Hello from Israel/Jerusalem!

As some of you may know, I planned to go to Israel Dec 21-27 while in the Middle east. Since I have never visited the Holy Land, I thought this was a great opportunity! My son, Greg, and Phil Sandilands have joined me for a busy, but great week.

We took two full days to tour and walk through much of Jerusalem, both the old city and other sights. On Sabbath afternoon, we toured the Israel Museum. This site is great, as it lays out a scaled-model of the 2nd Temple period of Jerusalem. In addition, the best display and historical account of the Dead Sea Scrolls are also at the Israel Museum. Later that day, we took a Sabbath-day's journey and walked to the Garden of Getsthemmeni and to the top of the Mount of Olives. A spectacular sight of the Old City and temple mount, and inspiring for other reasons, too!

Since then, we have toured the Temple Mount, the Church of the Holy Seplucher (Catholic's idea of where Christ buried...), the Jerusalem Archaeological Park, the Old City of David, the Rockefeller Museum, and the Garden Tomb. We drove down to the Negev desert on Monday and climbed and visited the Herodian fortress of Masada...overlooking the Dead Sea. Amazing and humbling, to say the least.

We spent the last two days in Galilee (on the lake) visiting Magdela, Capernaum, Bethsaida, Golan heights, Beth--Shea, Mr. Tabor, Nazareth, Megiddo, and Haifa. This trip has been worth every moment and dime spent for many reasons. I have loved making it with my son, but regret not having Tanya and Becky (and Christine/Jer) along. Maybe another time!

I look forward to seeing my lovely wife on Friday, and giving Becky and mother a hug. See all (or some!) of you soon!

Sincerely,

D. Horchak