Israel Blog

The Tickets have arrived! No not for next years Central Court at Wimbledon, although that would be nice. No these tickets are for an El Al flight to Tel Aviv for next Wednesday 22nd October. A group of us from Ashtead are travelling, under the leadership of our brave Rector and his (even braver) wife Alison, to seek the Roots of our Faith in Israel. Yes, it is I (or me) of "Lambeth Blog " fame. I have been persuaded to write a few words about our Pilgrimage to The Holy Land. Hopefully others in the group will chip in as we go along, and, more than hopefully, someone will be clever enough to help me to find a friendly computer in the hotels where we are staying, or an Internet Cafe, so that we can send these ramblings from the furthest out-posts of that land we used to call Palestine. It may not happen every day as it looks as if we are going to be very busy. Over ten days we stay in 5 different beds! And, on the first day after a night in Tel Aviv, we seem to be 40 days in the wilderness before we get to our bed in Beersheba which is right at the bottom of the map somewhere west of the Dead Sea and level with the land of the Philistines, or Gaza if you prefer. Is there a David in our company to fight off any giants that may appear? We have attended three preparative meetings ably led by Kate Weller who is our local authority and will be travelling with us to give us the benefit of her knowledge and experience. Some of us have read books and studied maps, in fact some have been before and I am sure they will be able to help those, like myself, whose knowledge is purely biblical and even that a bit sketchy at times. I am really excited so away I go to start the pile of things on the spare bed and to weigh my suitcase. The first problem seems to be whether the information provided, which I have read I promise, means 20 kilos or 35? Does anyone know?