Israel Day One

Tel Aviv to Tiberias on the Sea of Galilee

Shalom!

            I just returned from the Holy Land and want to share with you some of the things I saw and maybe some thoughts on the sites.  There were so many places that I visited and I want to try to think through them as I share them with you.  I hope you enjoy my pictures and ponderings!

I was there from January 8 - 17.  I met up with a group from Oregon for the tour.  Last July I saw a post on Facebook from the hosting Pastor saying there were still spots open for the group.  I found it was in my price range and was during a slower time for work in Kenya.  I have always wanted to visit the Holy Land and see the places where Jesus lived and ministered and this seemed to be the time to do it. 

I landed in Tel Aviv at 2:40 am.  It was too early to try to figure out my way to Galilee, so I just sat for a few hours and tried to sleep a little.  I eventually found the free bus that would take me to the Tel Aviv train station from the airport.  I had to take a taxi from the train station to the bus station.  Once there, I found the bus that would take me to Tiberias.  It took a little over two hours to get there with a few stops along the way.  I was going to meet up with my group there at the hotel. 

            

Tiberias on the SW side of the Sea of Galilee

Once I made it to the hotel I took a short nap before I went exploring.  I walked along the Tiberias Promenade.  It runs along the Sea of Galilee.  The Sea was smaller than I expected.  It is about 13 miles long and only 8 miles wide at it's widest point.  It is shaped like a harp.  It plays such a large part of Jesus’ life that I always imagined it bigger.  Tiberias is on the southwest side of the Sea.  Jesus could have seen it when he was home in Capernaum as it is a very large city on a hill.  Scripture never says he visited it but this is probably because it had been built on a cemetery.  That would have made it unclean for Jews.  After the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD it eventually became the center for Jewish scholarship.  It had to be cleansed before this happened.

Panoramic view of the Sea of Galilee from my hotel

Here are a few pictures from my afternoon walk.  I hope you enjoy them.

Looking to the NW (I think) from Tiberias

the NW side of the Sea

looking East from the Promenade

We didn't visit but I thought the signage was cool

art work outside a private hot springs pool next to the Sea

art at a round-about

My hotel - the Royal Plaza

The avenue down to the Sea

towel art - the first & only on the trip

It was a little overwhelming to think that I was so near the Sea of Galilee!  I enjoyed the walk and just exploring a little.  There were a lot of cats along the promenade.  I think people put out food for them as they are all over Israel.  That made it feel like home :).  

A city on a hill seen on my way to Tiberias from the bus

On the bus on the way to Tiberias, I saw several small towns and cities on hills.  I know it may sound silly, but in looking at these towns, I kept hearing the words of Jesus saying, “A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.”  I realized how Jesus used something very common that most people would not even think of in his teaching.  It is very obvious once you look around that hilly country.  When he said this, he was saying that we who follow him are the light of the world.  We are to be the light of the world just like those cities were on the hills.  They were obvious and stood out to anyone who looked that way.  Do we shine out for all to see?  Are we obviously Christ followers to any who look our way?  Just some thoughts to ponder from my first day in Israel.

Holidays...

I get asked how I celebrate holidays here since I am not in my home country.  The answer is pretty simple.  We celebrate them any way we can.  I have tried over the years to collect a few things for each holiday that is important to me.  I put those things around the house during the month of that holiday if I can.

This year, I celebrated the fourth of July with some fellow Americans here in town.  Of course, to Kenyans, the fourth is just another day of work.  I did do some work, but I also did some cooking and preparing for the celebration.  I have the very nice flag table cloth you see in the picture, in my cupboard, so I brought it to our friends' house so we could use it for our celebration.  They also had a beach towel with a flag on it, so that was proudly hung in the window.

I didn't get pictures, but we even had fire works of a kind.  Taylor (the man at the end of the table) took some rubbing alcohol outside, made some shapes and lit the liquid.  It was fun until the alcohol ran out. We had dinner at the Kilpatrick's house.  They work with Share International.  They have a nice pool that was put in by the previous missionaries who lived in the house they live in now.  So, we got to swim and then barbecued some tandori chicken for the main meal.  There was lots of good food and fellowship!

The Kilpatrick girls and their Turkana friend made decorations too!  You can see them behind their heads in the picture above.  All in all it was a very fun evening!

Fun With Reading!

The kids had a short mid-term break in July.  I wanted to catch up a little with them and to make sure they got an opportunity to do some reading on their break.  So, I had them come over one day and opened my kids' bookshelf to them.  It was fun seeing them pick out books and then actually go and read them!

I let them do some reading on their own for a time.  Then I got a couple of books with nice pictures and read to them.  Some of the kids are pretty young, so I try to read to them a little and make sure they understand the story.  The big kids love it too, so I couldn't leave them out of the fun.  After I read several books to them, they did some more reading on their own.

Kelvin reading

Even the older kids tend to pick easier books to read.  I think when I have them over during the month of December, I will have to find a thicker book to read to the older kids just to see if I can get them reading more.  At any rate, it was a fun day and I enjoyed seeing them reading.  Since then, when they come for lunch on Saturdays, I often see a couple of them coming in the house to find a book to read.  School is only half a day on Saturdays for the kids in class 1-6.  So, I give them all a little lunch before sending them home since they get out right at lunch time.  They are still choosing easy books, but at least they are interested in reading.  I'll start with that and see if I can make it a bit better!  There are some girls reading too, I just didn't get any good pictures of them.  I'll try to do better next time :).

the bigger boys reading

Mountain Visitors

Visitors!  When I traveled around on furlough, I was usually excited when I got close to the place I was going.  I was excited to renew friendships and to share what the Lord was doing here in Turkana.  I was also excited to be shown a little bit of the place I was visiting.  It is always nice to have a "tour" of the place you are visiting so you know a little of its history.  I wanted to sample the foods that were popular there just so I could say I had some of famous Snicklefritz's famous concoction.  A couple examples of this are that I got a hot beef sandwich in Naperville and some Texas Barbecue in San Antonio.  I had barbecue in Tennessee too and I loved both of them even though they did taste different.

I wonder if my hosting friends were as excited as I was to explore their town?  In June there was a group of visitors that came to Lodwar.  They didn't come to visit me.  They came to visit a sister ministry at the Mission of Hope school in Lodwar.  At the same time, I knew they were coming because one of the ministers at their church told me.  He wasn't able to visit, but other folks from the church came.  I was excited that they were coming!

The group meeting time after dinner

They spent most of their time at the school which is as it should be.  However, they did spend a little time visiting me one evening.  I fixed spaghetti.  I knew they were staying at a Kenyan guest house, so I thought I'd fix something they were not likely to get there.  I made the sauce from scratch just like my Mom taught me.  I might be bragging, but it was pretty good.  It was so nice just to connect with folks from 'Home.'  They were from Mountain Christian Church in Maryland, so the home part is a bit stretched, but they were from America and that counts.  It was nice to get to know them a little and to see their excitement in helping the Turkana children and their families.

My teammate, Eric Pitts, and I also got to take them on a little tour of the work that CMF is doing out in the "bush" of Turkana.  One afternoon we drove them out to a village and let them see life in the desert for themselves.  On the way, they saw many goats and camels.  They also saw the homes where the Turkana people live.  Once there, they got to see a little two roomed clinic and meet our clinic worker.  They saw a little of the school that we are helping to sponsor in that village.  We also took them down to the garden areas and told them about how we are working with communities to drill wells and teach about irrigated farming.  It was fun to show them and we had a good hour or so to chat in the truck as we went to the site.

At the garden - drinking good clean water from the well

After showing them these sights, we took them to see lake Turkana.  It is the world's largest permanent desert lake and the largest alkaline lake.  None of that really mattered much.  We went so we could get wet and see some pretty scenery.  We only got to be there for about forty minutes, but it was fun.

We had some who waded with me

some who got in completely

and a few brave souls who went way out :)  Eric was with them.

some enjoyed the banda and a soda before we left too

When I was helping take them to the Lodwar airport, I found out that they had been served spaghetti noodles about five or six times the week they were there.  They did say that they only got sauce at my house, so I guess I still managed to give them something they didn't get.  Next time visitors come and stay at the local guest house, I will know to serve something different!

At the airport, I dropped them off and waited for the plane to arrive.  You see, I was a little sad that they were leaving, but I was happy too.  My teammates, the Mordens, were coming on the plane that they were leaving on.  So, I was waiting to greet them and bring them home!

Sights of Lodwar - June

I renewed my habit of walking three or four times a week when I returned to Lodwar.  It is nice to walk in places I wouldn't normally be and see what there is to see.  I carry my phone/camera with me just in case I see something interesting.  Here are a few of the pictures I captured in June.  I hope you enjoy them!

a hill I climb on one of my routes

Mama and chicks

football/ soccer anyone?

3 kids in a Turkana "playstation"

Smile!

floppy eared goat

GPS station for planes flying over Turkana on the way to Nairobi

someone's home

cute kiddies playing in the road

jump rope anyone - or is that sit rope?

can you tell the sheep from the goats?

weaver bird's nest

down the hill I go

sometimes the way is rocky

most of the time it is sandy with evidence of many who have gone before me

I enjoy my walks and the chance I get to greet other people.  I hope you have enjoyed these few pictures from my June walks!