We arrived home from Israel about 1 am Thursday morning. Jet lag was in full swing as we had been traveling for almost 24 hours. I must say the security procedures in the Tel Aviv airport were impressive, nor did they take long either. They know how to do it!

The flight home is longer than the flight over there, I guess due to going against the winds. Our seats were taken by a sleeping baby, but the flight attendants helped relocate us and took great care of us on the way home – thanks Kevin!

Before leaving for Israel, I had been plotting a surprise party for Jennifer’s 50th birthday. Mackenzie took on all the hard work and hosted the party at her new apartment in Jackson. A lot of our old Jackson friends, from pre-seminary days, were there, along with Chelsea and John and Mackenzie and Wynne and Mackenzie’s roommate, Brooke. Jennifer was totally surprised. We got her good! That was Friday night in Jackson, then Saturday morning I took a small sabbatical detour to celebrate with Clelie (and four others) her ordination to the Transitional Diaconate. I had told her I would be out of the country for the event, so surprised her as well. It was a great service and the St. Pats acolyte crew was fantastic!

Played golf with John, Chelsea’s boyfriend (and former St. Pats youth minister) Saturday afternoon, visited a local church Sunday morning, and headed to Hattiesburg. Monday was a mixed day as Jennifer had an ortho appointment. Her knees were horrible on the Israel trip, very swollen and painful. An MRI showed major arthritis and some new cartilage tears. Doc says only surgical option is total knee replacement in both knees! UGH! It never ends for the Knights. But we are trying some other remedies in hope we can avoid the replacements for quite awhile. Poor Jen cannot catch a break. Afterwards had a great visit with my parents before heading home.

At home we are doing the laundry thing, mowing the yard, and getting ready for the next trip. We leave early Thursday morning for London / Oxford / Paris / London. Will post again from the other side of the pond!

Part of my spiritual discipline during the Sabbatical is a focus on some daily prayer disciplines. I thought I would share these with you and invite you to join me.
In addition to saying the Daily Offices (I have the BCP and lectionary on my phone and Kindle, easy for travel), I am using some other materials as well. Phyllis Tickle is a popular Episcopal author and her Divine Hours series are excellent. Using the ancient practice of praying the office hours throughout the day used in monasteries and convents for centuries, she provides prayers with included Scripture readings, Psalms, and hymns for the various hours. She has books for different seasons as well as a smaller, more generic traveling version (which I am using on my Kindle).
While on our tour a new friend I met who was also on board recommended a book of daily devotions called Jesus Calling by Sara Young, and I have included that reflection the last few days.
I pray for our staff, Fr. Ted and Lynne, and vestry and wardens daily, and have divided the church directory so that I pray for each member once a week. I hope you are praying for me and my family as well. I also hope some of you will commit to daily prayer of some form or fashion and will share with me when I return how that was for you.

God bless!

No time to post yesterday, so here is a two day wrap-up.

Day 5
This was the best day, really great! After the crowds of Jerusalem and Bethlehem, and the cool time on the Jordan River and in Nazareth, today we continued in Galilee. We toured Tiberias, saw where Herod defeated his rival on the way to becoming king, then went to the Mount of the Beatitudes, where the Sermon on the Mount took place. A beautiful, but simple church on gorgeous landscaped grounds, marks the spot. We read the beatitudes before entering the church. Several Catholic groups were having mass on the grounds, one Spanish and one Italian. This was holy ground.
Then we went to the church of the Multiplication, where Jesus fed the five thousand. Again it was holy ground, so wonderful to actually be in geography, to be able to picture the crowds coming from the surrounding towns with the Sea of Galilee right there! You could picture them on the hillside, and the church, another simple one run by monks, has a very cool mosiac on the floor with four loaves and two fish – the fifth loave is on the altar of course. More masses were being said on the grounds, I wish I could have celebrated Eucharist there!
We walk down to the Sea of Galilee and got on a boat that is a replica of the boats of Jesus’ time. What a thrill! We sailed on Galilee! It was amazing. We danced on the boat, the guide throw a net out but didn’t catch anything, we read the story of Jesus calming the storm. So great,
After we visited the church of the primacy of Peter, on the seashore where Jesus told him three times to “feed my sheep”. I read this story to our very evangelical group and talked about the power of water for good and bad as we gazed out on the.
Next was Capernaum where Jesus had lived and the ruins of the ancient synagogue. It was neat. Next door is Peter’s house, where a church is built over where the house was. Easy to imagine Jesus leave e synagogue and go next door to heal Peter’s mother in law. Unfortunately we had to move on, would’ve loved more Capernaum time.
Last on this day was a water fall way up in the Golan Heights, then on up to the place where the Israeli soldiers had pushed back Syria in 1973. We toured a bunker and heard the story of the war.

Final Day
hard to believe it’s over! Today we journeyed to the Mediterranean seashore and saw Acre, an important town with an amazing reconstructed Crusader dwelling and fortress. Beautiful harbor town with amazing discoveries still being uncovered.
On to Haiffa, a huge coastal city, lunch overlooking the sea. Haiffa is built on Mt. Carmel, where Elijah defeated the Baal prophets.
Next was Meggido, or Amargedden. These ruins go back way before Israel returned to the promised land. a sophisticated water system was installed by Herod. From the Mountain you can see fertile plains below where Revelation says the final battle will take place.
Running late we zoom to Caesarea to see more impressive ruins from Herod’s time and later from the Romans. We get a quick tour before park closes, then on to Tel Aviv.
We said goodbye to our guide Ronan and our new friends. More on the tour dynamics later, it’s time for bed.
Hard to believe my time in the Holy Land is over. For now…..

On day four we left our Jerusalem hotel and headed north. Our group is down to the twelve of us that that started on Wednesday. We stopped and toured the ruins of a large city from Roman times , Beit Shean. Pretty fascinating to see how people lived then and the influence of so many different cultures.
From there we stopped on the Jordan River at a baptismal site. There were several groups there of various languages who we’re being baptized, all in white robes. It was wonderful to watch their pure joy and excitement. Jen and I waded into the Jordan together, it was a very cool moment. We also saw, believe it or not, a nutria swimming in the river, can’t get away from those nasty things!
We filled up a big bottle of river water to bring home for all the future baptisms at St. Patrick’s.

We then journeyed to Nazareth and saw the church of the Annunciation, built above a cave where Gabriel gave his message to Mary that she would bear the Messiah. Pretty awesome! Next to it is the church of the HolyFamily, which has beautiful murals depicting Joseph and is purportedly above his workshop, or one like it. You can see the caves as well as some carpentry tools from that time.
Driving through Cana we made it to Tiberias for overnight. Next up is Sea of Galilee, we already saw it, it’s big! Today we ride across it on a boat to Capernaum!

Bethlehem at the end of day two was difficult. As with many of the old city stops, the busyness of the place makes it difficult to sense the spirit. Bethlehem is a short drive from Jerusalem, but is controlled by Palestinians. We had no difficulty going through checkpoints. Once in Bethlehem we were escorted by a new guide, a Christian, because our regular guide is a Jew and cannot lead groups at the church of the nativity, which is built over the supposed site of the stable.
The church square is very familiar as the crowds from there are shown often at Christmas eve. Inside the church is not overly impressive, and like many sites consists of parts of churches constructed over time. There are three churches inside, Greek Orthodox, Armenian, and Roman. they take turns offering services during the day.
We were rushed into line to go underneath to see the stable as it was almost time for one of the Greek services nd they do not allow anyone underneath during that time. We followed closely an Italian tour group and once underneath, had ten seconds to gaze at the little cave where on one side it’s claimed Jesus was born and across the space he would have been laid down to sleep. The birth part has a star in the floor which we were allowed to touch, but being so rushed took any prayerful moment away. Upon ascending back to the church transept, there was a huge line of people who had now to wait for the Orthodox service to finish, so glad we got in even though is was rushed.
We then went back under to see what was probably more of the stable, then the room where St. Jerome translated the Vulgate Bible, an event of huge importance to Christianity. That was cool.
We left the church and did some souvenir shopping before returning to the hotel.
Today we started by driving the Jericho road, stopping for camel rides at the Inn of the Good Samaritan, but a rare rain shower interrupted. We drove on to Qumran where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found, Very fascinating archeological site. Along the way drove beside the dead sea for miles, its big!
Then we drove to Masada, Herod’s fortress. Amazing place.

Lastly we stopped go swim in the dead sea! What fun! You have to fight hard NOT to float, It
Very weird. But don’t get salt in your eyes, just ask Jennifer! It was fun.

We said goodbye to some who were leaving the tour after today, we made some new friends! Tomorrow we leave Jerusalem for Galilee, Nazareth, and other parts north.