Chaz in Israel

Here are the pictures Chaz sent me this week, plus a couple that our friend Tim took (thanks Alyce for sharing). The guys got to spend several days of liberty in Israel and from what I've heard, they made the most of the opportunities available to them. I know he took a couple of tours and enjoyed spending time on land. Chaz wrote most of the explanations for the pictures I've posted. When I spoke with Chaz this week he said he looks at the blog when he can. I've changed the format a little so that you can leave a comment for him to read, if you'd like. Enjoy!

Three Magnums, a Higgins, and a tight jean wearing T.C. Unfortunately, our shorts were covered up by our pants.

Here we are at the wailing wall in Jerusalem. We had to wear the Yamahas on our head to approach the wall. I sure looked like I could pass as Jewish…right.? This was where Jesus was buried. You can see the swarms of people trying to get to it. The building you see is in another building and you really can’t see into it at all. People will do anything to get up to it. I was getting plowed out of the way by old Russian women. When we think of Christians, we only think of ones in the US, but there were so many types there from different countries. All there for the same thing, the Son of God. It was pretty awesome. Just to my left you can see the wall around the city of Jerusalem. Every Jewish Israeli has to serve two years (women) and three years (men) in the Israeli Defense Force upon graduating from high school. These kids were everywhere, carrying loaded weapons. This was the only one I saw in the entire country. It must have been made from the same parts that mine was because it was on a tow truck.

You can look in the tree and see the olives in this one. This tree looks like it is barely hanging on. I’m sure it’s a couple of hundred years old though. There were also much bigger trees on the grounds. Working in the garden on Mt. Carmel. I went and cleaned up at the monastery this morning. It is called the Stella Mar, but is actually the Our Lady of Mount Carmel. It is located on top of Mt. Carmel. Jordan River where Jesus was baptized by John Haifa, Israel Door from the church of Annunciation- location where angel Gabriel came to Mary mosaic from the location where Jesus fed 5000 with 2 fish and 5 loaves of bread We were all sweating after this walk around town. Our original plan was to find somewhere to eat, but turned really sweaty as we snaked our way up the hill. This is on the way down, hence the smiles. Dinner is served. Need I say more? Yes, I ate that because it came from the Sea of Galilee. In this photo, I’m in the town of Capharnaum, where John the Baptist lived. The body of water in the background is the Sea of Galilee.