Posted 11-24-04

When we went to Galilee, we entered a different world. It is green and fertile. Some of my classmates said it reminded them of California. I could have sat by the water (of the Sea of Galilee) for hours, but my schedule here does not allow hours for anything, except maybe driving through desert. The water looks clean, not unlike a finger lake. The local people still fish it for their personal needs. I can see why it is so central in scripture. It is the focal point of the entire area. Many of the names you hear in the New Testament are close by. The picture with the palm tree may be near to the place where Jesus taught the multitude that he later fed.

In the picture with me in it, I'm not standing by the Sea of Galilee, but on the bank of the Jorday River, just north of the sea. In another picture, you would be able to see the coke bottle that I put some of the river water in. The weather has been just terrific. Each day has been in the upper 70's or low 80's. At night it has been in the mid 60's. I heard you had snow! Well, don't be jealous, it's still very hot in the desert, and at night I get to be cold.

Stay warm, Ralph+

November 17, 2004

Yesterday we made our way to Mt. Sinai. We traveled through desert and saw many Bedouins and their camels. We briefly visited a Greek Orthodox monastery and saw another ancient church. The Church has been around for a long time! In the afternoon, we arrived at St. Catherine's Monastery. If you want a lot of information on it, just Google it. We retired early because we would be getting an early start. Our goal for the morning was to climb up most of Mt. Sinai before dawn, so that we could have communion at Elijah's plateau. We did get up early, 2 a.m.! At two thirty, we were out of our guest house rooms and in front of the monastery. There was a crowd there! Part of our group rode camel up close to Elijah's Plateau. The rest of us walked. The only lights were our flashlights (torches here) and the stars. We made it up before dawn and had tea, coffee and hot chocolate, provided at Bedouin rest houses. (Not for free) After a snack, we went to the plateau. Since there was a crowd, there was more noise than we would have liked. This is true of all the pilgrimage spots we went to. At dawn though, as the sun rose, it was quiet everywhere. Then we had communion. After communion, our group split into two groups, the ones that would descend, and the ones who would climb to the top. Guess which direction I went? By the time we went up, most of the crowd had descended to below us. At the top, some 700 stone steps later, there were only three or four groups. One group was singing praise to God in Spanish. Someone in our group asked if they were singing Cursillo songs.

The first pic is of me on Elijah's Plateau, where we had communion. If you look closely, you can see people descending from the top of Mt. Sinai. The second is a close up of the peak and you can see the people coming down. The last picture is from the top. It was a wonderful experience for me and it was for Moses too. Moses spent time on several mountain tops. In fact his life and ministry ended on a mountain top.

Blessings to all from Mt. Sinai,

Ralph+