Mikki and I were blessed to be invited by Truth Tabernacle in Lake Charles, Louisiana and Pastor Rick Treece on a pilgramage to The Holy Land. It's a trip Mik and I have dreamed of and actually planned a couple times, but due to the tension here at the time, we cancelled both. This time, we made our minds up and did what we had to do to make it happen. And am I forever glad we did. I've never been so touched and changed in my life by a single eperience. Of course, we've run ourselves ragged for the past 7 days from early morning until almost dark every day, and a couple days into the night. But, it has been worth every minute of lost sleep, if we lost any. I have taken over 1,800 photos so far. Here are just a few. I'll try to post more once I'm back in the States and the rates for Internet aren't like this here in Israel.
Tour boat on The Sea of Galilee. We stayed in Tiberias and toured on Galilee, visited Caperium, Mout of Beatitudes, Cana and the surrounding area the first day. We had a very touching service on the boat out in the Sea of Galilee.
The Roman ruins at Jarash Jordan are absolutely amazing. They say that they're in better condition than in the Rome ruins. It was really breath taking.
Jarash Temple columns stand.... 80% of the city is still not excavated... lying there covered in sand and silt.
Mt. Nebo in Jordan where Moses stood looking over into the Promised Land. The green area in the center of the photo is the River Jordan.
Petra Jordan will leave you speechless.
The first thing you come to at the end of the canyon of Petra is the Treasury building carved into solid sand stone. I'm not sure I have words to express the stunning beauty.
God had fun when he created this animal. What an unusual architecture and engineering feat. It must have been either late in the day or very very early in the morning when God said, "Oops, I forgot to make the Bedouin something to ride on in the dessert.
Here we are... me in the saddle all wrong. You, to look cool, have to hook one leg over the horn and lock your feet. Russell can give you some pointers. I, on the other hand, wanted to ride off into the sunset (actually at this point, just back to the bus).
The very Dead Sea. 600 ft below sea level and so salty you can't sink.
The old city of Jerusalem... we rolled up on this in the bus coming back from Jordan late in the evening, and it was stunning!
The Eastern Gate.
The Western Wall of the old Temple. The white stuff you see between the stones isn't mortar. It's little note prayers that people stick in between the stones so they're prayers will be sent to God. Thousands and thousands of them.
Scarves in the Market of the old city of Jerusalem.
Bakery items on an open cart in the marketplace. Mikki took this photo and he told her to go away. No Photos. This is for him.
The new Minora for the 3rd Temple that is coming at some point here in the future. This is an amazing piece. We got the chance to go to the Temple Institute and take the tour and have them tell us about where they're at in the process of preparation.
The Rabbinacal Tunnel dig below the old city along the Western Wall of the Temple mount. We got as close as you can get to the Holies of Holies... It is a special operation they are doing here.
There are thousands of Almond trees blooming throughout Jordan and Israel now. They have a beautiful bloom.
This bedouin girl, probably 11 or so, has learned the system... I shot her photo and she said, "one dollar"... so I paid up and Russell shot a photo, and she said, "one dollar"... he paid up. Then she said, "two dollars". We left.
This guy was happy to see us.
2,000 + year old olive tree in the Garden of Gethsemanie (sp)
Arab men setting around in the middle of the day reading their religious writings...
The dome on the rock under an entry arch.
Prayers packed in a crack in the Western Wall.
Mik and me at the Garden Tomb of Jesus (or, the tomb thought to be his tomb)
A Jewish man's shadow.
