Arrival

Hello all

We have arrived in Atlanta - all of us. Now we will be split up and sent on to Portland on different trips. But we all have a way to get to Portland

Thanks again for all your prayers. They have been felt throughout the whole trip


Steve Kelly
(Sent from my mobile device)

Arrival times

Hello all. Well we got a few hours sleep in the Crowne Plaza

We are all on the same flight to Atlanta that leaves here at 6am

In Atlanta there are several routes being taken to get to Portland. Some arrive in Portland at 7pm and others arrive at 9:40pm and some in between.

When we get to Atlanta (9:15am Portland time) I'm sure your party will be in contact

Thanks for your prayers


Steve Kelly
(Sent from my mobile device)

Arrival INFO

Currently we are told we are confirmed on a 5:30am flight from Tel Aviv

We do not have any connection information from that point yet

Delta Airlines and Morningstar Tours are taking good care of us by putting us up in a hotel for the short night

More information as we get it


Steve Kelly
(Sent from my mobile device)

Arrival

To all watching

We just learned our Tel Aviv flight has been cancelled. We will be arriving to Portland at LEAST 5 hours later than anticipated

More info as it becomes available


Steve Kelly
(Sent from my mobile device)

From Jerusalem to Bethlehem

Well, this is almost the last full day of our fantastic trip. We spent the morning in the old city of Jerusalem. Pastor Carl preached on the steps where the 3000 were saved just outside the temple. We then sang a song on those steps at the same time there was a Barmitzvah happening on those steps as well. Quite an interesting site.

From there we went to the "traditional" location of the Upper Room. It was interesting but still just a room. We then went to a few other "Traditional" locations in the old city.

Then we spent time shopping and eating lunch - some of us had hamburgers and fries. I guess we were craving good old American food.

We toured The Herodium. This is the highest hill in the area where Herod built his fortress and private residence. My oh my what a place - you could see 360 degrees and for several hundred miles. We could see the Dead Sea from this location.

Back on the bus with our new driver and off to Bethlehem. We have a new guide for Bethlehem as it is under Palestinian control and our Israeli guide would not enter. We went to the Church of the Nativity which has three churches trying to control the site (Catholic, Greek Orthodox, and Armenian)

I will be posting more photos this evening.

Tomorrow we are off to Temple Mount, Via Dolorosa, The church of the Holy Sepulcher (Calvary), and the Garden Tomb. We then drive to Tel Aviv and catch our flight at Midnight tomorrow night.

This is probably my last major entry into the blog until we get back to the states (unless I get interent access someplace). I will be posting here from my phone to keep people informed as to our travels home.

I pray that these writings have been as meaningful to all who have followed us as it has been for us to travel to these locations. We have so many stories to tell of our experiences. Be sure and spend some quality time with whomever you know who walked in the footsteps of Jesus in our group. They will be happy to share. This trip has been such a blessing to us all - not only all the places we have walked and seen but the relationships that have been built between us will last a lifetime. We are all so thankful to all of you who have prayed for us on our journey. It has truly been an indescribable experience.

Around the Outskirts of the Holy City

I can't begin to tell you how much information overload we are all experiencing. We were in actual places today that are not "traditional". Many places we have been so far have been "traditional" sites or places where certain activities might have taken place. We first went to the Wailing Wall to see the place where the Jews pray. We saw many of them reading and praying at the wall. We then went down underground to see the many courses of the wall that were laid by Herod. The largest one found is over 500 TONS. The tunnel went from the Wailing wall to the end of the western wall. Amazing how Herod built the wall with those MASSIVE blocks and no mortar.

From there to the baths of Bethsaida which were much larger than we all thought. We entered St Anne's church and sang Amazing Grace. The acoustics are indescribable - it was absolutely heavenly.

After this walk we were driven to an archeological site where we all turned into archeologists. We spent 2 hours sifting through dirt that was excavated from the southeast corner of the wall around the old city - we found gold pieces, mosaic pieces, pottery, nails, and other artifacts. Very fun to find different items from many years ago.

After lunch we went off to the highlight of the day. We started on the top of the City of David and could see exactly where the city was located. We then walked through Hezekiah's tunnel. This tunnel was built through SOLID rock. They started at both ends and met in the middle. It is over 500 yards long - that's right 500 YARDS. It still has running water through it today. So we dawned our sandles and shorts and head-lamps and walked through the water in a tunnel that was no wider than the average body and in may places only 5 feet high. If you had claustrophobia - you were in trouble. It was AMAZING to believe that back then, starting at both ends, that they even came close to each other. There is a place in the tunnel where there is some adjustment where they met - but still pretty amazing.

We ended up back at the hotel early today - so many groups of people walked through the streets of the old city. We walked through the Damascus Gate and shopped at many of the shops selling anything and everything you ever wanted. Much haggling went on and many deals were made.

Tomorrow off to Bethlehem and the surrounding area's. We are starting to get sad knowing that the trip is coming to a close.

There is a new Album you can view today's pictures from:
http://picasaweb.google.com/promgmt/Israel2009SHC3?feat=directlink

You can use that one in addition to the others I have mentioned in earlier posts

From the Mount of Olives

Wake up call at 6:30 this morning - YEA, we got to sleep in 1/2 hour!! After a great breakfast, Munir takes us to the Mount of Olives. On the bus we were blessed to have Sheila's two children, Ateret age 5 and Yoel age 3 join us. We step off the bus to a COLD and WINDY day. WOW was it cold!!! Look at the pics to see us all bundled up. From the Mount of Olives we could easily look over the Kidron Valley to the old city of Jerusalem, and the Temple Mount.

After the teaching time there we walked down the hill to the Garden of Gethsemane. We were fortunate to be allowed into a more private garden area. We had a great teaching time from Pastor Carl and time for each of us to spend some time in prayer or reading scripture before we went on to the Church of Agony. This church is built over the rock where SUPOSEDLY Christ wept in the garden. The time in the garden was very special to each of us as we spent time to ourselves in prayer or meditation.

From there we hopped back on the bus. We were all happy to get on the WARM bus after the chilly walk down the hill. The next stop was an unscheduled stop at Schindler's burial site. Only a few of us went to the site.

From there we went up to the Israel museum for the rest of the afternoon. The museum holds the Dead Sea Scrolls as well as many other literary works found in Qumran. First (outside in the cold again) we spent time at the 1:50 model of Old Jerusalem and was taught a great amount of history of the old city. The model itself is incredible with the detail and accuracy. See the pics and I'm sure they won't do the model justice. We went inside the museum and saw many of the original scrolls. The most fascinating is the whole book of Isaiah - all 66 books. It was very moving to actually see the book of Isaiah written in Hebrew. The writing was much smaller than I imagined and we all were amazed at the scribes who, under candelight, copied the sciptures word by word, letter by letter.

WOW - what a day and we are told that tomorrow will be MORE full!!!

Be sure and look at the pictures, many pictures have been added to both the albums, so be sure to look at them all - the links to the pictures sites are in earlier entries to the blog. Scroll down to find the links.