Thursday Free Day

Well today is our last day in Israel. They give us a free day. I
think they call it a "free" day because all our money has been spent
and anything we do will have to be for free ;-)

After breakfast this morning most of us walked down to the Old City,
about a 20 minute walk from the hotel. People went all different
directions in groups of various sizes. My wife, and daughter, and
Pastor Rob Brown from First Baptist Church of Redding, all walked
through the Old City from the Damascus Gate to the Zion Gate (north
to south) then found our way to Jerusalem University College where we
met Tom Meyer, an alumnus of Shasta Bible College who is currently
studying at JUC. We accompanied Tom to his class in Historical
Geography of Israel and heard a very interesting lecture from the
well known and respected Old Testament scholar Dr. Rainey. He was
lecturing on the Solomonic era.

After the class was over, we had lunch at JUC then took a leisurely
stroll back northward through the Old City. We purchased a few last
minute things to bring back to family and friends, then went back to
the hotel to pack up. On our way through the Old City we met up with
several members of our tour group who all seemed to be enjoying
themselves with their adventures. It will be interesting to get
together and share stories.

Our flight out of Ben Gurion International Airport leaves at 7:30 in
the morning. Since it takes almost an hour to get there, and we need
to be there 3 hours before departure, that means we will need to
leave the hotel by 3:45 AM. Doesn't look as if we'll get too much
sleep tonight.

Our tour of Israel is coming to a close all too soon. We've seen many
things and will doubtless be bringing home many precious memories and
valuable learning experiences to enrich our study of the Bible. If
you're reading this blog and have never been on a tour to Israel,
consider joining us in 2009, should the Lord tarry.

Grace and Peace,
Maranatha,

Pastor Gunn

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Wednesday's tour

Today was a relatively light day of touring. We started out at 8:00
AM, a half hour later than usual. We began today's journey by
visiting the Israel museum which now houses the scale model of the
1st century city of Jerusalem. This model used to be in an entirely
different location, but was recently moved in its entirety to this
location. Here, we also visited the scroll of the Book, the building
which houses most of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Some of the scrolls are on
tour in the USA right now and they have been temporarily replaced
with very good replicas. Other scrolls on display here are in fact
originals.

Next, we went to the City of David, just south of the Temple Mount.
Here, we went to the entrance of Hezekiah's Tunnel, dug by king
Hezekiah to protect the water supply of Jerusalem when the Assyrian
king Sennacherib was marching on the city. The tunnel brings water
from the Gihon Spring to the Pool of Siloam. In previous years when I
have gone through this tunnel (this was my fourth time through the
tunnel) you emerged into a small pool, which has been known as
"Siloam Pool" for many years. However, recent excavations have shown
that the original Siloam Pool from Biblical times is actually just a
little bit further removed. This pool has not been entirely excavated
yet. It appears that the pool will in fact be huge.

After a delicious pizza lunch, we traveled south of Bethlehem to the
Herodian, Herod the Great's palace in this region. In order to build
this fortress, Herod literally hollowed out the inside of a mountain.
Approximately 20 years ago when I first visited this site, there was
little else to see than the palace at the bottom of the crater.
However, they have now excavated an incredible water system below the
palace, with multiple cavernous cisterns. One is able to walk through
these cisterns on a nicely developed system of walkways and exit on
the side of the mountain.

Grace and Peace,
Maranatha,
Pastor Gunn

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Tuesday's tour

It hardly seems possible that our tour is almost over! Just one more
day of guided touring, then one free day in Jerusalem before we head
back to the good old USA.

Today we began by going to the south temple mount where we viewed a
1st century street on the southwest corner that had gotten wrecked
when the Romans threw the temple stones down from the mount in the AD
70 destruction, then around on the south side we saw the excavations
of Byzantine era houses, ascended the Temple Steps, and viewed the
Hulda Gates. After that we visited the Temple Institute, where
garments, furniture and other necessary items have been prepared for
the 3rd temple.

Next we went through the Wohl Archaeological Museum, which is
actually a building constructed over the top of 1st century Jerusalem
houses. Some of these houses contain elaborate mikva'ot (ritual
baths).

After lunch we visited Yad VaShem, Israel's holocaust museum. That
was a very moving experience. I've visited this museum on 3 previous
occaisions. I'm still moved to tears by the experience.

Before heading back to the hotel, we stopped by the Knesset (Israeli
parliament) and viewed the huge Menorah there that is the national
symbol.

I'll try to post again in a day or two.

Grace and Peace,
Maranatha,

Pastor Gunn

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Sunday and Monday

Sunday began with a visit to the Western wall (Wailing Wall) followed
by a tour of the Western wall tunnel. This tunnel is amazing; in it
one can see some of the huge stones laid by Herod the Great's
workers. Also there are incredible water systems built to support the
massive numbers of pilgrims who would visit the temple at the Jewish
feast days.
After coming out of the tunnel, we ascended the Mt. of Olives where
several of our tour members had Camel rides. After the camel rides,
we all assembled in a small amphitheatre atop the Mt. of Olives and
overlooking the temple mount for a Church service. So many people
are so attached to the physical places they regard as "holy," I
decided to preach on Jn 4:19-20 with Jesus' admonition that we not
attach our worship to a place, but rather to the presence of the
Spirit of God. My thanks to Jonathan King for leading the song
service and to Dr. Keith Stone for the Scripture reading. After our
church services we descended the Mt. of Olives to the Garden of
Gethsemane and the Church of all nations.
Next, we got back on the bus and traveled to Bethlehem where we
enjoyed a Falafel lunch followed by visits to the Church of Nativity
and the Shepherds field.
On Monday we visited the Temple mount. This was a blessing, since
last week the site was closed to tourists. On the way up to the
Temple mount, we were able to see where the Israelis were excavating
in preparation for rebuilding the access ramp. This excavation has
caused some rioting from the Muslim community, because they claim
that it threatens to undermine the Al Aqsa Mosque. The claim is
ridiculous! The entire excavation is well outside of the temple Mt.
walls and could not possibly be threatening the Mosque. I thing the
Arabs are just afraid that the Israelis will find more evidence that
the Jewish temple once occupied the mount.
Following our tour of the temple mount, we visited Pool of Bethesda,
St. Anne's church where we sang "How Great Thou Art" (the Sounds of
Shasta Members on tour also sang a couple of their songs), the Via
Dolorosa, and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. After a pizza Lunch
and 45 minutes to look around, we visited Caiaphas' house and
finished the day with a visit to the Garden Tomb & a communion
service.

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Well, we've finally gotten to where I have some free internet access.
We are now located in Jerusalem. After leaving the region of the Sea
of Galilee, we spent one night in a hotel on the Dead Sea where
everyone had a chance to float in the most dense body of water on the
face of the earth (about 35% solid) also the lowest point on the face
of the earth (about 1,320 feet below sea level). The next day,
Friday, we visited Masada, built up by Herod the Great, and then used
by the Jews in their final stand against Rome in the first Jewish
rebellion. After that we visited the Spring at En Gedi -- well,
actually, we didn't hike up to the spring, but rather saw from an
observation point below. At the north end of the Dead Sea, we visited
Qumran where the majority of the Dead Sea scrolls were discovered.

Leaving the Dead Sea, we visited the modern city of Jericho, then the
excavations at the Old Testament city of Jericho. There are also some
excavations at the separate New Testament city of Jericho (there are
3 Jerichos in all!), but we didn't visit the NT site.

On the way up to Jerusalem, we pulled off the main road and went down
the old Roman road a ways to view Wadi Kelt, with an awesome view of
Herod's aqueduct, and St. George's monestery below.

Today, Saturday, was a very long travel day. It started out with a
stop at Emmaus. It's amazing how steep and foreboding the terrain is
between Jerusalem and Emmaus. I think we often view the disciples on
the road to Emmaus as being out for a kind of leisurely Sunday
afternoon stroll. It's really a very difficult trip to make on foot,
down a very steep mountain.

After Emmaus, we headed for Philistine country, and visited the
Valley of Elah where David slew Goliath. The SBC students read 1
Samuel 17 out loud to the rest of the group, then we all went in
search of 5 smooth stones.

We then went on south to Be'er Sheva, the capital of the Negev
district. So now we have been from Dan to Be'er Sheva. On the way
back we stopped briefly in Jaffa (Joppa) and returned to the hotel
for dinner and bed.

Pastor Gunn

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Greetings From Israel

Our tour has gotten off to a more or less smooth start. However,
one tour member who comes from New Mexico had a late connecting
flight, and never got on our light from San Francisco. We didn't
know what happened to her until the end of our first day in
Israel. It turns out she spend 24 hour in the San Francisco
airport, had her baggage lost, but eventually got a flight to
Israel and joined us about half way through our second day of
touring Israel. In the mean time, we had a wonderful tour of
London (though it was very cold and rainy -- but what should we
expect, it's London).

In Israel, we started out in Tel Aviv, arriving at the airport at
5:30 am! At the hotel we had a shower, change of clothes,
breakfast and began touring. We visited Caesarea Maritima, Mt.
Carmel and Armageddon before heading inland. On our way toward the
Sea of Galilee we had a fairly quick tour of Nazareth. This once
quaint town (the first time I visited over 20 years ago it was
quite nice) has been fairly trashed in recent years. However, we
did have a spectacular view of the Valley of Jezreel (Valley of
Armageddon) as a strong rain and wind were beginning to sweep
through the area. From Nazareth, through Cana, we proceeded on to
our first night's rest at Kibbutz Ma'agan on the South East coast
of the Sea of Galilee.

The next two days have been spent touring around the north west
coast of the Sea of Galilee, and up on the Golan Heights, at the
Jordanian, Syrian and Lebanese border. Hardly any evidence that
Israel recently fought a war with Hizbullah and experienced
thousands of missiles. I will post more when I get a bit more time
on an internet computer.

That's all for now.

Grace and Peace,
Maranatha,
Pastor Gunn

Revised Itinerary

After some discussion with Malcolm, our Israeli tour guide, we have made a few adjustments to our itinerary. These should result in an even better tour than we first had planned. Here's the itinerary as currently planned:

Sat, Feb 24 - Depart from SFO 7:50 pm, British Airways Flight #286

Sun, Feb 25 - Arrive London Heathrow 2:00 pm, afternoon tour of London
- Depart from London Heathrow 11:30 pm, British Airways Flight # 163

Mon, Feb 26 - Arrive Tel Aviv Ben Gurion Airport 5:25 am (ugh!)
- Tour: Caesarea Maritima, Mt Carmel, Megiddo, Nazareth

Tue, Feb 27 - Boat ride on Sea of Galilee, New Testament Boat, Mt. of Beatitudes, Tabgha, Capernaum, Arbel, Jordan River Baptism (Courtney Gunn is getting baptized!)

Wed, Feb 28 - South Golan, Kfar Hartuv outlook, Golan Heights, Kuneitra overview, Banias, Dan, Hazor, Korazim, Kursi - Gergasa slope, Jordan River

Thu, Mar 1 - Bet She'an, Dead Sea

Fri, Mar 2 - Massada, Ein Gedi, Qumran, Jericho, Wadi Kelt

Sat, Mar 3 - Emmaus-Latrun, Emek HaElah, BeerSheba, Ashkelon, Jaffa

Sun, Mar 4 - Western Wall Tunnel, Temple Institute, Herodian Quarter, South Wall

Mon, Mar 5 - Mt. Zion, Tomb of David - Upper Room, Israel Museum & Model, Yad Vashem, Bethlehem

Tue, Mar 6 - Western (Wailing) Wall, Temple Mount, Bethesda, Ecce Homo, Via Dolorosa, Gallicantu, Church of the Holy Sepulcher, Garden Tomb - Communion

Wed, Mar 7 - Mt. of Olives, Dominus Flevit, Gethsemane, City of David - Siloam, Tayelet, Herodian

Thu, Mar 8 - Free day in Jerusalem

Fri, Mar 9 - Depart Tel Aviv Ben Gurion Airport 7:25 am, British Airways Flight #162
- Arrive London Heathrow 11:10 am
- Depart London Heathrow 1:45 pm British Airways Flight #287
- Arrive SFO 4:35 pm
- Home Sweet Home - 2 days to rest up before going back to work or school on Monday.