Day Ten of Our Israel Trip

Well here we are after 10 days of travel through the Holy Land. We are standing in the lobby of the Crowne Plaza located at the Dead Sea. There was a cool breeze blowing but the forecast was no snow in Jerusalem on this day. It has never snowed at the Dead Sea. It is the lowest point on the planet. Yesterday we saw 6 F16 Israeli fighter jets flying below sea level. That has to be cool. Anyway, we boarded our bus for our final day of touring and then being dropped at Ben Gurion Airport for our long flight home.

We loaded the bus and left for En Gedi. What is neat about this spot is that this is the location where David hid in the caves of En Gedi from King Saul. It was here that David and his mighty men hid from Saul in the caves when Saul showed up. They took his water bottle and cut off a piece of his robe when he went to sleep. It is the only fresh water spring in the desert. It was beautiful and quite a climb up to the springs. We saw some local animals and then made our way back to the bus.

From here we went to Qumran. Qumran is the site where the Essenes, a religious sect, had kept the scrolls of the writings of the prophets for studies and copies. It was here that the Dead Sea scrolls were found in the 1940's. These are some of the most important finds since they verify the accuracy of the scriptures.

From this site we traveled to Jerusalem for lunch at Ramot Rachel Kibbutz. It was a great lunch and then we visited the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem. While there we heard from Dr. Jorgen Buhler a staff member from Germany. Dr. Buhler's father was recruited by Hitler's SS during World War II. He refused to join and went to another station and joined the army. It was here that he was captured by the Russian army as a POW. While he was captured some Jewish people nursed him and helped him survive. It was Dr. Buhler that helped to raise money and dedicate an Assisted Living Home for Holocaust survivors in Haifa, Israel. What a turn of events. His heart beats greatly for helping bridge the Christians and Jewish people together. Our church is a monthly supporter of ICEJ and it is good seed in good ground.

After the ICEJ we went to Ben Yahuda street for some last minute shopping. We spent about two hours and then made our way to the location of our farewell dinner sponsored by Jerusalem Tours our tour host. It was a great meal with kabob's, veggies, juice, pita bread, watermelon and fellowship. We then made our way to Ben Gurion airport for our final departure back to the US. Needless to say we made it through security and customs with no problems. That 777 airplane was a welcome sight to a bunch of weary travelers. Our 14 hours of flight will be worth it when we unite again with our families and friends.