First Week in Israel

Paul and Abigail made it to Israel and they're having a great time.

Paul at the Anchorage airport awaiting their flight.

When they got to New York City, they decided to be brave and take the subway to downtown Manhattan.

They got off the subway at Penn Station and walked by the Empire State building.

There were a few more people on the streets than they are used to.

They walked through Central Park and by the time they made their way back to the airport they felt comfortable with the subway system and they enjoyed their day.

The trip to Tel Aviv was long and uneventful.

Some friends of the group they are going to pick grapes with picked them up at the airport and then took them to see the Dead Sea.

Abigail under some falls at Ein Gedi.

Paul's turn...

It probably felt good as it was 104 degrees there. Just a little hotter than they are used to...

On the drive back to Jerusalem their van broke down near Jericho. They pushed down a hill backwards to a gas station where they waited for the rental agency to bring them a new one. The rental agency wasn't too excited about coming because they were on the West Bank side of the checkpoint. But they came and they all made it home safely.

There are many camels everywhere.

Now they are doing maintenance in the vineyards. Abigail has gotten to do some weeding.

Paul says the fellowship is great. He has been learning much...

We are doing well here at home. We found Angel (the dog we are dog-sitting) again and I'm being more careful to not let her go. Hazel (the baby we baby sit) is much better now. We think the rash was due to the new all natural soap they just started using. The long distance is still out, but a few months ago we got cell phones in the village. They haven't gotten the equipment installed to enable us to use the cell phones for local calls, but they are good for long distance calls. So it's working, in fact I got a Skype to Go number that I can call Paul's cell phone on and it works incredibly well.

In other news in the village, David Martin got a job as the new City Administrator. Also, Paul is the Assistant Fire Chief and there is no Fire Chief right now. Whenever Paul is gone for any amount of time there is usually a fire in the village. Sure enough, one of the steam baths in town burned down a couple of nights ago.