When Wendell was 4, he and his family lived in Israel for 6 months, leading a BYU semester abroad. One of the places they lived was a kibbutz called Deganya. A kibbutz is a community where they all work together for the livlihood of the community - kind of like the United Order in the church. Sort of.
This is a Syrian tank they have kept outside this kibbutz as a memory of Israel's victory. Here's a pic of Wendell's siblings, and Marvin, a friend of theirs who was a student for that semester abroad in 1979. He's a part of the family now.
Here we made a stop further down the Jordan River. This site has actually been made into a place for big group baptisms. It was fun to be in the river that Jesus was baptized in. 
Jesi giving Cole the opportunity to touch the holy water, too. He didn't like it much. :o)
A view of Beth Shean, an ancient roman city that once supported 40,000-50,000 ppl. I'm a tiny dot walking around by the palm trees at the bottom of the picture. Pretty impressive town. We had lunch here, too. 
Someone "dropped" their falafel on the ground. *sad*
Mt. Tabor, the Mount of Transfiguration. Wendell and Lawrence, his oldest brother.
Emily played "I Know that My Redeemer Lives" on her flute and it was beautiful.
We drove up to the top of the mt. in taxis driven by wild arabs who book it up the windy twisty road like they don't care what happens. The tiny retaining wall provided no comfort for me. And the seatbelts were just for show because I couldn't get one of them to latch.
This one is a view of the Valley of Armageddon. Crazy, huh? I just got chills thinking about the great battle that will take place down here.
We visited Jericho and saw some ruins of the old city.
In Jericho there is a tree they claim to be the tree Zacheus climbed up into to see Jesus. I highly doubt this tree is 2000 years old, though. lol.
A fun-looking camel outside Jericho. Probably dressed up to give ppl rides.
This was the Israeli security checkpoint outside Jericho. They won't let Israelis go into Jericho because it's a Palestinian (Arab) town, and they don't want Israelis to get hurt by going in there. So our Jewish guide, Amos, got dropped off at a gas station outside the city until we were through. Weird, huh?
A candid picture of some Arabs. They don't usually like you to take their picture. So it's a good thing this was taken from the bus. 
4 comments:
What beautiful pictures. I love to see all of the historical sites. It looks like such a great trip.
The valley of Armageddon is beautiful. When I see the valley, and think of the battle that will one day happen there, I sort of picture it like the war in LOTR-Return of the King. Lol.
I envy your trip!! One day I gonna go there to. I want to see, smell, touch and just experience what it must of been like to live there. Your pics are awesome, don't forget I still would like a few copies:)
Benji
Oh yeah. I need to get on top posting more about my trip - but I can't tell if anyone really cares! But I'm glad I know at least a couple ppl do. I'll have to get you a copy of the pictures when Wendell's brothers get through whittling them all down. It's taking forever because there were so many pictures!
Post a Comment