Diary Report #264

Diary Report 264  (for June 2014)

June 24 and July 3, 2014

To:  Carolyn, Cliff, Pauline, Chet and Dolores, Lori, Alan, Marcia, Pastor Adonis, David, and Doris

      Greetings!  I plan to put Prophetic Message # 735 from Lord Jesus into the July Garner News, so I will put Prophetic Message #736 from Father God and #737 from Lord Jesus with this Diary Report.  I put a copy of Prophetic Message #732 from Father God with each of my 100 charity checks that I mailed out.  God’s Holy Spirit is leading me to put a copy of a prophetic message with each of my charity checks that I mail out each month.  I also put copies of them with my personal checks that I mail out to pay my bills each month.

When my younger sister, Pauline from Oregon, and I went to Israel a couple of weeks ago, she read my last Diary Report, and showed me two items that need to be corrected from it. I stated that her husband, Phil McCulloch, was age 69, and she said he is now 70.  She also reminded me that we did not eat out at noon after visiting church at the Holy Land Experience in Florida on Mother’s Day.  We had discussed eating out, but then decided we needed to eat lunch at the apartment in Orlando, as we had food that we needed to finish up before we all left for home the next day.  So we five ate lunch at the apartment that Sunday.

Pauline and I had a wonderful 10 day trip to Israel.  It was twice as much fun with her along, as she is always so cheerful.  We had a good visit telling about her four young grandchildren and my three young grandsons.  She was scheduled to fly out of Portland, Oregon on May 27, but before she got to Portland, she had a five-hour drive north the day before.  It turned out to be a seven-hour drive because of the traffic hold ups.  She got only two hours sleep before boarding the plane, then flew across country and met our Dallas group in Philadelphia in the evening, before leaving at 7:00 p.m. for the 10 ½ hour flight to Tel Aviv, Israel.  She was able to meet our group from Christ for The Nations from Dallas on time and fly the rest of the way with them.  However, I was not so fortunate.

I was scheduled to fly out of Nashville in the morning with U.S. Airways and meet the group in Philadelphia.  My flight was cancelled.  I rescheduled with American Airlines and was routed through Chicago.  Because of a bad storm over Chicago, that flight was cancelled, so I had to reschedule for the next day.  At least I got to sleep in my own bed at home, for which I was thankful.  Karen took me to the Nashville airport the next day, and then that flight was cancelled. I rescheduled with U.S. Airways for a later flight to Philadelphia, and finally made it to Tel Aviv a day later than our group.  Our group had spent the first night in Tel Aviv, and then had taken a bus to northern Israel to the Sea of Galilee area.  They had to arrange for a three-hour taxi ride for me to join the group, which cost them $295.00.  The taxi driver was a Jewish man who was very knowledgeable about Israel history and geography—so I enjoyed asking him bunches of questions on the ride.  I gave him a good cash tip for answering all my questions.  Joy!  I met up with our group just as they were going to supper on the second night of the trip.

Israel is much smaller than Tennessee.  It is 350 miles long and 50 miles wide with 8.1 million inhabitants.  Tennessee is 440 E-W miles wide and 120 N-S miles across with 6.5 million inhabitants.  On our trip, we traveled the whole length of Israel, and experienced the Sea of Galilee in the north, the Jordan River on the eastern border, the Dead Sea in the middle, and the Red Sea in the far south.

We spent two nights in a Kibbutz by the Sea of Galilee area, and saw some of the sights there. We had marvelous large breakfasts and suppers at the elegant hotels where we stayed.  There were always many kinds of fresh fruits and fresh veggies, with breads, cheeses, salads, meats, drinks and desserts.  We purchased our own lunches from various restaurants, as we were on trips about town and the countryside at lunch times.  The many different Kibbutzs in Israel are places like small villages, where many families share their work and share their finances.  Our hotel at the Kibbutz was really first class, and was managed and maintained by the people of the village who lived there.  They have some very excellent cooks and waitresses and helpers there.

We had a Jewish man as our excellent tour guide.  All 56 members of our group fit on one bus, so it was easy for him to give us lectures as we drove from place to place.  The next morning, we went to the Jesus Boat Museum and saw an antique wooden boat that was dug out of the mud after the water receded in the Sea of Galilee in 1986.  It had been preserved and put on display.  It is a fisherman’s small boat believed to have existed during the time of Jesus.

We enjoyed seeing the Sea of Galilee in northern Israel where Jesus walked on the water, where He called his fishermen to become fishers of men and gave the Sermon on the Mount.

We went to a restaurant where we bought our Jesus Fish Lunch, which was a whole grilled fish including head and bones, with many good veggies, salads, fruit, and drinks.  All delicious!

We saw Capernaum and the Mount of Beatitudes where Jesus gave His sermon on the nine blessings of the beatitudes.  We visited Tabgha where Jesus fed the five thousand and four thousand and where Jesus cooked fish for His disciples after He was raised from the dead.  We saw the mountain where He prayed and fasted for forty days and forty nights.

We went to the mouth of the Sea of Galilee where it meets the Jordan River where many of our group were re-baptized near where Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist.  Since Pauline didn’t want to be baptized there, she photographed me as I was baptized by Marianne and her pastor husband, Billy Allen.  When each person was raised from the water, Marianne spoke a word of prophecy over each one.  She said something like this over me, “Soon you will be coming into the work that God has for you that God has prepared you all of your life to do.”  I believe it.  Praise God.  More than half of our group were baptized in the beautiful water on a perfect day.  We looked around the gift shop on the way out.

We spent a second night in Tiberius in the Kibbutz Nof Ginosar.

On our bus trip the next day on our way to Jerusalem, we drove through the Golan Heights part of Israel that you hear so much about.  It’s most all barren, rocky hills, like most of Israel.  In many of the valleys of Israel, we saw palm tree orchards and grape vine orchards.  The palm trees are not coconut trees, but are date palms.  We were served a lot of dried dates that were so sweet that they almost tasted like eating fudge.  Dennis and Ginger Lindsay, now head of Christ for The Nations, had their son Golan and his girlfriend along on the trip.  We stopped the bus and made a photo of Golan and them standing by a Golan Heights sign.

We saw the Judean desert and toured the St. George Monastery.  We saw Beit She’an which is one of the most ancient cities in the country.  We toured the Mt. of Olives where Jesus wept over Jerusalem.  The Chapel of Dominus Flevit was built there in 1955 and is run by the Franciscan order, to commemorate an important part of Jesus’ life.

We visited the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus spent His last agonizing hours in prayer before His betrayal by Judas.  I made many photos of this place, as I hope to make some paintings of it.  It has been landscaped with olive trees, flowers, flowering bushes, and rock paths—so beautiful.

We checked into the Dan Panorama Hotel in Jerusalem where we stayed three nights.  After our very delicious supper at the hotel, we had a meeting at the hotel with Ray and Sharon Sanders, Christian Friends of Israel who told about their work there.

The next morning, after a wonderfully large breakfast at the hotel, we were taken by bus where we had a brief tour of the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum.  I believe the museum has been built in the last three years.  There’s so much to see and read, that I would like to go back.

We saw the Pools of Bethesda where Jesus healed the paralytic man.

We went to the Christian Quarter in Jerusalem and walked the 14 Stations of the Cross of the Via Dolorosa, the “Way of Sorrows,” Jesus’ final path, which originally led from the courthouse to Golgotha Hill, where Jesus was crucified and buried.  We followed Jesus footsteps along a route that now starts in the Muslim Quarter, at Lions’ Gate, and ends at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.  There were many visitors walking the many up and down steps of the narrow street, with many gift shops and many food stores all along the way.  It was a long way for Jesus to walk after His severe beating and with Him carrying His cross much of the way.  He did it ALL for us.  Praises to our God Jesus.

We visited the Upper Room on Mt. Zion, a second-story room in Jerusalem which is possibly the original site of the Last Supper and Pentecost.  It is located directly above the Tomb of David and near the Dormition Abbey on Mount Zion.

We visited the Jerusalem Prayer Center, which is on the 10th floor of an eleven-story building in downtown Jerusalem, with large windows overlooking the city on two sides of their large conference room.  It is run by Kobi and Shani Ferguson, which Christ for The Nations helps support.  We heard Kobi tell of their ministry of praying for the people of Israel, and ministering the salvation of Jesus to them.  Then Golan Lindsay proposed to his girlfriend.  After she accepted, he placed an engagement ring on her finger.  They had been dating for two years, after they had met two years ago while on a trip to Israel with a Christ for The Nations group.  Golan is age 32, the grandson of Gordon and Frida Lindsay, son of Dennis and Ginger Lindsay, and is employed at Christ for the Nations.  She is from South America, speaks Spanish and English, a wonderful Christian, and is a beautiful young lady with long black hair.  She attended college at Christ for The Nations Institute, graduated, and is now employed in the Dallas area.

We went back to the Dan Panorama Hotel in Jerusalem, had supper and spent a 2nd night.

Day 7—Monday, June 2nd

We went to the Western Wall where we had prayers.  We wrote out some of our prayers on papers and left them stuck in the cracks of the wall with the many other papers already there. I made some photos.  The Western Wall is revered as the last remnant of the Second Temple, and it is Judaism’s most sacred site.

We walked up the outside stairway to the front of the original temple—the place where Jesus must have walked often.  A lot of it was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD.

Then our tour guide, who had made special arrangements for us, gave us a tour through the tunnels behind the wall of the Temple.  Some people go there to pray.  The tunnels are those that have been created by numerous arches side-by-side supporting staircases going from the city to the Temple Mount.

We went through the Davidson Center which shows Jerusalem’s glorious past, showcased through the prism of advanced visualization technology.

We went through the Jewish Quarter.

We went to the Garden Tomb and saw where Jesus was buried and was resurrected.  I went inside.  I made several photos of the outside of it, from which I could do paintings.   At a table near the empty tomb, our group had prayers and took the Communion Service.  Praise God!

Then we had a ministry visit at the Jerusalem Center with Charles and Elizabeth Kopp.  They told us of their work there, and later served many snacks to our group upstairs at their place.

We went back to the Dan Panorama Hotel in Jerusalem, had supper and spent the 3rd night.

Day 8—Tuesday, June 3rd

After a wonderful breakfast at the hotel, we boarded the bus and drove south.  We passed by the hills of Qumran where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found, the oldest Bible ever found.

We drove on south and stopped at the mountain of Masada.  We went through the gift shop and took a tram to the top and toured the ruins of the ancient village where 960 Jewish people lived for three years to escape the Romans.  They chose to die rather than to lose their freedom.

Then we went to the Dead Sea area.  We toured a factory outlet where cosmetics were sold that were made from the elements of the Dead Sea.  Pauline bought some as gifts for her family. Then we had the opportunity to put black mud all over us and float in the Dead Sea.  The salt is so thick that a person doesn’t sink—only floats.  It was a fun experience for lots of our group.

Then we traveled on to the far southern town of Eilat near the Red Sea and stayed two nights at the Eilat Agamin Hotel Isrotel.  We had breakfasts and suppers at the hotel, all first class.

Day 9—Wednesday, June 4th

We took a glass bottom boat ride on the Red Sea.  We toured the Maritime Museum with the aquarium and watched the fish swim by in a huge circular tank.  Then we had beach, swimming and shopping opportunities.  We had a wonderful supper at the hotel and stayed overnight.

Day 10—Thursday, June 5th

We drove back on our bus to Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv for our 12½ hour overnight flight back to Philadelphia, customs in U.S., and on home.

Leave a Reply