Israel snapping away constantly.  I'm hoping he will share some of his pictures.  He must have the strongest back in the world.  That bag had to weigh a ton.

We saw a few people in uniform as well.  This is a guard at one of the checkpoints where you can cross over to Jordan from Israel.  Even though we weren't going that way we passed this close to the checkpoint. Sue and I also got our pictures taken with some Israeli soldiers.

Tough looking guys aren't they.  They were really nice about letting all these silly tourists getting their pictures taken with them.  It was an honor to be able to.

Sticking with the uniform theme, I managed to get my picture taken with a couple of policemen.  I guess I had to since I had such a wonderful one waiting back home for me.  Well, retired one at least.  

The one on the left is in Bethlehem (duh, from the picture) about where we got off the bus for our tour. The one on the right was in our hotel in Jerusalem our last day we were there.  He wasn't sure about getting a picture with me until I told him my husband was a retired policeman.  The one on the left was nice but egad, the expression on his face.  I can tell he wasn't sure about all this.

My list of people wouldn't be complete without including Chuck and Cindy Jackson.  They were on the other bus but we managed to get to know them as well as many others from the yellow bus.  I hope to have some of the yellow bus folks posting here eventually as well.  

I think that covers a lot of the folks on the trip.  Sadly there are many that I don't have more pictures of.  

More posts later.