saying shalom to Israel via En-gedi

Ok so here it is the last entry of Israel that we have before we leap across the mediterainien sea and arrive in England. We did a week long tour to the south of Israel (on our own) which included Eiltate with the red sea, and En-gedi with the Dead sea so in total we have visited three sea's here in Israel: the Red sea, the Dead sea and the Med. sea.(I saw that on a t-shirt).

The camel ride that we went on delightfully included a chillout time afterward in a Bedouin tent where the guide continued to prepare their famous bedouin bread which is cooked over a metal, globe-shaped sheltered flame and consists of flour, water and sugar. There was also no chairs and a table which was much more appropriate for preschoolers then us, needless to say when I went to get up afterward I just about collapsed as the blood attempted frantically to reenter the lower portion of my body.It was nice though and we managed to meet a family from Germany( Im realizing this happens in social settings,we meet new people) who not only gave us a ride back to our campsite by having their daughter squish in on her mothers lap but also they offered us a place to stay if we ever went to Germany. Thats a trip for next year though. lol


The picture on the left is of Johanna floating around in the dead sea while she is being held up by an incredible consentration of salinated water, don't taste it or you'll be spitting it out for hours afterward and make sure you wash it off afterward with fresh water cause it will eat through your clothes and eventually seep into your oraphuses and leak into your brain causing dementia and paralization(its true a young hebrew boy told me!)

The last set is of several different waterfalls in the En-Gedi nature reserve.
all pumped out naturally by the david spring at the top of the mountain, they are actually one continuos flow of water climbing up the side of the mountain. We only ended up going about half way up as heat exaustion wasn't on our agenda for the day, so we took it easy.

The trip to Israel has really touched both Johanna's and my heart. We would highly recommend it to anyone wanting a closer look at the hebrew way of life. Don't take the words in the news as the only voice out there, often the truth is much calmer and less modivated by what will sell anyway. Thanx for joining us on our trip through israel!

Jerusalem #2 ( the city of peace)

here we go with our second display of Jerusalem. We have painstakingly neglected upto this point but now we have prevailed to this next blog.We are actually just about on our way back home with MANY plans having been shifted to and fro. We are currently on the coast at a freinds house that we met in Israel that happens to live here in england. Alas the blog is about Jerusalem so we will carry on from that perspective.





this pic if you look closely you will see Johanna is trying to lure a kitten out from her little nest that a jewish student had made for it after finding it in the street.

The next two pictures resemble some artwork that Johanna and I had the priveledge of producing.

'children at play' and 'the sitting wise man' are the names Nic has given them.

The next five pictures are a contrast set with the first three displaying the busying streets of inner Jerusalem, where you will need to watchout for the caniving young arabs who will no doubt be eager to escort you on your way with direction and guidance whilst expecting a fee at the end of your journey(this happend to us on several occasions, of course we eventually grew wise of it). Complete with consumers and merchants everywhere you turn you will of course come dredfully close to being harassed by the sellers trying to puruade you into his lair in order to catch your appetite with one of their many accessories.

The last two in this contrast set are of the same streets during the shabbat which of course is what we call saturday, the day of jewish sabbath.

Something much needed in the western world is seen in these streets during shabbat, ...rest,quietness, calm.

Lastly in this list of pix is our wonderful Citadel, a highly recommended clean, freindly, quiet,accomadating hostel located in what is loosely claimed the christian quarter. It was our most favorite place to stay, especially when we got to experience the rooftop. They had a stake of mattresses to choose from and you got to find a place on the roof and set up for the night! it was fantasitic and a wonderful veiw.

That is it for now. We hope to post agian before we arrive back home, to fill you in on some of the other adventures we have expereinced. For now, goodbye and see you all soon!!

Jerusalem (The Holy city)

Good Morning!! It's 9:23 am here in Isreal. We have been spending the last couple of days in Eilat, which is the main city on the border of Sinai. It has been REALLY hot!! We will eventually tell you more about our stay here, but for now we have some pictures to share of our journey in and around Jerusalem. We will be doing two entries on Jerusalem because of the huge amount of pictures we have! It is such a beautiful city and we really enjoyed our stay there.

Amoung the landscapes there is a sunrise picture which was taken from the roof top of the first hostel we stayed in called the Citadel( we will have pictures of this AMAZING hostel in the next blog). You will notice in a couple of the pictures a building with a round golden dome, this is "the dome of the rock" where in the Muslim faith Mahommad ascended to heaven.
During our stay we went on a tour to the Mount of Olives seen in the second picture. While on the tour we visited the Jewish gravyard which is one of the oldest in the world. (pic 4)













While we were on our tour through the mount of Olives we visited many different "churches". The one alot of us would be familiar with was the Holy Sepelachure, where Christ was assumed to be crucified and buried. You will see the beggining of the"amusment park" line up of people waiting to step inside the elaborately decorated Alter, where christ was crucified.










Following that picture is four pictures of the french church "Pate Nosta" which is latin for "the lords prayer". scattered throughout the building are various translations of this prayer in many languages. We believe the last one is Korean (Diana this ones for you).




We have displayed next the "church of all nations" which was something of a large community project where several nations stationed locally and abroad had partnered to build. The architecture and mural on the face are stunning displays famous for both greek orthodox and catholic church buildings.
















This is Johanna standing in part of the Garden of Gethsemane, where it is recorded that Jesus was found praying the night they arrested him. Nic is seen in a picture with a random church in order for him to not feel left out...lol. You have the Western wall aswell The only remaining portion of the Jewish Temple during the second temple period. It is still believed by jews, to have retained the shikina glory (Glory of Gods presence). Aswell it is used as a wonderful open air synagogue where they come on a regular, almost religous(lol) basis to pray.I(Johanna) found it interesting that the men and women are not allowed to participate together in worship, and the womens quarter was literally one quarter of the wall, leaving three quarters to the men.








This is our gate/old city wall collection. First we have the Jaffa gate (one gate of about 8 different gates in total) which was our main entrance into the old city portion of Jerusalem. Next is a pic of Johanna walking along the top of the wall, These walls and gates by the way were all built during the 15th century making them almost 500 years old although the foundations in various places are actually millenia older. Johanna is also seen standing in the cavern stairwell, with a zombie like expression, leading to what seemed like a tomb(it had no light and was very eriee....).





The Stadium looking picture is a top view of the damascus gate (leading toward The biblically recorded city of damascus, Syria. The home of Paul the apostle.)beside that pic is a face view of the same gate.












Hope you enjoyed our picture show. Stay tuned for part 2 of Jersalem, and the continuation of our journey through Isreal. We have been enjoying it so much so far being able to see new sights and learn about another culture. Nic and I have had many opportunities to grow together as friends and as husband and wife. Quite appropriately Gods Grace has been carring us through some difficult learning/growing and not killing opportunities, understanding what it means to really "love" someone, apart from emotional sentiment and passionate pursuits. We look forward to what the remainder of the Kelly quest will include....

Thank you all for your love and prayers

weekend excursions / MR anonymous pics

Hello Peeps
we are sorry for the massive delay in updating our blog we are way behind and its not your fault. I hope you will find it in your hearts to forgive us, especially those who are christians , you have to! (OR your out of the club:)

These are our pics from working one day(among many) at the kibbutz.
Mr. anonymous will later be seen in another showing of our kibbutzim lifestyle. Duh Duh Duh ....

--------------------------------------This is Joey at our freind aovah's house where we were able to make a few extra dollars. Ten bucks says you dont pronounce her name properly..lol

The Jordan River rafting pics!!! yay

For one of the many weekends that we have had away from the Kibbutz we decided to head down to the river! It was a beautiful day to go rafting. We had two options, a four hour intense white water experience, or a one hour semi intense ride which was less then half the price, so even though we REALLY wanted to try out the intense ride we choice to take it easy and safe a few bucks! It was still great!!

On our way hitchhiking to the Rafting spot we met a young guy by the name of Ido. The other pictures are of our time spent with Ido and friends. He was familiar with a spring near the rafting place and invited us along to join him. His friend and friends son also joined us and we sat in the shade, drinking coffee, speaking of Jesus and taking a swim in the spring. You could say that Ido is a kinda "free" flowing man and he let it all hang out(literally) when he went in for a refreshing dip! Alittle different, and funny!, but also enlightening!! Nick and I choose to keep our clothes on! lol

We spent the evening and night with Ido at Kibbutz Gadot where he lived. Agian another great evening with awesome conversations about Art(as he was an artist) and many other things! In the morning we headed to the Kibbutz zoo as Ido fed the animals and we got to play with them!!

It was a wonderful weekend and one we won't soon forget!

As of now, Nick and I are heading south to the dead sea and Eygpt, but your going to have to wait to hear about it all, plus what we haven't told you about in the last couple weeks.

Hope all is well,

Love

The travellers