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!