mom and dad's israel trip: October 2012

Tuesday 30 October 2012

Here is our last blog form our last night is Israel!!!!
We have spent the last week doing last things-last 3 Hebrew lessons, dad's last 2 visits with his patient Michael, last visits with Ruth Fazal, David Pileggi in Jerusalem, and Rick and Daphne Weinecke in the desert.
On the way to Arad (about 2 hours drive) we saw the most beautiful sunset so far.

Also this week we had an outing with my Hebrew teacher to
"Yad Va Shem -a Memorial and a Name" This is taken from Isaiah 56:5 which says;

"to them I will give within my temple and it's walls, a memorial and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an evrlasting name that will endure forever"

It is quite an experience to go there with a Jewish person who lost family in WW2.
You can't take pictures inside but outside there is a boxcar that was used to take millions of people to the death camps in Poland.

There is also a tree planted in the Avenue of the Righteous in memory of Corrie Ten Boom and her family who hid Jews from the Germans in Holland and all except Corrie lost their lives in the concentration camps. She wrote an amazing book called " The Hiding Place", about her experiences in the camp, and about the fate of the Dutch Jews.

The last weekend we also did some new things with a group from southern Ontario called Return
Minsistries. They sponsor Jewish people from North America who want to return to Israel. Right now they have 7 young people who are returning and going directly into the army-IDF-Israel Defense Force, one of whom is the girl we sponsored, named Keren. We sent you a picture of her a few weeks ago. Together we went to the heartland of Biblical history to the hills of Samaria.
It was to these mountains that Abraham first came when he was called by God to go to a country that God would show him in 1700 BCE.

"I will make you a great nation---and I will bless those who bless you and whoever curses you I will curse; and all the peoples of the earth will be blessed by you.
So Abram went---through the land as far as the great tree of Moreh (teacher in Hebrew) at Shechem (present day Nablus). The LORD said "to your offspring I will give this land". So he built an altar there to the LORD" Genesis 12:1-7

Here in the present day Elon Moreh settlement --a great tree.

Across the valley can be seen 2 famous mountains, mount Gerazim on the left( Mount of Blessing Har Bracha in Hebrew), and Mount Ebal on the right (Mount of Cursing), with the town of Shechem in the valley.

It was in this town that;

Joseph was put into a pit by his brothers and sold to Egyptian traders
Joseph's bones were brought back from Egypt 400 years later and buried. in the middle of the picture below in the left corner of the U-shaped building is the white domb of his tomb

Joshua set half the people of Israel on Mount Gerazim and half on Mount Ebal and read the whole Torah and they said "as for me and my house we will serve the LORD" Joshua 24
Here Joshua built an altar which was found in 1980. You can only go there with military escort due to surveillance towers now on the top of the mountain. Below is a drawing of it.

It was in Shechem that Jesus met the Samaritan woman at the well and forgave her for her promiscupous life. Below you can see the red dombed church with 2 towers sticking up from it, commemorating that event.

The last day we spent harvesting grapes with the Waller family. they have 11 children and they come every year to help harvest grapes, olives and pomegranates. They bring with them 75-150 people, who live in caravans with 3 tiered canvas bunkbeds and eat ouside under a canvas tarp for 6 weeks. They are inspired by verses in Jeremiah 31:5 and Isaiah 61:5

Monday 22 October 2012

Hello again from Israel on Monday, Oct. 22/2012. I think that we have recovered from the hiking last week. One thing that we haven't done as yet is to introduce you to Dad's patient.
From Dad:
Michael (Mishka) is a Jewish man in his mid forties originally from Russia, who came to Israel about 30 years ago grew up in a kibbutz near Be'er Sheva. At the age of 19 he was diagnosed with MS and has become progressively physically limited. He speakes Russian, Hebrew & English although it is hard to understand his speaking. He used to do translation work (Russian to Hebrew or English) until the MS became severe. He now lives in a handicapped home with about 24 others and there is help available 24/7, although currently they are understaffed. One of the workers there knew Michael from the Kibutz 28 years ago. The home and beautiful grounds surounding it are owned by a Catholic Monastery but rented to a Jewish health organization. Michael's passion is airplanes and he has several models which he has built with the help of volunteers. He also loves classical music.
He seems to be enjoying the time I am able to spend with him when Mom is doing Hebrew lessons. We walk in the park, stop in the shade to just talk about ourselves, listen to music and share pictures of our travels. He loved seeing the pics of the desert-Mitzpe Ramon & the Jesus Trail Hike as well all of you and our camping trips. There are just two more visits before we come home, but I was able to give him prints of the pics below which he was delighted to receive.

From Mom;

I am spending about 2 half days a week at Hebrew lessons and a bunch of time at home studying.

It is also fun to try to hear some of the language people speak outside. My teacher Reut and I have really connected both about Hebrew and about our realtionship with God.

We have also gone on some outings,the market a couple of weeks ago, and this week to Yad Vashem. It will be challenging to go there with an Israeli person and try to talk about it in Hebrew.

The dayafter we finished the Jesus Trail hike we stayed in the north of Israel to see some of the interesting things in the Golan Heights. (sorry we didn"t have tome to go to the Golan Winery that Yehuda took us to)
One of the fascinating places there is called Gamla-The Masada of the North.
The name comes from the Hebrew word "gamal" which means camel, due to the shape of the location. This site was found and excavations started in 1967 thanks to a detailed description by the first century historian Josephus. This place was described in Jewish literature as a walled city dating form the time of Joshua about 1500 BCE, destroyed later and rebuilt in the second century BCE. It was built on the slope of a very steep hill only reachable by one path, the same path that reaches it today. If you look on the picture below carefully at the path you will see some people walking-gives you an idea of the scale of the hill.
In a town called Katsrin, the Golan Heights Archaeological Museum has an amazing video and scale model of Gamla.

Gamla was attacked by the Romans in 67 CE, and although they town held them off for most of a year, the superior numbers of forces and catapult technolgy eventually resulted in 4000 people being slaughtered. However as in Masada, many refused to be captured by the Romans and 5000 more people died jumping off the cliffs. During the seige the people minted a coin whose inscription said

" For the redemption of Jerusalem the Holy"

Below is the breach in the wall that was made by the Roman battering ram still there after 2000 years!!

4 Ft. Lance Roman Catapult

Also in the Golan is the Hula Valley Nature Reserve, part of the Rift Valley fault line that goes for 7000k from Europe through Africa. The Rift Valley includes the Jordan River, the Lake of Galilee and the Dead Sea. The Hula is a huge lake/swamp that for thousands of years has been a stopover for migrating birds who fly for thousands of miles from their nesting grounds in Northern Europe on their way to summer feeding grounds in North Africa.

500,000,000 , 1/2 billion birds travel through here per year!!!!

Because this is supposed to be the migration time for storks, we went to check it out. We saw some birds, turtles, wild boars, muskrat, but no large flocks of birds at the time we were there. Best time is early morning and evening, and certain weeks when the flocks come.

Here is a youtube video that someone else posted. It gives you an idea of what happens here .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ofPUNCcCAk

Jermiah 8:7

Even the stork in the sky knows her appointed seasons,

and the dove, the swift and the thrush observe the time of their migration.

But my people do not know what the LORD requires

Finally we want to wish Aaron and Teresa a very happy anniversary today, and God's blessing on your family.

Happy 5th, Aaron & Teresa

Love Mom and Dad

Thursday 18 October 2012

Home at last after 6 days away on the Jesus Trail
http://jesustrail.com/

We are told there is now a picture of us on the webpage, we will tell you where when we find it.

This is a 4 day 62 k hike starting at Nazareth where Jesus grew up and ending in Capernaum, where his base of ministry was out of the home of Simon Peter ,the disciple.

The day before the hike we spent in Nazareth at an inn called Fauzi Azar after the Arab Christian family owners. This is a restored Ottoman Era building about 200 years old.

We took a guided tour of Nazareth, whose Old City is getting better, cleaner, more nice shops and restaurants, less vandalism than in the past in part thanks to the Jesus Trail hikers.

Market

Carpenter shop

Ancient caves and tunnels either (old Nazareth or hiding place for people being persecuted) including an altar-- possibly the oldest church in the world.

The synagogue, maybe rebuilt but in the same location as the one where Jesus announced his ministry by reading the weekly portion from the scroll of Isaiah 61:1, Luke 4: 18.19

"The spirit of the --Lord is upon me, becuase the LORD has annointed me to
preach good news to the poor--bind up the brokenhearted--proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners"

And a tour of Nazareth Village-something like Pioneer Village reproducing life in the first century.

The next day we started the trail. It was very "up and down" most of it not too difficult but many places there was no shade so 14-16 k at 30+deg C was exausting by the end of the day.

We stayed at B&Bs or Kibbutzim along the way that were amazing-swimming pools, good food, interesting people, hot shower, good night's sleep.

We visited many places along the way where Jesus would have been as well as other interesting historical and cultural sites-lots more info in the webpage.

Here are a few examples;

Zippori/Shephoris

Roman town where Jesus and his father may have worked on the construction, housing some of the best preserved mosaics (depicting Greek mythology) in Israel and a large paved Roman road, amphitheater and huge aqueduct for bringing water to the city.

The Horns of Hattin-an extinct volcano with remains of pre-Israelite civilization from 1300-1000 BCE, Israelite city from 1000-800 BCE (same place as a battle in Joshua 11- Waters of Merom)
and the place where the Turk Saladin defeated the Crusdaers, in 1067 making Israel Turkish Ottoman Empire until 1917 when it came under the control of Britain.

Horns of Hattin

Looking over the battlefield http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saladin

The curch in Cana has a huge stone first century jug where Jesus did his first miracle of making water in to wine

A synagogue on Mount Arbel from the 4th century

Climb to the peak of Mount Arbel-view overlooking the Sea of Galilee, climb down the cliff 400 meters from 180 M above sea level to 200 M below sea level. On the way down you can see caves used as Jewish hideout from the Romans. Herod lowered soldiers over the cliff in baskets, to kill the Jews and burn them out of the caves. It was later used as a Sheik palace.

Caves above us

As we walked along the parable of Jesus about the sower of seeds in Matthew 13 came to mind. It is referrring to the different responses of people to hearing about the Kingdom of God, which was talked about by the prophets and by David in the Psalms eg Psalm 103:19

" The LORD has established his throne in heaven and his kingdom rules over all"

Jesus said seed fell on the path and was eaten by birds

some fell on rocky ground and had no root so was bunt up by the sun

some fell in thorns and was choked

some fell on fertile ground and produced fruit

Oranges ripening

The hike also gave new meaning to the story of Jesus washing the disciples feet--

(Yay Tevas)

On the last day we finally came to Tabgha, the church commemorating the miracle of feeding 5000 people with 5 loaves and 2 fish and supposedly the rock where the bread was broken.

This one is for Joel

After the final 2 k we arrived at Capernaum and toasted ourselves with a bottle of water in the ancient synagogue.

Wow! so much we saw and thought about-can't begin to tell all. Enough for today.

Love to you all.