Love the Lord your God, listen to His voice and hold fast to Him, for the Lord is your life! Deut. 30:20


Thursday, April 4, 2013

Biblical study trip to Israel

We signed up to go on a trip to Israel with Jim Martin* many months ago.  And finally the day came.  Jim's sister, Sarah, who is my dear friend, took us to the airport. 


Our daughter, Mindy, came by to give last hugs - and took this photo.  The plane took us right over our town and I could see our house and the folk's house too.  I love looking down on clouds!




We arrived at Chicago.  Our next flight to Philadelphia kept getting delayed due to mechanical problems.  After several hours, they told us we would not be able to make our connections to Israel so they re-routed us to Newark to catch that flight to Tel Aviv.  Unfortunately, our seats were not going to be together.  But a kind, elderly lady was willing to trade so I could sit by Al.  I enjoy resting my head on Al's shoulder - don't think some stranger would think too kindly about that!


While walking down the aisle, I noticed another couple who were holding in their hands the itinerary of our Israel tour.  I introduced myself.  This couple was Jan and Chris, who became good friends during this trip!  Incidentaly, Jan's sister is married to Jim and Sarah's brother.   I also found out that she is also related to our friend, RJ Tippin! Sarah had told me they would be on this flight so we'd been trying to guess who they were.  There were not a lot of Caucasians on this flight as many Jewish families were headed to Israel for Passover. 

It was a long flight over the ocean, but we finally arrived in Tel Aviv!!  We mostly had carry-on, but our one check-in luggage (along with Lortab) was still stuck in Chicago!  It would be 2 days until it arrived.  Luckily, we had packed our carry-on for just such an emergency!  



Guess who also arrived in Israel on the same day we did?!  The President of the United States!  And it did affect our travel plans somewhat.  Our tour guide is very flexible and he told us ahead of time we might need to shuffle days around.

 The adventure is about to begin!

*James C. Martin founded Bible World Seminars in 1989. He currently offers biblical study travel programs on location in Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Turkey, and Greece. Over the past 25 years, Martin and his wife, Stacey, have been involved in aerial, land, and museum photography and video filming throughout the Middle East and Europe. Their photos appear in works such as theNIV Archaeological Study Bible and Halley's Bible Handbook, among others.

1 comment:

Marc, Sarah, Luke, and Kate said...

Welcome back!!! I'm sure you guys are getting back in the time zone -- Ha! I heard President Obama was there, & I wondered if that would affect your plans. And, I love your shot of Chicago...I think that's a fun airport to fly into....(And, on a completely different & funny note -- I will tell Luke you guys are back...he's been wanting to check on Mr. Allen's car at the hospital)....