Israel Blog - Part 2

Israel Blog - Part 2

Israel Blog - Part 2

Wednesday 13th May .... a mountain top experience   The day started with me trying to take sunrise photos from the bedroom window across the Sea of Galilee to the Golan Heights. It was 5.00 am and we were on yet another early call. A beautiful morning, the sun rising as a bright orange globe above pink mountains and with swallows sweeping and diving as they caught their early breakfast above the swimming pool. When evening came the swallows were here again but this time we were swimming in the pool and the birds were diving and skimming the water to drink. Wouldn’t the chlorine harm them?? Do you think?   First at the taxi rank we were soon speeding up Mount Tabor to celebrate our final Eucharist beside the church that celebrates the Transfiguration of our Lord. This was a particularly beautiful Church I thought and a very special service. The paintings and striking mosaics and stained glass left no one unsure of thye story. I saw a father there with his two young sons admiring and marvelling and then came the inevitable crowd of teenagers.....from Poland this time.......singing and dancing even though they had walked the path we had rode in the taxi.   We were then on to Nazareth and the Church where the Angel Gabriel appeared to Mary.....but it wasn’t the one i had seen before! Next we visited an outdoor museum of life in Nazareth in Jesus time. Very simple and unsophisticated. There were donkeys, sheep and goats.   In the afternoon we visited Cana and sampled the wine. I don’t think it was the stuff in Jesus first miracle but it was good sweet after dinner wine. Special to us as a Mothers’ Union Group was that here, during our usual little service I had the privilege of enrolling Pam as a member. Another miracle in Cana of Galilee.....some would say!!   Now it is 10.30.......I have been up more than 17 hours and I still have to pack. Goodnight. Love Trish x

Israel Blog - Part 2

Tuesday 12th May   We are in the warmth of Galilee along with a million Italian young people who are here to see the Pope in Nazareth on Thursday. Fortunately we will be in Nazareth tomorrow but wherever we have been today: Capernaum, sailing on Galilee in the very early morning, Peter's House, Tabgha, the Mount of Beatitudes and eating Peter's fish, the young folk are there with their drums and guitars. Praise God for his goodness though, our services seem to generate their own peace and quiet and at every place we have read the Gospel, prayed and sung our own hymns and psalms. It has been magic. Sunday in Jerusalem included the Holy Sepulchre. Some went very early in the morning to avoid the crowds, this was a special experience. In the morning we did short services at all the Stations of the Cross. We visited Jericho and prayed at the tree where Zacheus was called. Next we were down by the River Jordan renewing our Baptism vows and being sprinkled with the rather muddy water. I am bringing some home in a bottle in the hope that Matthew and Sarah would like it for Jonah's baptism in June. I put one foot in the water and came away very muddy, very muddy. This has been different from last time, special in a different way. We keep meeting other Anglicans, today a party from Newcastle under the Leadership of Bishop Martin and his wife. Lovely to see good friends from far away. Of course I thought of Dan as I paddled in Lake Galilee at the very spot where he was baptised last year. I hope all is well at home and someone is watering my seeds. Bless you all. I had better escape from the managers office in time for supper. Hopefully tomorrow which is our last day I will find an easier way of being in touch!!   Lots of love Trish xx

Israel Blog - Part 2

Sunday evening 10th May   It is late on Sunday evening and tomorrow we leave the Christmas Hotel here in Jerusalem and travel via Jericho to Tiberious. It has been an amazing experience. Today we followed the Via Dolorosa way of the path Jesus walked to his crucifixtion.At each station of the Cross we read the piece from the Gospel story and prayed; in some we sang. Amid the bustling crowds on a busy day in Jerusalem we brought the Christian message afresh to the people in the market places. Amazingly in the noise, as we were silent we seemed to generate silence; as we prayed the very walls prayed with us; as we sang the birds and not a few human beings joined in. I found a singing voice I have not had before. AND I sang "Thine be the glory" TWICE without crying. Some will remember how difficult that has been for me over ten years. The day began, for a few of us, in St George's Cathedral, just across the road, for 8.00 am Communion and ended with Compline. Most days have begun with Morning Prayer and ended with Compline. Sometimes we have managed MU Mid day prayers too. The little services in the special places that Bishop Richard prepared for us have been much appreciated. Jennifer has kept up the rear and done lots of counting, no mean feat with 48 of us. Sadly our guide Deeko has rushed off to visit his mother in a Tel Aviv hospital this afternoon taken there in an emergency situation, Our company are just lovely people, no trouble at all, and I am enjoying their kindness.............red and white!! + the odd beer and g & t!!! The only difficulty is this! So Goodnight and God Bless......I am going to bed. xx

Israel Blog - Part 2

Day 3   All is well and as before we are having an amazing time. Different from last year is the Palestinian involvement and over the past two days we have really been focussing on the Living Stones here in Jerusalem and neighbouring Bethlehem. We have visited hospitals and schools talking with children about their situation and hearing from their Leaders and carers all about the difficulties the Palestinian people are experiencing here every hour of every day. We have been astonished at how resilient they are and hopw hard working and joyful. Last evening a lady from an organisation working for peace here called Sabeel spoke to us. Thats why I could not write.....we were all emotionally exhausted after her stories.   This afternoon we visited Hope School and met students there from poor families who are sponsored and supported by individuals in the UK as well as other places. The Bible Lands Charity we know so well has supported a lot of the building work at the school as well as individual children. I was especially pleased to be there because some good friends of mine in the north east of England, Malcolm and Jennie Jones, have a Charity very involved with Hope School. On our way home we experienced the tedium of the Check Points to get through the Wall ourselves. Tomorrow is Sunday and we are walking at 6.30 down to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.....to get there before the crowds. I think I had better go and rest. Happy Sunday Ashtead. Love Trish x

Israel Blog - Part 2

Wednesday 6th May   It is Wednesday on a sunny warm day in Jerusalem. Everyone is much better after their night in this rather oldy-world comfortable hotel. We were held up leaving because the Court House is opposite and prisoners were being brought to their Hearings!! At the end of the day we visited Yad Vashem the Holocaust Memorial. Both are reminders that the world has not been and even today still is not all peace and light. It was my second visit to Yad Vashem and again I realise that the Jewish people who have survived the terrors of the Second World war certainly deserve some peace and light in their lives and a future for their children in a safe and peaceful world. SO why are they continuing to treat the Palestinian people so badly?? More of that later this week I think. We visited the Mount of Olives and walked the way that Jesus rode the donkey on that first Palm Sunday. The first of our little prayer sessions and bible readings was at the start of this and I was happily surprised how well we all sang out there on the hillside. Well the others.....not really me! At the Church of Dominus Flevit where Jesus wept over Jerusalem Bishop Richard led us in a wonderful Eucharist, which on this, our first real day in the Holy City, was something special for all I think. As we looked over to the Dome on the Rock and down on the equally golden and shiny Mary Magdalene Church we felt particularly close to all the many Pilgrims who come to worship in this place yesterday, today and tomorrow. In fact the flags flying and the busy street cleaners are reminding me that the Pope is due here in a few days time. Great preparations for his visit which will include a huge out door Mass. No better than ours was I am sure!

Israel Blog - Part 2

On this bright April morning here in Ashtead I am thinking of my second visit to Israel in less than a year. Yes, this time next week I will be almost landing in Tel Aviv and today I am looking out my travel things and laying stuff on the spare bed ready for packing. From long experience I know it is best to take less rather than more but there are lots of bits and pieces that you really can't do without and surprisingly an umbrella is on the list for Israel. I kept borrowing Graham's last time! It is now two years ago that I was asked by the Editor of the MU magazine "Families First" to lead a holiday to the Holy Land. Of course I said yes. That has been my downfall throughout my life: I say yes, too readily, without thinking! There have been several of these holidays advertised through the magazine, organised by World Wide Christian Travel and with a Mothers' Union bod leading, usually a couple. This will be the first to Israel and the first, I think, that is more of a Pilgrimage than a holiday. My first reaction was that I would need a Chaplain to do all the Holy stuff and my second was, never having been before myself, I really needed some background knowledge and perhaps even a visit to familiarise myself with the country and the people. This was always not just a holiday but a life time experience that would build the spirituality of the participants and familiarise them with the living stones that are there in the modern land that is Israel as well as the ancient ones we are familiar with from both the Old and New Testaments. God was certainly at work in this process as a good friend and her husband agreed to help and Bob and Alison advertised their journey "To the Roots of our Faith". Bishop Richard Llewellin and Jennifer are already experienced and good fun as well and my time with the Parish in Israel last October was an amazing and enjoyable experience. I will miss the members of our congregation who I shared the journey with but I look forward to meeting new friends this time. We travel on May 5th via Zurich to Tel Aviv and will stay for six nights in the Christmas Hotel in Jerusalem, followed by four nights in the Golden Tulip Hotel in Tiberias. All being well I will arrive home in Sunshine Cottage on the evening of Thursday 14th May. Please pray for me, or better still, for all the folks who have committed themselves to this adventure!