Friday, February 20, 2015

Last dessert in the Holy Land




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Snow at Damascus Gate in the Old City Jerusalem

This is what we left behind last night in Jerusalem! No snow here in Tel Aviv 


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Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Picture of a cat with a live cat sitting in front


Mutabak pastry

This is all they do and they have been doing it since the middle of the 18 hundreds....6 generations 1 pastry


Our group with Omar


Kubbeh dumplings


Falafel


Lunch with Omar

Our group hands down voted this the best lunch yet. A dozen salads or more plus amazing lamb,turkey and beef kebabs.

Omar Bari our good friend.

Omar is a world class olive wood carver and a dear friend.





Great find Jean!!!


Wet sifting

Our group started the day at the city of david  wet sifting project. This involves carefully sorting through material for things like pottery,mosaic tiles and burnt bones from the time of animal sacrifice.

Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Saying goodbye

 today was our last day with our beloved guide Hani. We will miss him greatly the group has adopted him as part of our new family

Model of the Old City of Jerusalem

 our group  overlooking the model of the Old City of Jerusalem at the Israeli museum

My sweetheart


Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum

We spent the morning  at the  Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum.

Jerusalem bagel vendor

Jerusalem bagels or not your typical bagel they are large and oblong with a crust of sesame seeds served with a paper pouch filled with Zatar spice to dip. This was breakfast for us today!

The boys enjoying an early morning pastry in the old city of Jerusalem


Shepherd watching his flock on the hills of Jerusalem


Masada snake path

A few daring souls hiking down from the top of Masada. It took us about 45 minutes

Israeli flag over Masada

The Israeli flag flying over Masada with the Dead Sea  in the background

Monday, February 16, 2015

IDF swearing in

Israeli  solders swearing in on top of Masada

Jewish scribe

This is a Jewish Rabbi who works on top of Masada copying the Torah...the first five books of the Bible. Each copy takes about a year

Bananas for sale in the Palistinian town of Jericho

Jericho  is the oldest continually occupied city on earth. Ten thousand years

Doc coming out of the Dead Sea


Morning Devotion for Tuesday the 17th

Morning Devotion for Tuesday the 17th
New Wineskins
Joanne Hansen

Today we are spending time at two very different places. This morning we will hear the story of the Jewish people suffering under evil oppression at the Yad Vashem holocaust museum and this afternoon we will visit the national museum and see the remains of thousands of years of history in the Holy Land. As we use this time to put things in perspective we need to challenge ourselves with sharing this Land, This People, This Word with others. What does it mean to be modern day disciples of the Rabbi Jesus and what do we do with His command to share this story with the world.

In Mark 2:22 we read:
And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins."

Howard Snyder writes:
Every age knows the temptations to forget that the gospel is ever new. We try to contain the new wine of the gospel in old wineskins—outmoded traditions, obsolete philosophies, creaking traditions, old habits. But with time the old wineskins begin to bind the gospel. Then they must burst; and the power of the gospel pour forth once more. Many times this has happened in the history of the church. Human nature wants to conserve, but the divine nature is to renew. It seems almost a law that things initially created to aid the gospel eventually become obstacles—old wineskins. Then God has to destroy or abandon them so that the gospel wine can renew man's world once again. The gospel is new in our day. It is still "the power of God." It is still bursting old wineskins and flowing forth into the world.... But there is something else this parable teaches us—the necessity of new wineskins. Wineskins are not eternal. As time passes they must be replaced—not because the gospel changes, but because the gospel itself demands and produces change! New wine must be put into new wineskins—not once-for-all, but repeatedly, periodically. 


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St. George Monistary

Amazing hanging Monistary

Tan line

We are at the Deaf Sea. The mud I'd supposed to be good for the skim

Ibex

This young Ibex let me get really close.

Remembering our baptism

Sharon receiving the sign of the cross as she remembers her baptism

Dove st baptism

Very cool white dove in flight at the baptism  site

, Dead Sea

The lowest place on earth. Beams of sunlight on the Dead Sea

Merrills Kefyiah

Merrill looking great in his Kefyiah

This is my Son in whom I am well pleased

Nine in our group were baptized in the River Jordan today. Somewhere on this stretch of river Jesus Himself was baptized.
 


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Qumran...and the Dead Sea Scrolls

We are at Qumran an archaeological site in the West Bank  It is located on a dry plateau about a mile inland from the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea. It is best known as the settlement nearest to the caves where the Dead Sea Scrolls were hidden. This was a community of Essenes, religious separatists at the time of Jesus. Some scholars surmise that John the Baptist  was a member of this community. 
 
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Sunday, February 15, 2015

Morning Devotion for Monday the 16th

Morning Devotion for Monday the 16th
Say to this Mountain
Mert Hansen

Today we travel up and over the Mount of Olives and down the other side through dessert terrain until we reach the lowest point on Earth. The Dead Sea.

In Matthew 21:18-22 we read:
Early in the morning, as Jesus was on his way back to the city, he was hungry. Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it, "May you never bear fruit again!" Immediately the tree withered. When the disciples saw this, they were amazed "How did the fig free wither so quickly?" they asked. Jesus replied, "Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea, 'and it will be done. If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer."

In the L I F E APPLICATION COMMENTARY WE READ:
Jesus had cursed the fig tree; the fig tree had died; the disciples had expressed surprise. Jesus explained that they could ask anything of God and receive an answer. .. . They should not have been surprised that a fig tree could be withered at Jesus' words. Jesus was using a mountain as a figure of speech to show that God could help in any situation: This mountain (referring to the Mount of Olives on which they stood) could be thrown into the sea (the Dead Sea, which could be seen from the Mount). Jesus' point was that in their petitions to God they must believe without doubting (that is, without wavering in their confidence in God). The kind of prayer Jesus meant was not the arbitrary wish to move a mountain of dirt and stone; instead, he was referring to prayers that the disciples would need to faithfully pray as they faced mountains of opposition to their gospel message in the years to come. Their prayers for the advancement of God's kingdom would always be answered positively—in God's timing. 


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Old City

Jean in the Old City of Jerusalem

At the Western Wall

Observant Jew praying at the Western Wall. He is wearing the traditional prayer shawl, and a leather pouch on his forehead and arm. These contain scripture called the Shema...."Hear oh Israel, the Lord  your God, the Lord is one"

Holy Sepulchre


Woman praying at the Church of Holy Sepulchre
This is the stone of anointing where Jesus body was prepared for burial

Church of the Holy Sepulchre

Armenian priest leading a procession through the Church of the Holy Sepulchre

Church of the Holy Sepulchre

Armenian seminary student singing at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre