Sunday
Wow!! Tel Aviv is hot and humid. The guesthouse we’re staying at, Beit Emmanuel, is a Messianic Jewish Christian community and church. 
It has been around a fair while, and the room and accommodation is quite basic. We have a second floor private room with bathroom. And with very high ceilings, it means that the stairs are many. And our bags are heavy. And there’s no lift. You get the picture! Chris worked hard knowing that there’s no way Lynda could bring her own bag up those stairs.
We awoke this morning with mixed feelings. Sadness to be leaving each other, and yet a readiness to face the next chapter of our lives with renewed commitment and confidence in our amazing God.
Today was a free day for us to explore as we wish, before our planned time of gathering at 4.00pm and then worship at St. George’s Anglican Cathedral at 6.00pm. Some decided to have a total rest day, some decided to go to the Old City, and wander round the bazaars, as well as do the ramparts walk. Continue reading JERUSALEM – Saturday August 16
Today has been a relatively quiet and short day with our morning being very blessed by a visit to the Garden Tomb with Golgotha nearby. 
This particular site has been recognised for only a few short decades as the Place of the Skull with the garden of Joseph of Arimathea being nearby, 
as scholars have studied the topography of Jerusalem in greater detail alongside the Gospels. It became quite clear to us that this site makes 
much more sense than the location of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Old Jerusalem.
First up today went to the Old City again, this time visiting the Jewish quarter. We saw the Cardo [= heart] of old Jerusalem, 
a fascinating glimpse into the busy main street that would have been there in the time of Herod and Jesus. 
We then saw an ancient section of the city wall from the time of Solomon. Quite an engineering feat with just the thickness let along the height it was originally!
Another early start and we were off to the Old City to see the Western [Wailing] Wall. We entered via the Dung Gate, which was the lowest part of the city, where all the rubbish would congregate as it washed off the streets and would eventually make its way out of the city. Continue reading JERUSALEM – Wednesday August 13
This morning we left early and drove from our hotel to the Mount of Olives to see the beautiful view across the city of Jerusalem. It was stunning to say the least, and although it was hot, even before 9am, we didn’t let that worry us as we heard Erez share some history of this city and how the layout and actual location of the city wall and particular buildings have moved over the years. 
So much of the area directly below the Mt of Olives is a cemetery, all outside the city wall, of course, for purity. The sellers were around us trying to get us to buy pictures of Jerusalem and other things, and heckled us as we chose not to buy. Continue reading JERUSALEM – Tuesday August 12
After a 1½ hr drive leaving our kibbutz hotel, crossing the Jezreel Valley, we arrived at the Tel Megiddo. What an amazing site! This Tel has between 26 to 30 layers from different eras. 
Without doubt though, the highlight was our exit through the water tunnel. 
Being on a high mountain, the people had to source water from down below. There was a spring a fair way away, from which they needed to access the water, so in the middle of the mountain, they dug down deep to just below the level of the spring, and then a tunnel with Continue reading LEAVING GALILEE – Megiddo, Mt Carmel, Caesarea, Jerusalem – Monday August 11
Today was a very full day, but we were pleased to be driving to higher ground where the temperature was a little cooler and the breeze was wonderful.
Our first stop was Tel Dan. [Tel = a mound of ruins over several eras]. Dan was one of the tribes of Israel in the northern kingdom, and this find has brought many great sites to the surface from the Old Testament. There is a major spring here which is one of the main water sources for Israel, and our initial walk through the bush was certainly a beautiful one as we wove our way beside this beautiful, fast-flowing stream. Continue reading DRIVING NORTH OF GALILEE – Sunday August 10
Another early start saw us travelling a little south west to visit Nazareth, now a majority Muslim town of about 80,000. In Jesus’ time there may have been about 200 people. 
Walking up a fairly steep hill, we visited a site traditionally thought of as the house where Mary grew up and was visited by the angel Gabriel telling her she would give birth to the Messiah. It was wonderful to hear again Luke 1:26-38, that very familiar story read every Christmas. Continue reading NAZARETH – Saturday August 9
Chris and Lynda Johnson 