Communicating while in Israel

Shalom Friends,

Do you have friends and family that want to keep up with your travels in the Holy Land? Here are a few tips we have discovered and opportunities we have set up.

- Verizon Wireless works just as easy in Israel as it does in the United States so if your cell phone works on Verizon then you will be able to send and receive calls while there. HOWEVER... incoming and outgoing calls are almost $1.00 per minute regardless of your plan. This is NOT an inexpensive way to communicate. Best not to take your phone or keep it off except for an emergency. To my knowledge no one with ATT or other companies have checked. You may want to do this to be sure what your risks are.

- SKYPE works very well and is free when communicating with anyone else that has SKYPE software loaded on their computer or iPad. Each of the hotels we are staying at list wireless Internet access as a feature. I am sure that Google chat/audio/video also works for free. I've communicated with folks overseas with both services and it is amazing how good the video/audio quality can be.

- We have set up two Internet sites that will be used to upload pictures, stories, and even short video if desired. One site is the Blog space that has been in place for almost a year to share our monthly gathering news. I have not put much on it for a while during the holidays but it will be used extensively on the trip. The URL is http://sobopilgrim.blogspot.com/. It should be pretty easy for anyone with Internet access to follow. The other is a Facebook Group. Anyone on Facebook can put SoBo Pilgrim in the Search Engine on Facebook and see this site. It is open to all so they can join up, send questions, and add comments. Share this information with your friends and family so they can share the fun of the trip while we are taking it.

- We are going to try to use Google Earth to keep up with our daily excursions, our pictures, and our stories. If we do this well it will help us keep a great diary of the whole journey and give us an excellent storyline for a video archive. I know Matthew Lee is good with Google Earth. Pray that he can help me understand it well enough to make this happen! Perhaps he can teach an old dog new tricks. If so, we'll have a great video DVD at the end of the trip to give to everyone.

I hope this helps with your planning. New technologies are great for opportunities like this. I have heard from many of you and there is no doubt that everyone is getting excited about the trip. Let me know if you have any last minute questions or are concerned about last minute issues.


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Rejoice Always!

Everybody is now getting excited

The trip is set! We are thirty one strong. Most of us are traveling from South Boston/Halifax but we have some great friends from other areas as well. I have not been posting any blogs since our October meeting because things have just been too busy. But now we are ready to embark on the trip and it's time to crank the Blog up so we can share with friends and family while we are there.

I have also set up a Facebook Group for folks to follow us. If you are interested just go onto Facebook and type in SoBo Pilgrim Holy Land Tour.