Musings!!

Trio at the Sea of Galilee

It has been some time since I sat down and blogged.   While I am to blame for my lack of correspondence, there has been no lack of activity.  Sheila Smith joined us here for a few weeks, and then our daughter Katy came to stay for about 10 days, so we have had a house full!  It has been grand!  We have shared many new experiences, and a lot of laughs!

Camel Riding in the Negev

This past Saturday we all went for an hour camel ride in the Negev.  We were told that we rode on dromedaries, the one hump camel.  They stand about six feet tall, and can drink 200 litres of water in three minutes.  The saddles cost about $2000.  They took us out with the guide in the lead, with the four of us roped along behind.  The guide gave commentary about the incense route, and the British and Bedouin influences in the Negev.  It was all very fascinating!

While we have been in Israel, travelling around, we have not come into contact with any unrest, though it seems it is happening near to us.  We had visited Cana, where Jesus turned the water into wine, and everything seems quiet.  We left town to see about 8 police vehicles, and some horses at a major intersection.  Returning about six hours later, they were still there, but an officer forbade us to go through Cana to return to Nazareth as it to 'dangerous'.  We wondered what had happened, and the story was told that a youth threatened a police officer with a knife, very menacingly, and a few moments later the youth was dead having been shot from behind.  We took a different route home that night, probably only twenty minutes longer.  The locals feel that justice is not served in their area, and so demonstrations were held for about three days, both in Cana and in Nazareth, protesting discrimination, and lack of justice for Arabs.  Margaret and I did not see anything of it.

We spent a couple of nights in Jerusalem, before taking Sheila to the Ben Gurion Airport at about 5am Tuesday morning.  I had picked up the car at a parking lot on Mount Hertzl the night before, and the light rail train had taken me through Har Nof, a community of Jerusalem.  It was about 10 hours later, that Tuesday night, that we learned of the killing of 4 Jewish rabbis in their place of worship in Har Nof about 7am that morning.   We had been so close, but we were very naive to the difficulties.

Katy & Margaret near Arbel, Galilee

So if anyone is wondering if the news out of Israel is affecting us, you could say, 'not physically'.  In traveling Israel, we have seen lots more soldiers in uniform, and carrying guns, than in Canada.  These soldiers and security personnel are quite affable, and easy to approach.  They always seem in good humor.  Going through bus terminals, train stations, malls, one can encounter security personnel who demand to inspect parcels, packages and bags.  On the light rail, there was a man in dress blues, maybe a security guy, whose pistol seemed easy to slip out of its holster.  I had thought easy access weaponry was only in the USA.  It is rather plentiful in Israel too!  The social milieu, and anti-terrorist policies has adjusted the psyche to the seemingly ever present danger.  They respond to threats quickly.

Today, the CEO of Nazareth Hospital, Joseph Main, summarized our special study day arranged by the chaplaincy department.  He talked of how Ananias was told to go pray for Saul who was blinded in his encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus.  Ananias asked if the man he was to go lay hands on was the one commissioned to kill Christians.  Even though the answer was yes, Ananias was obedient, even at risk of his life, went to meet the man that would, in turn, as Paul, influence so much of the world for Christ, and write so much of the New Testament.  Joseph's imperative was for us, God's people, to risk loving, to make new relationships, and affect our world for Christ.