Last night I went to bed thinking about the Super Bowl, which is something that hasn’t happened in a long time. In the last few years, I’ve watched the game but not with a lot of interest. This year is different, however, and I am in fact torn between the Bears and the Colts. Mostly, maybe entirely, I’m fo …
A few days ago a friend emailed me with the news that he has accepted a call to pastor a church in the suburbs of a great American city. Already his home is on the market, and he plans to begin his ministry in his new church in the next few weeks. I could hear the excitement as he wrote about the opportunities for outreach …
Here is a sermon I preached during our Holy Land tour:Peace, Be Still! A Short Sermon on the Sea of GalileeHere is an excerpt:The disciples were afraid because they were men who were used to being in control of life. They knew how to handle hard situations. There wasn’t a weakling among them. And yet, when put in a li …
When we boarded the plane in Tel Aviv on Friday morning, I picked up a copy of the English edition of the Jerusalem Post. The headlines reported that the president of Israel is taking a leave of absence because of serious accusations of sexual misconduct. One story noted that should he eventually step down or be impeached, …
When I asked the tour members to share their digital photos with me, I ended up with over 7000 images. Here are a few of my favorites:
We made it back home late last night. For us it meant waking up in Jerusalem at 2 AM and arriving home in Tupelo 28 hours later. We were worn out but very grateful for the wonderful trip we had to the Holy Land. On our last day we had this group picture taken on the Mount of Olives.Here are the intrepid pilgrims who joined …
It’s not that much fun waking up at 2 AM, especially at the end of a ten-day tour where you have have been going all day long, visiting one site after another. But getting up early is essential if you want to make it back to the US. When you fly from the US to Europe, you generally leave in the afternoon, flying into …
On this final day of our tour, we started early and never really stopped. Abed wanted to make sure we saw absolutely everything possible before returning home. First we stopped to see some genuine cedars of Lebanon, planted over a hundred years ago at a mission hospital. The cedars are notable because their branches grow st …
Grand Court Hotel, JerusalemWe spent the entire day in the walled city of Old Jerusalem. Abed had us on the bus at 7:30 AM so we could be at the Rabbi’s Tunnel by 8 AM. You have to make reservations six months in advance to make sure of having a place so he didn’t want to be late. We all noticed the high securit …
Grand Court Hotel, JerusalemYesterday I noted that tours have a rhythm. They start with a burst of energy, settle down into a daily routine, and then pick up again as we enter the final few days. That certainly happened today as we paid our first visit to Old Jerusalem. In order, these are the sites we visited:David’s …