Honey's Bucket List: Shabbat eve in Jerusalem.

Not much more peaceful than the eve of the sabbath here. Everything ceases at sundown till the following sundown so there are no shoppers, shops are closed, no movie goers are bar flies cause they are all closed, not even supposed to watch TV. Just eat, sleep, pray and read the word. Cooking for the 24 hours is done before sunset, what lights are on a sunset stay on till sunset. Last week it was just the bathroom, but somehow tonight it is the living,dinning and kitchen and bath. She has prepared chicken with dressing from carrots, potatoes onions and rice and sweet potatoes and a big soup of chicken broth with onions, potatoes, carrots and lemon juice. And 3 Hugh loaves of bread, from the shuts (local market). I bought a cinnamon halva for dessert, which is a Mid East favorite, pretty good stuff. I also bought butter for the bread and Hannah was surprised at how good it was. Guess not the norm here. In the kitchens, there are 2 sinks. One for milk products and one for meat products. There are also drying racks for each and you don't use the same plate for meat as for milk. Very interesting.

Today Ruthie is gone on a cruise to Cyprus. I was just going to take the light rail from one end to the other and back, but Hannah wanted to be sure I didn't miss anything or et lst, so we combined our missions and had a great day. But we can't miss the last 2 days.

On we'd. Hannah wanted to go visit 2 rabbis that she greatly respects and always makes her fell better to visit them in Tiberias on the Sea of Galilee. I wanted to go there so we made a day of it. She had had a couple of really tough days with distractions, appts that did not show etc. we all have them and hate them. So I asked "do you think they will be there?" She thought for a moment and burst out laughing. It seems I missed the part about she was visiting their gravesites. Now that is our standing one liner..." Do you think they will be there?" The worst part was that she hesitated to think about it. Anyway, we had so much fun and such and interesting trip that she didn't even go see them after all.

So now we are going again next weekend and asking Ruthie and spend the night in a kibbutz. We joking call ourselves the Golden Girls. I'm maude, Hannah is Rose and Ruthie is Betty white. back to Tiberias, we ate St Peters grilled fish sitting in a great seaside restaurant on the Sea of Galliee. Tossed our bread into the Sea and saw hundreds f fish come for it. Some catfish as big as Ruthie. It was good fish but an amazing view. Much bigger sea than I expected but on the south end where the river Jordan begins it tapers off a little and you can see how the deciples recognized Jesus from the shore. Folks, being here and knowing that Jesus walked these shores, climbed these hills, wrote in this dust, turned these stones, it is totally overwhelming. I never expected that every inch and every minute would be so full of the presence of God. If it were not for 9 people I love in Texas I would love to stay here till The Lord comes back. There are lots of Christians here, which was a surprise to me. I'll enclose a pic of Samir who is an Arab Christian in the old city who plays Benny Hinn on his DVD in his Falafel shop all the time. People come in to eat and are fed the Gospel. Has a pic of Benny Hinn on his wall and has met him personally. Now that is good news for Israel. Jews, Christians, and Arabs all agree that the Messiah is coming soon. Some of them just don't understand that this is his returning.

Back to today. So we got on the train and went to the western edge of the new city then took a bus to a peaceful valley. Hannah thought it was whwewre the stone was rolled back and that was about all she knew but she knew it was a nice Christian place. So we found it. I hoped it was not where Hesus was buried because I had seen that at the Garden tomb, and later in the old city at the church of the Holy Sepulchur. As it turned out, it was one of those many things where Non believers just hear what they want to hear. We ask one man for directions and he said there was one in the valley and one on the hill about half way up. We asked a lady and she told us about 2. Now we are asking for the place where the Christans think he rolled the stone back. We are a kong way from the 2 I have already seen. Well we found it and turns out it is where John the Baptist was born. Great experience and I was really glad it was not Another Tomb of Jesus. However the area was beautiful and peaceful and hilly, much more like I would ave expected than the Holy Sepulchur is. Now from all I can find, the hill called Mt. Calvary is not as we have seen it depicted. I'm still workin on finding that.

After our trip out to St. John's, we rushed back to shop for food before all the buses stopped. Got what we needed then went by a lovely coffee house owned by a very nice friend that she has helped medically. She deals I. Natural herbs and exercises .He is having bad pain down from his lower side to his ankle. She had him put his hands over the top of the door (opened) the slowly lift his legs till his body weight is hanging from the door, to relax all the muscels but with them in the right places. You could see the pain melt away. mark...try this for your muscles. Anyway he loves Hannah because she as helped him, his father, and hs autistic twins. She is so blessed with knowledge about herbs. Shoot me your inquires. She lives it and has me on bitters and yarrow. I am still amazed that God has chosen to let me spend time with her and Ruthie.

He drove us home and she began to cook. We had forgotten eggs so I walked 3 blocks to the SOS /7-11 and grabbed eggs and a few other things . You know how it is to go to the store for 1 thing. By the time I got back she had started everything for dinner and our evening of dining began.

On our bus trip to Tiberias we went near Nazareth, and will go back later. Also planned a trip to Jaffa/Tel Aviv, maybe Haifa, Bethlehem and Hebron. Something wonderful happened everywhere in Israel.

Yesterday Ruthie and I slept in. I was still in my PJs at noon. Ahhhhhh. Just like back home. It was the closing day of Succot so there was stele rating among the Jews. We thought it would be a pretty good day for the Church of the Holy Sepulcher cause Jews were busy elsewhere. surprisingly that Ultra Long walk we made that first night to the old city, has now become an everyday jaunt. Hannah sometimes takes a bus or train, but Ruthie walks everywhere. Both of them make 3-5 stops along the way to visit friends or are stopped along the way by old friends. Well Ruthies friends could be any nationality or religion, but all of Hannah's are Israeli Jews. However all are delightful and welcome me because I am their friend. We stopped to visit Mohammed, Johnny, Hamund, David, and another Johnny and Samir. All loved Ruthie and greeted us with such warmth. An unbelievable experience. Of course the have shops their from food to ceramic tile, wood carvings, clothes, fine jewelry. but Ruthie is there to talk about Jesus. She knows their kids, and business, their health and their dreams. She is one of a kind and I am so blessed to know her. She is opinionated, so we spend a lot of time chattering about everything. She was opposed to the idea that the Holy Sepulchar could possibly be where our Lord was buried, and wanted me to see it so I could agree. So I was ready to make my own mind up regardless of what she said. Now for those who think it is, ok. But I just don't think anyone could see both the Garden tomb, with everything exactly as I see it in the bible and the movies, and think the real place is the Holy Sepulcher. No hill no garden no tomb. I think it really doesn't matter, but the Garden tomb really felt special. The holy sepulcher was very busy and now controlled by Armenians with everything dark and dreary, it was an awesome building, but not what I expect. Anyway I have pics of it. So I'll close here and show the pics