Friday, Feb. 18th. Our last day on Tour

Our last day of touring. I'm thinking that these final pictures are much more complete than the uploads from the first days simply because I had more time at home to review before uploading. Click here for Friday's pictures.

Thursday, Feb. 17th: Masada and the Dead Sea

Pictures from Thursday's trip include our tour of Masada, the Dead Sea, and the area where the Dead Sea scrolls were found. There are some pretty good pictures of some of the tour group riding a camel as well! Check it out here:

Wednesday's Tour Pictures

Wednesday was a beautiful day. We visited the Temple Mount and learned much more about the history of that "holy" area, the axis-mundi for 3 Religions. The Muslims are in control now with the Dome of the Rock. We moved over the Kidron Valley to the Mount of Olives and marched down the path that Jesus took on His triumphal entry, stopping at the Church of the Nations, the site of the Garden of Gethsemane. This is one of the most beautiful churches and spots in Jerusalem. Click here to see pictures.

Walking the Stations of the Cross: Jesus Passion

Today, Tuesday, Feb. 15th was was quite an emotional tour day as we completed all the Stations of The Cross of Christ's Passion, in Jerusalem where it all actually happened. Click here for pictures of this and other places we visited.

Monday, February 14th Touring

Monday Tour pictures are now on Picasa. Click here to view

Sunday Touring

Pictures from our travels on Sunday. This was a big day with several of our group being baptized, or having a remembrance of their baptism, in the Jordan River. Click here to see the pictures at this site

Pictures from the touring on Saturday, Feb. 11th

Here are pictures from our tour on Saturday. We have very busy days and very slow internet connections in the hotels so the postings are brief. However, we have lots of pictures! We'll be sharing more when we get home. For now check out the Saturday Picasa pictures at my Picasa Picture Album

Saturday Pictures

Here are pictures from the travels on Saturday. Enjoy! We have very poor internet access so there is little yet that we have time to report.

Click here to see the pictures

SoBo Pilgrims had safe flight and are in Jehrico

All 31 of the travelers to the Holy Land have arrived. We are spending the first night in Jericho, in the West Bank of Israel. We are at the InterContinental Hotel. Find pictures of the first day at the Picaso Sight:

Click here to see the pictures! More to come.

Today is the day

Feb. 10th is finally here. We are off to the Holy Land. There is a little snow on the ground but I don't think it will cause any delay. It will be so good to see everyone together at the Newark Airport before boarding the jet plane to TelAviv. Look for pictures!

Final itinerary for our trip.

I have recently communicated with Betty Ann Buckley, our ACTS Leader. She is in Israel and has been conducting tours with other groups since the first of the year. She says all is well there. She has given us our final itinerary for the trip, day by day:


Day Tour Site
Thursday/ Friday Travel / Arrive Friday afternoon
first night stay in Jehrico.
Saturday: Day 1 (overnight in Tiberius) Jericho
Beit Shean
Nazareth and Cana
Mt. of Temptation
Sunday: Day 2 (overnight in Tiberius) Sea of Galilee on Boat
Mount of Beattitudes
Tabgha (great miracle feeding w/Loaves and Fish
Jordan River (Baptism)
Monday: Day 3 (all overnights now in Jerusalem) Mt. Carmel
Megiddo (Valley of Armageddon)
Caesarea Phillipi
Tueaday: Day 4 Old City Jerusalem (Via Dolorosa)
Tuesday: Day 4
Wednesday: Day 5 Mount of Olives
Bethlehem
Garden of Gethsemane
Thursday: Day 6 Dead Sea
Masada (also an option for free day in Jerusalem)
Friday: Day 7 Bethany. After closing devotion we leave for the airport.
Saturday: Day 8 Arrive back to USA

This is a very exciting schedule. See if you can mark it out on a map before we go. Russell has listed several other places that he remembers as very interesting from his trip 20 years ago. We may be on the lookout for some of them as well.

Countdown to our flight is now just two days!

Questions of Unrest in Egypt

I am sure that all of you are watching with great interest the developments in Egypt. I sent a message to Betty Ann Buckley, our contact and guide at ACTS who is currently in Israel with a tour group, what the sense of danger is there. More specifically I asked about potential impact on our trip. This is the message that she sent back to me today.

Paul
I can certainly understand the question and hope I can put minds at ease. We would never bring a group into harm's way - that would not be conducive to a spiritual pilgrimage and we wouldn't want that responsibility. Cairo - Egypt is a country away and we have not experienced or felt anything which would put us on edge. If the situation changes we would follow the advice of the US State Department. We do monitor the climate and situation of Israel/Palestine closely. We don't anticipate any difficulties with your upcoming trip and hope the situation in Cairo will be resolved in a peaceful way.



Betty Ann Buckley


So it sounds as if they are continuously monitoring the situation, are in touch with agencies both at the US State Dept and in the Israeli Government, have our safety as their top priority, and feel confident at this time that our trip will proceed as planned without problems. I will continue to be in touch with her and will let you know if there are any changes.

Rejoice Always!

Paul

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.


--
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.

Update on the July Gathering

The July Gathering of SoBoPilgrims was held on Sunday afternoon, July 17th at Carole Woodward’s beautiful lakeside home in Clarkesville. We had a smaller group for a couple of reasons; vacation and sickness mainly. But those who were able to come had a great time. Several took the time to take a ride with Russell on Carolyn’s pontoon boat and found out that he is quite the wild captain. We had hats overboard three times. Thankfully Winston Harrell was aboard with experience at water rescue!

After the lake outings we retired to the house for the hamburger and hot dog cookout. Picnics are great but we were very pleased that this one was at Carole’s house for a pretty intense thunderstorm came up right as we were preparing to cook. Still, Paul and Jim proved to be pretty good at flipping the meat and everyone claimed the meal a success.

After dinner, as usual, we gathered together to study Day 5 for our tour. On this day we will leave the beauty of Tiberius, on the Sea of Galilee, and head almost directly West toward the Mediterranean Sea. Our ultimate goal for the day will be to arrive in Jerusalem but we will be taking the long way across the infamous Valley of Armageddon and up the Seaside Mountain to Mount Carmel. The pictures taken from Mr. Carmel that we saw were almost as spectacular as the biblical story that makes it famous. You can just imagine Elijah the prophet confronting the ministers of Baal to show their god to be real, taunting them through the day. “Maybe he (Baal) is sleeping and must be awakened” he says to them before praying to God to consume his water drenched sacrifice and having a consuming fire devour it all. We all agreed that this will be a day of spectacular scenery when touring.

Once again we enjoyed sharing the wonderful research of the places we will visit gathered by Mike Koch. Unfortunately Mike and Doris were among those on vacation and so Jim shared from his writings. A copy of the material is attached to the e-mail. One of the very interesting stories is told of Napoleon who, when on his conquest of the area came to this same view overlooking the Valley of Armageddon stated that it was the perfect place for the battle to end all battles. Surely we will view the prophesy of end times in Revelation with new awe as we consider it in context of this visit.

From the magnificent seaside mountains to the mountaintop city of Jerusalem we will travel. Along the way we will consider the kingdom of Israel under the reign of King David and Saul. Among several stops we will see King David’s tomb, and view Mount Zion, the wonderful symbol of New Testament grace. As we enter Jerusalem we will stop at the Upper Room where Jesus had his last Passover meal with the Disciples. This night will be our first of four in Jerusalem. From the city we will take all of our tours until we return.

For our August gathering we will discuss the first day of our time here exploring the “old city.” The description from ACTS says:
We will begin the day at the Western Wall. Tread on the sacred ground of the Temple Mount and see the Dome of the Rock. Walk the Via Dolorosa (The Way of the Cross), and visit the Pool of Bethesda and St. Anne's Church. Proceed to the Antonia Fortress where the crown of thorns was placed on Jesus' head and take time at the Stations of the Cross for prayer and reflection. Enter the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Visit the House of Caiaphas, where Peter denied Jesus.

Our August Gathering has been set for Wednesday the 18th at 5:30pm. Angela Lewis has reserved the poolside deck near her residence at Edgewood Townhomes. Set your calendar now so you won’t miss it. Details for the gathering will be coming, as usual, just prior to the program.

Please remember a couple of our pilgrims who are having health issues in prayer; Larry Davis was unable to join us at the July gathering because of surgery at Duke. Roberta McCrowell continues to battle with physical limitations that are hindering her mobility. We pray that they will both get healthy soon so that there will be no limitations for them on the trip!

I continue to remind you that there is still room for more pilgrims! We are almost at twenty-five and the bus will hold between 30 and 40. Don’t leave any of your close friends that are interested in going behind. Final registration without late penalty is early October. We would love to have a bus full of the fun-loving SoBoPilgrims!

Interesting articles in Christianity Today

Pilgrims,
April's Christianity Today had two articles specifically relevant to our trip to the Holy Land, specifically around the Sea of Galilee. The articles are available online, but without the pictures. I'm planning to bring the magazine so that we can share them tomorrow night at the June meeting.

Here's a link to the articles: (click on the title)
The Jesus Trail:

The Jesus Boat:

I was very pleased to notice that the author of the article about "the Jesus Trail" is a Professor of Religion at Roanoke College, where our daughter Sarah attends. I have sent him an e-mail to see if he would be available to come speak to us about his trips and study. I'll let you know what I hear from him.

Rejoice Always!

May 21st, 2010

Dear Fellow Pilgrims,

I’ve been working to set the date for the June gathering. Many of you have sent me e-mail to let me know what your vacation calendar looks like for the summer, as requested at the last meeting and on the Blog. The results show that June is a very busy time for us! In fact, the week that interrupts the fewest plans is the very first week. So we will plan our get-together on Wednesday, June 2nd, at 5:30 PM. We had no volunteers to gather at a home this month so we will plan right now to meet in the 1st Presbyterian Church Fellowship Hall. Kitchen facilities are available, but the cover dish plan has worked well so far. Let’s stick with that for June.

The second day of touring for us will focus on sites around the Sea of Galilee. We spent some time during our May discussion to talk about this area of Israel. On this day we will visit the hills overlooking the Sea where Jesus is thought to have given the beautiful Sermon on the Mount, and Tabgha, the site where he fed the multitudes with just a few loaves and fish. (see John, chapter 6) In the afternoon we will actually take a boat across the Sea to visit Capernaum, and go to the Jordan River where Jesus may have been baptized. One of our discussions at the gathering will be about the spiritual significance of baptism, and what a “renewal of baptismal vows” might mean to us while at the Jordan.

Please plan to come prepared to set a time for our July meeting. There are a couple of special considerations that we should keep in mind. One is the proposal made at our April meeting that we should plan a picnic during the summer. Several of our pilgrims have boats they have graciously offered to share. The other is that some of our travelers cannot join us for these meetings on weeknights but would like to get to know the folks planning to travel. A weekend gathering would give us more time for a nice picnic and give these persons a chance to meet with us and “catch up” on our plans and materials. I would therefore like to propose that we meet in July on Sunday afternoon, July 18th. Please consider this and come prepared to agree, or offer another time for us to meet. We’ll determine other specifics about the place and picnic arrangements as well. If you cannot join us for the June meeting then e-mail me your response about the July proposal.

One last thing, I’ve received several positive comments about the materials that we’ve shared at the meetings about the places we are visiting. You’ve also let me know that it helps to have digital copies of these available in our GoogleDocs folder on the Internet. Some have not been able to collect materials from the early gatherings. I am trying to get more copies of these materials so that I can make them available to you. I’ll let you know as I make progress.

Till next time...Rejoice Always

Notes from our May Gathering

Overview of May Gathering

On Tuesday, May 11th , we had a wonderful second gathering of Pilgrims at Mark and Carol Foster’s home. What a beautiful place to meet. I noticed many of the pilgrims taking a tour of the house to ‘ooh and aah” at the art and artifacts that Carol and Mark have collected through the years and arranged so creatively. Once again the cover dish was more a feast than a pickin with plenty for everyone. More good news! We welcomed several new friends to the meeting who have learned of our Pilgrimage and considering joining us. Thanks to all for making these get-togethers such a success.

Before starting with the overview of the tour we were to cover I took some time to review the list of people that have signed up, and those still expressing interest. The last registration count that I got from ACTS last Friday shows that 16 of us have sent in their registration forms. We’re over half way to our goal of having at least thirty to fill the tour bus. This is wonderful. And there are still 23 others on the list that are still interested but had not registered by the time ACTS sent me the list. So I’m very hopeful that our goal will be reached if not exceeded. Another component of this list is to see how room sharing options are coming along. Obviously couples are registering together for rooms. Others are planning to room together and registering with this in mind. Still, several have registered looking for a roommate. ACTS informs me of the “singletons” and we can begin now to try to make appropriate connections. Contact me if you are in the later group and we can begin this process.

The subjects of the tour discussion focused on the first day of our touring as we move from Tel-Aviv to the area around the Sea of Galilee. We began the discussion by projecting Google Earth on a big screen and showing the nation of Israel. We will be landing in Tel-Aviv and spending a night there to recover from jet-lag. The first stage of our journey will be from Tel-Aviv to the Sea of Galilee where we will stay 2 nights in the city of Tiberius. On the way to Tiberius we will visit the ruins of Jericho and the Mount of Temptation that we studied in April. And we will make stops at Nazareth, and Cana before we arrive at our destination. We followed this path on Google Earth. I am including a picture of the region on this posting so that you can see the North-East direction that we are traveling. If you have access to the Internet you will want to download and view the area on Google Earth. There are wonderful pictures that others have taken, and descriptions of the areas linked to a variety of websites. The program is free. You can find it at http://earth.google.com.

Mike and Jim took some time to review the research that they had done on Nazareth, Cana, and Tiberius. All three are mostly found in scripture in the New Testament. This area is actually where Jesus spent most of his life. Mary and Joseph both lived in Nazareth. The angels that announced Jesus conception visited them there before they traveled to Bethlehem for the Roman census. They fled Bethlehem to Egypt to avoid Herod’s terrible wrath, an attempt to kill the baby Messiah. But they returned to Nazareth after a few years and Jesus grew up there. His first miracle, turning the water into wine at a wedding feast, was at Cana. Though there are some disagreements about the exact place that these events occurred most have a church or temple at a location that claims to be the spot. We will review the stories as we visit the sites.

Tiberius has always been a popular city. It was built on the Sea of Galilee and has attracted tourist, not all seeking vacation, for centuries. There is much history dating back to the early Roman Empire and earlier that is available here. We will be very happy to spend time at this wondrous city. Next month we will study more about the landmarks around the Sea of Galilee that it is built on. One that is very interesting is a story about an ancient boat that was found. It is exactly the type of boat that is thought Jesus would have been sleeping on when the mighty storm came upon the disciples. It is now known as “The Jesus Boat.” There is a great story on YouTube about it. Connect at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66BKA9bWjHI. This is part one of two. Other video and stories about the Jesus Boat are also on YouTube. Christianity Today had a good story on this as well. This article can be found at http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2010/aprilweb-only/26-41.0.html. Perhaps we can visit the museum to learn more about this archeological wonder.

As usual there were handouts related to the places we are visiting. I have uploaded these documents to the SoBo Pilgrim Holy Land folder in Google Docs. You will be getting an invitation to view and download these documents soon after getting this message.

We did not reach consensus about where and when to have the next meeting for there is many vacations planned during June. Please e-mail to me your vacation schedule and I will look for the week that has the fewest conflicts. We may choose a Saturday in June and July to try to include some of our folks who work each weeknight. We anticipate that the July meeting will be held as a picnic at Buggs Island Lake. I would like to have your vacation schedule by the end of May so that we can make this decision as soon as possible!

Thanks again to the Fosters for hosting our gathering. Till next time!

May Gathering is next Tuesday night

May 7, 2010

Our second study group gathering will be next Tuesday, May 11th, at Carol and Mark Foster’s house in South Boston. Let me know if you need an address. There is a change in the plans. We will be meeting at 6:00 PM rather than 5:30. Plans for dinner this time are the same as last, cover dish. It worked out very well as all the bases were covered; salad, main course, desserts, etc, and everyone had plenty to eat! There is talk of a picnic at the lake for the June meeting so we will be having some variety in the future.

Last month we started our study of the places we are touring with a look at the ancient city of Jericho. We couldn’t complete a study of our first day’s tour because we had several travel issues to take care of. So this month we will continue the first day’s tour with a study of The Mount of Temptation, Nazareth, Cana of Galilee, and Tiberias. On the trip we will actually be staying in Tiberias for two nights as we visit the areas around the Sea of Galilee.

I’ve received information from ACTS (our travel tour group) that more of you have registered. That’s good! Betty Ann has written that she is excited for us that the study groups are going so well. Please be sure to send me any specific questions that you have about the travel arrangements. I will get in touch with her and try to have answers by Tuesday night. One big reminder to pass on, May 1st was only a deadline for an early registration discount. There is still plenty of time to register for the trip. We are excited for all of you that are going and talking with friends to get them to go with you. Don’t forget to send me their e-mail information so that I can add them to the contact list.

I’m looking forward to seeing you on Tuesday night! Remember that we have changed the time to 6:00 pm! Early thanks to Mark and Carol for hosting us!

Rejoice Always,

1st Monthly Gathering a Success

On Tuesday, April 20th, we held our first monthly gathering at Paul and Kay Nichols home. It was a big success. We had over 15 of our pilgrims attend! Everyone brought a delicious cover dish so there was plenty of food; appetizers, salad, main course, and desert. The evening was beautiful so there was the option to eat outside or in.

After dinner we gathered in the den to take care of business! First order was to review the travel plans. Several had not yet registered so we reviewed the registration form. Then we discussed tips for traveling overnight, packing bags, and dealing with foreign currency. We also discussed Passports. If you don't have one its time to get one. Check closely to be sure that your passport date is good for at least three months after we are due to return.

Knowing that we would probably need to spend more time on travel tips at this meeting than most we prepared for a discussion of touring Jehrico only. Mike and Russell had some great information. Mike started by sharing about how important this part of the world, the Crossroads of Cultures, has been throughout history. He showed us a very interesting website tracing the major empires in history. Click here to take a look!

Then Russell shared about his trip to the ancient city of Jehrico when he went before. He suggested that we all get a notebook and put information that is shared during these meetings. Then he handed out some maps, pictures, and information to put in the first entry. If you couldn't be there, or didn't get a copy, just let us know and we can get it to you.

Before closing in prayer we talked about our May meeting. We've decided that the best time and place to meet could change from month to month so we won't set a regular plan. The next meeting will be on Tuesday, May 11th, 5:30 PM, at Mark and Carol Fosters home. Watch the e-mail to get the address. We will be discussing the other places that we will visit on the first tour day along with Jehrico.

Did you notice the new feature on the Blog? Pictures!! I got several good shots that I've added as a slideshow. We'll be collecting these at each of the meetings, and then on the trip. Feel free to share the Blog site with your friends and family so that they can keep up with our trip.

Till next time... Rejoice Always!