Our Niece

We found out some bad news this past week. Jordan, our 3 1/2 year old adorable niece was diagnosed with leukemia. My brother (Joel) and his wife (Jodie) have been updating everyone on her situation with this website: CaringBridge.

Check there for all the details. In the meantime, thanks for your prayers and well-wishes.

A Souvenir from Israel

Well, on Thursday morning in Israel, I woke up and I knew something was wrong. I had that sick feeling in my throat and the achiness in my body. We then went out on our final day of the tour for 6 hours. We walked around the archeological remains of the Temple Mount, went up around the Western Wall, and then visited the Garden Tomb and the place of the Skull. We had a nice time of communion there in the Garden to finish off our trip. We then came back to the hotel just to put our bags together, eat dinner and then load the bus to the airport.

We then had a 12 hour flight from Israel to Newark and another six hour flight from Newark to Seattle. I got back on Friday, went to bed and didn't wake up again until Saturday morning. I went to the doc, who said I had the influenza. Brutal. I have been down ever since. Bethany had to preach my sermon for me on Sunday since I couldn't go. She was great, I heard. She is the best. She has been by herself with Micah these past two weeks, looking forward to me coming home. Then, I come home sick and she takes care of both of us. I have the best wife in the world, I believe...

By the way, click on the flickr box and it will take you to my pics from the trip!

Israel Day Eight

Today may have been my second favorite day on the trip so far; it's close to being my favorite. Today was all about exploring the City of David, which is a little section of Jerusalem to the north along the Kidron Valley. (Think like Fairhaven is a part of Bellingham.) We walked to a place where we could walk through Hezekiah's tunnel. This was a tunnel that allowed water to get into the city from an artesian well in the Kidron Valley and ended at the Pool of Siloam. We were walking through that tunnel! There was water on the bottom up to our ankles. The ceiling was low in some spots where we had to duck down. It was pitch black without our flashlights. It was narrow so that my arms were touching the sides. It was awesome walking through it!

From there we went to the Israel Museum, where they had a huge model of the city of Jerusalem from Herod's time, the time of the Second actual temple. To see the scale of the Temple in comparison to the rest of the city made my jaw drop. It was the most helpful part of the trip so far to see the magnitude of the place. We also saw "The Shrine of the Book" where they housed the complete Isaiah scroll that they found in Qumran. (Although, for our trip, the manuscript was put away and a facsimile was in its place.) It was very cool to see the fragments of papyrus from some of the jars they found in Qumran. (Pastor nerds like me find that kind of thing interesting...)

From there we stopped at King David's tomb. (Which is probably not the place he was buried, but again its in the vicinity.) We stopped by a possible place where the Upper Room may have been, which has since been taken over by the Moslems and turned into a mosque. We sang "Amazing Love" in there that was really beautiful.

The next stop was lunch in a little market area, where I had pizza and a pepsi and where we could overlook the cardo - the main street (think "cardio" = heart = heart of the city) It was Main Street.

We made our way from there to the Western Wall (we know it more as the “wailing wall”). We will spend more time praying at the wall tomorrow, but today, we took a tour alongside the wall down underground. The city has been built up so many years, that the original wall goes under the earth 65 feet. (Again, the Temple is massive.) This was not a day for those who don’t enjoy close quarters or are claustrophobic. Some of the walkways were tight. Anyway, the stones they used to build the Temple were 400-700 tons and 20 feet long at least. Those people were amazing how they moved them around and put them in the right spots. It was phenomenal. I touched history. I am humbled by the opportunity to be here…

Israel Day Seven

Today was a very emotional day for us. We began the day at the Mount of Olives, traveling down the “Palm Sunday Road” as they call it. It goes from Bethany to Jerusalem, and overlooks the whole city. From atop the Mount you can see the place where the devil took Jesus in Round Two of the temptation story, the corner overlooking the Kidron Valley. The valley is much deeper and narrower than I imagined. The Mount of Olives is also very, very steep. When you walk, you have to kind of lean back a bit to hold back your momentum. This is the place where Jesus wept over Jerusalem. They had missed the “perfect timing of God’s coming to them” (Luke 19:44) and Jesus knew they were going to be destroyed in 70 C.E. only a generation later.

May our hearts weep in compassion for those who don’t know that God has come to them in the person of Jesus Christ.

At the bottom of the Mt. of Olives is the Garden of Gethsemane. Gethsemane simply means “olive press” because that was where they would take the olives to be pressed for oil. This was the place where Jesus would have been spending time with his disciples before Judas came because it was down in the ground in caves, out of the elements. Some of the olive trees I saw were 2000 years old. (!) We had some time on our own to reflect and pray, which was nice because there are just so many tourists that come.

We then stopped by Caiphas’ house where Peter denied him three times. At this point we are looking back across the Kidron Valley towards the Mount of Olives. It is not a far distance at all. Here we saw the caves where prisoners were taken as well. Dark, alone, and helpless, Jesus would have recalled Psalm 88.

At lunch we ate at a place where we could see the fields where the angels announced the birth of Jesus to the shepherds. In the distance, there is a mountain built by Herod the Great, and he built it up so that it looked like a volcano, so people would be afraid to come attack him!

Our final stop was the Holocaust Memorial. I just have to shake my head at the atrocity of what happened to these Jews and the amount of evil that occurred (and is still occurring) against these people. I don’t know how many groups of people began their history 3500 years ago and are still around…

We closed off today’s activities with a talk given to us by a woman named Frida Keet, who is the “Voice of Israel.” She gave us some more perspective on the political aspects of the nation’s history. Too much to go into now, of course, but an interesting and hard plight these people have gone through.

Israel Day Six

Today we left the Dead Sea and we are now in Jerusalem.

[By the way – in my last post I said I was “low.” That was a joke because we were in the lowest part of the world at 1300ft below sea level. I am not depressed.]

I went for an early morning float this morning so I could get picture to actually prove I was in the Dead Sea. I tasted some of it just to see what it was like and I almost gagged to death. It is 10x saltier than any other salt water in the world.

From our hotel we went to the fortress of Masada, which is amazing. Masada was a community of people living on top of a mountain. It is amazing how they got water and how they lived and farmed. The place looked impenetrable but in 73 CE the Roman army led by Sylvas actually laid seiged to it, made it to the top, but found everyone dead. They committed suicide so that they wouldn’t be killed or be forced into slavery. It took Sylvas three years to figure out how to get up there. It is an amazing story – there is a movie about it that is pretty accurate in telling its story. Anyway, you have to see some pics of it; it will astound you. It is even more phenomenonal in person.

It just goes to show that even the most earthly, human-invented forms of security can still be destroyed. The only eternally secure thing is not a thing at all, it is a person! Our security is found in Jesus Christ, whose word is so strong that now matter how much wind and rain come, you can stand. “Everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house upon the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against the house, yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.” (Matt. 7:24-25) “The Lord is my Rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.” (Psalm 18:2)

From Masada, we went to the Ahava Cream Factory. I will be honest with you – this one was for the ladies… We watched a video (!) about their products and then shopped a bit, ate sandwiches and left. I am still trying to find an “ahava” reference in the Bible!

Our next stop was in Bethlehem, which is actually in Palestinian control. We had to go through a security stop and load a different bus because our driver and guide are Israeli and they don’t allow Israelies to go through. They stayed behind. We went to a shop first, which is owned by some Christian men (most of the Christians live in Bethlehem) and then went on to the Church of the Nativity, which is a church built on top of the area where Jesus was born. In this church, there are catacombs where Jerome lived for 38 years translating the Greek NT into Latin, what we know today as the Latin Vulgate. (a major accomplishment for that time) We sang a couple of Christmas hymns in the church and then went on to our hotel for the night.

I am bushwhacked and I miss my wife and son!

Israel Day Five

Today we headed south along the Jordan River on our way to our hotel tonight at the Dead Sea. We are 1300ft below sea level right now, the lowest point on earth. I am feeling kind of low right now for some reason... There is no place to go but up I guess!

Our first stop this morning was at Gideon Springs, the site where Gideon's army was chosen by the way they drank the water. The ones who did not lap like dogs were the ones chosen to go to war. The funny thing is that those people never even lifted a sword against the enemy; they just shouted and the enemy started killing each other. The place was in a national park and we hiked a bit to get to the place. It was nice being the only people around at this site.

From there we went to a place called Bet Alpha, a site where a beautiful original Mosaic was found at the time of Emperor Justinus (6th century). It was pretty amazing to see the whole thing right in front of us. Some farmers had apparently just been digging fields to plant their crops and discovered this mosaic underneath the dirt.

Our 3rd stop was at a place call Bet She'an (though this word's meaning is unknown, a similar word means "house of rest"). This place was AMAZING. It was one of the Decapolis cities of the Roman empire called Scythopolis. The dig was huge, and the rest of the city was covered underneath the earth. We saw the theater which sat 6000 people and heard the great acoustics from the stage to our seats at the top. This city was a place Jesus would stop everytime he made his was from Galilee to Jerusalem. It was the place where you paid the tax and it was here that Saul fought with his sons. We also made our way to a circus ring - the coliseum where the gladiators performed and where Christians were fed to the lions. Sobering...

[Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Matt. 5:10]

We drove for a while after that and arrived at the Qumran cave sites. Qumran is the site where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found that contained all the books of our Bible. What is significant about these fragments is that they are 1000 years older (and better) than what we previously had (for translations like the KJV). The interesting thing is that there are still jars in the caves we were looking at, but because of the cost, the politics, and the time, they have not made an effort to go get them. It was hot today, especially here at Qumran.

Our 5th stop was at En Gedi. This is the place where David fled from Saul and hid in a cave (which we saw). Saul entered the cave looking for David, but didn't see him. David cut off a piece of Saul's robe to say, "Hey, I could've killed you but I didn't." When the rains come upon this place, the tiny waterfall turns into an unstoppable river.

We are now at our hotel right on the Dead Sea. I went with some of my new friends down to go float in it and I am still tasting salt! [By the way, there are 5 pastors who had their way paid for by a generous woman in Spokane. They are all 30-40 and pastoring churches similar to FBC Bellingham. It is neat to see some of the "fresh" blood in our region and they work they are trying to do to grow healthy churches. They are hilarious guys and it has been great getting to know them.]

Again, sorry about no pics, but this internet here is limited and pics don't upload easily. Tomorrow I am going for another Dead Sea float/swim. The mud here is supposed to be amazing for your skin, so I will have to try and bottle some up for the ladies of our church. (Have you heard of Ahava products?) Tomorrow night we will be in Jerusalem for our final three nights. I can't believe it is coming to a close soon...

Israel Day Four

[again, with the picture thing...]

Today, we made six stops. Our first stop was at the Mt. of Beattitudes, which was the place where the Sermon on the Mount most likely took place. They only way we can know that is because of its natural acoustics that allow Jesus to speak to many people without amplification. The Arabs have planted crops over the actual hillside (what Matthew 5:1 calls a mountain side) where Jesus would have been because they didn’t want a whole bunch of tourists meeting there. I have to be honest – I went in expecting a spiritual experience being there, but I ended up just feeling like a tourist. There were so many people there; people from Nigeria, Russian, Hong Kong, etc. were there. It was noisy and crowded and so I was caught off guard by that more than I thought I would be.

[pic of that here…]

Our second stop was at a possible place where the 5000 men were fed. (All these places we are visiting are just possibilities of the area where Jesus did his works.) There was an old church there built by the Byzantines, which was okay.

Our third stop was down by the Sea of Galilee commemorating the place where Jesus appeared to his disciples after his resurrection. It was also the place where Jesus asked Peter three times if he loved him. It was neat being on the water there:

[Sea of Galilee pic]

Our fourth stop was in Capernaum, where Jesus lived. (Matt. 4:13) This place was pretty cool, because here is where Jesus did much of his preaching, teaching, and healing. Peter’s house (again, perhaps) was excavated, which showed how their rooms were set up and organized. There were synagogue ruins that were built in 4th century, but represented well the place where Jesus taught often. Here we sang songs and prayed and had a healing service. Again, there were so many people around, so it was different than what I expected.

[peter’s house pic]

We then had lunch: [fish pic] and then went down to the highlight of my day: the Jordan River. We had to pay $9 for a robe and a towel in order to be baptized in the Jordan. There were railings to go down into the water and we had our tour pastor baptize about 12 of us. The water was very cold and slimy, but it was neat to think about Jesus’ experience in this same water. (Though probably not at this place we were at.) This was the most meaningful place for me today.

[Jordan river pic]

We came back to the hotel for a rest, and then for our sixth thing today (whew!) we took a boat ride out on the Sea of Galilee. This was a fun time, too, because it was just us and we sang some songs, read some Scripture and had a devotional time.

Israel Day Three

[Well, for some reason I can't upload any pics, so I will do that when I get a chance...]

We got into Tiberias last night, which is on the Sea of Galilee, and woke up to this view:

After a breakfast buffet once again, we headed north around the Sea of Galilee to a place where we got into Jeeps for an off-road ride up into the Golan Heights, which overlooks the Huleh Valley. The weather has been perfect so far and the area is just beautiful. Everything right now is so green and lush and the temperature is in the 70s and 80s.

[jeep pic]

The Golan Heights area is where the 1967 Six-Day-War took place between Syria and Israel. It was interesting learning the political history of the area from the people who actually lived through it, and it turns out that it was over water. Our Jeep driver was 23 years old and had already served in the Iraqi army at 18. These people are tired of war…

[mines sign pic]

From there we went to the area of Caesarea Phillippi:

[cave pic]

This was a very pagan area with many shrines and temples built to other gods, and it was here that Jesus asked his disciples, “Who do you say that I am?” It was here that Peter responded, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” The Living God – Jesus is the son of the God who is alive and interactive with his creation! He comes in the flesh and walks into pagan cultures and says, “Upon this rock (see the picture!), I will build my church.” Jesus’ word is so strong that it has no fear of the pagan culture around it. We know who will triumph in the end! The question is not will we worship, but whom will we worship?

From there we went to a tourist attraction where they had dug up a 2000 year old boat from the Sea of Galilee. It was pretty impressive the way they restored it and it is kind of fanciful to think that Jesus may have ridden in it. (But of course, there is no way to verify that…)

Finally – I had laffa for lunch today: crepe-like bread, goat cheese, and olive oil. Here is a pic:

Israel Day Two

We got up early for breakfast this morning and this is the view to which we woke:

That is the Mediterranean Sea.

We headed to Caesarea for our first stop, which is where Herod the Great lived.  He had some amazing buildings built in his time, even building stuff underwater.  It is just amazing how they have still remained to this day:

From there we went to Mt. Carmel, which is where Elijah brought down fire against the Baal prophets and told Namaan to dip himself in the water 7 times to be healed of leprosy. We could see for miles up the Valley of Jezereel (more familiarly known as the Valley of Armaggeddon).
These are a couple of my new friends Zachary and Abby.  That's the Valley behind them.

After Mt. Carmel we had falafel lunch, and then headed out to be what was, for me, the coolest part of the day - Megiddo. It's really a fortress on top of a small mountain, or "tel." Tels were mountains because people would just build houses on top of other houses, thereby building up the land... Our guide said there were 27 layers of houses! We saw some steps that either Solomon or Ahab would have taken to get to the city gate. Yes, at the city gate, we were standing on 3300-year-old stone. We had better views of Mt. Tabor (perhaps where the Transfiguration took place), Nazareth, and Samaria.

These are the steps Solomon or Ahab took to get to the gate.

Megiddo may be most familiar with the idea that this valley of Armageddon (Har="mountain"+megiddo) is where the site of the final battle of this age is to take place.  That is gathered from Revelation 16:16 where John sees the kings gathering at Megiddo.  Yet this interesting thing is that this battle never takes place.  You will see that because after 16:16, John does not describe an actual battle.  Instead he sees the seventh angel next.  He then goes on to describe Babylon in chapters 17 and 18 and 19, up to verse 10.  Then in verse 11, John sees heaven open and there is Jesus.  The final battle never takes place because Jesus shows up.  And when Jesus shows up, it's over!  John says the kings get ready for war (v. 19) but immediately the beast is thrown into the lake of burning sulfur (v. 20 - the very next verse).  The battle never takes place.  When Jesus shows up, we will join in the Hallelujahs that come from the multitudes in heaven: "Hallelujah!  Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, for true and just are his judgments."  That will be a glorious day.  It always is when Jesus shows up!

Israel Day One

Well, I have to admit that I wasn't really sleeping in that post from yesterday...  I just had some guy took a picture of me while I was pretending to sleep.  I actually got in trouble from our group leader for being away from the group rather than with everyone for the long layover.  I was just off reading and studying, but he was pretty upset at me later on!  I guess I am the rebel one on the trip...

So today was just a big long travel day.  The international flight was not too bad, really.  The 777 was roomy, I watched 2.5 movies, slept for a few hours, ate dinner, ate breakfast, then landed.  I sat next to nice smelling people, so it was okay.  

We are at our hotel right now in Tel Aviv where we just ate some dinner.  I asked at the front desk about internet access and they said it was $17/day.  But when I got up to the room and tried it out - I got on! For free. Nice.  The food is good here - different tastes, of course, but very good.  Olives - tons of the them.  We just stay one night here and then head off in the morning for Caesarea (Roman capital of Judea) and Mt. Carmel (Elijah calling down fire) and Megiddo.  We will head to Nazareth  and finish up in Tiberias where we overlook the Sea of Galilee that night.  We will stay at that hotel for next three nights.

I get to Skype with Bethany in a few moments and so I am looking forward to that.  They are meeting me at the church each day at 11:30am so that they can use my church computer to see and hear me from my laptop here at 9:30pm.  They both are macs, and so they have the mic and camera built right in, seeing as macs are highly superior machines...  Technology can be more cumbersome than it ought sometimes, but it's times like these that make me enjoy it.

This is our tour guide on the left who will be with us all week. Gershon is his name. On the right (not the one leaning over...), that is Clint Webb, our tour host (and the one who chewed me out...!)

Travel Day

Here I am at Newark Airport in the armpit of the world. (My friend from Jersey called it that, not me...) We are here for 6 HOURS (oy) before we leave for Tel Aviv at 10:50pm tonight. I will arrive in Israel tomorrow (my twin brother's birthday - happy 32nd, bro) at about 4:15pm Tel Aviv time, which is 6:15am PST or 8:15am CST. Thanks for all your prayers and well-wishes!

The flight from Seattle was a little adventurous - we had one of the ladies on the tour with us get all dizzy and faint in the aisle. The flight attendant called for any nurses or doctors that were on the plane to come help and they worked on her for a while. There were about 5 people that came and helped out. She is going to be okay it turns out. One of our other tour members was the main person working on her, so I feel good about having a nurse on our team should I get caught in enemy fire. (Mom, Bethany - I am just kidding! It is very safe) I was able to get a quick nap in, read some Spurgeon sermons for Good Friday research, and make some new friends. There is a good range of people going on the trip - from 10 years old up to 80 years old, and most of them come from the western Washington area. We are all just so touristy in our nifty red around-the-neck pouches. I am not going to be a tourist in my own country, though, so I am waiting to put it on until we get there!

Alright - I am going to take a nap, watch a movie, do my laundry, write a novel, plan the next 2 years of sermons and solve world hunger in the layover time that I have left! Until tomorrow night (which may be morning for you)!

Leaving on a jet plane...

...back on March 14.

I board the shuttle tonight to ride down to Sea-Tac at 2:15am, arrive at the airport at 4:45am, where I will meet the 40 other tour participants at 5:30am and depart at 7:20am. From Seattle, we fly to Newark where we have a 5 hour layover until our flight leaves at 10:20pm for Tel Aviv. That flight is 10.5 hours, and I have a window seat, so I am praying my legs won't go too numb. I plan on sleeping and reading a lot because when I get back I have Palm Sunday, Good Friday, and Easter right away...

Stay tuned for more updates from the trip!