The day  began with a service on the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee. You can see Tiberius (where we are lodged) on the far shore in this photo.

The speaker was Angus Buchan a farmer from South Africa. Some of you may have read his story in his book, "Faith Like Potatoes." He spoke on Christ's words to Peter, "Feed my Sheep." Making the point that we must lead from the front...not herding from the back. We must work at our own lives as a model and lead by example.

It was an awesome way to start another beautiful day.

Next, the Goln Heights. The Photo above is the view from the Golan Heights within sight of the Syrian border. Mount Hermon is on the left, difficult to make out in the haze.

This was a military defensive position that was used by the military  in the '67 war but is now a tourist site. The Golan Heights used to be occupied by Syria, with the border within sight of the Sea of Galilee. Our tour guide pointed out that during that time, Syria would take pot shots at farmers in their fields and boats on the Sea of Galilee. So in light of that Israel appealed to the UN and negotiated a new border that was set further back in 1974 for the security of the Galilee area. 

There was a lot of heightened interest in our tour group as it was on the day of our visit that the leaders of the world were considering their response to the chemical attacks which had occurred a few days before by Syria on their own people.

The Golan Heights are beautiful and full of amazing vistas. It is ideal hiking country.

After Lunch Larry and guide from another bus used their operatic voices and belted out a very animated rendition of the song "If I Were a Rich Man" for the dinner guests. What a riot.

Another amazing event, was a baptism in the "Jordan River". Our bus had 18 folk who registered to be baptised. A couple we had come to know were also baptized and came back quite excited for since there had been two pastors who where doing the baptizing, they had, as husband and wife gone to the separate baptizers and had been then baptized at the same time. In unison! And in the Jordan River yet! Very special for them!

Of course, everyone had to "touch" the Jorden River. But it was not that simple for there were fish, ready to nibble on your feet the instant you were in the water. That made a lote of folk hesitate, and end up just dipping their fee or hands into the water. Others had stepped in, many with a lot of trepidation and let the fishes nibble on their feet! A natural "pedicure" even!

I had never seen a Fig Tree before so was looking forward to taking a photo or two. When I saw one I took these photos, of the leaf and the whole tree.

It had been a full day and were looking forward to getting back to the hotel. This would be our last night in Tiberius so we had to pack up our luggage and be ready to ship out the next morning. We were off to the Dead Sea and Jerusalem tomorrow!

Greetings, we are back in the land of "connections!" On Friday Aug. 29 we left the Leonardo Hotel in Tiberius, traveled down the Jordan Valley to the Qumran, Masada, Dead Sea and other sites we will talk about later. Therefore we pretty much were like on the other side of the moon. 

Meanwhile, I'd taken some photos of how we are being fed at the Leonardo in Tiberius. The "Tour" provides two meals a day, breakfast and dinner. This was a "Dinner" served usually around 6:30pm. I would like to share with you what we experience every evening. Here, I simply went down the buffet line taking pictures and will let them speak for themselves. "Bonn Appetite!"

Yummy. Guess what, I am not losing any weight!

WIlma and I are presently in the Prima Kings Hotel in Jerusalem just a few minutes walk from the Jaffa Gate of the Old City. We are sitting in the lobby before breakfast, writing on our computers watching the sun rise through the windows curving half way around our seating area. We are thinking of you all, wishing you were here, and also wishing you all a great day today. After breakfast, we begin with a visit to the Mount of Olives. It's hard to express how it feels to be in the very place Jesus and his disiples were 2000 years ago. To see the horizon line they saw. To feel the air they felt. To be where they had been. The "presence" is often palpable, striking us with the wonder and emotion of it all. Every site we visit is so inspiring and has this sense of awe about it. 

When we drove into Jerusalem on the bus, they played "Oh Jerusalem" and I have to tell you I had an emotional moment crocodile tears running down my face. 

I know I'll have that happening today again, more than once.

OK, where is that breakfast coffee?

The minute we arrived at Tiberius at the Seal of Galilee, Wilma wanted to touch the water right away. But was so disappointed because no matter what she tried, she was not able to do it. On this first night, the Hotel beach area was closed off. The water was tantalizingly close, just on the other side of the fence...oh the agony of it all.

Today we were scheduled to see the place where Jesus appeared to his disciples after the resurrection with a breakfast of fish cooking on the beach. Our tour guide asked us how many fish the diciples caught after Jesus told them to the throw the net over on the right side? "153" someone yelled out....(of course he was right! it was 153 fish) The tour guide said, "No, there were 154, you forgot the fish Jesus already had in the fire, he'd caught that one too, right?" We all groaned."

Wilma had not been able to touch the sea at the hotel as we were always gone when the beach was open to the public. She had not been able to do it when we went on the sea for the boat ride because we were dealing with high docks plus, you could not reach the water from over the side of the boat. Possibly she would be able to touch the sea at this location of the "Miraculous Fishing" as our tour guide called it. Would this be her chance?

As a family, Larry, Odia and I were all hoping the water would be accessible for her. We were all filled with anticipation as we gathered around the tour guide beside the lake. Sure enough, there were not fences, gates or obstacels, she had clear access to the water. We were excited.

I don't think we or Wilma heard much of what was said as all Wilma could think about was breaking away from the group to get to the waters edge and touch the sea. Well, finally guides speech was over, but then another delay, there was to be a little devotional to follow...oh that was tough. Finally the speeches were over and we could get to the beach. We went quickly trying to look casual and in a second we were standing at the water's edge, and the big moment had arrived.

How do you deal with such historic moments? How do you deal with the buildup of anticipation and the realization of it's imminent fulfilment? In this case we all stood back and gave the lady Wilma her space to do her thing. She removed her shoes, and stood facing the lake in the wonder of the moment. Her emotions high as she slowly shuffled her bare feet over the rough beach stones into the water. Then she just stood and embraced the moment.

She stood transfixed, memories of events that occurred on or beside this lake running through her head. In fact, she was standing where Jesus had stood, talking to his boys as they brought in the boat and the bulging net of fish. Jesus in his new "heavenly" body standing in the shallows, inviting them to partake of his meal cooking on the beach.

Then she began to revel in the moment, dousing herself with water from the Sea of Galilee. Pictures were taken and we all then joined in and also splashed into the water. After more celebration and photos we made sure we all carried a little rock of memory with us. This would be a memory we would cherish. A dream fulfilled.

This was the "event of the day". The extra gift was that we got beck from our tour early enough for us to have a swim at the hotel beachfront  before it closed. We had a great time, as memories of our family swims we used to do every Friday back in the day.

Next we went to Nazereth where Jesus grew up. When he went back there at the beginning of his ministry and declared himself the fulfilment of the prophetic scriptures to his own people in his own town, well, they just could not take it. They marched him out of the synagogue, out of town to the cliff to shove him off and get rid of such dreamer for good. Why did he not just stick with carpentry, he would have done much better than this preaching ministry he was doing, being so opinionated and all!

This cliff is located on the south side of what we know as the valley of Armageddon where the final battle of the nations against God will take place. This photo is from off the top of this cliff towards the North. The "hill" you see on the left is Mount Tabor.  

There was a lot of information and geography we could see from this high location. There was the town where Jesus raised the widows son. There were various battles that had been fought in that valley and so much more. A lot of history had occurred in this valley through the centuries.  

Below is a photo of the sign located at the top of the cliff.    

Next we went to Cana, where Jesus went to a wedding and did his first recorded miracle, at the urging of his mother, changed the water into wine! What I learned here was that the jars were of stone because there was a belief at that time that stone held no impurities! So wine was to be held in stone jars. In the photo above the center jar is made of stone.

The day ended with a quick visit to an establishment that prepares diamonds and sells jewelry. Diamonds and precious stones are a significant part Jewish history as purchasing precious stones was a way they could transfer their money as they moved, or were forced to move around the world. Israel purchases 50% of with worlds rough diamonds for cutting and polishing and making into jewelry!

We had a great evening, ending this amazing day, and Wilma had touched the Sea of Galilee twice! We were now looking forward to tomorrow as there was to be a sunrise service early in the morning.  Our alarm would be ringing at 5am.

It would be an early night for all of us.

We are on tour! What a change of pace. We were out and about all day. Back for supper and then back on to a concert for the evening. We are busy and I'm not sure how much time I have to write during the tour itself.

First thing this morning we got onto a ship for a trip onto the Sea of Galilee. This was, it tuned out the highlight of the day. 

A few details. The Sea of Galilee is 13 miles long and 8 miles across. It is 160 ft. deep. On the north west corner is a valley that comes down towards the sea. It is from here that the winds can funnel in and come up quickly blowing across the sea, causing waves of up to 10 feet high in a few hours. This corresponds with the Biblical events we know about.

We were in a state of unbelief as we took in the realization that this was the Galilee the place where Christ did a lot of his ministry. After all he grew up in Nazareth, ministered on and around the Sea of Galilee. As a result a  time of impromptu worship broke out as we were reminded of this and specifically the experience of Peter walking on the water. It is time of worship that  we will never forget.

Next we went to Capernaum. Here you see its remains of 2000 years ago.  The black volcanic foundational stones are from the time of Jesus's day. We saw St. Peter's house and the synagogue nearby where he worshiped and taught. Another synagogue had been built over that using the black 2000 year old stons as a foundation. This synagogue had been build from stones brought in from elseware and were a light color, not black like the black volcanic stone foundation it sat  on. It is the building in the background in the photo above.

Following this we went to see the mountain were Jesus spoke what is known as the sermon on the mount. It is called "The Mount of Beatitudes." This is now a catholic area and a catholic church has been build there. The grounds are kept immaculate by the nuns.

As we drove along the tour guide pointed out a dairy farm we were passing. She mentioned that as usual Israelis' once again worked at making things better than the norm. They had purchased these Holstein cows from Holland. Then had studied and changed their meal diet. This had resulted in 3 times the milk production from before. They now call these cows "Goldstiens!" Personally, I was wondering about the cows...three times more milk could be a painful experience!

Then it was time for dinner. The food is amazing. Will have some photos of that later. 

In the evening we went to an amazing concert a short bus ride away. 950 of us heard Kim Clement on a live "God TV" production. I am not familier with this singer, but you could see he'd taken a new direction in his life and music ministry. He had acquired a love for Israel. We just sat back and enjoyed the show. Here are some shots of that.

Kim is known and recognized as a prophet. During the show he made several comments about the political situation around Israel but nothing that I would consider out of the ordinary prophetically. But it was a fun, dramatic light show kind of a presentation. We all enjoyed it.

The other thing is that it's just fantastic getting to know others in the tour. This tour represents people from 40 nations and it's so easy to start up a conversation since we all have this thing in common, our faith.

The weather is very hot and humid. It was over 30 degrees C. The Sea of Galilee is 650 ft. below sea level and so is in a natural basin holding the moisture in. If no wind...high heat and humidity.

We are in good spirits, sleeping well, eating well and letting the tour be our guide.

We are on tour! What a change of pace. We were out and about all day. Back for supper and then back on to a concert for the evening. We are busy and I'm not sure how much time I have to write during the tour itself.

First thing this morning we got onto a ship for a trip onto the Sea of Galilee. This was, it tuned out the highlight of the day. 

A few details. The Sea of Galilee is 13 miles long and 8 miles across. It is 160 ft. deep. On the north west corner is a valley that comes down towards the sea. It is from here that the winds can funnel in and come up quickly blowing across the sea, causing waves of up to 10 feet high in a few hours. This corresponds with the Biblical events we know about.

We were in a state of unbelief as we took in the realization that this was the Galilee the place where Christ did a lot of his ministry. After all he grew up in Nazareth, ministered on and around the Sea of Galilee. As a result a  time of impromptu worship broke out as we were reminded of this and specifically the experience of Peter walking on the water. It is time of worship that  we will never forget.

Next we went to Capernaum. Here you see its remains of 2000 years ago.  The black volcanic foundational stones are from the time of Jesus's day. We saw St. Peter's house and the synagogue nearby where he worshiped and taught. Another synagogue had been built over that using the black 2000 year old stons as a foundation. This synagogue had been build from stones brought in from elseware and were a light color, not black like the black volcanic stone foundation it sat  on. It is the building in the background in the photo above.

Following this we went to see the mountain were Jesus spoke what is known as the sermon on the mount. It is called "The Mount of Beatitudes." This is now a catholic area and a catholic church has been build there. The grounds are kept immaculate by the nuns.

As we drove along the tour guide pointed out a dairy farm we were passing. She mentioned that as usual Israelis' once again worked at making things better than the norm. They had purchased these Holstein cows from Holland. Then had studied and changed their meal diet. This had resulted in 3 times the milk production from before. They now call these cows "Goldstiens!" Personally, I was wondering about the cows...three times more milk could be a painful experience!

Then it was time for dinner. The food is amazing. Will have some photos of that later. 

In the evening we went to an amazing concert a short bus ride away. 950 of us heard Kim Clement on a live "God TV" production. I am not familier with this singer, but you could see he'd taken a new direction in his life and music ministry. He had acquired a love for Israel. We just sat back and enjoyed the show. Here are some shots of that.

Kim is known and recognized as a prophet. During the show he made several comments about the political situation around Israel but nothing that I would consider out of the ordinary prophetically. But it was a fun, dramatic light show kind of a presentation. We all enjoyed it.

The other thing is that it's just fantastic getting to know others in the tour. This tour represents people from 40 nations and it's so easy to start up a conversation since we all have this thing in common, our faith.

The weather is very hot and humid. It was over 30 degrees C. The Sea of Galilee is 650 ft. below sea level and so is in a natural basin holding the moisture in. If no wind...high heat and humidity.

We are in good spirits, sleeping well, eating well and letting the tour be our guide.

"I've never heard that name before," exclaimed the tour guide. "In fact, that's a Hebrew word you know," he added. 

We, that is Wilma, myself, our daughter Odia and Larry had struck up a conversation with a tour guide. We were with several hundreds of other folk who had registered with the "God TV 2013 Israel Tour" in the Ben Gourion airport. We were groupd at an exit door with all our luggage, waiting to be loaded onto our bus for Tiberius a city on the Sea of Galilee. 

It was this tour that had actually been what we had signed up for a few months ago. We spoke to our kids, inviting them to join us, which they did. Wilma and I had arrived in Israel and Jerusalem a week earlier to kind of "soak in" the air, atmosphere, the ambiance and spiritual dynamic of the place. We had now seen the Old City of Jerusalem, we had prayed at the "Western Wall"...we had kind of gotten an understanding of the place. We had fallen in love with Jerusalem.

Today that week was up. We had taken a schuttle bus from our Bed and Breakfast and arrived at the Ben Gourion Airport to meet Larry and Odia and to join up with the tour group at the same time.

There were, to our surprise, 950 people who had registered for the tour experience.

The trip to Tiberius was a great time for us to re-connect and catch up with our children.

Meanwhile, there was a serious accident on the freeway and we had to take a detour. Next we had a toilet break stop, but no matter, we were busy talking, getting up to speed with one another. Sharing what was happening back home and our Jerusalem experiences.

We are in the Leonardo Hotel, with a view, of the Sea of Galilee. I am sitting at our hotel window right now, watching the sunrise over the sea. I can see the shore on the other side to the east. There are palm trees on the near shore and it's very quiet, not a leaf is moving. Beautiful.

Here are some random photo's I took out of the tour bus on our way to Galilee.

Left to right: Sign exiting a toll road, now is that not handy? Remind you of anything having to do with
street camera's in Canada?
Middle: McDonalds in Hebrew.
Third: our view of Galilee out of our 17th floor window.

What a "welcome" and "introduction to the tour" that first conversation with Elie the tour guide was for us and especially for Odia!

At some point in the conversation we exchanged names, introducing ourselves to him. It was fun to see him try to associate our names with books he'd read and so on, in an effort to remember them. Then he heard our daughter Odia's name and He stopped in his tracks remaining strangely silent. Then he said, "I have never heard that name before!" He scrunched up his face trying to remember, "That is a Hebrew word you know." Then he began repeating snatches of Hebrew scripture...."You know what it means don't you?" he said, still thinking..."Has anyone got a Bible?" Larry dove into his pack...

"Here," he said to Odia, showing her a passage, it means, 'I will be thankful', and he read a passage to show her.  

What a blessing for me as a father to sit here, early in the morning before the Sea of Galilee and revisit this amazing moment as we stood among our luggage in the airport. My heart bursting upon  hearing that amazing blessing given to our daughter. A definition of her name that rings true to her beautiful spirit. A spirit of joy, fun, generosity and yes, also "thankfulness!"

Here is what I've been enjoying
as I've been writing this.
My heart is full.
Sea of Galilee by Cliff Derksen
August, 2013

 I do have to say, my wife has "hutspa" or that she loves me very much! I think it must be both, because on this day we were going to walk on top of the walls, yes, the very top of the southern walls of Old Jerusalem. And she went for it. Here she is on her way up, courageously waving to me, while in the same moments I hear her constantly saying, "O Lord help me....O Lord help me..." Along with other comments like "I'm afraid of heights you know!" etc. I had to admit that is was a challenge as you can see it was a flimsy looking metal spiraling staircase going up to nowhere. Something any normal person would be concerned about

We had each made a list of things we wanted to do, and this wall walking thing was on my list. I was delighted that despite a lot of "thinking about it" she decided to join me on this project. She  certainly knows how to make walking on walls a really fun and hilarious experience. For me that is, I'm not sure if it was that for her!

I don't believe she has "Acrophobia" which is described by Wikipedia as  "...an extreme or irrational fear of heights...." because if that were the case she would not be even discussing the possibility of going up on the wall at all. But here she was, a very game lady making her way up a seemingly very flimsy winding staircase. Out in the open air, wind blowing through her hair as she ascended higher and higher.

I remembered cats who had climbed trees and then frose and would not come down due to the sudden fear of heights, or falling or being attacked by an angry bird...anyways I was worried Wilma might freese on this staircase on her way up to the top of the wall. What would I do? Call the fire department? Not in this situation, it would have to be a military helicopter and a guy being winched down to pluck her off the stairs....! That would not be good!

Now I was panicking and rushed to meet her there on the stairs to "talk" her up.  

We made it, and here you can see she is kind of "faking" a relaxed look. I know she's trying to be enthusiastic but I can see the doubt in her face. Her heart is probably still racing somewhat but I think with my overwhelming ability to bring calm to a situation, and of course a dependance ot the awsome power of her own prayers, we can go on...I think...carefully of course.

Here are some photos I took as we made our way along, taken from the top of the wall.

Clockwise from the top left: The first one is simply a photo to the west, towards the general area of downtown Jerusalem. I thought the architecture was interesting. Second is the church of the Dormition built on the mount Zion hilltop, outside and south of the Old Jerusalem walls.  According to tradition, Mary the mother of Jesus moved to and lived on Mount Zion till her death. Next, just east of Mount Zion is the St. Peter in Gallicantu church on the location where Peter denied Jesus three times. In the basement is a stone prison where Jesus was held for a few hours before he was taken to Pilot. This church is located above, west of the original City of David and the Kidron Valley to the East. The last photo is looking East along the wall we will walk and over to the Kidron Valley, the Mount of Olives on the horizon. This was the scene of Christ's agony and his arrest in the Garden of Gathsemane. It is also the place where Christ ascended to heaven. The sides of the hill are covered with cemeteries as they hope to be first in the resurrection of the dead.

By the time we were done, we were hot and tired. But we had one more surprise...When we came off the wall we were near the entrance to the wailing wall from the south side. As we came around the corner and approached, this is what we saw!

Walking the wall was a challenge, but we did it! Wilma's heart-rate was back to normal, there had been no nausea, heart or panic attacks, even dispute the fact some further prayers had been uttered as we encountered other various types of stairs that were considered difficult to negotiate, along the way.

We entered the Wailing Wall area and took the time to pray prayers of "praise and thanksgiving" for having survived the ordeal.

When it got dark last night I remembered, it's the Sabbath! My first thought was "Oh no... Am I going to get any food tonight? Are any resturants going to be open at all? Emergency....sound the alarms...we forgot about the Sabbath!

Day 5 was a very different day. In some ways I wondered if it was a day of failure, as our bodies had given up on us and we needed rest. With all the walking, us "pencil pushers" had been doing, especially that the grueling 3.5 hour whirlwind tour all over the hilly terrain of Old Jerusalem, just did us in. Add to that the extreme heat of the day and no wonder we were finished.

We began to understand Jesus at the well where he stopped, sat down in weariness and let the disciples go on ahead to buy food.

We got immersed in our stuff, like napping and such, (material for another time) and when we did come out of it we looked up and we were surprised that it was already dark. We realized then that it was Friday night and that the Sabbath had begun.

Exactly! (Such crazy mindless tourists!)

My first thought was about food??? Would all the restaurants be closed? AAAAAHHHH!

It was eerily quite out on the streets that night. Very few people were out moving around and all the shops, yes and even the restaurants were closed. It felt both very empty, and refreshing at the same time, as now we could go right up to the different shop display windows and examine things closely without someone coming at you to push a sale. Kind of freeing.

But I had really only one thing in mind... what about supper? Was I to live or die this night? Was I to live off the power bars we'd brought for emergency snacks as supper tonight?

We walked on, past the usual places we'd already eaten at, searching, looking around for something open. Then we saw it.... yes, you are correct, it was a McDonalds! We were elated, and in great excitement we made a beeline for this familiar place that would be just like home.

The first surprise was that nothing was in English. A server pointed out a small sheet stuck to the wall at the end of the counter, a typed list of items in English! Small print too. We squinted, leaning over the counter to try and make out the menu.

I ordered a big mac meal, but discovered that for some reason I could not have a coffee with it, it had to be orange juice or nothing. I used my gentle persuasive techniques to try and persuade him to just include coffee instead, but that did not work. Might have been a language issue! We worked out another order and I got a coffee, but then I learned it had to be an espresso coffee, nothing else. It came in a very small cup, possibly 1/4 of the small cup in Canada. And no cream! When I asked about the cream he said they had no cream. The reason was that they had no machine that would 
include the cream. I suggested that I would be happy with milk, did they have milk? His face broke into a quick broad smile, "Yes," he exclaimed, "we have milk!" He got a milk carton, placed it beside a machine, put a white hose from the machine into the milk box spout and pressed a button. After a while milk was sucking out of the milk carton and hot steaming milk was running into a cup he'd placed in a slot on the machine. He handed it to me with a huge smile. I immediately noticed he'd just given me more milk than the earlier order of coffee! Nevertheless, I thanked him profusely.

As I went back to my chair, I wondered what to do?  If I poured the milk into the coffee cup it would run over. I sat down and poured the coffee into the hot cup of milk. I now had a coffee flavored cup of milk! Nice. I actually liked it.

One of the signs at the McDonalds! Going American I guess...!

Even though the experience wasn't very "Canadian", I still did have a great meal and appreciated the fact I did not have to starve or survive on power bars last night.

This is the original rock formation where Chiapas the High Priest had built his house.  It was here Jesus was taken first after his arrest. It was here that Peter denied his Lord.

Notice this interesting sign leading to the church (inside seen above) where Peter denied his Lord. Roosters on both sides!

We did have a plan, we really did! But very quickly it went out of the window!

The first new thing we did was take a city bus from our B & Br. to the Old City. Only 7 shekels for each of us. I got the change out of my pocket, counted out the money confidently plopping it into the tray and walking down the bus isle. As Wilma come's along behind me the driver stops her motioning towards the change...there was some kind of a problem, apparently! Wilma calls me back to the front. I come back and learn that I've "read" the change completely wrongly. I learned later, that I had counted pennies as shekels!

Instead of holding up things, I give up and simply hold out my nad of change telling him to pick out the amount. Since then, I've actually stopped a clerk to explain the change for me. Such a tourist!

But we are sold on the city bus thing. Saves energy, it's cheap, you can see the city pass by through the window and most importantly, it's air conditioned! 

The next new thing was the discovery of "contemporary" sculptures along the walkway in the outdoor mall leading up to the Jaffa Gate of the Old City. Up to now we had avoided that area, but this morning we went that way to see what there was to see.

Between almost every second shop there was a sculpture on display, and on both sides yet. Below are some representative photos of them. I was thrilled and have to admit slowed our progress to the Old City somewhat. There just is too much to take I and absorb in this city.

Then, when we came to the Jaffa Gate, for the first time we saw a list of tours advertised hanging on the wall. These were tours one could just join at the times posted. One was beginning at 11:00am and so we had 10 min. left before it began. But there was no one around, so I asked a passerby who looked like a potential tour guide (not sure I could describe what that entails but....) and he said he was not, but had a good one he'd introduce us to. In a minute a good looking, outgoing gregarious guy in a yellow shirt and cap showed up. He quickly explained how he had already arranged to guide another person and that we could join up with him, he was sure he would not mind. That it would take only 3 to 4 hours....and that he price would stay the same...that if we were not happy with the tour we did not have to pay.... on and on, you get the picture.

We have learned that there is a system...a sales method of operation and to really get the most out of your time in Israel and learn things, one must make a decision at some point to get involved. To "hire" someone or something to; learn about what it is you are seeing, and to assist these agents of information in their livelihood, to be part of the overall way of doing things.

To make a long story short, the tour was fantastic. It was a 3.5 hour whirlwind tour of many sites in the Old City. This way, if we wanted to come back we could easily find them and secondly, we got a lot of background (and local) information you would never get otherwise. With just the three of us, it became very personal. You see, this is a spiritual place, and everything is related to historical events in the Bible. The tour by it's nature brought out our spiritual lives, opinions and positions very quickly. We all bonded, as we shared our own spiritual journeys. It was very rewarding on a personal level of ministry to others, besides the sights of the tour itself.   

Taking a moment in the shade as our tour guide explains the background of the next site we will be seeing.

When the tour was over, we were quite exhausted. We had been walking for almost 4 hours on hilly and stepped terrain. Wilma and I needed an oasis of rest before the next amazing activity. The photo below is a restaurant we found, that had a terrace with a view.

After a meal and a rest we had a 6 pm appointment to see and tour the "Western Wall Tunnel". This is a tunnel that has been excavated going north along the wailing wall, under the present day city streets and homes. The purpose was to discover how the wall was made? Where is the base of this wall, like what period would that be? And of course any other artifacts they can find. 

It was very moving to reach the northern corner of the wall and at that point be walking on a street with Roman columns exposed out of the walls of dirt. This was a street that existed during the time of Christ, 2000 years ago. They discoverd that It was a very busy street, selling wares to the many pilgrims that came to the temple. Did Christ walk this street? Maybe. Is it possible we had to go into this particular tunnel, meters under existing Jerusalem and there on an exposed underground street adjacent to the temple wall, walk where Jesus walked?  I will think about that forever.

When I lay down, tired that night, I felt like I'd seen and been in the Jerusalem of Jesus's day. I was ok with our plans having gone out the window. With that, I slept soundly.

The Tower of David located just south of the Jaffa Gate inside the walls of Old Jerusalem. 
Taken from just outside the Jaffa Gate.

I was so excited as I entered this fortress within the walls of the Old City. Even though it is called "The Tower of David" it is not necessarily the location of David's personal residence or palace during his time. I've been so amazed at the complex history of the city of Jerusalem, the many countries, armies and people groups that have battled for this small area of ground. Lost and won over and over again often by the same people groups.

Therefore, the surface area today is not the surface that was. There is a lot of controversy over the exact location of every place that is called "holy" today. This includes sites like the place of Christ's crucifixion, his burial tomb and even the wailing wall being part of the second Temple! Yet, despite all of this doubt, there are battles going on to preserve or take over these presumed "holy sites" by many, with attitudes that are not so "holy!" Attitudes, between the many religions represented, of greed and hate. Ready to deceive and even kill to gain a few centimetres of earth. How sad, we are all so human! 

Inside this fort is a museum illustrating the history of Jerusalem going from the Canaanites, the Israelites  including David and Solomon, then moving through history to the birth of Israel as a nation in 1984. 

The present structure of the fort was build in the middle ages with some changes by other rulers in the years following.

Inside the wall of this fort is a large open courtyard where archeological digs are continuing, as they are in a lot of places in Israel. Here they have discovered fortifications and items from Herodian times in the 2nd century BC. Many believe that this then may be the site of Christ's condemnation and trial.

So it goes here, always new surprises and discoveries that affect what we think about where and how things happened in the past. One must remain open minded for sure.  

Here was a wonderful surprise. We came around the corner and there it was, a sculpture of David! My heart leapt in joy. It's the young gangly boy David who has just killed Goliath! I love the body language, the quiet confidence in what he's done. Like he's thinking "What do you expect if God is on your side! What do you expect if you've been anointed to be the next king...sucks to be you Goliath!" No wonder he loved his God as he did!

Notice the window behind David. The Israelites have done all they can to preserve the fort as it had been structured originally. Notice the defensive angles of the window. Narrow in the outside to make it difficult for the enemy to shoot arrows through the window. On the inside it is wide so there is room for archers to work, aim and fire more safely at targets outside the wall.

The photo above is a model of the "Tower of David". Gives you an idea of what we saw today.

Here is a beautiful flower I saw this morning as we walked to Old Jerusalem. I have to say Israel smells nice. There are a lot of plants and trees that are in flower, so as we walk along we get scents of jasmine and perfumes from the many different flowers we pass along the way.