| Author | Message | ||
| Colleentinker Registered user Username: Colleentinker Post Number: 8956 Registered: 12-2003  |
Hi all--Many of you already know that God has done a startling thing and has provided a trip to Israel for us. This was certainly not something we could have managed on our own...we are grateful to God and excited to see what it will bring! I'm going to attempt to journal on this thread during our trip so I can share with all of you what we are experiencing. I'm starting it today, the day before we leave, and I'll continue adding to it when we get there. As most of you know, three weeks ago Richard's back let him down. It had been sore around the area where he had ruptured a disk about five years ago, and on Tuesday the 7th, it suddenly contracted so severely that he fell and literally could not get up. The doctor ordered flat bed rest—no getting up for any reason at all--until at least the weekend. That was a tough week for us all...beginning with sons Roy and Nathanael coming over and helping him up and onto the bed. A great many of you began praying for him, including the members of our local FAF Bible study, and by Saturday night he was significantly better but "fragile"—he began experimenting with standing up and walking gingerly around the house. Another blessing was that five friends came to the house after church on Sunday and prayed for Richard. They stood around him and laid their hands on him and prayed for God to strengthen and heal him, to bless him, and to make him able to go on this trip to Israel—which the doctor had said he would not be able to do. They prayed for God to bless him on the trip, to affirm His love for Richard, and to make the trip an experience of God's revelation of Himself to him. God graciously answered everyone's prayers. Every day Richard's back became stronger. Some friends gave us access to their pool so Richard could do non-weight-bearing exercises. The pain has become less and less, and Richard says his back actually feels better than before it "gave out". The doctor talked to me about a week after the "event" and told me that Richard was actually doing very well--surprisingly well. We have been praising God and thanking Him that He has made it possible for us to go, for Richard to be so much improved, and for all of you who have prayed for him. There are 66 of us going on this trip; we'll be divided between two airlines due to some unknown "issue" with one of the airlines, and we arrive at Tel Aviv Wednesday afternoon. Richard is the "pooh-bah" ( to use our pastor Gary Inrig's term—he and his wife are leading this tour) for the flight group the Inrigs are not on. We just received our "marching orders" for departure, arrival, and meeting our tour company and busses when we get to Israel. This trip has seemed surreal—but it's starting to hit us that we're actually going! Now we just have to double check our packing lists and make a schedule of "duties" for our son who's "house sitting" with Rocky the dog... We would treasure your prayers for safety, for our group, and for us to be receptive and responsive to what God wants us to experience. Next post from Israel! Colleen (Message edited by admin on October 27, 2008) | ||
| Cathy2 Registered user Username: Cathy2 Post Number: 313 Registered: 2-2006 |
I am so glad Richard is better! And that your trip is possible. The blessing of prayer and our God are so wonderful. Prayers for you both while you travel. Looking forward to your Israel journal. Cathy | ||
| 8thday Registered user Username: 8thday Post Number: 531 Registered: 11-2007  |
Thank you for taking the time to share with us! Prayers are with you! Considering the challenges you've had to get to this point, I'm expecting amazing things must be in store!! Sondra | ||
| Gcfrankie Registered user Username: Gcfrankie Post Number: 233 Registered: 1-2007 |
Have a great time on your trip and I am praying that Richard's back will continue to stay healed. We will all be looking forward to your journaling us about your trip. Gail | ||
| Lifeanew Registered user Username: Lifeanew Post Number: 153 Registered: 10-2007 |
Looking forward to your story and anxiously waiting to hear how your trip is going. Blessings | ||
| Colleentinker Registered user Username: Colleentinker Post Number: 8957 Registered: 12-2003 |
We're Here! So I'm typing this from a computer at the Dan Panorama Hotel in Tel Aviv on a keyboard which has primary Hebrew characters. We landed at the Ben Gurion Airport this afternoon about 3:17 PM Israel time after a journey that began an hour late at LAX. In spite of our delay for bad storms on the east coast, we made our connecting flight from Newark, NJ, and took of for Tel Aviv about 11:00 PM last night. We finally got here at 3:17 today. The reality of actually going to Israel hit me full force as I walked down the boarding hallway int our first plane. I felt overwhelmed at the poignancy of the journey on which we were embarking, and the effect was enhanced when I saw the significant number of orthodox Jews on the flight with us. When we boarded the B-777 for Israel, the effect was greatly enhanced. A huge percentage of passengers were orthodox or ultra-orthodox Jews. In fact, two Jewish men asked us (in what I assumed to be a Hebrews accent) if we would trade seats with two of them so one of them would not have to sit by a woman. (Orthodox men are forbidden from touching any woman but their own wives.) We traded seats with them, and I found myself sitting besides a cute young woman about 20-ish with a birght-eyed six-month-old son. Her husband, wearing the standard black pants, white shirt, prayer tassles, and skull cap (but minus the full beard and side curls of the ulta-orthodox) sat across the aisle from her. When I asked, she told me that she is a student at university in Jerusalem earning a degree in special education. Her husband also sutdies, "but not in a regular school. He's a student at a yeshiva, a Jewish school, and he studies the Bible." It seemed as if half that plane was Jews on their way to Israel. We had a long night: sleep was fitful, I had begun to doze a bit more deeply when, all of a sudden, life erupted all around the cabin. The few window shades that were still up revealed the sun was beginning to dawn. By this time, it was about 2:15 Newark time and 8:15 Israel time. We were then flying over Ireland, and in that part of the world, the light was just dawning. For the next hour Jewish men from all over the plane were rising and removing embroidered pouches from the overhead storage bins. Unashamedly walking into the aisles and into the area where the flight attendants sat or prepared food. They strapped their phylacteries onto their heads and upper left arms, winding the straps around their forearms and fingers. They they covered themselves with white prayer shawls decorated with black stripes on the edge that framed the face. Even the husband of my seat mate, who appeared to be "merely" orthodox rather than Hasidic, finally handed his sleeping baby back to his wife and donned his prayer shawls and phylacteries. They either stood in the spaces of the plane's cabin and prayed, or they sat back in their seats with their small prayer books. Each took about one-half hour to complete his prayers, and then he removed his prayer parphernalia, returned it to the embroidered sacks, and continued with the day. Richard poignantly summed up the entire phenomenon as he watched one young orthodox father stand at his seat and pray before the flight began yesterday: "It's really sad that they can't call God their father, only their Lord." Calling God "Father" is a New Testament privilege for all those who have been born of the spirit and made alive in Christ. Calling God "Father" is something Jesus introduced to His disciples when they asked him how to pray (see the Lord's Prayer in Matthew 12), It is something further emphaiszedc in Romans 8 when Paul explains that the Holy Spirit testifies to our spirits that we are sons of God after being made alive in Jesus. We had one more cultural jolt at the Tel Aviv airport. As we neared the end of our seeimingly interminable wait to have our passports checked at the Tel Aviv airport, a sizable crowd of orthodox men (minus the prayer shawls and phylacteries) gathered and prayed in the large waiting area by the security booths. The sun was just setting, and they prayed for about a half hour. Just as we were leaving they began to sing a Hebrew hymn together. I realized with a jolt (and confirmed with our Jewish guide who met us at the airport and took us by tour bus to the hotel) that these men pray at sunrise and at sunset. Their morning and evening prayers take the "place" of the morning and evening sacrifices ancient Israel had to offer. The words of Romans 2 were going through my head; honoring the law means nothing to any of us unless we have found the righteousness apart from faith, having nothing to do with the works of the law--righteousness that is only in Jeuss Tonight, on the way to our hotel, we drove through Jaffa which is the place where Peter had the memorable vision of a sheet full of unclean animals when God told him to Kill and eat (see Adtx 10). Tomorrow we will see Nazareth and other related places which I'm too tired to remember right now (Richard is already sound asleep where he lay across the bed...) the jet lag is bad right now! I will post again tomrrow night. Thanks for all your prayers! Next post from Tiberias at the upper end of Galilee, Colleen | ||
| Flyinglady Registered user Username: Flyinglady Post Number: 5942 Registered: 3-2004  |
Thanks Colleen. I look forward to each time you post. How is Richard's back? I will continue to pray for both of you. Thank you awesome God for planning this trip for Richard and Colleen. Diana L | ||
| Helovesme2 Registered user Username: Helovesme2 Post Number: 1698 Registered: 8-2004  |
I'm so glad to hear you made it safely there! Sleep well, and may God continue to guide and protect you. I look forward to hearing more about your trip next time you get a chance to post. Blessings, Mary | ||
| Snowboardingmom Registered user Username: Snowboardingmom Post Number: 503 Registered: 11-2005 |
Thanks for the update! Continuing to pray for you guys! Grace | ||
| Randyg Registered user Username: Randyg Post Number: 1091 Registered: 12-2004  |
What a fascinating time Colleen. Thank you for sharing with us. | ||
| Surfy Registered user Username: Surfy Post Number: 410 Registered: 11-2007 |
I live my life, thru the stories of others on my computer screen, from the comfort of my easy chair. Keep the updates coming. Surfy | ||
| Lifeanew Registered user Username: Lifeanew Post Number: 155 Registered: 10-2007 |
Thanks for sharing your journey. So interesting and anxious to hear more. JannBob | ||
| Akweavers Registered user Username: Akweavers Post Number: 39 Registered: 8-2008 |
Glad to see you made it safe. It all sounds very interesting. Will keep you in our prayers | ||
| Esther Registered user Username: Esther Post Number: 445 Registered: 5-2004 |
That was fascinating! What a privilege you are granting us by keeping us posted. Thank you! Praying for your safety while you travel, and continued healing for Richards back! | ||
| Colleentinker Registered user Username: Colleentinker Post Number: 8958 Registered: 12-2003 |
Hi, everyone! We're at the Sea of Galilee tonight, and we're staying at Ceasar's right on the shore of the lake for two nights. First, I want to tell you thank you again for your prayers. God has been so faithful. We have a lady in our group who's not from our church; she somehow heard about this trip and signed up at the last minute to go along. She requires a walker or, on more strenuous terrain, a wheelchair. She's is assigned to Richard for his help and oversight. Today he had to push her on some pretty rough gravel paths—rough enough and uneven enough that a couple of guys helped in some spots by lifting the front of her chair by walking one on each side while Richard pushed. I was, as those of you who know me might imagine, pretty worried about his back...but when I whispered "How's your back?" he responded, "I have NO pain." I can only thank God! He's not been pain-free, but he's doing well. Grace, you were right about the airport; Richard developed quite a soreness during all the stress and the subsequent sitting, but it's much better today! We began our day with what, it turns out, is a legendary breakfast buffet at our hotel in Tel Aviv. The selection was awesome, but the really fun thing was that the foods all were unusual—seasoned and combined in uniquely Middle Eastern ways. From pastries to eggs and cheeses and fish and salads, everything was surprising and delicious. The cappuccino was familiar, though! We toured the ancient city of Ceasarea which Herod the Great (the one who killed the babies when Jesus was born) had built. We saw the foundation of his palace which had been built right out to the Mediterranean Sea, the remains of the beautiful aqueduct which had been in use when Jesus was here, and the recently discovered hippodrome he built with a sea view. (A hippodrome is a horse race-course.) Another highlight was sitting in the recently excavated amphitheater which history had all but forgotten existed. Again, the amphitheater looks over the Mediterranean. Michael, one of our local FAF members, sang "It Is Well With My Soul" from the stage of the amphitheater. Awesome. We saw the ruins of a Crusader City, built over the area of part of Ceasarea; the entrance hallway of the castle is still standing, and it is beautiful with its vaulted ceiling. It's amazing that the arch, the aqueduct, and all sorts of civil-engineering-type-stuff was developed by Rome and continues to this day. The really fascinating fact about Ceasarea, for me, is that Ceasarea is the city where Peter, after receiving his "sheet-of-unclean-animals-vision", met Cornelius, the centurion, and Peter went to Cornelius' home and preached to them. He and his household believed in Jesus and received the Holy Spirit. So, Ceasarea is the home of the first Gentile Christians. That's the city where OUR heritage began. It's really an awesome thought--and the city is in a breathtaking location on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. We drove north to Mt Carmel--it's amazing how close together these famous places really are. Mt. Carmel, you remember, is the place where Elijah mocked the priests of Baal as they prayed for rain, and finally, after most of the day, Elijah built a new altar, drenched it with water, put the sacrifice on it, prayed, and God sent fire that consumed sacrifice, altar, and even the water on the ground—and then He sent the rain. Mt. Carmel overlooks what is called the Jezreel Valley which is a huge, flat valley which today is rich in agriculture. From Mt Carmel I could look across the Jezreel Valley and see the hill where Nazareth was built. Gary pointed out that from Nazareth, Jesus could see, for the 30 years he lived with his parents, the places where so many of the OT stories occurred. Also from Mt Carmel we could see Mt. Tabor, reputed by many to be the site of the Transfiguration, and Mt. Moreh from where the Shunamite widow brought her dead son to Elisha, who was at Mt Carmel, for him to raise from the dead—which he did. South of Mt Moreh are the mountains marking the territory of Samaria. That whole area is also rich with biblical memories, but it inaccessible today because it is part of the West Bank. Of course, to the west of Mt Carmel is the Mediterranean Sea. The whole place was beautiful—I was struck by how accessible these places are to each other. The Bible really did happen within a very small area; stories of the OT converge with stories from the NT--and all at the same places. Gary talked about Israel's experience the day Elijah prayed for rain. He said they had a deep emotional experience when God did His miracles that day, but that visible demonstration of His power didn't change them into obedient followers. Gary said, "A deep emotional experience is not a substitute for deep repentance. Israel had an experience but did not repent for their unbelief. The call to us is to stand against the baals in our own lives. How are we being called to be faithful in our generation as we stand against the baals in our lives?" We went to Megiddo for lunch. Megiddo is perhaps the oldest, most important trade crossroads of the ancient world. A big spring gave water at Megiddo, and, located as it is between Egypt and what is now Iraq (then Mesopotamia), it became a much-frequented stop as merchants travelled from Egypt to Mesopotamia. As years passed, the settlements built up around Megiddo would alternately die off and be rebuilt later. The result is that archaeologists have discovered 21 layers of settlements at Megiddo—the most they have ever found in a tel. The really interesting thing about Megiddo is that it is the place we know as Armageddon. At Megiddo you can look north to Mt Carmel, east to Nazareth, southeast to Mt. Tabor and Mt Moreh, and south to Samaria—with the great plain of Jezreel spreading out in front of it. It's easy to see how the kings of nations could gather on this plain for a great battle—as, indeed, they did over and over through ancient history. Whatever the final battle will "look" like, Megiddo is the same place often translated "Armageddon", and this is the place John mentions in Revelation. The last place we went today was Nazareth. In 2000 a group of Christians opened a long-researched and carefully planned "Nazareth Village" which has recreated the essential elements of first-century life in Nazareth. They have built this village on a small area that apparently used to be the real farmland outside the original city of Nazareth. They have discovered in this small area the remains of ancient terraces, an irrigation system, and the winepress. The village designers have planted a small olive grove and also have set up an authentic olive press (run by a donkey who literally turns the stone) and also presses for doing first, second, and third presses from the olive pulp created by the donkey and his stone. They've also recreated a couple of houses, interconnected by tiny passageways, and they have people who demonstrate the wool prep, spinning, and weaving of period cloth and products. In addition, they have a small herd of sheep from which they do gather wool, and their shepherd stands with them throughout the day. The village tour ended at the synagogue which has been designed to match synagogues of the same time period which still stand in a few small towns. I found Nazareth Village to be one of the most evocative things I've seen. Perhaps because the building and setting were realistic, perhaps because so much care and attention had been given to making it "authentic", it was a quite moving to see how Jesus would have lived. Tomorrow we go out on the Sea of Galillee, and we'll eat Galillee fish for dinner. We're both moving toward recovering from jet lag, but I admit I'm still struggling to stay awake much of the day. The tour guide at Nazareth Village said their goal is to help people see the land as "the fifth gospel". I understand what he means. Seeing the layout, how close things really are to one another, how feasible it would have been for Elijah or Peter or Paul to walk from place to place is remarkable. The Bible DID happen--and it all happened logically and in a three dimensional place that determined many of the details. For example, the climate is very much like Southern California. Even the naturally-occurring vegetation in the areas with Mediterranean climate look like "home". The air temp is much like home for this time of year, also. Because of the warmth and dryness, Jesus and the apostles could have walked and even stayed outdoors much of the time. The parables He told were naturally-occurring scenarios from "Everyone's" perspective. The Bible is real, and it happened in three dimensions with people like us participating in the events. And we can still walk on the ancient stones and see the same hills, valleys, and seas that they saw. It's awesome being able to share these memories with you as they happen! I'm keeping you in my prayers as well. Love, Colleen and Richard--finishing up the editing as Colleen falls asleep... | ||
| Snowboardingmom Registered user Username: Snowboardingmom Post Number: 505 Registered: 11-2005 |
So cool, Richard and Colleen! I'm loving reading about your experiences. Your description of these places helps ME to see the Bible with new eyes. Thanks for sharing! You're in my prayers always, Grace | ||
| Flyinglady Registered user Username: Flyinglady Post Number: 5945 Registered: 3-2004 |
Colleen and Richard, that is so awesome to be in the land of the patriarchs, prophets and Jesus and the disciples/apostles. You are walking where they walked. Tears come to eyes as I think and write of this. Thanks for sharing your experience with us. I continue to pray for both of you, especially Richard with his back as he pushes the lady in her wheelchair. Diana L | ||
| Grace_alone Registered user Username: Grace_alone Post Number: 1286 Registered: 6-2006  |
Colleen, I love your posts! Your descriptions are so detailed and well written that it really feels like we're there with you. Thank you so much for sharing your experience with all of us. I hope to get there some day myself! Glad Richard is feeling better. Lots of love to you both ~  Leigh Anne | ||
| Mommamayi Registered user Username: Mommamayi Post Number: 646 Registered: 12-2007  |
Oh, I just love what you are sharing! Thank you two for giving some of your precious time to report to us. I was praying for you on Tuesday as you were traveling, and especially for Richard's back. I'm so thrilled that things are going well!! Much love, Diana C. | ||
| River Registered user Username: River Post Number: 3745 Registered: 9-2006  |
Hi Colleen and all, Just a quick check in, as you were leaving U.S.A and arriving in Israel I was moving, still don,t have Internet yet, will probably be next Wednesday before I get Internet, I hooked in to an open wifi and hit the ticket, am so glad you all made it to Israel, hope you are taking lots of pics for us, like Dianna Momma C. I am so glad things are going well, keep an eye on Richard he don't over do. Will send this off if the link hasn't dropped, tired to the bone here, I take over office tomorrow, got most everything unpacked, love the stories of Israel. Hope I can get a peak at this thread before next Wed. If not Lord bless and keep you safe. All our prayers. River |
