Monday - Wednesday

The Holy Land 2011 (12 day trip led by Scotty & Kathy Hogan)

Day 1
We depart from Huntsville around 5pm with 24 of our group of 27. We make the short uneventful trip to Atlanta. The rest of our group joined us there, one from North Carolina and two from Florida – our group is now complete. Decatur Baptist has a group with us as well as our pastor friend from Boaz, Mike Goforth. It is just Scotty & me from Westmeade and we enlisted four from Ninth Street Methodist. It is a great group and we are all enjoying getting to know one another. It is always a joy as God puts people in our lives and to discover what that purpose is.

We had dinner and got to know one another as we waited for our 11pm flight to Tel Aviv. We had a 3 hour and 45 minute layover in Atlanta. Before boarding we had to go through another security before getting on the flight and had to trash water we had just purchased (or drink it quickly which I chose to do).

Day 1-2 Flight to Tel Aviv
We settled into our seats. There are only 3 seats on the flight that are on the back and do not recline. Scotty and I had the blessing of having 2 of those and another of our group, Dale Johnson (a pharmacist from Boaz) had the 3rd. We tried to keep a good attitude but our heads sure bobbled when we would nap. The flight was 11 hours straight from Atlanta to Tel Aviv on Delta. This flight costs more but you avoid the hassle of stopping at an airport in Europe and having to wait and go through security again there. These direct flights are long but well worth it. You can get up and walk around and exercise your legs which helped a lot. They fed us 2 meals and always had snacks for us to enjoy. We made the flight fine and arrived in Tel Aviv about 5pm (time is 8 hours ahead of Alabama time).

Our guide, Nabil, and bus driver were waiting for us when we arrived and after gathering our luggage we drove to Netanya which is about an hour north of Tel Aviv to The Seasons Hotel on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. We had a wonderful dinner and many of us crashed because we were so tired. Some may have taken a stroll by the Sea. Since I was one who crashed I am now awake at 1am here writing this blog as I hear the waves of the beautiful Sea crashing against the seashore just outside our room.

Last summer when Scotty and I volunteered at the Garden Tomb in Jeruslem we met Louiza who worked in the gift shop there. She told us that her husband, Nabil, was a guide so we requested him to be our guide for this trip. He is young and we are confident it will be a good fit. He is a Christian who has just help start a new church in Jerusalem. We brought a projector donated by one of our members to help with their new church. He was very grateful.

Tomorrow we will see Miriam and deliver the things we brought for her family and for the camps at The Baptist Village this summer. We brought soccer balls, basketball, volleyball, dodge balls, craft kits, jump ropes to name a few. 4 suitcases full of supplies to use to help reach people for Jesus! Thank you for your generosity in giving. I will try to sleep a little more. Shalom.


Wednesday (Day 3)
I attempted to send the above blog this morning but did not work so just now getting the opportunity so I will go ahead and add news from today.

We got up and packed out suitcases, had a wonderful breakfast and were on the bus by 8:30am ready for our journey today to Haifa and on to Tiberias. We stopped at Caesarea by the Seacoast which are ruins of a Herod the Great palace, theatre, hippodrome, etc. This is always an interesting place to visit. It was also in this area where Cornelius came to know the LORD. After a good time there we went to to see the aqueduct where water was brought from Mt. Hermon to this area which had no fresh water. This is a wonderful place for photos and just to enjoy the beautiful Med Sea.

On then to Haifa where we met Miriam and loved on little Moriah for Bonita, Roger and Mrs. Phyllis. I gave her lots of hugs and kisses for you! We delivered 4 large suitcases of items that had been donated for them personally but mostly for their ministry. It was good to see her beautiful smiling face. She shared with our group about the mission work in this area.

We visited two areas on Mt. Carmel, Stella Maris church and the area where it is believed that Elijah and the prophets of Baal tried to get God to answer by fire. And we all know the ONE and ONLY GOD did answer by fire that day. There is a great statue of Elijah there and from this area you can see much of Israel, especially the Jezreel Valley, the Valley of Armageddon.

We had a wonderful lunch of fallafel or chicken sandwiches at a nice Druze cafe and then on to visit the ruins at Megiddo. After a nice visit there (google that if you want to know more) we were on our way to Tiberias. We arrived around 4:30pm to the Caesar hotel where we will be staying 3 mights. It is a lovely place on the Sea of Galilee. We can look out our window and see the Sea.

We rested a while, shopped for some Naots (shoes made in Isreal) and then had dinner with our group.

Thankful to have internet service here so hopefully will have time to blog each day now.

We could not have asked for better weather, it has been beautiful in the Land of our LORD. Now we are in the area where he spent most of his life. We will be walking in his very steps for the next week or so.

Tomorrow we begin our day with a boat ride on the Sea of Galilee! What a way to start a day!

Blessings,
kathy