whereisjodi.

Time and persistence and I figured out how to upload pics in a makeshift fashion. Here are some ladies in the wall of the Old City after leaving Temple Mount. In an earlier day folks would have shot arrows out of this hole.

 

Enjoying ourselves at the King David Hotel.

One of the Bedouins walked right up and started laying the keffiyahs on us before we walked down to the Monastery.

 Dad grinding coffee the old, old-fashioned way.

At the top of the St. George Monastery, just outside Elijah's Cave.

The amazing Cowles family, complete with solar-powered fan hats. The other Cowles present would not sit for this portrait and, in fact, pretended not to know us. ;)

 

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Or more correctly, the Hashmonite Kingdom of Jordan. We left at 9 and trucked along fine on the Israeli side, but had a little trouble trying to get across the border. Not serious trouble – don’t worry – it just took a couple hours and most of the time we were sitting on the bus without our passports. Luckily my brother the salesman kicked in and got us playing some games over the loudspeaker.

The hotel booked us all in as Mr. and Mrs., regardless of whether that was true or not. For my aunt and I it was not so much of a bother to have the King size bed, but several of the guy roommates were not interested in that arrangement. ;) Actually, we switched rooms because you could see a cloud of smoke when we walked in the door, so now we have twin beds again and slightly cleaner lungs come morning.

We did one tourist thing on our way from the border to the hotel – we stopped at an old amphitheatre or coliseum from the 6th century I think. My brother and I climbed all the way to the top and I was pretty much out of breath, but it afforded a nice view. Near the ruins was a lovely park with fountains and tables set in the grass. The hookah was much in presence. Actually, I wouldn’t have known what a hookah was except I saw hookah bars in Vegas – it’s a tall kind of water pipe and you choose whatever flavored tobacco you want to smoke. The Jordanian guide told us one hour of smoking the hookah is like smoking a pack of cigarettes.

Our guide is named Jafar so one of the group started singing the song the bird sings to villain Jafar in Aladdin. He didn’t hear it so I don’t know if he would have got the reference or not. ;) He gave us an interesting explanation of the Hashmonite dynasty from the first King who declared the rebellion against the Turks.

The weirdest thing for me was driving by what he called the American Fortress. It was the American Embassy and it really did look like a fortress, including the fact that there was a tank sitting in front. I’ve seen a number of American Embassies around the world and I’ve always seen Marines guarding from outside, but I’ve never seen one sitting in a rather nasty looking tank.

Another interesting thing is that, in addition to a driver and guide, we also have an armed tourist police officer with us. The Israeli guide that came to help us cross the border told us that would be the case in both Jordan and Egypt. We joked with her that in Israel the guides are trained in karate to defend us. We also found out today that the valet guys at the hotels in Israel are armed – a police car was coming around this morning and checking all the hotels, if the valet guy wasn’t armed the hotel would get a big fine. So when I called them the kosher police the other day…I was partly right. ;) Funny thing is, I felt perfectly safe in Israel. The only time I felt a bit weird was when we were in Palestinian territory when we visited Bethlehem.

Most everyone is having dinner at the home of a friend of my parents tonight, Arab food catered in. Speaking for myself, I’m pretty excited to be out of kosher-land. We haven’t had real bread in several days because of Passover and, no offense, but the Israeli margarine that they serve with dinner because they can’t serve meat and dairy together tastes like Crisco. :)

Tomorrow we will see Jerash which, if I understand correctly, is the best preserved Roman city in the world. Then we see Mt. Nebo and somewhere else I can’t remember before taking a long drive down to Petra.

Posted by authorjodi at 07:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Remember when I wrote about Banias, the old temple to the god Pan? This is from that site. Very beautiful series of small waterfalls coming down from a natural spring.

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Today my dad’s Israeli tour partner wanted to provide a small van and guide for my dad and his family. With a little bit of guilt feeling, the six of us zoomed off just after 9. Our first stop was a memorial to 76 <ish> doctors, nurses and others who were murdered along the road to Mount Scopus. They were ambushed by Arabs on their way up to Hadassah Hospital in the year before Israel became a state. Those of you who have read the Bodie Thoene novels I mentioned in the last entry will recognize that incident.

We hopped back in the car and drove on to one of the disputed settlements – the name of which I was told at least five times…but I can only remember the English translation “the red ascent.” It started out as just a settlement, but is now its own municipality with a police station, a mall, schools, etc. It’s in a very strategic location and the guide just wanted to drive us around to see how great it was. It really was a lovely neighborhood – lots of flowers and parks and the like. Very clean. I hate to say it, but I could tell for instance in the Old City when we transitioned from the Arab Quarter to the Jewish Quarter. It’s the same in different parts of Jerusalem as well. Whether it’s cultural or not, it’s a fact that the Jewish areas show a lot more pride of ownership in the land.

On our way down toward the Dead Sea we veered off onto the old Jericho road. You can’t get into Jericho anymore without an Arab guide, but you can go halfway on the old road which we did. This is the road mentioned in the Good Samaritan story and you can see why Jesus chose that for the setting – it’s a winding old trail with about a million different places where a robber could hide. We saw a lot of Bedouin tents and shacks along the way, loads of sheep and goats scrabbling along the hillsides.

At one point we pulled off the road for a view and were set on by about five Bedouins with necklaces and keffiyahs hanging from their arms. We made a few purchases in and around looking at the beautiful view. It was amazing – total desert all around, then this swath of green where a spring popped up and went through an aqueduct down toward the monastery we were going to visit. There were a few palm trees and lots of green, but only within a few feet of the water source.

Finally we arrived at the path leading to the St. George Monastery. Their were some Bedouins hanging around with donkeys where we got out and my brother thoughtfully decided to hire one for his pregnant wife to ride back up. That set off a chain reaction until we had all three donkeys following us down the very steep hillside. It was all paved…sort of…but super steep and really switchbacky. When we arrived at the bottom we could see this unbelievable monastery hanging off the side of the mountain. We climbed a bunch of stairs, entered, and were met by a Greek Orthodox father or priest or whatever they’re called. He was wearing all black and had a long black beard and long hair topped with a black stocking cap. Meanwhile we were sweating to death and the girls had had to put on jackets because our t-shirts weren’t covering up our arms.

He showed us around the chapel a little and when my dad asked him to explain how they felt about icons he launched into probably close to a 20-minute sermon. It was really interesting – he talked about how the icons are like windows to the person. Like we would look at a picture of a loved one and wouldn’t be attached to the picture, but to the person and the memories and feelings about that person. That’s a real short summary, but that’s what I got out of it.

He also talked about pain and suffering and earning your reward. He talked about how winning things easily, or being given things without earning them didn’t give you the same feeling of pride in working hard to earn it…and that there wasn’t true joy and happiness without pain. I kind of got the feeling he was a little bit works oriented, but other than that his words really made me think about how this life is just preparation, how we are to be working out our salvation and learning to walk with God in this depraved world. Basically how this life is the birth pains and frustration that make heaven even greater.

Anyway, got on a little tangent there, sorry! We of course had to use the facilities and they had about the best view ever because the squatty potties had windows cut out of the rock looking out on the hillside. I had one brief moment of wondering whether the Bedouins spent the day with binoculars…

One of the coolest things was walking up another couple flights of stairs and finding the traditional site of the cave of Elijah, where he fled after defeating the prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel. That was wicked cool. It was a cave of about 30 feet and at the back was an old dude with a flashlight doing some restoration work on a mosaic. There were cracks in the ceiling and you could see the black smoke from hundreds of years of candles burning.

The way back up was eased considerably for the rest of the gals when they road the donkeys. I walked with the guys but don’t get the wrong impression, it was only because there weren’t enough donkeys to go around…it was quite a trek! ;) I think I got some good video of the riders – it was pretty funny looking.

We drove down toward the Dead Sea and went back to the place we’d swam before because someone in the group had left something special, then went back to Qumran and had lunch at the cafeteria there. Our guide told us he’d been at the Valley of Tears that I think I wrote about earlier – up on the Golan Heights where Syria almost broke through with their bazillion tanks. He’d been observing Yom Kippur when they saw a jeep drive by which was a big sign of something wrong as no one is supposed to drive – the soldiers came right into the synagogue and gave the code word to call up the reserves. He was a tank commander and lost more than half of his brigade I think he called it. It was sort of sickening to be sitting there listening to him talk about it – so much more real than reading about it in a book. Especially because he told us the story of his brother’s best friend dying right after driving his tank.

Finishing up the day we headed back into Jerusalem and went to the big Jewish food market. THAT was an experience. Thousands of people swarming through a couple streets with vendors yelling all the time. This particular place has been the sight of several suicide bombings and we saw a lot of military presence there – besides which our guide told us there were even more plain-clothed policemen than the ones we saw. We bought a few miscellaneous things like hyssop and some sort of spices you put in rice.

We also bought some really yummy cinnamon roll kind of things – not cinnamon rolly at all, but that’s what they tasted like. Unfortunately we had to give them back to the guide because we got stopped by the kosher police outside the hotel when we tried to bring them in. Ok, not really the police…but they had some guy standing outside who wouldn’t let you bring in anything that would desecrate the Passover cleansing they’d done. Apparently a few other of our group had trouble with this throughout the day…

To finish the night we walked down to the Old City to watch the Orthodox Jews welcome Shabbat like a bride as they do – lots of dancing and singing and the Yeshiva boys come dancing down the street to the Wailing Wall. I remember it from last time which is probably good because this time it was nothing special – the schoolboys were already out for Passover so they didn’t come down and we sort of missed the singing because it wasn’t as boisterous as usual.

Tomorrow we have to have our bags out front at 7:45 and we pull out for Jordan at 9. It’ll take us a couple hours to get to the Allenby Bridge and then a couple more hours to get us to Amman. I think we’re having dinner with some friends from Boise, then we start our touring in the morning. From this point on it’s all new to me so I’m excited about it, though not so much for the sleep-in days to be over!

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Here's a few folks some of you will recognize. We're standing in the middle of a tank hole blown through an old Jordanian Officer's Club. This used to be cush duty for the Jordanians, sitting around drinking coffee and looking out at the Dead Sea. There were some incredible murals painted on the walls, but as you can see this one was missing a bit. ;)

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Here is your first and possibly last picture – a couple friends mudding up at the Dead Sea. People come from all over the world to have treatments from the mineral-rich sea. In fact, in socialist medicine countries of Europe the doctor can prescribe a month-long stay and the government will pay for someone to come and stay in a resort hotel and take treatments. If that’s the case, I may rethink my position on Hilary-Care!

I’m sitting in the lobby of our hotel which is the only place you can connect to the internet. I think they must have the weakest wireless signal in production – either that or the steel walls from the shelters on every floor block the signal. ;) 

So much for my free day when I’d have hours to catch up on my blog and post pictures galore. I did sleep in til 9 this morning which was pure heaven. I turned on the tv and it was on the Hallmark Channel five minutes into Love Comes Softly, a sappy movie based on an old Janette Oke series. My aunt and I watched the rest of that, then I got myself around so I could meet some folks for our 12 o’clock cab ride to Temple Mount. Infidels could get on from 12:30-1:30 today so we wanted to make sure and be toward the front of the line in case they only let a certain amount on. It was a very interesting experience but I’m not going to post about it. If you‘re interested in further details feel free to e-mail me.

I will tell you that on our way out I had an experience I’d never had before in my whole life…I got pooped on by a bird flying overhead. The only thing was, it was brownish-red, not the usual white. That was lovely. :p

Next we wandered all around the Old City, through narrow streets with cobble-stoned floors. I think we were mostly in the Arab quarter but it was kind of hard for me to tell when we moved between quarters. My mom, brother and sister-in-law and I split off and took a cab to the King David Hotel to have lunch. My mom and I read the Bodie Thoene Zion novels several times over the years so the King David was a big thrill. I don’t think my brother was as thrilled… ;)

We came back and met up with some other folks at Jaffa Gate and wandered around for a couple hours, five of us ending up in an Arab coffee shop of some kind with strong cups of coffee or tea and a plate full of baklava. Yum!

I’ve decided that when I return I’m going to write about one place I visited on this trip each day, complete with pictures. It’s just too hard trying to keep up as we go along. You can look forward to descriptions of Masada, En Gedi, the Dead Sea and Qumran from Tuesday, and Yad Vashem (the Holocaust Museum), the Via Dolorosa, the Holy Sepulcher and the Garden Tomb yesterday. The reason I didn’t write last night was because we had another lecture, this time with an Orthodox Jew, which was very interesting but went late into the night. I barely dragged myself to bed.

We’ve got another free day tomorrow but I’m not sure what I’ll be doing. I’m sure of two things – first, that I’ll sleep in again!! Second, that I’ll probably be going, going, going. :)

Posted by authorjodi at 01:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)

We went down to the desert today -- En Gedi, Masada, Dead Sea and Qumran. Very fun day topped with a lecture. In fact, I'm sitting in the lobby of a kibbutz right now on someone else's computer waiting for our taxis to arrive and take us back to the hotel. I'll have to post more tomorrow -- just wanted those of nervous temperament to know we were alive and well. ;)

Posted by authorjodi at 11:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

What a day!

Sorry, a little inside joke from my trip to Guatemala last summer. ;) That’s what you write when you’re journaling and you’re too tired to pry your eyes open long enough to write something of significance.

I should begin by letting you know we have our trip to Palestinian Authority controlled Bethlehem out of the way. We were under the protection of the Nissan Brothers the whole time so, though it felt weird to most of us, we were perfectly safe. We ate in their cafeteria, shopped at their olive wood store and visited the Church of the Nativity – before skedaddling back through the security fence complete with barbed wire and armed guards.

Before that we went to the traditional site of the upper room where we had a talk from our Pentecostal pastor about the Holy Spirit coming to the disciples. One of the rules of the trip that were given to us on the first day was that there would be no theological ‘discussions’ as we’re all from different traditions and denominations and that has been really great. While I am not, nor have ever been, a Pentecostal, I really appreciated what the pastor had to say about what he felt was the birth of his tradition.

We visited David’s Tomb and the Church of Peter’s Denial. I’m sure that’s called something else, but I can’t think of it right now. We saw Caiphus’ house – complete with the dungeon that was in his basement. I’m not sure I saw this last trip, but if so I didn’t remember it. It was actually pretty depressing to me – he had his lovely <for the time> home and a hole in his floor so he could see down two flights into the dungeon where his prisoners were suffering. We crawled down in that dungeon that was dark and grimy and small and looked up the hole – and I felt in my soul that that is the way I am when I get on one of my self-righteous tears. That I look down from my lofty tower on people who are suffering in whatever sin or addiction has imprisoned them in darkness and I show them no compassion – yet Christ gets right down there with them. Quite literally in today’s case as that’s a dungeon He spent some time in.

The bus dropped us at the top of the Palm Sunday road and we had a lovely view of Temple Mount before walking down that road to the Garden of Gethsemane. That is one place I remember clearly from last time. Olive trees never die, a new one just grows up right in the middle of the old, so there’s this one grove of olive trees that’s been there since the time of Christ and that’s how they know it’s the correct location. We went into the usual section my dad takes groups into – normally you can’t go there but he knows how to bribe the right guard…

After Gethsemane we went to Bethlehem, then after Bethlehem we went into the Old City through the Zion Gate and walked around the Jewish Quarter up to the Wailing Wall. I almost fell asleep at dinner and then we had a debrief meeting to see how everyone was doing on the trip so far.

Tomorrow we get to wear shorts as we’re going into the desert: Qumran, Masada, En Gedi and the Dead Sea. I’m going to just apologize right now and get it over with – there will be no pictures! It’s more time and energy than I have. Maybe on our free days Thursday and Friday when I have a bit more time…but no promises.

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It took an embarrassing amount of thought when I was typing last night to remember where all we’d been…therefore, I’m going to try to type a little bit during the day while I have the chance. We’re driving down a terribly skinny road in Nazareth just after leaving one of the two Churches of the Annunciation. We visited the one that was built on top of Mary’s Well (which is really a spring). There’s only one well in Nazareth and it’s been that way for 2,000 years, so we know that the church sits in close proximity to where Mary was visited by the angel Gabriel.

We stood in the courtyard for a few minutes while we waited for the Sunday service to be completed and right before we went in the Muslim call to worship sounded. It was sort of depressing to me – a reminder of the deceiver right in the middle of a site commemorating Mary’s faith. There are about 1 ½ million Arab Israelis so it’s been real weird to drive by towns and see minarets all over the place.

I just revisited my amazement over Mary’s faith during Christmas when I saw the movie The Nativity. I was struck by how the holy man of God Zechariah questioned the angel so much that he was struck mute until his son was born. But then there was Mary – a 14-year old girl who received quite possibly the strangest news in history, and she simply said ok, if you say so I’m your servant.

We’re on our way to Mount Carmel, passing through Megiddo on the way. This morning I woke up around 12:30 again, but it was because of a drunk yelling on the boardwalk after the Israel-England soccer match finished. The wake-up call at 6:15 was pretty hideous, but we managed to get our luggage out the door by the prescribed 6:45 time so the bellboys could get it to the bus while we were eating breakfast.

Our first stop was Arbel where we went on a small hike of about a quarter of a mile, somewhat up a mountain. They’re called the Cliffs of Arbel I think and it afforded us an absolutely amazing view of the Sea of Galilee, Tiberius, all the way across to the Golan Heights and into Jordan. It was just a phenomenal view and I was wishing I could stay there all day and hike around.

We passed a Jewish pilgrimage site where someone named Maimomenides or something like that was buried. Have to say I sort of missed the point on that one, but it was just a 30-second stop and then the bus driver hit the gas.

Our longest stop so far today was at the Jordan River where about 10 members of the group were baptized. The water was pretty chilly so they were pretty happy for the warm showers in the bathroom.

Next we passed through Cana and spotted the two churches commemorating Jesus’ first miracle, but we didn’t stop because we have about a zillion other stops today.

One reason I wanted to type a little during the day was so I could give more than a travelogue. I feel like we’re seeing so much that all I have time to do is just give a couple highlights from each place, without really processing through my thoughts. So…here’s my thoughts from the Galilee now that we’re leaving it.

First, I can’t imagine living this close to people who want to wipe me from the map. I can’t imagine how they do it – I think if we as Americans had Mexicans or Canadians standing at the border and shooting either guns or 18-mile-range rockets into our country – we’d nuke them so fast they wouldn’t know what hit them.

We just did a drive-by of Armageddon and heard about the long history of battles that have been fought in this valley. Apparently the very first battle in recorded history happened here between the Egyptians and Hittites. Also General Allenby fought a big battle here in World War I and all around the world people thought it was the end of the world.

Ok, all the above was written before noon and now I’m writing from the hotel in Jerusalem after dinner. We went through the valley of Armageddon up to a Druz restaurant on Mount Carmel and had a falafel lunch, then headed to the Carmelite Monastery that commemorates Elijah’s victory over the prophets of Baal.

This visit is an example of what moves me the most about Israel. Since it was Sunday the monastery was closed so we walked up the hill and sat outside on the edge of the mountain overlooking the valley of Armageddon. The tour member who was assigned gave a talk and read the whole story of Elijah and God’s triumph through him. I was sitting on a rock looking up at the sky and, maybe I wasn’t in the exact spot, but I was pretty darn close to where God sent down fire to lick up the offering…and the rocks…and the water in the trenches. And it was just so moving – I’ve heard that story since I was sitting in Sunday School watching flannel graphs – and today I was feeling the earth where it actually happened. It’s true that being in Israel brings the Bible to life, there’s no other way to describe it.

After Mt. Carmel we went to Caesarea by the Sea and that was very cool. They’ve excavated it so you can see a chunk of the old horse-racing track and an amphitheatre. My mom, aunt and another woman sang Amazing Grace from the stage and we all sat around on the 2,000 year old stone seats. Those Romans sitting all day to watch the games were not comfortable, I can tell you that!

That’s going to have to do it for tonight. We have a 6:30 call and I am plain bushed. We get dropped off on the Mount of Olives tomorrow and spend the day riding Bus 11 – which means using our own two legs. ;)

P.S. I had fully intended to post pictures but I'm sorry to say I'm having enough trouble getting a blog written every day, let alone doing anything semi-complicated. And I don't know where my brother got the idea I'd be posting daily youtube videos, but he was way off the mark! :p I'll try to get some pics in tomorrow's post.

Posted by authorjodi at 12:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

Quickly...the Galilee Experience was about a 30 minute movie that we went to after dinner and I'm sorry to say the dark room, full stomachs, long day and jet lag combined so that at least half of the assembled group didn't see every frame of film. ;) I had to stand up in the corner partly to stay awake and partly because, in my usual method of over-tired hysteria, I was about to laugh out loud over the nodding heads all around me. Another full day tomorrow heading down from Tiberius toward a night in Jerusalem. I think we hit Nazareth but I can't remember any of the other places. All I've got fixed in my little noggin is that the wake-up call is at 6:15! Thanks for all the comments -- I'll give your greetings in the morning as everyone you told me to greet is already sawing logs. :p

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I woke up at 12:30 this morning well-rested and raring to go. Luckily I was able to fall back to sleep without much difficulty and when I straggled down to breakfast at 7:00 I found that I was not the only one who’d had an interesting night’s sleep. One woman woke up at 12:30 and, not having a watch, showered, put on her make-up and etc. before finding out she was a little early for the 6:30 wake-up call. My brother and sister-in-law were holding court when I arrived at breakfast – they’d been up since 4 and had already had a walk and visited with folks from other tours. We were all quite a few percentage points brighter-eyed than we’d been at dinner the night before. At a few minutes past 8 the bus roared out toward our first stop, the Mount of Beatitudes. There’s a church on the spot that looks out over the Sea of Galilee. It was so windy we all huddled together trying to hear the lecture from the guide, then went over to a quieter spot where my dad read the beginning section of the Beatitudes: blessed are the… How could Jesus speak to 5,000 people without a microphone? Well, it just so happens that there’s a natural amphitheatre formed by the geography and the way the wind historically blows. My dad did a test on one of his trips and the people sitting at the top could hear the person speaking in a normal voice at the bottom of the hill. Next we drove about an hour up to Caesarea Philippi, now called Banias. It used to be Panias when it was a Roman temple to the god Pan, but the Arabs couldn’t pronounce “p” so when they took over it became Banias. This was the place where Jesus told Simon Peter “on this rock I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.” We had a bit of a discussion on different interpretations of what the “gates of Hades” meant. One of the group is a pastor from Florida and he suggested the term meant systems of government, which brought him to the point that the American government can try to squash Christianity all it wants, but it will never prevail. Along the next drive the guide was being pestered by so many questions that he said what I thought was the funniest line of the day “there’s a lot to see in this country and you can’t expect to see it all in one minute.” As we drove along the Golan Heights we viewed old Syrian installations and heard about how the poor kibbutz members had to live with the Syrians taking potshots at them from above all the time. We drove past large lines of trees that had been planted to protect cars as they drove down the road from being shot at. What a way to live! We also saw some fencing that was the old border with Syria and there were danger signs – the guide told us there were still mines in the area that hadn’t all been found. Cows graze on those hills and there’s a large population of Egyptian vultures who live in that area – mainly feeding on cows who stumble over a mine and explode. I don’t know if he was pulling our leg on that one, but we did see a lot of vultures. Lunch was at Mas’ada (mah-sah-day) which is different than Masada down south. This is one of the four Druz villages on the Golan Heights. You can always recognize a Druz man by the MC Hammer type pants they wear because they believe the Messiah will be born of a man and could, at any time, drop out of their private area…so they wear a kind of balloon pants to catch him. The Druz of the Golan Heights used to live in Syria and still await the return of Syrian control, as opposed to the Druz of Mt. Carmel who fight in the Israeli army. Anyway, we had a good Druz meal of salads, hummus, falafel, babaganoosh and…french fries. Cups of strong coffee and baklava finished us off. Next we stopped at a monument near the Valley of Tears. During the Six Days War it’s been argued that Israel came closest to losing everything when Syria brought 1700 tanks across a 50-mile stretch of the Golan Heights. Because the war began on Yom Kippur, the Syrians were only met by a skeleton force of secular Jews in 100-200 tanks. Those secular Jews say they became believers in God during those few horrible days of fighting because they said God fought for them. For instance, some Syrian tanks were found still running with no one in them. Later, when they asked the Syrians why they’d fled they said “if you’d seen the forces we were up against you would have fled too.” Interesting thing is, there were no Israeli forces in that area. Down from the Golan Heights we came to Capernaum which used to be a center of commerce in Jesus’ time. If you told a story in Capernaum it would make its way to all kinds of different places because major trade routes went through there. We saw Simon Peter’s house where Jesus healed his mother-in-law. We then hit two churches in quick succession – the Church of the Multiplication and the Church of Peter’s Primacy. What was interesting to me about these two sites was that Christians weren’t allowed to build churches until some time in the 400’s. So for at least 300 years the traditions passed from parent to child – this is the rock where Jesus passed out 5 loaves of bread to feed 5,000…this is the place where Jesus told Peter to feed his sheep. When Constantine decreed that Christianity was a legal religion churches popped up over these traditional sites. Finally we took a ride on the Sea of Galilee from Gineseret back to the pier in front of our hotel in Tiberius. The guide offered us a chance to try to walk on water, but nobody took him up on it. We had a serious devotion led by a member of the group, talking about different storms in our lives that God can calm and pull us through. Well, I better wrap it up. I’ve got a couple minutes to get down to dinner, then some people are going to the Galilee Experience which I would describe except I have no idea what it is…and others are going to the diamond factory. You can probably guess which way I’m headed. ;)

Posted by authorjodi at 01:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)

Greetings from Tiberius! I’m sitting on the balcony of my parent’s hotel room, my feet up on a chair as I listen to the faint sounds of the Sea of Galilee. It’s hard to hear over the chatter of people strolling down on the boardwalk, but this is where Jesus walked on water. It wouldn’t have been a night like tonight – there’s only a very faint breeze working hard to take the edge off the unseasonably warm evening.

It’s so dark that I can’t really see the water, but I do see the lights of settlements on the Golan Heights twinkling from across the Sea. That’s one of the sights we’ll take in tomorrow, along with a boat ride and a visit to the Mount of Beatitudes, among other things.
We arrived about an hour ago after a two-hour drive from the airport after a day and half of flights. Our guide, Boaz, spoke for awhile but I think at least half of our band of 30 fell asleep at least once during the ride. Most of us met up in Frankfurt, the scene I will always remember as giving me the patting down of my life. Not to be too graphic, but let’s just say I would never have made it through security with a bra bomb thanks to the efficiency of the security staff.

A very nice spread awaited us at the hotel, even though it’s Shabbat and no cooking could be done. Most everyone inhaled some food and dragged their way back to their rooms, even though it’s only 8:30. I think the majority are in need of a good night’s sleep before we get our wake-up calls at 6:30 tomorrow morning. I’m just trying to throw together a semi-coherent post to let you know we made it alright, then I’ll be crashing myself.

One thing from the drive – we passed the town of Nain  which has existed since the time that Jesus performed the miracle of raising the widow’s son. It brought tears to my eyes – there’s just something about this land where everywhere you turn, even if you’re just driving to your hotel, there’s a piece of the Biblical story laid out in front of you.

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Tomorrow I catch a plane at 0-dark-30 to fly into Atlanta. I purchased one of those infamous priceline tickets where you say what you'll pay and if they can find someone to accept the bid they book the flight. Only after the money is spent do you find out the airline and time -- and I believe it could be proven using the scientific method that the lower you bid, the worse flight time you get. I think I've used the service 4 or 5 times and each ticket had me leaving before 7 in the am. And let's face it, four or five pieces of evidence is enough to get my theory listed in many high school textbooks... ;)

I'm leaving my old less-and-less trusty laptop here in Bertha so, unless I find a handy internet cafe, I won't be posting again until I hook up with my parents in Frankfurt. If all our planes are on time I might post there, if not I'll post from Tel Aviv.

And finally, a word about the Middle Eastern Chatchke contest. I'm telling you, I've already hooked you up for some wicked cool items. For instance, the picture on the left of a silver, hand-crafted necklace from Jordan. This is one of the prizes you too could be eligible to win for the simple task of running over to amazon and writing a review of my book. You will, of course, have to have read the book ahead of time, but I'll be gone for almost a month so that should give you plenty of time to order a copy, read it, and write a quick review! :p

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Yesterday in church I had the oddest feeling. When I stood and started singing the first song I felt like I was saying 'well hello God' like I hadn't seen Him in a week. I worked almost 60 hours on the project last week and, as I said previously, I was so grateful to God for providing money at a time I was getting pretty nervous. But I realized yesterday how easily I'd fallen back into my old routines. Monday through Friday, wake up way to early, race to work and get some coffee down the pipes, then work like mad all day and watch a little tv before bed.

Granted, when I used to work there I had more free time and did things like Bible Study or hiking or what have you, but my life was very routine and fairly comfortable. I didn't worry about whether I was going to have to ask my parents for money. I didn't have unexpected things happening all the time. I certainly didn't strike up conversations with nearly every perfect stranger I came across. I pretty much knew what to expect when I woke up in the morning.
And, of course, all those are generalizations from a 'good old days' mentality -- that period of my life had worry and pain and confusion of a different sort mixed in with the happiness. But my point is that, for the most part, my life was routine and I didn't 'need' God for daily living. I needed Him on the big stuff, but not so frequently and not for something so mundane as how am I going to fill the gas tank this week?

I had a feeling months ago -- this weird idea that I needed to get in a motorhome, paint it up with advertising, and strike out on a journey. I didn't so much know where I'd be going. I didn't so much know what I'd be doing. In fact, I couldn't explain it very well to myself, let alone friends or family.

It doesn't make a lot of sense, this vague notion of tooling around trying to promote a book that I'm beginning to wonder if people even enjoy reading. I know some say they couldn't put it down. I get lots of 'this could really happen.' But let's be honest, for the most part people don't read Christian fiction for reality. Take a look at any Christian bookstore and the shelves are overwhelmingly filled with historical romance novels and stories where the lead character doesn't face much more than a little bump of a trial. Or worse, something truly tragic happens and the Christian character questions God for about three pages before having a revelation and trusting Him even more fully.

Christian chick-lit is tres chic and I'm seeing more and more books featuring spunky, single career gals who have it all together but can't seem to find a man at their local singles group. However, only a few hundred pages <and a few new shoes> later they've discovered the love of their life -- often the nerdy computer programmer they've been ignoring for years. I am not knocking chick-lit -- I enjoy that genre myself and it's really nice to have light reading where I don't have to worry about profanity or people falling in and out of bed. I'm thrilled that Christian publishing is booming.

I believe in fiction. I believe it can move people in a way that non-fiction never can -- that if you wrap truth in a story you're following the model of the Savior. I once dated a guy who said, when asked about whether he read fiction, that he 'preferred truth.' I was four years into my five year writing project, but it may have only been coincidence that the relationship didn't last too much longer. ;)

Apart from any personal concerns, I believed then <and even more strongly now> that his point was fundamentally flawed. I prefer truth misses the medium behind a majority of Christ's words. How much of Scripture is devoted to parables? And isn't a parable basically a short fiction story created to illustrate a specific point? You can tell someone a moral truth or you can illustrate that truth in a story that involves their emotions, makes them laugh or cry or think deep thoughts...in short, engages their whole being. I have to believe that Jesus chose this way of teaching so often because it was among the most effective methods for getting His point across.

I've never known what point God wanted to get across with my book. I feel like the idea, the motivation, the perseverance all came from Him. I prayed often during the writing and editing phase and I pray all the time now in this horrible marketing phase that God will use it, and me, as He wills. I pray that way because I have this sort of expectation, this feeling like I'm waiting for something to happen. I don't know what it is, but I've had it ever since I left on this trip -- and I have to be honest, it's hard to have a feeling like that and keep plodding along wondering if it's of God or whether it's just vanity masquerading as faithfulness. How do we ever truly know that we're on the right path?

This Monday Musings has gone on long enough so I'll close by saying I have great hopes for the next month. I'll be again walking where my Lord walked, then visiting three countries that are new to me. I'm going to try to forget about the marketing efforts I'll need to make when I return and just enjoy the moment and the gift that God has given me by allowing me to go on this trip.

What a God of compassion we serve Who loves us in our weakness and our doubt; Who goes before us and walks beside us and never lets us stand alone.

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While I couldn't be more thankful that God dropped this consulting job in my lap, I can't believe how much I feel removed from my "real" life. I'm working 10-12 hours a day trying to complete the project and toss up a prayer of gratitude every time I think about it since my tour funds were running quite low -- but it's weird not to have more than five minutes to toss out a quick post! Let alone the fact that I'm not responding to e-mail or keeping up on the news or recording any podcast episodes and etc. ;)

I guess that means I'll be composing a long catch-up post over the weekend! And remember, starting next Wednesday I'll be heading out on my tour of Israel, Jordan, Egypt and the unnamed other country. My plan is to post a little about what I've seen each day, so it'll be pretty much like the norm in format -- but the content should be a little different than you're used to. :p

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This afternoon I had to wait a few minutes for a meeting so I picked up a copy of that gripping guilty pleasure, The National Underwriter <motto: The Leader in Property & Casualty News>. Luckily I only had to read for a few minutes or I might have fallen into an irreversible coma, but I did manage to read most of one interesting article on bizarre risks.

For instance, remember a couple years ago when the Red Sox fell victim to an enthusiastic fan who grabbed a ball before the outfielder could get it? Someone bought it and blew it up with dynamite as a publicity stunt, but apparently at the last second they panicked and decided they'd better by some coverage in case someone sued that bad luck had spewed all over them. Elsewhere, a European wine expert had her taste buds insured for 10 million pounds.

In other news, my brother sent me pictures of the new Airbus A380 and I'm telling you, I have never seen anything so decadently luxurious as the first class cabin. Wow.

Posted by authorjodi at 09:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Next Wednesday I head out for my grand Middle Eastern adventure: Israel, Jordan, Egypt and a country to be named later. Since I hate marketing so much, I'm going to take this opportunity to present you with an offer. Anyone who posts a review of my book to amazon between now and when I return will be entered into a drawing for a lovely prize that I'll purchase while over there. If more than ten people add reviews, after I pick myself up off the floor from the shock, I'll draw one winner per ten.

So...in summary. To enter the contest for a lovely Middle Eastern chatchke, go to amazon and write a review for my book <click on the link on the right>. You can then either come back here and comment, or e-mail me directly so I can get in touch with you if you win.

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It's been a little over two years since I moved to Boise. Previous to that I rented a room in California from a family with two young boys. I got used to them popping in my room at the crack of dawn on Saturday and the fact that I could only wear shirts once before they'd smeared something on them. They were also really good at leaving at least one bruise on me at all times -- the joys of tickling and rough-housing.

I decided to take the evening off and went over to spend a couple hours at the old house. We went fishing using bamboo poles that had a big magnet tied to the end of the rope. Small metal discs were thrown into the pool and we tried to run the magnet over them -- pretty cool innovation I thought.

After reading a zillion stories to him in the past, it was really fun to have the older boy read to me -- he's just picked up the skill this past year. I nearly fell asleep until he decided to mix things up a bit on the second read through. The third time through was even more creative -- he put a B in front of each word. "Bi'm boing bo bake ba bake."

However, the book he picked for me to read was the most interesting of the night. It was a bunch of silly poems, the worst of which was a whole page about a booger. I actually gagged a couple times reading it. What happened to Green Eggs & Ham? Or better yet, Chronicles of Narnia?

I guess reading anything, even booger poems, is good enough. I can still remember my mom sitting in the hallway so both my brother and I could hear her reading to us before we went to bed. For a couple months in college one of my roommates read Hinds Feet in High Places out loud, supposedly for our spiritual health. Unfortunately I find someone reading to me about the best way in the world to fall asleep and I missed about half of what she read. ;)

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I listened to a little of NPR the other day when I was driving and heard someone talking about a biography of the Koran. The most interesting thing about the ten minutes or so that I heard was when the author compared Osama bin Ladin's "cherry picking" of passages that talk about killing Jews and Christians to how evangelical pastors preach the Bible. This isn't the first time I've heard terrorists compared to so-called Christian fundamentalists. As someone who would probably be called a member of the vast right wing conspiracy, I guess I take umbrage to this comparison. Anyone else noticed this going on?

The other thing I want to ask, totally unrelated, is if any of you have an opinion on ethanol as an alternative fuel source. Though I'm a proponent of Fox News I rarely have a chance to watch so I've got it going in the background here at the hotel. President Bush just gave an interview, the bulk of which seemed to be about how great ethanol was. I've always looked at it with some degree of skepticism -- not because I'm so thrilled about our dependence on foreign oil, but more because I can't see Americans giving up their SUVs to drive tin cans that need to be pushed up the hill <see...skepticism>. Anyone have a thought?

Posted by authorjodi at 09:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

$3.09 is the price of gas here in SoCal, although it very well could be the temperature! It is HOT here -- good thing I sweltered in Dallas a couple days to prepare myself. Of course, having to dress in business casual and sit in a small conference room with 20 people and 30 computers makes the climate seem a little worse then when I'm relaxing in Bertha wearing my usual uniform -- shorts, t-shirt and flip flops. ;)

I left the office about 6 so I could come back and work from the hotel in comfort. I don't know about you, but I really enjoy staying in a hotel on someone else's dime. When I'm paying for it myself I can't get over how expensive it is long enough to enjoy the experience. I don't need the Marriott or Four Seasons -- any old Motel Six that's clean and safe will do. I'm not sure why -- maybe it's just that I can leave the towel on the floor and never make the bed. :p

 

Those of you who got a lift from reading about the troop reception I witnessed at DFW on Sunday might want to watch this video my dad told me about. Apparently there's a man who goes out to welcome troops home almost every morning.

 

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Divorce is never a funny issue, but I couldn't stop myself from laughing out loud as I read this article about a German man who chainsawed his house in two and trucked off his half with a forklift.

"The man said he was just taking his due," said a police spokesman. "But I don't think his wife was too pleased."

Maybe this could be a new counseling method to incentivise (sp?) warring spouses into giving their marriage one more shot.

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I just witnessed something that brought tears to my eyes. I was standing in line at the burrito bar when I heard people starting to clap -- and I mean a lot of people. It started as just a few, but within seconds a wave of clapping and whistling swept over the whole terminal. I had an idea what it might be but didn't want to get my hopes up lest it was just some lame professional basketball team.

I finally spotted troops walking along the upper concourse. They took almost ten minutes to deplane -- and people stood and clapped the whole time. It was really quite something.

Maybe it's true that we're near to tearing each other apart in this country over the war and other culture-clash issues, but I was so proud that my fellow travelers could set that aside for a few minutes to honor those who offer their lives to protect our right to argue.

Posted by authorjodi at 10:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Way back in September my dad and I plotted where I might be on my book tour come March 22nd. We guessed maybe Atlanta and purchased my ticket to Israel accordingly. However, as it turns out, I'll still be in Dallas, Texas. Yesterday my old <shall remain nameless> company asked me to fly to California next week to work as a consultant -- you know, the same company that let me go in a reorganization because they didn't need a training department anymore...

So, I'll leave Bertha in my grandpa's driveway and Cali to the care of the kind neighbors who already have three cats and jet off to California for an intense week in my old life. I'll return to Dallas in time to be present for my grandpa's surgery, then hop a plane to Atlanta. Accordingly, I've just bit the <big> bullet and bought a ticket off of priceline from DFW to Atlanta giving myself a day's leeway each way, just to make sure I don't miss my all-important Israel flight.

Since I have the leeway, I also have to reserve hotel rooms and I just had to quote to you some of the reviews of the first hotel I looked at. Actually, it wasn't the first I looked at -- travelocity lists hotels from highest to lowest and I about choked when I saw one night in the $200 smacker range. I immediately reversed the search criteria and got more into my comfort zone with $35 a night. Very helpfully, there are 15 reviews on that hotel. Here is a small sampling:

• Our experience with this hotel was a true nightmare. We had to go get our own towels and toilet paper.
• The hotel is old and dirty and should be torn down.
• it was in an unsafe area. there was something splattered on the wall.
• My room smelled like <expletive> and I couldn't lock my door and it took 8 hours for them to give me a new room. My advice NEVER STAY AT THIS HOTEL.

Ok, so clearly I'll need to spend more than $35. ;)

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As promised, here's a picture of the redneck moment when my uncle and one of his employees tried to fix my step the other night <Class S Mishap>. What really needed to happen was for my uncle to get out his blowtorch so he could bend the metal back in place, but as the steps were about six inches from the propane tank he decided against that move. Instead, they hooked a tow strap around the basketball pole and used a little elbow grease to bend it back into place. I suggested if the basketball pole didn't work they could hook it to the back of the Porsche sitting in the garage...but they didn't much like that idea. ;)

My longsuffering cat after Dog #1 moved from sniffing her rear to laying beside her.

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Welcome to the party! I'm supposed to give a brief introduction of my blog, so those of you who read already just close your eyes for a minute or two. ;)

I'm a first-time author traveling around the country in a 30-foot behemoth, trying to promote my novel and create what my publisher calls "buzz." As I'm more happy sitting in my pajamas in my house, I've found this whole marketing thing quite painful. This blog chronicles my travels and the pitfalls of being a self-promoter, as well as issues relating to the theme of my book -- the reality that it's getting more and more difficult for Christians to live out their faith in the public square.

Thanks for joining me and don't forget to sign up for a prize!

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After writing this I'm going to head to bed for a small nap, but other than that necessity it was great to be up so early that I could attend the Wycliffe Associates morning devotions. We sang some hymns out of the Baptist hymnbook, the ladies group performed special music, there were several announcements and lots of laughs. It made me think what fun it would be to participate in a community such as this -- lots of retired folks who spent a couple years playing golf before deciding they wanted to do something different with their remaining time. Very similar feel to the SIL base in Arizona I visited awhile back.

After devotions I got a tour of the "elder care" center which I would never in my wildest dreams call an old folks home. It was such a nice facility, one and two bedroom apartments with lots of amenities, all at a reasonable price. Unfortunately it made me think of a few other "elder" missionaries I know who got a shoddier retirement deal.

The gentleman giving the tour said they had a 90+ year old man come to live there who'd spent 67 years on the mission field completing three different translations. When they moved him in he said "this is too good for me." I know we're working toward our reward being in heaven, but I really applaud Wycliffe for putting together a place where we can honor the final years of folks who have been so faithful.

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My friend Stacy recently attended the Restore America conference in Oregon and got to interview most of the speakers for her podcast. Since I had a good six hours to drive today I loaded up my ipod and listened to most of them. All of them were interesting to me in one way or another, but the one I found truly inspiring was her conversation with Dr. Ken Hutcherson.

I'd never heard of this guy before, but after listening to their twenty-some minute conversation I decided I'm going to check out his website and see if I can pull down a few sermons. Let me give you an example of what I found so extraordinary.

Dr. Hutcherson said his church makes couples go through something like six months of pre-marital counseling and they won't marry the couple if they don't feel it will be a success. The church just doesn't tolerate divorce. One guy was beating on his wife and a few of the leaders went over and asked if he wanted to know how she felt. Six months later he pushed her once and Dr. Hutcherson went to see them in another state and told the guy to either put up his dukes to have it out or pick up his family and move back to Oregon. That's what the guy did -- he moved his family back and lived right next door to Hutcherson, who spent the next year and a half teaching them how to communicate in a more healthy manner.

He said we, as Christians, don't usually do this kind of thing because it takes too much time and effort <speaking for myself I think he's totally right>. Moreover, he said that if we, as Christians, are going to speak against gay marriage, we doggone better do a better job promoting traditional marriage. I don't think he said doggone, but the sentiment was the same. ;)

I don't know, for some reason that story just resonates with me. Something about the way this man talked made me think that he's found a way to authentically live as a Christian in our fallen world. I actually had the thought that his church is the kind I would pick up and move to become a member of. If you'd like to listen to the conversation, you can click here.

Posted by authorjodi at 09:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

I cased a power plant this morning with my aunt and uncle. I was telling them how I needed to do some research for book two -- they said there was one up the road and off we went. It felt pretty funny driving around plotting. In fact, when my dad called and I told him what we were doing my uncle made slit-throat motions so I made sure to mention it was for my NOVEL...just in case Echelon was listening. ;)

Now I'm sitting in front of my grandpa's house in Dallas, Texas with Bertha's front wheels up on the sidewalk to try to level the fantastically steep driveway. I've got to get up early to go hear him give devotions as he does frequently here at the Wycliffe Center. I'm not sure how it happened, but the last several relatives I've visited have been serious morning people. I may have to rearrange the schedule so that at the next stop I end up with someone who will let me sleep in! :p

I've got a brilliant redneck picture to post tomorrow -- last night my uncle and one of his employees attempted to fix Bertha's sickly step in an unusually inventive way.

Posted by authorjodi at 08:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Cali had an interesting evening after my aunt asked me to bring her into the house to fraternize with their three dogs. Dog #1, so small it literally is the size of a New York sewer rat, loved Cali and followed her around sniffing her rear. Dog #2, about the size of Cali with similar black and white markings, skittered away anytime Cali looked at her. And finally, Dog #3, the big bad german shepherd Batman, was so afraid of Cali that he left any place she came. He was laying in his blanket ready for bed and Cali came over all friendly-like to join him. He left her the bed and went and hid behind a chair. He went and laid in the kitchen, she came to join him, and he left in a tearing rush. I tried to get a picture of the two of them together, but Batman wouldn't stay still long enough before bolting away.

Interesting article about one outcome of redefining marriage and family. I'm not going to write about it because I recorded a podcast episode on the topic, but thought some of you who don't listen might like to read it.

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After closing my eyes for just one more moment after my alarm went off, I had 15 minutes to throw things willy-nilly into my bag before Dad raced me to the airport. Two flights later I'm sitting in the Phoenix airport for about three hours before catching my final connection to Tulsa.

I had a wonderful week at home, mostly working like crazy to finish upgrades to the online training program I maintain for our church's short term mission program. I taught three computer classes in a row on Saturday and my sore and aching feet spoke eloquently to the fact that I spend most of my time driving Bertha or sitting in front of the computer!

I've been trying to walk every day so I'll be ready for the big trip in a couple weeks, but obviously I've not logged enough miles yet. I don't think I've mentioned it on the blog, but I'll be joining my mom and dad, brother and sister-in-law, aunt and a couple good friends on a trip through Israel, Jordan and Egypt. After they all head out I'll be going on to another location that I think I'll keep undisclosed until I return.

My father's business is running tours to Israel <you may have noticed the 'win a free tour' ad I sometimes have running on my blog> so he and my mom have been a number of times. I went once in 99 and immediately knew I needed to return at some point. Luckily I get to go again this year.

I'm going to try to keep up the blog while I'm over there because I figure that'd be interesting to some of you, so that's what's coming up in the future! As for today, another flight and I'll be back in gun-toting, hopefully-not-so-windy Oklahoma.

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