Saturday, March 14
After a week of work, we took Saturday to tour western Galilee by bus. We had beautiful weather. We visited the following places:
--Zippori, located in western lower Galilee, remains of a magnificent city dating to Roman, Byzantine and Crusader periods. From a fortress on a hill we saw snow capped Mt Herman.
--Ibelin, visited a large school started by Elias Chacour, who now is archbishop of the Greek Catholic Church. Elias's vision is to serve Christians, Jews and Muslims creating an atmosphere of understanding, reconciliation and hope.
After a huge and delicious noon meal, we went to Akko (Acre) on the Mediterranean Seacoast,
which is a journey into 5000 years of history. Excavations have revealed, "Many nations and religious movements have left their mark on Akko--the Canaanites, Jews, Greeks, Romans, Byzantine Empire, Crusaders, the Mamelukes through to the Turks and the British."
This is the second day we have had a wonderful Arab Christian, Joseph Abdalla, as our guide
and he will be our guide in the Jerusalem area.
Back at Nazareth in the evening we met with Gary and Ruth Denlinger who work in Haifa under Mennonite Mission Network. We said good-by to Jan and Chip who left our group at 1:30 a.m. to return to the States. Jan and Chip, we miss you already!
Palm Sunday, 16th
We walked down the narrow, steep streets to the Church of the Annunciation to view the Palm Sunday procession which included band music, persons carrying large palms and flags. The procession was concluded with bag pipe music as they entered the church. The narrow streets
were crowded with Arab Christians and the children were dressed beautifully carrying flowers and candles. After the procession entered the church, we walked one block to worship at Christ Church (Anglican), where we shared communion with the congregation.
Many churches have processions through the streets of Nazareth on Palm Sunday. As we climbed the hill to return to Nazareth Hospital, we met our guide, Joseph, as he marched in procession of the Greek Catholic Church. He stopped to introduce his family and to pose for pictures.
Some of our group are going to visit Upper Nazareth this afternoon and we will have a worship service at the hospital chapel this evening.
Thanks for your prayers as we feel supported by our friends and family back home.
Reported by Roy and Esther Wert
3 comments:
Dear Friends and family,
It's been good to get comments from some of you. We appreciate hearing from you and are having a wonderful time.
Newton and Elsie
Hi Friends...Well, we arrived at JFK a little about 1;30 pm this afternoon. We had a very smooth trip back, and our son Drew met us at JFK and we arrived home late afternoon. It was great seeing the pictures and update! (Good job Roy and Esther!) It looks like the parade this morning was an incredible experience. We do miss you all already, but are very grateful for the wonderful, inspiring time we were able to experience with you in Israel. You will continue to remain in our thoughts and prayers. Also, thanks for all your good wishes and prayers on our behalf. Blessings and love...Chip and Jan
Howdy there Newton and Elsie, it's Ken and Cass here. Hope you're staying out of trouble (I know that's difficult for Newton)! We're thinking of you, missing you, blessings to you both.
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