Sorry about not posting for so long!
We are well into our time in the Middle East and I’ve posted only one blog during our entire time of traveling. I’m sorry about that! It’s been hard getting time online. Reliable internet connections aren’t as common in the Middle East as they are stateside. In addition, our days on the bus are long: We get on at 7 AM every morning and we’re not been getting into our hotel rooms until about 9 PM. After cleaning up from the day and making sure that everything is ready for the next day it’s 10…we’re exhausted…so it’s off to bed.
At any rate, we have traveled up and down the Nile in Egypt, been through the ruins of Petra as well as the Arnon River gorge in Jordan, explored the Galilee region of Israel, and just arrived in Jerusalem this evening. We had a quick dinner at 6:30 (a lot earlier than usual!) and then walked from our hotel (which is in the old part of the city) to the Western Wall. The Western Wall is the only part of Herod’s temple (completed 67 AD) that is left, and it is a place of prayer for the Jewish community.
Connie and I will spend the next two days in Jerusalem and Bethlehem. After that we say goodbye to our 25 fellow tour participants and spend a couple of days on our own traveling south to Masada, the ancient Herodian palace, up along the Dead Sea, and back to Jerusalem.
So far this amazing trip has rekindled a love for the text of scripture, a new understanding of the place of Egypt in Israel’s history, and a new collection of mental images of many of the places in the bible. I have tons of notes that I’ll go through as we return home, and I’ll blog a bunch of that stuff in the time to come. Hopefully, I’ll get a faster internet connection somewhere and will be able to post some more pictures and some video too.
