From the Valley of Elah, we reached the coast and turned north at Ashdod which historically was one of the five capital cities of the Philistine Pentapolis of David’s day. The Philistines were a seafaring people. They swept southward from the Aegean, ravaging Anatolia, Cyprus and pushing at Egypt on their route to settle along the south coast of Israel. They became one of Israel’s chief adversaries throughout the period of her Kings…

Doing anything in another land can be challenging. One of our biggest challenges here has been trying to work around the weekly Sabbath as well as the many holidays on which everything closes down. Renting a car when everything is closed can become complex. I spent half a day and walked all over Jerusalem with the help of one of the volunteers at CMJ (Dave) to get it done. We had to pick it up…

Our primary purpose here is to learn and to grow. We are being encouraged in this process by a mentoring relationship with two people. Dr. Don Stanley is a gentle and lovely man whose job here is large and multifaceted. He oversees us pastorally and has given us some material to read and work on. Our primary teacher is Dr. David Pileggi. He and his wife Carol have been in Israel for thirty-five years and their three children were born here. He has served as the Rector of Christ Church for the last six years…

We are here in Jerusalem on a Sabbatical work/study program. For the work portion, Holly and I have been trained to take an eight hour breakfast and lunch shift three days a week. We will serve about fifty to a hundred people at each meal. I used to work in restaurants when I was in High School and I am reminded again of how physical the work is…

It is time to say a few words about this Church that is hosting us and helping us with this Sabbatical Journey. It is the oldest Protestant Church in the Middle East. It is actually built on top of what was King Herod’s Palace gardens. There are large cisterns and tunnels below us, one of which is thought to have been an emergency escape tunnel for Herod…

Holly and I love museums and art galleries. The finest treasures of history are gathered into these places. The Israel Museum ranks as world class with treasures galore for those who love the holy scriptures. Wonderful things – like the Dead Sea Scrolls. Accidentally discovered in a cave by a Bedouin shepherd in 1946, these scrolls rolled…

Today we hiked the Wadi Qelt along the old Jericho Road. It was HOT!! We took George’s taxi to the bluff above St. George’s monastery and were greeted there by a swarm of Bedouins. We quickly moved through them and began the descent through the rugged, craggy beauty…

Today we saw three small museums in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City. The first told the story of the battle over Jerusalem in 1948 when 150 Jewish defenders, using antiquated weapons, held off the Jordanian Army for ten days. They used children as runners to carry messages from one point to another…