Monday, March 2nd

Today was a day of three churches. It is a rainy day and we cannot see across the Sea of Galilee today.

The first church is on the traditional Mount of the Beatitudes. (read Matthew 14:13 and on) A church that Catholic nuns run sits on the site where pilgrims through the years have come to pray and worship and to see.

In the church there is lots of marble (stone), If you touch the marble, it is very cold and smooth. The church is shaped in an octagon. There were mosaics made of lots of tile on the floors.

Next, we visited a church at the shore of the Sea of Galilee. This second church is called the church at Tabgha. It is known for a mosaic of loaves and fishes,. (read John 21:1-19). There are springs here that made the water warm, so lots of fishes are in this area. It was a very plain church with wood beams on the ceiling. It is made of stone. There is a small goldfish pond in the courtyard before you enter the church. And….there were swallows flying and flitting all around and making little chirping sounds.

The last church we visited is know as “the Primacy of Peter” church. Peter was Jesus’ disciple who Jesus said, “You are Peter, the rock, and on this rock, I will build my church”

Here, I gathered tiny shells to give to the children in Sunday school. (you have to be there the Sunday I get back to get a shell from the Sea of Galilee). I made sure they did not have snails or other animals in them.

I am putting a picture of each of the churches on today’s entry. I also posted a picture of me on the Sea of Galilee where I picked up the shells.

For my niece, McKenna….I will get a picture of the orange juice machine and post it (maybe tomorrow) The oranges fall down from a big bin and go into a squeezer that busts them through their peel and squirts the juice into your cup. It is very cool.

Sunday, March 1

Today I woke up very happy that I had slept all night long! The sun was shining and when I opened the curtains to our hotel room, I could see the Sea of Galilee. (note about the Sea of Galilee….it is actually a large lake and you can see all around it). I had expected it to be bigger, but am not disappointed.

Our breakfast was srumpdeliscious. This hotel knows about food. I have posted a couple of pictures of breakfast and will try to post a video of the orange juice maker that automatically squeezes oranges while you wait. I was most impressed with the honeycomb (the kind bees make) that was hanging on a rack. You take your spoon and pull it off and eat it!

We got on our big bus and went to a cliff on the side of a hill called Arbel Cliff. From this cliff, you can see all around the Sea of Galillee. One place you can see is called the land of Gennesaret. If you look up Matthew 14:34 in the bible, you will see that after Jesus fed the five thousand men plus women and children, he and the disciples crossed to sea to the land of Gannesaret.

This is the end of the rainy season in Israel. Soon it will stop raining and everything will dry up because there is no water. But…right now things are green and also, muddy. There are all different colors of wildflowers growing out of the sides of rocks. We have seen mango trees, banana trees and olive trees. I will try and include a picture of me on the Arbel Cliff with an olive tree.

On the side of the hills you can see caves. Through the years, different people have hidden in caves such as these. In the bible a number of people including David and Elijah hid in and lived in caves.

We left Arbel Cliff and went in our bus to the ancient city of Capernaum. Capernaum was where Jesus began his ministry. He left his home of Nazareth and went to Capernaum. There he taught in the synagogue and performed miracles of healing. He became very famous during the time he was in Capernaum. (See Matthew 4:13, 11:23; Mark 1:21; Luke 7:1; 10; 15 and John 6:59). Capernaum is right on the Sea of Galilee and some of disciples (including Peter) are thought to be from Capernaum.

We visited the place that people think is Peter’s house. There is a church on top of it now, but there is a glass floor and you can see through to where archeologists have dug down to what they think is Peter’s house. (Remember Peter lived over 2000 years ago, when Jesus did, so the original house would not still be there).

Next to Peter’s house are the ancient synagogue ruins. This is probably where Jesus taught with people gathered around him. There are cats walking around the ruins. Lots of places are fenced off so people can’t walk around, but the cats just walk around all over!

We went to a Lebanese restaurant and had fish. Which was fine, except that the fish was cooked with the head still on (eyes and everything)?

Back at our hotel, the missing suitcases got to us. Hurray!!

Saturday, February 29th

Saturday, February 27th

We arrived in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem around 3:00. Unfortunately, though I arrived safely, my suitcase did not. So….I will be wearing the same clothes until it gets here. I am part of a group of 22 and about 6 of us do not have our suitcases.

We got on a big, bug bus. Much nicer than a school bus, but it does not have a bathroom on it. It does, however, have a refrigerator stocked with water bottles that we can buy for $1.00 in American money.

The money used in Israel is shekels, but we have been told that most of the places we go, if we want to buy something, we can use American dollars.

It is raining here today, but our guide, Claudia, says it will get sunnier and warmer through the week. To arrive here in the rain made me wonder why the people who told the stories in the bible didn’t say more about the weather. When Jesus and the disciples were walking all over the place was it mostly sunny? Did they have to make stops because of a thunderstorm? There was the time Jesus stopped the storm when he and the disciples were out on the boat. What are some other weather moments in the bible?

We are about to drive along a road where we can see the big wall that was built to separate Israel from Palestine. Walls, walls, walls. Lots and lots of people do not like the wall. They feel that it keeps neighbors from working out differences. I can tell you it is ugly and grey and feels bad. It looks cold. If I could get out of the bus, I would go put a hand on it and say a prayer for the people on both sides of the wall. I would pray for peace. It makes me sad to see the wall.

When we get to the hotel it was dinner time. We are all very sleepy because no one slept very much on the airplanes. But….dinner….was a huge buffet. All different kinds of foods…fruits, vegetables, soup, meats, desserts. It was unbelievable.

It is expensive to go on the internet everyday. I will either need to share internet time or figure out somewhere else to go to get online. But, all that is for tomorrow. Now, it is time to sleep.
We arrived in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem around 3:00. Unfortunately, though I arrived safely, my suitcase did not. So….I will be wearing the same clothes until it gets here. I am part of a group of 22 and about 6 of us do not have our suitcases.

We got on a big, bug bus. Much nicer than a school bus, but it does not have a bathroom on it. It does, however, have a refrigerator stocked with water bottles that we can buy for $1.00 in American money.

The money used in Israel is shekels, but we have been told that most of the places we go, if we want to buy something, we can use American dollars.

It is raining here today, but our guide, Claudia, says it will get sunnier and warmer through the week. To arrive here in the rain made me wonder why the people who told the stories in the bible didn’t say more about the weather. When Jesus and the disciples were walking all over the place was it mostly sunny? Did they have to make stops because of a thunderstorm? There was the time Jesus stopped the storm when he and the disciples were out on the boat. What are some other weather moments in the bible?

We are about to drive along a road where we can see the big wall that was built to separate Israel from Palestine. Walls, walls, walls. Lots and lots of people do not like the wall. They feel that it keeps neighbors from working out differences. I can tell you it is ugly and grey and feels bad. It looks cold. If I could get out of the bus, I would go put a hand on it and say a prayer for the people on both sides of the wall. I would pray for peace. It makes me sad to see the wall.

When we get to the hotel it was dinner time. We are all very sleepy because no one slept very much on the airplanes. But….dinner….was a huge buffet. All different kinds of foods…fruits, vegetables, soup, meats, desserts. It was unbelievable.

It is expensive to go on the internet everyday. I will either need to share internet time or figure out somewhere else to go to get online. But, all that is for tomorrow. Now, it is time to sleep.

Shalom (peace) from Israel, Pastor Laurie

Saturday, February 29th

I'm Off...sort of....

Well, I've made it as far as the Jacksonville Airport so far. I leave Jacksonville in a few minutes and go to Atlanta. We fly out of Atlanta at about 6:00 tonight to Frankfurt, Germany. We have a little layover and then get on a plane to Tel Aviv, Israel. Then, we get on a bus and drive to Tiberius, which is a city on the Sea of Galilee.

Hopefully, I will write an entry soon after we arrive at our hotel in Tiberius!!

Peace, Pastor Laurie

Technical Issues and Tests

Part of the interesting thing about this blog is that I do not know how to blog. I am learning as I go.

I bought a flip (which is a mini-video recorder) and will be taking it with me. So...I've done some tests to try and learn how to download from it. I successfully put a video of the Vancini pets (dog-Lady and cat-Aslan) on YouTube.com You can view that here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xu5RkdK6JEk

Now, I am trying to figure out how to publish video segments to the web that I don't want to put on YouTube. I have a segment of Abbie and have succesfully saved it to my desktop. I tried to join MSN Web Publishing Wizard, but the Wizard doesn't seem to like me and keeps giving me a "an error occurred when verifying your login credentials" Whatever. I better spend time with my family while I'm still here and not on the computer.

5 days to go....
look here, I might have figured it out. Here is Abbie, being Abbie. Maybe not...now blogspot seems to not like my video, either.

Mardi Gras Week

Today the children in our mid-week LOGOS program celebrated Mardi Gras. We dressed in purple and green and ate king cake and had a parade. It was a fitting celebration as next week at the same time, we will join together at our Ash Wednesday service and mark (and be marked) the beginning of Lent.

Two days after Ash Wednesday, I will leave with the group for the Holy Land.

My "to do before I leave" lists for home and work seem to be growing rather than shrinking. Instead of eating and drinking before a fast, I am rushing and scurrying before a sabbath pilgrimage.

The local beaches paper ran an article that appeared today. It can be found at the following link:
http://www.beachesleader.com/articles/2009/02/18/ponte_vedra_leader/beach_living_-_entertainment/doc499c37f4ea114225777143.txt