An awesome hike...

It was one of those days that I think the tour group will remember. We were supposed to have a day off. Actually, the agency had me go to Ein Gedi for the night but told me I had the day off but there is no way for me to go home or actually do anything that is not work.
So...
I offered to take the group for a little hike. Up Nachal David to the pools and springs. Little did they know what they were in for. I did warn them but remember this is the group that made me walk barefoot in a stream for over an hour last week. It was not a revenge thing though, I just felt like doing something really cool and invited them to come along knowing that they would find something to complain about. The success was complete! The hike was awesome and the complaints were plaintive but there was nothing they could do but continue. Believe me, the hike was fantastic but the pools were so far beyond incredible. Of course the return trip was also a tough hike but I have to say, it has been a great day.

The Lizard on the Roof

I took a day off from the BFP training course to fill in as a guide for a friend. I didn't know who the group was until I arrived at the hotel. It turned out that they were Phillipinos who were connected because of their professor/friend from a Bible College in Manila.

Our first stop was a place called Mini-Israel where there are models of many of the places that highlight tours and stories of Israel. One model is the Jerusalem Great Synagogue. To my surprise, the dome on the top of the building was occupied by a huge lizard. Since the building was a model, the lizard appears to be 100 feet tall.
I guess it was my day to see animals in unusual places because a while later I spotted this dove, sitting inside the gun at the Israeli Armored Corp Museum at Latrun.
Our second stop was Latrun where we toured the British Police Station that had controlled the road to Jerusalem between 1948 until 1967. What an amazing statement the dove seemed to make as she sat there, allowing us to take pictures. She was not disturbed by the violent history of her home nor was she willing to allow us to drive her away!

BFP in the Wilderness

We took the BFP rep training course to the desert for a bit of team building and spiritual retreat. The idea is simple yet effective. We all go to a Bedouin tent in the wilderness and spend the night together. We eat together, sing together, pray together, share stories and then we all snore together.
Our host presented himself as Abraham and re-enacted his life in the wilderness with his nephew lot and his servant.


After a wonderful evening of food, fun and fellowship we laid out the sleeping bags and soon were sleeping in an open tent that was deliberately facing the rising sun.


The sunrise was spectacular!

Camels rejected!

I found myself in the Judean Wilderness with 22 representative training candidates for Bridges for Peace last night. This guy met us with a small herd of camels and offered to take us to Abraham's tent. I actually like camels fairly well but I remembered an unfortunate incident involving another visit by this same organization to some camels and quickly informed the camel driver that we would not be needing his services. As you can see, the camels walked away with their heads down, seemingly dissapointed that they did not get another chance.

Since we had sent the camels away, we needed to walk all the way back to 1800BC for our meeting with Abraham...

Our journey was successful and Abraham met us in front of his tent with a pitcher of water to wash our hands. I guess he washed out hands instead of our feet because most of us were wearing shoes with laces instead of sandals. He seems somewhat confused by our clothing which we had attempted to disguise with ancient looking tunics.