Qumran is where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found in 1947 by a shepherd boy who was originally from Bethlehem. Fitting! The scrolls were scriptures on scrolls that were remarkably close to the translations of Bible we already had, but just older. Mike said that the...
Masada is the location of the Dead Sea fortress built by Herod the Great around the time of Jesus, the first century, when he ruled up until 4 AD. What slays me is that this entire place was built for Herod to have a place to hide if the Romans or any other enemy got...
Happy New Year! Welcome to a new decade...the roaring ‘20s! Whoa right? Today was Day 4 of touring, a slower day tour wise so we could breathe a little, not walk quite so much, (only 7,000+ steps for me today!) and get back to the hotel a little early to nap and...
Our last stop for day 3 is the Shepherd’s Field where the multitude of angels announced Jesus birth to the shepherds, keeping watch over their flocks by night. So this area is, of course, not far from the nativity spot, just across a short valley, and the site is of...
I forgot to mention re: shopping...in Bethlehem are lots of, shall we say, street vendors? Let me tell you, these guys are AGGRESSIVE. I’m glad a friend who has been here before warned me to prepare myself to say no SEVERAL times before they backed down. They were...
We got to stop at a place that manufactures 65% of the Holy Land olive wood sculptures and see their workshop. This dude was doing finishing carving and varnishing. No mask, and a cigarette burning. It was a tad unnerving, wondering about his lungs and whether or...
I made that title plural, because we actually saw three springs there. The first one is the neatest...check this out: Sorry the pic is sideways again. The back right corner of the cave shape is where the water gushes out, at a pretty good clip, too. The water is...
So it’s the end of day three, New Year’s Eve!! Well, as I type this, it is now New Years Day here in Jerusalem!!! Happy New Year everyone! I was too tired after supper tonight to do anything other than go directly to bed. Seriously. Tired. I wasn’t really...
This is up there for me too. Jesus home during His ministry years, and the home of not only Jairus, as in Jairus’ daughter who was raised from the dead by Jesus, but also the home of Peter’s mother-in-law...so Peter’s home and the site of the very first church of...
Yep, this is near the top of the list for really amazing spots, for Day 2. Lots of days to go with lots of neat stuff to see, but this is pretty darn cool if you ask me. So I didn’t know what this was either, but I know the Bible stories. Cast out your nets on the...