Pictures of the day

The stairway into a purity bath

The hills that King David hid

Doug swimming in the Dead Sea

An explaination of the ramp at Masada

This is an explanation of how the Roman's built a ramp into the Masada. It was quite a project and the Roman's were cheated out of a victory. When they arrived on the site they found more water and food than they knew what to do with. 900 people could have lived on the amount of food and water for 5 years.

Getting a bigger picture of the last days of Jesus

This is the Western or Wailing Wall. Directly to the East of this wall was the Holy of Holies. When the Temple was being rebuilt the second time everybody was asked to contribute what they could. The poor offered their labor and built this wall. The Western Wall was the last wall standing after the burning of Jerusalem.








This is the site that is believed that Jesus was born. I am facing the manger where it is believed that Jesus was placed after he came into the world. The star that I am touching is to represent the star that guided the wise men from the East.






The tour is slowing down in pace. We spent the morning visiting with a scholar who explained the final three days of Jesus life. He said that they are two different stories with Jesus betrayal and death. The first story has Jesus more human and while he was in the garden the pending death overwhelmed Jesus to the point of a nervous breakdown and slowly he pulled himself together. The second story has Jesus more pious and in control. The reasoning of the more pious and controlled image is to provide comfort because of a vulnerable understanding of Jesus and his humanity. Another layer of understanding was discovered.

We then spent the remainder of the morning reviewing the material and visiting the Dead Sea scrolls. The building itself was designed to duplicate the "cave" that the scrolls were found. The review took place was we looked at a model of Jerusalem during the 2nd Temple period.

That afternoon we drove to Bethlehem and toured the sites where Jesus was born and where the shepherds were told of Jesus' birth. The site is an active worshiping site and every Christmas they sing Christmas Carols.

It is the Palestinian side of the "wall". That was a study in contrast. More on that later.

Be well

This is the group singing Holy Night at the site that is believed to be Jesus' birth site.

Shore of Galilee

Sunrise on the sea of Galilee. I missed the sun actually breaking over the mountain, but still being there opened the mind and heart to a deeper and richer meaning to history.

Amazing Grace

The person next to me has a strong voice so you will hear her. The echo lasted about 8 seconds. It was amazing to hear. Enjoy

Sunday - Day off

Today was a day off from the tour. We had different choices to worship and being the Episcopalian that I am I chose the Anglican Church. I am sure that surprised some people. The moving part of the service was that the liturgy followed the same structure that is used in Wyoming. I felt connected with home and found comfort in knowing that the very words that I were saying were being or will be repeated all around the world. It was nice to be home even when I am over 5000 miles away.

I spent most of the day walking around and taking in the sites. I attempted to retrace some of my steps from yesterday, however I got all spun around. My new friend K.C. is from LA and is from the Presbyterian church who also is about my age and graduated from seminary the same year I did, tried to understand the conflict in this part of the world. We did this as we looked at the wall being built around the West Bank. Talk about a moment in history.

It is nice to have my feet on the ground around here. As I look about the stories of the Bible and the long history that is connected to them are taking on new meanings. They are very layered and rich with meaning.

I will wrap up here. Talk to you soon! Be well my friends and may peace prevail on earth!