5.22.2007

A Legitimate Update!

All right, we have made you wait long enough!! We finally have consistent wireless internet at our hotel for the rest of the week so we can upload some of the fun pictures we have taken in our time so far in Israel. Just to give a quick summary of all we have done I will list our activities and then the pictures will come later:

We spent the first three days in Jerusalem exploring the Old City. We spent this time mainly in the Old Testament talking about the city in the time of David, exploring some of the excavations and just a bit of NT stuff in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Then we made our way to Galilee by way of Caesarea Maritime, where we spent four wonderful days at the En Gev resort right on the shore of the Sea - it was beautiful!! The weather was much warmer and more humid in the Galilee area but it was a nice change of pace to all the rain in Jerusalem. We visited Nazareth, Capernaum, Chorazin, Megiddo, the Golan Heights, Caesarea Philippi, Nimrod's Castle, Tiberias and probablly others that I am forgetting. We then left Galilee and made our way to the Judean Wilderness in the Southern part of the country. We drove on the West Bank to Jericho, Qumran and the Dead Sea. After a nice float in the sea, we spent last night at the Masada Youth Hostel. This morning Brian hiked Masada and I opted to take the tram up since I have already hiked it before. Now Brian knows why I only needed to do it once! :-) Anyway, today we covered much ground from the Judean Wilderness through the Negev and are now back in the Old City for our final four days in this beautiful country. I hope I didn't overwhlem any of you with this huge paragraph - but I am sure you can get a picture of what a whirlwind tour we are doing by the above explanation!

Ok, as promised a few highlights in the form of pictures:


This was taken on our first full day in the Old City. We are standing on the Citadel by Jaffa Gate with a nice view of the Dome of the Rock behind us. Aren't we cute?


After a brief but strong rain storm, we were a little wet. Here we are inside a tunnel by the center of the Jewish Quarter.


Here we are at Caesarea Maritime. Unfortunately the picture is marred by the fog and a random tourist on the right side of the photo. David Jeremiah has a group in Israel right now and there were about 500 people milling around this site!


This was taken at Kursi overlooking the Sea of Galilee. It is the traditional site of where the legion of demons were cast into the pigs that ran head long into the sea.


Brian is very excited about this inscription. We fell in love over Greek texts and this reminds him of our dating days!


Here is our entire group (except the person who was taking the picture of course!). This was taken right before we hiked down Mt Arbel. And I do mean hike - this is a serious incline!


Brian took this picture looking through a window in Nimrod's Castle. The castle is above Caeseara Philippi half way up Mt Hermon. Here we are fairly close to the Lebanese border and the Syrian border.


Our bus driver, Joel, became a Christian 2 years ago and is finally getting baptized by Dr Varner. This was a wonderful time on the Jordan River of rejoicing over his salvation and remembering the joy of our own!

Hope you enjoyed the pictures!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Guys,
You are seeing places we didn't see. Did you get baptised again?
Keep the pictures coming.
Love YOU,
Gram and Pop

Brian and Monica Gee said...

Thanks for all the comments - it is so good to be able to keep in touch with you!! :-) No, we didn't get baptised in the Jordan. Joel was the only one who got baptised that day. Can't wait to see you guys soon!