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Day 1: 12-16-01 (Sunday)

Today, we got on a SwissAir plane at 3pm. We didn't leave until 3:30 from Los Angeles.

The flight was very long and we were in the plane for 12 hours. They had very good service and gave us all kinds of food and drinks. I got about 4 hours of sleep.

When we landed in Zurich, it was 11:52am local time (we were supposed to land at 11am). We went straight to our next flight on El Al. El Al was leaving 15 minutes early, at 12:55pm. Technically, this is now "Day 2" of our trip.

The check-in man at El Al asked Sarine and I about 100 questions! It was incredible and a little unnerving. He even asked us the same questions, from different angels, 2-3 times! These were some of his questions:

- Why are you going to Israel?

- Do you know anyone there?

- Why are you going now?

- Are you scared?

- What is your occupation?

- Have you been to Israel before?

- Why is your passport new (Sarine)?

- Do you have a Bible?

- Do you have hotel or car reservations?

- Do you have shekels? How much?

... and several more questions!

Eventually, he let us pass, but said our luggage wasn't going to make it on the plane! They said that since SwissAir was delayed, the luggage wouldn't make it on our plane. We left to Tel Aviv without our luggage.

We prayed the luggage would be there when we landed, but 3½ hours later, it wasn't.

The "Lost & Found" department of El Al airlines was very efficient and kind. They gave us 600 shekels ($150) and told us they'd deliver our luggage to us, anywhere in Israel, when it arrived. Therefore, we went to Hertz and pursued a rental car.

Hertz didn't have the tiny, manual transmission car that we reserved, so they offered us a much nicer one at the same price/rate! For (actually $10 less) they gave us a 4 door, automatic, 2000 Sedan (Daewoo).

Unfortunately, they tried to charge us $17 a day extra for insurance! The person at their 800 reservation number promised us this wouldn't happen. Since I had a Gold Matercard, they were able to lower the insurance charge to $8 a day. We accepted this and left. This was a great miracle because they moved us from a tine "Class A" vehicle to a nice "Class F" vehicle! Praise the Lord.

A couple other great things that happened earlier are these:

- My dad gave us $200 on the 15^th.

- Sarine's Dad gave us $100 on the 16^th.

- I talked to a religious Jew about Jesus on the plane.

- A young Jewish boy (actually three of them) gave me hair gel before we landed in Tel Aviv. Very sticky stuff!

- I told the Jewish inquisitor (at El Al) that we were different because we had the Holy Spirit inside of us; and I told Him about Jesus.

- I also told him I wasn't afraid because God hasn't given me a spirit of fear.

After getting the car, we drove to Netanya. It was a 35 minute drive up the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. Everything here is in kilometers! The signs and even the numbers on my steering column. I have a highly mathematical way to convert km to miles. I cut them in half and add a couple. Ha ha. Funny, but it works.

Sarine and I bought some falafel and shwarma in Netanya. It was very good and the bread was very fresh. After our meal, we followed some signs to a great beach hotel. The Hotel Mizpe-Yam. The room had two beds (one big, one little), tv, phone, a balcony and chairs, frig, safe and nice bathroom (and heater). It was only $44 a night, too!

Day 3: 12-18-01 (Tuesday)

Today, Sarine and I saw Caesarea and Mt. Carmel (and some of Haifa, like Haifa University).

The ruins at Caesarea were awesome. We visited the National Park and saw a huge, Roman theater, stone aqueducts and much more. It's amazing that so much was still in tact after 2000 years of erosion. Caesarea and these ruins sits right on the Mediterranean Sea (the waves lapped the brach and ancient stones as we watched).

The coastline gave us an awesome view as we drove. It reminded me of the California coastline and the 1 freeway (highway, actually).

Mt. Carmel National Park was huge. We drove all over it, too. There were plenty of nice views. Elijah conquered the prophets of Baal and hid in a cave, here.

When we returned to our hotel in Netanya, 3 or 4 pieces of our luggage had arrived! Woohoo! Everything but our smallest suitcase was here. I called the airline about it and they said they had it and would bring it before 11am, tomorrow.

Yes, we found another falafel and shwarma stand and ate. I even found someone selling ready-to-eat corn-on-the-cob! I bought some and ate. It was yummy! Sarine wanted a donut, but didn't have one.

Day 4: 12-19-01 (Wednesday)

Today, we walked all over Nazareth. We saw the Basilica of the Annunciation (where Catholics and some others believe the angel told Mary she would have Jesus). Her house was also there.

A kind monk named Thomas let us see some places that were locked and closed to the public! Maybe the Spirit of God just told him to open the place. He told us some things about the Bible and the site. I offered him some shekels, but he refused them. I offered to pray with Him and he accepted.

Before we saw Nazareth, we saw Megiddo. It was showering lightly (all day). The Megiddo National Park was great. There were a lot of ruins and a small museum. The view was breathtaking, especially as we imagined the armies gathering to fight the battle of Armageddon.

There was a long, water tunnel that we walked down to exit the park. Suspiciously, it brought us to the outside of the park. We had to walk a few hundred yards, but the road returned us to our car.

When we tried to start the car, it wouldn't work! The engine would rev, but it wouldn't turn over. After a minute of trying, it suddenly started. Praise the Lord. (I didn't exactly have the numbers for AAA Megiddo or Hertz Megiddo - because they don't exsist).

It was amazing for me to learn that Megiddo was very close to Nazareth and Nazareth was very close to Megiddo. Israel is a small county.

We mailed some post cards in Nazareth. We also had the bathroom door shut and locked in our face, so we couldn't use it! A very rude cleaning lady astonished us and left me with my mouth wide open.

We also saw the alleged site of Joseph's house (Jesus' earthly father). There is a church over it, now (like many of the biblical places in Israel).

We've been taking lots of pictures with our digital camera. Right now, we have nearly 100! I'm sure we'll use the full 430-ish by the time the trip is over.

After seeing Nazareth and Megiddo, we drove through Cana (where we bought some really, nice strawberries) and ended the day in Tiberias. Tiberias is a nice, "beach" front city and base for viewing many great sites.

We found a hotel for only $24 a night! It even had a big and little bed, tv, heater, shower, mirror, table, chair, etc. It was small, but we don't spend much time in our room. We're always our seeing things.

After securing the room, we hit a local shwarma spot. They had great, turkey shwarma, fruit drinks, bread and veggies. The guys that worked there were very nice and funny. They were like the Lebanese Backstreet Boys or something.

It's been interesting to watch Britan's version of CNN called Sky News. It's not as good, in my opinion, though. They don't talk about global news enough and they don't report on enought things. They apparently have a positive attitude about the U.S. and our war on terror, though.

Day 5: 12-20-01 (Thursday)

We saw a lot of cool things, today. First, when we woke up, we realized that our hotel had a view of the Sea of Galilee! It was dark when we entered town, so we didn't know.

We got up very early and left the room at 8am sharp! First, we went to the sea and found a boat leaving! It was perfect timing, so we paid the $5 a piece and took a trip on the lake (it's actually a lake, not a sea).

A crew member showed us how the apostles threw their nets into the water. It was cool because I had never seen someone do this. He didn't catch anything, though. They gave us little certificates when we began returning to the land. We got some great pictures, from the boat, when we were in the water.

After the ride, we decided to get cash for some of our traveller's checks. We found a place that didn't charge any fees and gave a higher exchange rate than the U.S. (and any other place) - $1 = 4.15 NIS. We bought $400 in NIS at 3.87 per $1, in the U.S. (plus a small fee). After calculating everything, I learned that I should just bring traveller's checks and convert them to shekels, here, next time.

After getting the money, we began our trip around the Sea of Galilee. First, we visited the Mt. Of Beatitudes Basilica. This was a very nice building that was built over the "Sermon on the Mount" recorded in Matthew chapter 5. Sarine and I read from Matthew 5-7. It was awesome. As we spoke Jesus' words, it was like He was there. At one point, I thought I heard someone or something on my right. I turned and looked, but it was only the wind. Maybe it was the pneuma.

As Sarine read, God gave me an interesting idea. For my classes, I can write a different verse on the board each week. This verse will be a "tough" verse that troubles some Christians. We will have to live up to it all week. At the end of the week, they could pray and/or write about it.

After leaving this place (we took pictures and it had a nice view), we went to the Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fish. It is actually a Benedictine Monastary. We were reminded of this as a robed figure incessantly banged a bell an innumerable amount of times as we left at exactly noon.

We had fun at the gift shop, here. Not only was the clerk funny, nice and odd, they had a wide variety of items at reasonable prices. We bought all kinds of souvenirs (gifts, olive oil, holy land screen saver, some books, etc.). Incidentally we bought a big bag of oranges and tangerines outside the Basilica of the Beatitues. They were really fresh and juicy.

We journeyed onward and our next stop was Tabigha and the church there (Peter's Primacy). This was the site of Peter's restoration (after Christ's resurrection). The church was small, the courtyard was big and green and the adjoing beach was very nice. Like many of the other sites, we were the only ones there (the sites with people had but a handful, for instance, the biggest "crowd" so far was the 7 other people on our boat ride).

I read the scriptures as I sat on a rock near the water. I pictured the resurrected Christ restoring the pained person of Peter. It must have been awesome.

A nice, (needy) little, black cat joined us, here. It was very sweet and liked having it's picture taken. It even followed us around the place! It let Sarine hold it.

Capernaum was our next stop. There were some nice ruins of ancient buildings and synagogues at this site. They were here from many time periods (including before Christ's time to after Christ's time). I remembered visiting this place.

The cat who met me last time wasn't here. However, I enjoyed seeing the huge, stone, olive press, again.

So far, we haven't been in any danger and nothing has been lost or stolen! The only setback was the lost luggage. Plus, we got a parking ticket, today. It was for 70 NIS (which is about $17.50).

After Capernaum, we ate at a nice restaurant with a great view of the sea of Galilee. The food was a little expensive, but it was fun to eat American food, again: pizza and ice cream! It was yummy too.

We haven't been able to use our calling card, so we hunted down an internet kiosk (inside some random hotel) and e-mailed our families. It was nice to tell them we were alive and well. We hadn't talked to them in awhile.

Day 6: 12-21-01 (Friday)

On this day, we left Tiberias around 11:30am. We wanted to leave earlier, but slept later than we planned.

The first thing we did was get baptized in the Jordan River. There is a site called Yardenit that's about 10 minutes south of Tiberias. I was baptized there in 1997. Sarine and I were the only people in the water! A couple of people watched us, though. The water was super, super cold! The only thing colder than the water was the showers.

It was awesome to be baptized where Jesus was baptized. I baptized Sarine and she baptized me. We got certificates from the site, so we can frame them.

After we left Yardenit, we drove to Bet'Shean. This place had a ton of ancient ruins. Most of them were from the Romans of Christ's time. Apparently, this site had been a plush, enormous bath house, theater, meeting place and more. Now, it's in disarray, but seeing the huge columns of stone and the artistic, floor mosaics hinted at what this place once was.

We explored this National Park for an hour or so. We got a student rate, so the entrance fee was discounted.

Flashback - each day, Sarine and I pray before we go anywhere. When we get in the car, we simply stop and pray for God's protection, the whole day, etc. It's a great "ritual" and I hope we keep doing it.

From Bet'Shean, we drove South to Jericho. Unfortunately, they wouldn't let us in! A man in a gun tower (we think he was an Israeli officer) apologetically told us we weren't allowed to enter and he wasn't sure when the border would be open. This surprised us. We wondered what the 7,000 + Palestinians were doing in there and why we couldn't see! We regretted not being able to see a couple of the holy sites, but we knew God's will was for us to leave.

Since it was daylight and we couldn't enter Jericho, we decided to visit Jerusalem. We weren't supposed to make it to Jerusalem for a couple more days. However, we had to engineer a new plan because of several things (no Jericho, gaining a day - somehow, not seeing a couple places, yet, etc.)

We ate at a gigantic YMCA. This place is awesome and it's called the "Three Arches YMCA" or something like that. They were charging $110 per night, but had lowered their rate to $75.

After talking to the hotel (manager?), he gave us a discounted rate of $60 per night. We told him we'd think about it and ate some dinner. They had great food, but their version of "salad" was a little different than ours. Mine had some kind of cold, green beans in it! Besides that, it was basically normal.

When we finished eating, we sent a quick e-mail to our family via an internet kiosk. Next, we talked to the manager about a room.

I asked him if he could give us a discount if we stayed a whole week. He chuckled a little and said he was already giving us a nice discount, so I simply offered him $350 for a week ($50 a night). He said ok! Praise the Lord - we got a great room (we already looked at it), in a great place, at a super rate.

Although we got this killer deal, we told him to book us for tomorrow night through Friday night. Tonight, we wanted to drive to Ein Gedi and get a jump on tomorrow's activities. He said ok, so we hit the road.

Driving at night is quite an adventure. In the big cities, there are lights. But in the outskirts and country roads, there are none.

We drove out of Jerusalem, accidentally visited Ramallah (very briefly) and drove about an hour to Ein Gedi. Our "Lonely Planet: Israel" book told us of a couple of places to stay. There are only 2 or 3 places to stay in this whole city!

We ended up staying at the Ein-Gedi Field School. The manager was very nice, the place was clean and had a heater. They charged us 75 NIS x 2.

We sang some songs before going to sleep. We even made up some goofy lyrics to the tune of "Lord, I Lift Your Name on High"! Finally, we set our alarm to 8:30am in order to wake early enough for the free breakfast.

Day 6: 12-22-01 (Saturday)

Boker Tov! (know what that means?)

The very common breakfast in Israel is hard boiled eggs, (sometimes scrambled eggs(, bread, cheese, milk, "yogurt:, yellow juice (which is quite good, but not exactly orange juice) and coffee. Interesting, eh? Oh yeah, they also have cereal and sometimes salad or veggies. I like this breakfast, but it's different.

So I don't forget, I bought a shirt with some Hebrew words on it (for only 20 shekels!). It says, "Green days are coming. But for now, we conserve water." The front of the shirt has the school emblem and name. Now, I can refer here if I can't remember the words.

Today, we experienced Ein Gedi, the Dead Sea, Masada and some interesting food. Everything worked our as planned, except Qumran was closed at 3:50, so we planned to see it, tomorrow.

The free breakfast at the Ein Gedi field school was good. There were several other people enjoying their "Shobat" breakfaast. "Shabat Shalom" was the appropriate greeting, today (it's their Sabbath or Shabat). That phrase means (loosely), "Happy Sabbath".

Next, we went to Ein Gedi Beach and caught some waves. Just kidding about the waves part. The Dead Sea had only a small surge and current that lapped the "beach". Their beach was filled with rocks and included an active lifeguard tower.

We could totally float on the Dead Sea! It was fun and really weird. A few people joined us in the water. One was an Australian girl who was getting credits toward a medical degree in a Tel Aviv hospital.

We had a ton of slick salt on us by the time we wxited the water. The most noticeable build up was on our necks! We took some pictures.

As soon as we left the Dead Sea, we returned to our room and took showers. It felt great to get clean.

The next stop for us was Masada. This place didn't necessarily hold any biblical significance, but it's an awesome site that holds a lot of importance for the Jews.

It was first settled around the 10^th century, B.C. However, it's most famous for the zealots who fiercly fought the Romans there and ultimately took their own lives, so they wouldn't be defiled and/or enslaved by the Romans (near 66 A,D.).

We took a cable car to the top and explored and photographed the ruins for an hour. The view was awesome, too.

Qumran was closed, so we headed to Jerusalem. On the way, we ate at a little Arabic restaurant. They had very good "kabobs", felafel, "chips" (french fries) and bread.

Day 7: 12-23-01

We did a lot today! A lot of fun stuff, too.

First, we woke up early and ate the free, hotel breakfast. The buffet was quite good. The bread was unique and fresh. They had a cherry jam that I had never seen before, but it tasted great. I also had some kind of cereal, juice and an orange (oh yeah, plus some tasty cheese).

After our breakfast, we went to the 9am church service at the Garden Tomb. Getting there was a little adventure in itself. Nonetheless, it was closed until December 31! It seems unfathomable that the place where Christ could have entered and exited His tomb could be closed over Christmas.

We sat and prayed in front of the locked door. And I climbed the fence and wall, so I could see inside. They have obviously had security problems because the 8-10 foot stone wall bore a 4 foot metal fence with barbed wire above it.

From this point, we decided to enter Jerusalem through the huge Damascus gate and see the Via Dolorosa and Holy Sepulchure.

The Via Dolorosa (or "Way of Sorrows") was very busy anc crowded. My guide book calls it a "melee". There were all kinds of shops, from candy stores to luggage shops to clothes stores and restaurants. I made sure my pockets were zipped and snapped (jacket), so nothing could be stolen.

We bought some candy, sunglasses and sweater for Sarine, water and probably something else.

On the road, we spotted an internet café. This place was like an oasis in a barn. They gave us lightening - fast internet for about $1.25 for 30 minutes and phone calls to our parents for about .25 per minute. They also served us fresh orange juice! This was a very nice break from the action.

It was good to talk to my parents. I think they were a little surprised to hear that things were going so great. Time flew as I talked with them. When this refreshing eposode ceased, it was time to resume our journey to the "Holy" Sepulchure. I put Holy in quotes because this enormous church is the home of many Catholic shrines to Christ (his crucifixion, resurrection, etc.). This is an alternate location for Jesus' death, burial and resurrection. Protestants typically don't think it all happened here.

At any rate, the enormous, elaborate architecture was very impressive. The shrines were very flashy, but at least the place wasn't selling anything. We took lots of pictures and left. Incidentally, Sarine felt discomfort in her spirit, here. She said that she didn't think these things happened here. I agreed. Based on several scriptures on the trial of Christ, the Via Dolorosa wasn't the road He waslked and the Holy Sepulchure wasn't His destination.

After leaving this place, we found our way to our car and bought some strawberries. They were fresh and good.

Most of the things that cost us money are negotiable, here. I was able to save many dollars, today, by negotiating. For instance, i saved $2.50 on my parking by being insistent that we only parked there for 3-3½ hours. If you come here, have fun haggling! Some things, like the newspapers I bought, today, aren't negotiable.

We drove from here to the Qumran National Park. This is the site where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. Qumran is about 30 minutes from Jerusalem.

Upon entering the park, we were offered some snacks and fruit juices, but we decided to get them on the way out.

First, we saw a movie on the Essenes (the Jewish sect that once lived here). Apparently, they were very dissatisfied with the Jews (religious Jews) and left, so they could practice a more "pure and devoted" form of Judaism. Parts of some books (actually, all but Esther) and all of Isaiah was found here.

The movie said that John the Baptist was an Essene. They have some written information on scrolls that eludes to this; but nobody is certain. Some have proposed that Jesus was an Essene, but Qumran's media did not.

Sarine and I scoured the ruins. There were several small buildings, walls and things. Plus, there were 10 ceremonial baths and a big, deep swimming pool.

Upon leaving Qumran, we got some gas and decided to read by the Dead Sea. The gas is very expensive and it is sold by the liter. It costs about double the U.S. price as a full tank is 160 shekels ($40).

There were an extraordinary amount of flies bugging us at the Dead Sea, today! At one point, there were around 15 of these winged pests in our car. I read the Jerusalem Post and USA today and we left. Sarine read "Desecration" from the Left Behind series. She has been excited to continue reading this series, especially because many places in the book are places we're visiting around Israel.

Since we were driving into Jerusalem around 3:45, we decided to visit Mt. Scopus and the Mt. Of Olives. There was an incredible view from the Scopus observatory. We took several pictures.

It took us several minutes to find the right way to the top of the Mount of Olives. When we got there, we were greeted by a postcard salesman and a man on a donkey who was giving camel rides. We had seen some camels and I had prayed to see if we should take a ride. I ended up telling God that we'd ride the next camel we saw and this one was it!

We were the only tourists here, so we got special "attention". These locals, offering their services, seemed nice at first, but then they were joined by another and became a bit aggressive. We left shortly after our ride and planned to visit the sites on this hill, tomorrow (it was getting late, cold and dark).

Day 8: 12-24-01 (Monday) Christmas Eve

Today was full of fun, excitement and change!

Sarine and I decided to fast, today. We wanted to draw closer to God, feel His presence and obey Him through fasting.

Sarine and I slept in and visited the Mt. Of Olives, first. The Church of All Nations was our first stop.

This church is huge. They have a grand entrance with huge pillars and a colorful mural. Once inside, we could see the shrine to Jesus for the time He wept in the Garden of Gethsemane. The angels that mini stered to Him were represented by painting on the high, vaulted ceiling.

Right ne xt to this church is the Garden of Gethsemane. We walked through the garden and wondered if this was the location that Jesus frequented. There were a bunch of olive trees, here. I read that some of them have been scientifically dated as being over 2000 years old.

Walking down the Mt. Of Olives, we visited tomb of Mary Magdalene. It was in a cave that had been carved out. There were steps and rooms in this deep orifice. It was an interesting place, but the lighting was poor and the monk on site seemed a little smug.

Next, we visited a small grotto that also claimed to be the site where Jesus wept in Gethsemane. There was a noteworthy painting of Judas betraying Jesus, making this grotto a worthwile visit. They played some Christmas music, too, which was a unique thing for the holy shrines.

Upon seeing those places, we drove to the Western Wall (also known as the Wailing Wall - Judaism's holiest site). I hardly recognized the place because they had built a security post, divided into men and women's sections. It took about 15 minutes to get through the line, but we made it through without any trouble.

The wall looked like it did 4 years ago. I was given a yarmukle (pronounced yom-uh-kuh) to wear, as I approached the wall. This is their tradition, so I honored it.

Many mend were saying prayers by this wall. Some were touching it, some were rocking back and forth and some were reading (probably from the Torah or Talmud),

I put one hand on the wall, raised my other hand and prayed. I prayed and listened to God. I did this for a few minutes, then i entered a room to the side of the wall. Last time, I didn't go in here, so I didn't know what it was. Apparently, it was a reading room. There were a ton of books written only in Hebrew and some chairs. People were praying, reading and I even saw one guy sleeping.

Sarine had to pray on the women's side, so I net her at our meeting time and left. It was an interesting experience, but more or less uneventful. It was a little sad to see the holiest site in Judaism as a wall, with three mosques in sight and Arabic music playing in the distance (but within earshot).

When we left this place, we gave into a Jewish man's request for a ride to the Jaffa Gate. He was hitch-hiking (which is common and legal in Israel), so I prayed to see if God wanted me to take Him. He said, "yes," so I did.

We made basic conversation for a few minutes. He was very thankful for his ride.

Well, this was the day we returned our rental car to Hertz! The total cost for the week was $219. Comparatively, this was an excellent rate. Praise the Lord for His hook up. More great news is that the Jerusalem Hertz drop off center was literally ½ block from our hotel! God worked this out from the beginning because I chose this drop location before we arrived in Israel (and before we even chose our hotel). We returned the car, rested in our room and read the Bible. We read Psalm 139, Isaiah 14 and Jesus' birth story from Matthew and Luke. It was awesome to see how God brought Jesus into the world! He fulfilled the prophecies, too. The places we read about came alive and had special significance because we were so close to them.

When our rest was finished, we decided to break our fast at a nearby restaurant. The restaurant we chose was a very, flashy Arabic eatery. Immediately upon sitting, the waiter brought us a plate of colored drinks - some were yellow and some were purple. I thought they were fruit juices, so Sarine and I drank the purple ones.

At once, I realized that I had consumed some kind of sweet liquor! I felt awefully deceived and offended. Plus, it's terrible to break a fast with alcohol! Further, we don't even drink! After praying, I felt very inclined to leave this place, immediately.

We found a great restaurant with a very friendly owner just inside the Jaffa gate. We had a large meal of falafel, shwarma, fruit drinks, schnitzel and some "Armenian Pizza". This huge meal was only 50 shekles. When we were done, we bought some snacks next door and returned to our hotel.

Tonight, the YMCA hotel in Jerusalem (our hotel) had a Christmas service! It was great because we sang all of the classic, Christmas hymns (in English!). We also ran into an American friend we had met at the Dead Sea.

We were happy to see Rich. He's from Phoenix and bravely exploring the Holy Land by himself. He's also a devoted Christian.

We went inside our hotel's restaurant and swapped stories over some coffee. He has been staying in some very interesting hostels and he's met Christians, Muslims and everything in between. He's even witnessed to some Muslims and stopped a robbery!

After talking awhile, we decided to visit his hostel and go to Bethlehem, together.

His hostel was extremely close to the Damascus gate (a Muslim area), but at least it was very colorful and interesting. I hadn't seen a place like it.

We have been excited to be able to visit Bethlehem on Christmas Eve. Many churches dispute the various holy sites, but Christ's birthplace in Bethlehem is widely accepted.

This year, Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has barred Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat from visiting Bethlehem on this special night. However, he has told the press that he was going; even if he had to walk there. Since this situation was happening, some people thought there may be problems in Bethlehem and elsewhere. For instance, angry Palestinians could have rioted in Bethlehem to show the world their displeasure.

At any rate, Yasser didn't come and there were no problems in Bethlehem. There was a skirmish in Nablus - another Palestinian territory - but that was 35-40 miles away.

The scene in Bethlehem was interesting. Outside the Church of the Nativity, there were about 150 people. We got there around 11:30pm. There may have been more people there earlier.

We tried to enter the church, but some armed guards asked us for a ticket and didn't let us through. We were a little disheartened, so we bought a couple ears of corn and at them with some local kids.

These kids were mesmerized by us. At first, there were two of them, but more came and quickly joined us. They were sweet, but didn't know much English! They tried to talk with us and ended up laughing a lot.

Eventually, we decided to try and enter the church, again. There was a small line of people at the outer gate and we joined them. The little kids followed us to the line and smiled and waved as we tried to get in. God answered our prayers and they let us all in! We felt quite blessed and priveleged.

It had been 4 years since I'd been here, so I didn't remember the setup very well. Nonetheless, we got everywhere we needed to be.

Inside the church, there was a courtyard. It felt a little like Hollywood because there were news cameras, many Arabs in suits (mainly single guys), men dressed in religious garb, people on cell phones, etc.

We went right and followed a path to Jesus' birthplace. The room was packed full of people, but they weren't facing the birthplace of Christ. They were listening (and watching something I couldn't see) to a foreign message or sermon.

Even in this foreign crowd, I still realized the importance of this place and the importance of what happened here about 2000 years ago. I could have stayed there a long time, but I wanted to let others visit the crowded site, so I exited.

When we left this area, we went across the courtyard and through the other door. Inside this huge, beautiful room with high, vaulted ceilings there were hundreds of people. A church service (the widely renowned, "Midnight Service") was taking place.

This service was in another language, so we couldn't understand it. Nonetheless, I asked God to speak to me. He was speaking volumes to me, but I'm fairly certain it wasn't what the speaker was saying. After about 15-20 minutes, we left.

Praise the Lord for keeping us safe! We returned to our car and to our hotel.

Day 9: 12-25-01 (Christmas)

Since we no longer had our car, we decided to see the Holy Land on foot, today!

We slept late, woke, had breakfast and showers and left about 2:30pm.

We walked a few miles to the Israel Museum and Bible Lands Museum (we stopped and ate some fantastic strawberries on the way). The two museums were directly across from each other.

Before we made it to the museums, we ran across the Monastery of the Cross. This is the place where they believe the wood for Jesus' cross was found (I know, they have a church or monastery for everything, but it's impressive that so many biblical people and things are commemorated).

We entered this building through a 5' door. Four others rang the bell, asked the nun for admittance and walked before us. We took some pictures and admired the artwork and architecture.

After visiting for awhile, we left, walked through a large park, up a hill and to the museums.

Starting at the Bible Lands Museum, we began learning about the ancient artifacts and peoples.

I recommend visiting this place. It was quite large (3 floors) and it had a lot of quaint artifacts, models and exhibits, we also enjoyed the computer kiosk that taught us about the ancient seals and things on display in relation to the scriptures.

After visiting all of the floors, we walked across the street and entered the Israel Museum. We actually visited the Shrine of the Book, only, and not the surrounding museum.

The Shrine of the Book is the place where the Dead Sea Scrolls are housed. About 55 years ago, these scrolls were found in the caves at Qumran. They contain all of Isaiah and fragments of every book besides Esther. It was awesome to see the scriptures being supported by ancient, manuscripts in our possession! This lands fantastic credibility to the authenticity of the Bible.

Among these scrolls were some unknown scriptures and "Apocryphal" scriptures (non-canonized scriptures). Four years ago, I bought a copy of Psalm 151, typed it and put it on my web page. This time, I wondered how many (if any) of these scriptures would have been part of the Bible, if they were found 2000 years ago.

As we left this place, it was dusk. We thought our last stop was close, so we passed on the available taxi.

When we finally arrived at the Holyland Hotel, we had walked about 3 more miles, up and down large hills! Whew!

It was getting cold, but we were still captivated by the enormous model of Jerusalem. This model was from the 2^nd Temple Period and showed the walled city in all of it's glory.

The model was completed in a scale of 50:1. It's very impressive and I recommend visiting. We spent an hour listening to the free, audio tour. We left the model and caught our first bus to our hotel. It charged 5 shekels a person and provided a nice ride.

The people on the bus seemed nice and normal. Some were alone, others were with someone. Some had groceries and some had cell phones. It was nice to see the lights of the city without having to concentrate on the road.

Day 10: 12-26-01 (Wednesday)

Today, we had a great time seeing the sites in Jerusalem. (It won't be long before I can't say that any more!)

First, we woke, ate, showered and walked down Abraham Lincoln Street (yes, we are in Israel and we actually live between Abraham Lincoln Street and George Washington Street!) and looked for the laundry place.

We found it, dropped our clothes (they do it for us, apparently) and caught a taxi to the Jaffa Gate.

From there, we walked to the Temple Mount area (where the Al-Aqsa Moaque and the Dome of the Rock presently reside). Before we could enter, an armed guard tod us that we were forbidden to enter! He said only Arabic Muslims were allowed to enter. It told him that I was there before, so he asked when. After I told him "four years ago," he explained that things have changed , in the last year, since Ariel Sharon came there.

We left and pursued our next adventure. On our way up some stone stairs, an odd, Jewish man befriended me. He asked where I was from and we began conversing. He offered to buy us drinks, so we stopped and chatted with him.

Apparently, he runs a hostel nearby and he is from the United States. He moved here 5 years ago, when he had a near-death experience. It was fun talking with him because we talked about a variety of subjects, but soon it was time for us to part ways and continue our days.

On the way to our next stop, we ran into two guys we had met before! We saw them about 5 minutes apart and both were from the Western Wall episode of our travels. We felt "part of the local crowd." They were both very friendly, again. I shared my newly purchased stress balls with one and heard about David's tomb from the other.

We decided to visit David's Tomb, but inadvertently arrived at David's Tower (which is the site of the Citadel and the Museum of the History of Israel). This was one of the most interesting places we've seen.

These towers were connected and built in such a way that they could guard the city and watch the Temple Mount area. Standing on top of the stone towers, we were given superb views of the inner city and outer city.

In addition to the great views and ancient architecture, there were some nice exhibits (even a holographic one) and a short movie on the history of Jerusalem.

While watching the move, something Richard said dawned on me, again. Satan has tried to destroy Israel ever since he knew it was included in God's prophetic plans. If he were to destroy Israel and/or the Jews, how would God complete His biblical plan that obviously includes this place and these people?

As soon as Christ was born, Satan probably wanted to destroy Jerusalem. However, God did not let this happen until 66-70 A.D. Unknowingly, the devil's work led to the fulfillment of Jesus' prophecy about the temple being destroyed. Looking for gold, the Romans removed every brick, so "not one stone was on top of another."

It was approaching dusk when we left the Citadel. We went to Mike's Centre (internet café) and used the web for an hour. It was nice to read some encouraging e-mails and let everyone know we were alive.

On the way home, we ate at our favorite place - the Arabic restaurant by the New Gate. The owner is very sweet and loves to see us. We ate and had our picture taken with him. We had to promise him that we'd send him a copy.

On our walk to the hotel, we visited a very nice (almost pretentious) silver and gold store. They had plates, cups and jewelry made from precious metals.

Since we are planning to have communion where Jesus had the last supper with His disciples, tomorrow, we thought it'd be special to buy a special cup for this occasion. We found a silver cup with Yemeni history and sculpting. It was very nice, so we bought it for about $50.

Day 11: 12-27-01 (Thursday)

We saw several, interesting things and had another fun day, today. Actually, we nearly finished seeing all the sites on our comprehensive list!

After breakfast and a shower, I joined some British people, in their taxi, and was ushered to Mt. Scopus. From here, I had the driver (who was smoking a nasty cigarette) take me to the Church of the Ascension on the Mt. Of Olives.

This church enshrines the place where Christ is believed to have ascended to Heaven. The noteworthy edifice here was the 45 meter tower that gave awesome views of the city and the desert. The elevator wasn't working, so I walked to the top and enjoyed the panoramic views. Everything looked quite peaceful and innocent from this height!

Thankfully, the elevator was working when I was ready to leave, so I took it to the floor!

As I left this church, a taxi driver was coming so I summoned him and had him drive me to the Russian Church of Mary Magdalene. This was also on the Mt. Of Olives, but it was closer to the bottom and a long walk.

This church is only open on Tuesday and Thursday from 10am - Noon! I've never seen a church with such small visiting hours, so I made it a priority to be here when it was open.

A bunch of Muslim women were visiting this church, now. They were covered from head to toe and insisted on visiting, even when the nun reminded them it was an Orthodox Christian Church.

The exterior was beautiful as gold "tips" adorned the roof of this church. It was very unique and distinctive. Unfortunately, the interior was experiencing some cleaning and maintenance, so scaffolding and workers clouded the view of the vaulted ceilings. After a few minutes, I rejoined my taxi driver and he took me to my hotel. This little episode took me less than 2 hours and it was only 11am, now!

I joined Sarine and we set off for Mt. Zion. There were some important sites that we hadn't seen.

After about 20 minutes of walking, we encountered David's Tomb. This place wasn't very "glorified" and was hard to find. There were a few Jews and a couple Gentile tourists, here.

The place where Jesus and His disciples ate the last supper is directly above David's tomb. This place was unlabeled and a little hard to find. However, I had been here, so I knew which room it was and which room it wasn't.

Sarine and I read from the Bible and recalled what happened here about 2,000 years ago. We read 2 of the passages in the gospels, that recorded the last supper. Incidentally, we were the only people in the room until we were all finished.

Next, we prayed, at some pita bread and drank some grape juice. It was moving to do this, here.

After we rested, talked and took some pictures, we left. Next stop: Peter's Church of Gallicantu (his denial of Christ).

We took a shortcut to uor next destination. Our shortcut had us walking on a small dirt path that was a high distance from the street below. I was sure-footed and enjoyed this challenge, but Sarine became scared at a few points. I hrabbed her hand and she made it without any close calls.

Shortly after our shortcut, we arrived at Peter's Church. The inside of this place was very beautiful. The stone mosaic ceiling was very colorful and intricate. We took some pictures and went downstairs.

Below Peter's Church lies the prison where Jesus was held after His trial. This "dungeon" or cave has been labeled Caiaphas' house or Caiaphas' prison.

This place was unadorned and cold. There were some holes in the stones where a person could be tied. One rock containing holes had some red colored substance on it (which could have been blood). We imagined how Jesus could have been kept here.

After making the customary stop at the bathroom and gift shop, we began our ascent to the Mt. Zion Gate. After we entered the city, we found the Church of John the Baptist, but it was closed. Since it was not open, we visited the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer. We took pictures of the pictures on the vaulted ceilings. Then, we ascended it's very tall tower.

This tower had a skinny, spiral staircase. It became dark at one part! After e received a nice view of the city. We had a great angle of the Holy Sepulchure.

Upon descending the staircase, we bought some fruit (tangerines, strawberries, grapes and bananas) and walked to our hotel

We've decided to make a New Year's resolution (of sorts). Sarine and I are going to begin working out together, after work, on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I pray we do this because it will be fun and we'll get healthier. We're also going to eat a bit better.

Day 12: 12-28-01 (Friday)

Hey! Today is Friday!

This is our last night in our hotel. Since we fly home at 5:45am on Sunday, we decided to check out of our hotel at Noon on Saturday. The YMCA said we could leave our bags in their luggage room and get them at 3am. A "sherut" (pronounced shur-oot) is taking us to the El Al terminal. A sherut is a shared mini-van and it will cost us $10 a piece. It was our best deal and most convenient way to make our early morning trip.

This morning we ate our breakfast, showered, packed our usual bag and walked to the city. Actually, we walked to Hezekiah's tunnel!

This magnificent tunnel was carved in order to bring water from the Gihon Spring to the city of Jerusalem. It was technically in the old "City of David".

A few Israeli officers tried to discourage us from entering the City of David and the tunnel. However, they let us in and we found our way to the tunnel.

We brought some sandals and flashlights because we wanted to walk through the tunnel. This waterway is 533m long. There is water in it and it flows gently.

As we were in the City of David, we saw a Jewish man leading a Jewish couple. We decided to follow them and it was a good thing we did. The leader in formed us that the tunnel (actually, Warren's Shaft - which leads to Hezekiah's tunnel) was locked, but if we could wait 15 minutes, he would open it for us! We felt privileged and waited patiently (and ate a banana with some water).

When the guide arrived, we rose to our feet and followed him through the door to the site. A lot of work had been done to fashion Warren's Shaft. A lot of digging was done to simply reveal it. As we walked through the windy tunnel, we went through a small museum and heard our guide share interesting facts about the site.

When the tour was finished, I asked him where a certain flight of stairs led. He said they went to Hezekiah's tunnel. We asked if we could walk through it. He unlocked the door for us and asked if we had flashlights. We said, "Yes," and he seemed very pleased to let us walk thru the ancient tunnel!

Thankfully, the water wasn't very cold. It was fresh and clean. We rolled up our pants (which still got wet) and walked through the waterway. It took about 30 minutes.

In some areas, I had to duck a little. One of our flashlights stopped working, but we make it with one, good light.

As we exited, a few Israelis looked at us strangely. I don't think they were used to people walking out of this tunnel! I think we were very blessed to have this opportunity (especially for free).

As soon as we left the tunnel, an Arab bus picked us up and took us to the Zion Gate. It was refreshing to sit and we were thankful that we didn't have to scale the large hill.

The bus cost us 2 shekels a piece. The kids in the bus seemed cute and sweet. One man spoke to us; asking us some questions and answering mine. It was an old bus, but an interesting blessing!

From the Zion Gate, we visited one of the very few churches we hadn't seen - the Church of the Dormition (also known as the Dormition Abbey). This church is dedicated to Mary's death (Jesus' mother). It was quite nice and interesting.

The downstairs area was quaint. This was one of the few places that didn't allow photographs, though. I simply bought some postcards that contained great shots of the things I wanted to photograph.

Everyday, we're seeing people we know. Having friends in Jerusalem is a special thing. We're going to miss this palace.

Incidentally, a few locals have complimented me on my hair! One asked how I made it stick up, so I told him I use hair spray. What a friendly bunch.

In the city, we bought our relatives some souvenirs and we spent an hour in Mike's internet café. Sarine called her parents and arranged for them to pick us up at the airport. We are arriving at 11pm in Los Angeles. I pray that our luggage arrives with us!

After our web time (which we always spend in the dark hours, when the sites and many stores are closed), we got something to eat at our favorite Arabic restaurant. It was great as usual.

After our dinner, we walked home, played some cards, watched a movie and rested, Tomorrow, is our last full day here!

We are considering getting s sherut to Jericho. Due to recent, favorable conditions, Israel has removed it's blockade from Jericho. I was told that I could get a sherut from the Damascus Gate and it wouldn't cost very much. Since there's nothing left to do and most of Jerusalem will be closed on Saturday (their Sabbath), it may be the perfect day to visit the Palestinian ruled Jericho.

Day 13: 12-29-01 (Saturday)

Our last day in Israel was a pleasant one., right now, it's 11:11pm and we're in the YMCA lobby. We're having a sherut drive us to the airport in 3½ hours. (So, some more cool stuff might happen and I'll write about it if it does).

Today, we packed our bags and stored them in the Y's luggage room. Next, we caught a taxi to the Damascus Gate - the hub for Arabic shuttles, buses, taxis, sheruts and there were probably some camels hanging around (only for little rides and photographs).

I felt like I was in the movie Star Wars and visiting the Cantina on Tatooine. As I searched for the best driver, at the best price, to take us to Jericho.

We met some very friendly Arabs in the process and within 15 minutes, we had found our man. Our best deal was to take this taxi to Jericho for 100 shekels. A taxi driver had wanted to charge me 140 shekels, yesterday, so I knew this was a great deal. Plus, our driver said he would return us to Jerusalem at no cost, if Jericho was closed (we weren't sure if it was officially open to everyone).

It took us about 30 minutes to reach the town of Jericho. To our dismay, Israeli soldiers told us that we couldn't enter. I mentioned the recent news about the Israeli pullout (like maybe he missed the memo or something- haha), but he said it was only open to Palestinians and not tourists. When he told us it was dangerous, I asked him if he wanted to escort us. After a little laughter, we left and returned to Jerusalem.

Our driver dropped us at the Church of the Ascension (on the Mount of Olives). I had seen the awesome view from the tower, yesterday, but Sarine hadn't seen it, yet.

We were thankful that the only employee we could find left her work and opened the doors to the church for us. It was also great that the elevator was working!

There was a strong wind blowing and we could feel the cold air from the top of the tower. We could see a good distance in all directions. After admiring the view, we left.

Next, we explored the church (seeing more than I did, yesterday) and left the premises.

Virtually seconds after leaving the church's gates, we found our next driver. This man was very kind and knew Jerusalem well.

He took us to two places that we couldn't find. First, we saw the Church of Pater Noster. This was the church dedicated to the place Jesus taught the Lord's prayer. The striking thing about this church is the Lord's prayer, written in 60 different languages! They are painted on tiles and hung all throughout the church's courtyards and entrance. They are very beautiful.

Our kind driver was waiting for us and whisked us away to our next destination - Bethany and Lazarus' Tomb.

A man with crutches greeted us as soon as we exited our sherut. I was a little dumbstruck, especially when he requested 3 shekels a piece to view the tomb. I asked for his id and he produced authentic tickets for this site, so I believed and paid him.

The tomb was nice, yet very "normal". We walked down a few flights of stairs and saw the rock bottom. There was no literal casket or anything. After a few minutes and a quick picture, we left. Maybe this is a silly thought, but I wondered if this was the tomb where Lazarus was raised from the dead, the tomb where Lazarus was buried after his final death or both. Hmm. Probably where Jesus raised him.

The adjoining church was nice. This was the final church we saw (and probably the 30^th or so). So I'm sorry if I don't seem too enthusiastic.

One thing that surprised me was this - many churches that are dedicated to certain biblical events or people don't make that the main theme in their church. Their mosaics may have a picture or two about the person or circumstance (or sometimes a statue), but they always had several other pictures, paintings, mosaics or all three.

Cats, cats, cats! While I'm mentioning odd things, I must mention that I've seen about 40 cats of this trip! They are in all of the cities (outside) and several of the restaurants and sites. We fed some of them because they were friendly.

A couple noteworthy cats - the one in our hotel restaurant was very sweet. Plus, it was hilarious to see the hotel managers make it leave and have it quickly open the door and return! The other mentionable cat was the bold, black cat at Peter's restoration site in the town of Tabigha. This cat kept following us! It jumped into Sarine's arms and really enjoyed our company.

Anyhow, back to our story...

After our Bethany experience, our driver took us to the New Gate - our favorite Arabic restaurant is there! Incidentally, our kind driver said he was a Christian Arab and accepted 60 shekels for our excursion because we were getting very low on money. Praise the Lord.

We ate our last meal at our restaurant. We had a ton of food and drinks. It was great and we'll miss this place.

When we finished our food (oh yeah, Sarine found exactly $17 (US) in her wallet and this was exactly how much our food cost!) we went to the internet café and a pool place.

Playing pool in a cave was interesting. The only bad part (besides my rusty playing) was the poor ventilation. Some people was smoking and it seemed to hang in the air worse than normal (in California, it's now illegal to smoke in public places like pool halls - thank God). We played one, long game and left. A few people (Arabs) watched us, asked us questions and made some comments about our game. They were nice and it was fun.

After our game of pool, we made our final walk home. It was cool and perhaps a little nostalgic. Not only did I feel like I was leaving an incredible place, I felt like I was leaving friends. I'd love to return (perhaps, even live here) and share the gospel to everyone. Nobody shared the gospel with me in Israel - actually, a couple people talked about Jesus, God and the Bible, but nobody was at the holy sites or in Jerusalem solely for the purpose of winning people to Christ (or if they were around, we never say them). It would be a super witness to become friends with these people (like we have) and then win them to Christ in the Holy Land! Maybe we'll have an opportunity for this, later.

We wound up at our hotel at about 7pm. Looking at my watch, I realized we had about 8 hours before our sherut took us to the airport. So, this is how we killed the time: playing cards, reading the Bible, singing some songs with my guitar, talking to a Dutch man named Frank and doing various other things like writing in this journal!

Frank was a very interesting fellow. I suppose he could have been an angel, sent here to sharpen our faith and encourage us. He sat near us because I was playing the guitar and eventually, we began talking about the Bible.

Frank had done some personal exegesis and it wasn't quite right. He took scriptures from several different parts of the Bible and proclaimed that they said there were 2 Messiahs! I hadn't heard such a claim like this, but I listened intently and followed along in my Bible.

The "two Messiahs" he thought he found were the "two witnesses" in Revelation. Zechariah has a prophecy about them in chapter 4 of his Book. Strangely, he did not accept our viewpoint or the obvious correlation in Revelation 11. Instead of an angel, perhaps he was an "angel of light" and trying to throw us from the path of truth and righteousness that we are on. An angel surely would have accepted the truth. Right?

I prayed with Frank after chatting with him and Sarine for about an hour. When my prayer was done, he said, "Wow," and looked at me. Apparently, he wasn't used to prayers like mine.

I was impressed with one thing from him. He kept saying how he was a man of prayer, so I asked him what his spiritual gifts were. He was uncertain, so I listed some for him. After hearing me, he mentioned love. Praise the Lord. I told him how love was greater than all of the gifts combined. We also agreed that loving God and others were the greatest commandments.