Day #7

Good news is, tomorrow and the rest of our time in Israel is supposed to be absolutely gorgeous. The bad news is, today was still cold and rainy. But, that didn't stop us from having a really great day. Mostly we learned a lot about the history of Israel the Nation. Our tour guide offered an interesting talk on the various border negations since 1958. Since we are staying in the region, most of our focus was on the struggle with Syria over the Golan Heights. It was fascinating driving past field after field of bunkers and military installations from when the Syrians held control. Even today many of the fields are fenced off with ominous signs warning of hidden land mines.

Lunch today was another in-home meal with a local family. In this case it was Druze family. The Druze religion began 1,000 years ago in Egypt. They are a monotheistic religion drawing from the the traditions of Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. Among their distinctive beliefs is incarnation. Unlike Christians, the Druze believe that the physical body has no intrinsic value. So much so, that the Druze do not believe in cemeteries (if I understood correctly). Rather, they believe a person sheds their physical body when they die and immediately in reincarnated into the physical body of another Druze baby. There were LOTS of questions I wanted to ask but not only is this religion very private, the language barrier was formidable. Nonetheless, we had a wonderful meal as we sat on the floor and listened to her tell all about her family.

On the way home we stopped for a wine-tasting visit at the famous Golan Heights Winery. Then we shopped at a local grocery store to get some snacks for dinner since many of us were tired of eating out.

Each night we've been gathering for devotions. We pray together for everyone back home, reflect on the things we've been learning and seeing, sing a hymn or two, and read Scripture. It's hard to believe tonight we pass the half-way mark of our trip. Tomorrow we explore more of Galilee, where Jesus spent the bulk of his ministry, before making our way down to Jerusalem for the next five evenings.

Pic descriptions:
1. Looking over toward the border of Syria and the site of a famous Israeli tank battle during the Yom Kippur war.
2. Our Druze host and our tour guide, Gideon Har-Hermon.
3. Our wonderful spread for lunch!
4. Seated on the floor.
5. Bill and Mary Jane Miles present our host with a splash of Texas while she holds up the traditional Druze flag.

Day #6 Olive Trees, Pita, and Kibbutz

We left Nazareth yesterday and headed first to Zippori. This ancient city with its well preserved streets and amazing decorative tile floors is located in Galilee. Situated on a high hill with with magnificent views, this city site was an ideal location for the Romans to make this the capital city for the Galilee region.

Our lunch stop was a tour of a working olive tree farm. Did you know that there are not any truly black olives? Olives that are solid black have been chemically treated. Real black olives are actually purple. (Tuck that away for your next game of Trivial Pursuit!) Before lunch we learned about making pita bread and had the chance to make our own for lunch. I was elected to cut the pitas in fourths for serving - notice what an excellent job I'm doing, please.

In the high hilltop city of Safed we visited two ancient, yet active, synagogues. It was really interesting hearing our tour guide explain different aspects of the synagogue customs. Gideon, our guide, is an interesting guy. He himself in an Orthodox Jew but two of Gideon's sons have more recently become Ultra-Orthodox.

We're spending these two evenings at a Kibbutz in the Golan. Our group had dinner with a couple from the Kibbutz community. Our accommodations (check out the pix!) are part of a resort business run by the Kibbutz. The ideology of the Kibbutz is shifting away from pure socialism to more shared partnerships in which individuals in the community are allowed to acquire, cultivate, and protect their own property.

The weather forecast says the rain stops today! The rest of the week's temperatures are supposed to climb to more normal and sunny skies are due to return. The rain really hasn't slowed us down any and we keep reminding ourselves that soon enough we'll be complaining about the heat back home in Houston.

Pic descriptions:
1. Preserved stone street of Zippori
2. Getting a lesson on olive growing from our host, Shoshoni (whose late husband, interestingly, wrote the book "Top Guns" that was later turn into the hit movie "Top Gun.")
3. Pita bread creations waiting for the oven
4. Into the oven for baking
5. Yours truly working in the kitchen - amazing!
6. Our accommodations at the Kibbutz (what you can't see in this pic is the beautiful views of the Galilee valley below. I'll get a pic tomorrow.)

Day #5 Akko and Rosh Hanikra Caves

For some in our group, today's rainy and chilly day began when the Muslim call to prayer rang out early this morning. (Nazareth is a predominately Muslim city.) While some in our group opted to spend this free day doing their own exploring and resting, eleven of us participated in the tour to the city of Akko (Acre) and the caves of Rosh Hanikra.

Akko is a fascinating multi-layered city most famous perhaps for when it served as the main city in Palestine for the Crusaders. The great halls and structures of this ancient city still exist but underneath layers of other cities built by subsequent conquerors.

We ate lunch at a restaurant looking over the Mediterranean Sea. Most of us ordered the fried fish (tilapia) not all expecting an entire fish - head and all! It was a bit of a challenge to eat. The meal was good but the pita and humus appetizer was the real hit.

Our day ended near the border between Israel and Lebanon. Actually, the countries do not directly border one another. A United Nations control zone separates the two. The Rosh Hanikra caves are near the border. They were originally formed by erosion, have been expanded with man-made tunnels. The Sea was particularly rough today and the pounding waves made for an exciting visit.

Pic Descriptions:
1. As Kendra and I were most of the day, hovered under an umbrella (cold and rainy)
2. We all decided Maxine has the coolest foot-ware on the trip.
3. The Great Hall where the crusader soldiers ate their meals.
4. Chet and Maxine at the Caves
5. Kendra and me at he Mediterranean Sea.
6. The Lebanese border.
7. Lebanese border - close up of the sign prohibiting photography :-)

Day #4 Caesarea and Nazareth

Acts chapter 10 connects the City of Jaffa, which we visited yesterday, with the city of our first stop today. Caesarea was the treasured city of the King Herod. It was also home to the devout and God-fearing Cornelius. As a Gentile Cornelius was excluded from the circle early Christians who were all Jewish. By divine messengers God brought Simon Peter up from Jaffa to preach the Good News to Cornelius at Caesarea. In becoming a follower of Jesus Christ, Cornelius and his family are first to break the barrier between Jew and Greek.

Some remains of Herod's great city Caesarea are still plainly visible today, including remnants of his 15 mile long aqueduct system. Also visible are the fortified walls of that city when it was under the control of the Crusader's. We learned about the military strategy behind motes, gates and secret escape routes.

Our day began with a lite chilly rain but by lunch time it was warm enough to eat outside. We enjoyed a stop along the way at a famous coffee/lunch shop called "Aroma." Israel boasts of being the only country to have run off the Starbucks franchise with its famous tasting coffee.

After visiting the stunning gardens of the Baha'i faith world headquarters located in Haifa, we ended the day in Nazareth. We saw what Mary and Joseph's homes may have looked like (houses made out of hand-made caves in the side of the hill). We also visited the famous "Church of the Annunciation" which commemorates the Angel Gabriel's visit to Mary.

Day #3 Jaffa and Tel-Aviv

Jaffa (or Joppa as it is in our Bibles) is the port city where Jonah went to run from the Lord's call to Nineveh. Joppa is also where the Apostle Peter was staying when he received a vision from God concerning the Gentiles with their non-kosher diet.

After touring the Ilana Goor art museum (don't worry, none of us had heard of her before either) we enjoyed lunch in the home of an Arab Christian named Doris. She shared openly about the challenges living in Israel as a minority Catholic with an increasing Muslim population. After lunch we toured Tel-Aviv and enjoyed a stroll up and down the open market.

Our last stop for the day was to the site where the former Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin, was assassinated. Interestingly, our tour guide shared that until the assassination of the Prime Minister the maximum punishment for any crime was a prison sentence of 25 years. The country changed that law so that Rabin's assassin would spend the rest of his life in prison.

Before dinner we gathered on the roof-top patio of our hotel for evening devotions. We read from 1 Kings 18 in anticipation of our visit to Mt. Carmel tomorrow. The meal tonight was "on our own" but we still ate together as a group. It was rather comical ordering from the menu and then trying to figure out our bills which were all in Hebrew.

After dinner Kendra and I enjoyed looking around the large mall just a block down from our hotel. The mall itself was pretty much like any of ours in the States, with two exceptions. First, we passed through a security checkpoint at the entrance. Second, pets are allowed to go shopping with you! (Kendra's ready to move to Israel. She and I both thought it'd be very cool to take Doogle to the Galleria!)

Arrival

The trip here went smoothly, in spite of our second leg (Paris to Tel Aviv) being delayed about 30 minutes or so. We breezed through customs (which was basically non-existent, no questions asked. Just waltzed on through. A far different experience that when I traveled to Israel back in 1997) and met up with our trip leader. After an orientation meeting we walked to a small restaurant for dinner. Tomorrow, Wednesday, we'll see more of Tel Aviv and visit Jaffa (Joppa).

Here are some pix of our travel today.

We appreciate your prayers. This is a great group!

Steve

Loaded up on the bus from the church parking lot. Ready to hit the road!

Here's a pic of the whole group, fifteen of us in all, just before checking our bags at IAH.

Funky water fountains in Paris!

Flew Air France on the way here. We'll travel back on KLM. (Wish I knew French...)

The Christian life is not a maze.

I spent about an hour working through the prayer labyrinth set up in our church's gym during last week's Holy Week. The handout at the entrance explained that a labyrinth is different than a maze. A maze is designed to be confusing and mysterious. There are lots of dead-ends and misdirection in a maze. The labyrinth by contrast is a single path that leads deliberately, albeit circuitously, toward the center.  I'd seen labyrinths before and had even scrambled my through them a time or two, but I'd never pondered the difference between labyrinth and maze.

A couple of friends and I have been memorizing 1 Corinthians 13:4-7. So I chose to meditate on those words as I went through the labyrinth. I paused at every turn in the labyrinth and slowly repeated the verses.

Two things struck me. First, it took a long time to get from the entrance of the labyrinth to the center. Second, my apparent closeness or distance from the center of the labyrinth was not necessarily how close or distant I was actually from the center. The path would lead me apparently closer to the center only then to lead me apparently away from the center. In the labyrinth, I eventually ended at the center, but there were points at the beginning when I was quite close to the center and points toward the end when I was quite far from the center. For these reasons I was glad to have read about the difference between a maze and a labyrinth. I kept reminding myself, "I am not in a maze toward nowhere. I am on a path toward the center."

I get frustrated and discouraged in my walk with Christ because sometimes it feels more like a maze than a purpose-filled path. I tend to judge my spiritual progress by how close or distant I feel from the Center. However, the labyrinth taught me that my perception of closeness or distance is an unreliable barometer of progress.

The Apostle Paul assures us in Philippians 1:6 that the work God begins in us God finishes in us. Wow! That's good news. In Christ's grip of grace, Jesus promises to lead me closer and closer to the Center. Sometimes that journey leads to a place where God feels distant and removed. Other times the journey leads to a place where God feels very close and present. The point is, near and far; close and distant; hardship and joy; confusion and clarity; gain and loss I am not in a maze. I'm on a path toward the Center in the sure grip God's grace in Jesus Christ.