Israeli tour manager to be at Sango Nov. 11

noreply@blogger.com (Don Sensing) — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 17:17:00 +0000

by Rev. Don Sensing

Please join us on Nov. 11 at 6:30 p.m. at Sango UMC to meet Ari Marom, our actual tour manager, explain the itinerary and answer all your questions. Ari, of Vared HaSahron Travel in Israel, was the tour manager for my trip there in october 2007. (See below.) Ari is a fine man and now a good friend.

There is no obligation to attend. Ari will explain the itinerary, costs and payment schedules, transportation and procedures.

A photo and video preview of the June 2009 trip

noreply@blogger.com (Don Sensing) — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 02:26:00 +0000

by Rev. Don Sensing

Join us for a trip to Israel and the West bank in June 2009! Itinerary and cost information are here: click.

Meanwhile, enjoy these photos I took when I visited there in October 2007.

Click on the photos to see a larger size.

This is an overview of Jerusalem, focusing on the Temple Mount, viewed from the Mount of Olives.

This is the wall of the old city of Jerusalem, looking down toward the Jaffa Gate. However, very little of the city's walls remain from the time of Jesus, as they have been knocked down and rebuilt a number of times over the centuries.

Jerusalem is an ancient city with a mixture of old and new - note the satellite dishes near an ancient aqueduct.

The Church of the Flagellation is located on the site where Jesus was scourged before being crucified.

This is the entrance to the Church of Flagellation.

This is a section of the Western Wall of the ancient Temple Mount. This is not, and never was, part of the wall of the city. These stones were thrown down here by Roman legions in 70 b.c. when Rome crushed the Zealots' revolt and destroyed the Temple. These stones have laid there ever since.

This is another view of the Western Wall, this section being often referred to as the Wailing Wall. Note the golden Dome of the Rock peering above the wall. The Dome of the Rock is not the Al-Aqsa mosque, which is also located atop the Temple Mount, but on one end. The Temple Mount is so called because its plateaued peak was where the Temple of the Jews was built, first by King Solomon. Today, Muslims deny that the Temple was ever there (Yasir Arafat insisted it had been in Yemen).

Near the entrance to the Wailing Wall is this sign explaining the significance of the place to the Jewish faith. Jews and Gentiles alike may pray there. Men pray at one part and women another. Men must wear a head covering, called a kippa, once they enter through the small gate to approach the Wall. My close friend, Rabbi Daniel Jackson, will provide the men on our trip with suitable kippas before we arrive at the Wall. Women also must cover their heads, most wear a simple scarf.

Even the snacks sold near the Wailing Wall are holy!

Here is another view of the Temple Mount, in which you can see how the Dome of the Rock dominates the top. The stone structure atop the Mount, to the far left, is the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

This is the church built at the Garden of Gethsemane. It was near here that Jesus was arrested.

The Gethsemane church is an active church. I took this photo of priests celebrating the Eucharist when I was there last October.

This is the plaza in Bethlehem near the Church of the Nativity. This is the plaza where Pope John Paul II held a New years Eve service, broadcast around the world, on Dec. 31, 1999.

This was the guide for our group in Bethlehem. Unfortunately, I did not record his name. He is Christian. As late as 1970, Bethlehem was 70 percent Christian. Now it is less than 15 percent, and almost certainly lower than 10 percent. Christians in the West Bank and Gaza are strongly persecuted by the Muslims with permission of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and active participation in Gaza of Hamas. A Muslim journalist told us that within 15-20 years, there will be no more Christians in the West Bank.

This is the interior of the Church of the nativity, a very large structure built over the traditional site of Jesus' birth. Most of the building there today dates from the Crusades. although the first church there dates no later than the fourth century.

Lunch in Bethlehem. I bought a couple of falafel, a deep-fried bread that has various seasonings and vegetable ingredents. Think of a big, round hush puppy, although a falafel isn't made of cornbread.

Back to Jerusalem. This is a scene of a Via Dolorosa along the way to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. In Jesus' day the streets were much wider. Jerusalem has been hosting tourists for, oh, 2,500 years and there is shopping for every price range, from tourist junk trinkets to very expensive, high quality jewelry and even furniture. It would pay to look around a bit before making a purchase. BTW, every store in Israel and the West Bank accepts cash US dollars and American credit cards. There is no need to exchange currency before traveling - or ever, for that matter.

This is a chapel at the station of the cross along the Via Dolorosa where Jesus fell. It is not, though, the station where the Romans forced Simon from Cyrene to carry the cross. That station is later along the way.

Walking along the Via Dolorosa, this is the first view of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

A view of one of the domes inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The church is also called the Church of the Resurrection. It is a very large structure built over the rock of Golgotha, where Jesus was crucified, and the site of his tomb (hence, the sites of both Jesus' death and resurrection).

This is the dome immediately above the site of the tomb. Regretfully, there was not enough light to capture a good photo of the tomb site.

Inside the sepulchre church is this tableau at the Rock of Preparation, where Joseph of Arimathea and the women disciples of Jesus hastily (and incompletely) prepared Jesus' body for entombment. Alas, that original rock is long gone, having been chipped away over the early centuries by relic seekers.

A Coptic monk near a site holy to the Coptic church, the shrine to Queen Helen.

This sign was near Jerusalem's Ben Yehuda Street in the Jewish Quarter. Yep, Jerusalem has much experience with tourists!

You have to advertise where you can find space - this sign was atop a high, old column, barely readable from the ground.

This is a section of Israel's security wall that runs along the demarcation between Israel and the West Bank. There is another wall at Gaza. Only about 30 percent of the barrier is actually a wall, the rest is fencing. Israel built the barrier to stop suicide bombers from blowing up buses and pizzerias and other places filled with Israeli civilians and children. Within a short time after the wall was significantly completed, terrorist attacks in Israel fell by more than 80 percent. There is no denying that the barrier imposes great difficulties upon the Palestinians, but practically every Israeli, regardless of political stripe, agrees that their right to life comes before the Palestinians' quality of life.

This is a scene from the lower level of the Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth. This striking, modern church is quite new, having been dedicated by Pope Paul VI in 1967. It is not, of course, the first church to have been built on this spot. The photo is of the traditional place of Mary's childhood home and the place where the angel Gabriel told Mary that she would give birth to Jesus.

Jericho, in the West Bank, is the oldest, continuously inhabited place on earth. It was in Jericho that Jesus invited himself to have dinner with Zaccheus, who was short of stature and had climbed a sycamore tree to get a glimpse of Jesus as he came by.

Finally, here I am with my good friend, Israeli Orthodox Rabbi Daniel Jackson, Ph.D., enjoying midnight dessert in a cafe near Ben Yehuda Street.

Daniel, his wife, Susan and their son, Schmuel, made aliya to Israel from the US in (as I recall) 2002, just as the Second Intifada's suicide-bombing campaign was really getting under way. Daniel is former sociology professor who left the academy to study for rabbinic ordination at Yeshiva University. Rabbi Jackson lives in the Galilee region of Israel and teaches several classes in Jerusalem at Touro College in Israel. He is an accomplished amateur astronomer.

One of the evenings of our trip, Daniel (and I hope Susan also) will be with us give insights into modern Israel, its sociological challenges and what does it mean for Israel to be a Jewish state. Daniel is an expert on all things Judaica, so he will be able to answer any questions about Jewish faith, history and practice.

Update: Here are three movies I took in October 2007

First is a video capturing the sounds of the bells of the Church of Holy Sepulchre. They bells there are very sonorous. The sound is beautiful

Just a few minutes after the bells ahd sounded, a Muslim call to prayer was sounded from this minaret of a mosque that is located immediately next to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The co-location of the church and mosque and their religious announcements was striking.

The Jewish Shabbat ends at sundown Saturday. At Ben Yehuda Street in Jerusalem, people come out to celebrate. The party doesn't really begin until abou 10 p.m.! B en Yeuda is a major commercial ditrict of the Jewish Quarter, and on Saturday nights the stores and bistros stay open very late.

Israel 2009 Travel and Itinerary Information

noreply@blogger.com (Don Sensing) — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 02:07:00 +0000

by Rev. Don Sensing

With my friends and contacts in Israel, I am arranging a special-itinerary tour of the Holy Land, including parts of the West Bank, for June 19-28, 2009. We will worship in Jerusalem on one of the two Sundays in Israel and have ample time for souvenir shopping. We will pass along the Via Dolorosa, starting with the historically-confirmed site of Jesus' trial and scourging. We will visit many more sites, too, in Jerusalem, Galilee and the Dead Sea/Jericho area.

In addition to the many tourist or pilgrimage sites on the itinerary below, I have arranged for our group to visit the Golan Heights, the high land between Israel and Syria to the east of the Sea of Galilee, and receive security-related briefings from Israeli military and government officials, including the situation regarding Israel's construction of the security fence or wall that passes through Jerusalem and along most of the demarcation between Israel and the West Bank.

We also hope to visit the southern Israeli town of S'derot, which has been much in the news lately as it is located only about 1,100 yards from Gaza.

I am working with my friend Ari Marom of the Vered HaSharon agency in Israel to finalize itinerary and cost details. The great majority of the itinerary is firm now, but some elements may change between now and the travel dates.

The cost and what it includes
We need at least 30 persons to travel. The trip price, based on estimations of the airfare, is $3,350. Travelers wishing a single room in hotels will have to pay a supplementary charge of $575.

A deposit of $250 per person is needed to reserve a seat. Generally, this deposit is refundable until about 90 days before departure date, but that may vary depending on which airline we travel. Ari Marom is still working with airlines for the best combination of flight time and fare. With unsteady fuel costs, however, airlines will not lock in prices for June travel until about January.
Included in the cost

seven full days of touring (20-27 June, inclusive),
lodging, two persons per room (single rooms available for extra charge)
all entrance fees,
breakfast and evening meal daily,
the service of a full-time, experienced, licensed, English-speaking tour guide
transportation in a modern, air-conditioned motor coach.

The only things not included in the price are lunches, beverages with meals and tips to the guide and driver (recommended about $7 per person per day, or $50 per person).

Itinerary

Below is the daily schedule; for details please open Vered HaSharon's complete itinerary: PDF file or Word file.

Day 1: JUNE 19, 2009, MONDAY – DEPART USA

Day 2: Sat. June 20 – ARRIVAL IN ISRAEL

Day 3: Sun. June 21 – MT. OF BEATITUDES, CAESAREA PHILIPPI, GOLAN HEIGHTS, CAPERNAUM, BOAT RIDE, JORDAN RIVER (YARDENIT)

Day 4: Mon. June 22 – NAZARETH, JERICHO, JERUSALEM

Day 5: Tues. June 23 – BETHLEHEM, JERUSALEM

Day 6: Wed. June 24 – QUMRAN, EIN GEDI, DEAD SEA, MASSADA

Day 7: Thurs. June 25 – OLD CITY OF JERUSALEM

Day 8: Fri. June 26 – JAFFA, LATRUN, ELAH VALLEY, JERUSALEM

Day 9: Sat. June 27 – MT. SCOPUS, KNESSET, GARDEN TOMB W/ COMMUNION, NIGHTTIME DEPARTURE

Day 10: Sun. June 28 – ARRIVE HOME

Sango UMC - Israel Tours & Seminars 2009

Israeli tour manager to be at Sango Nov. 11

A photo and video preview of the June 2009 trip

Israel 2009 Travel and Itinerary Information