I noticed yesterday on the magazine rack at the grocery store that National Geographic has written an article about what life is like in Bethlehem nowadays, featuring the experiences of a Jewish, Muslim and a Christian family. It’s a pretty enlightening read. And might make you want to help by looking up that Herodion Store website I posted on the other day, and help the Bethlehem economy by placing an order. The article is called, “Bethlehem, 2007 A.D.”

I have to get this off my chest before I can enjoy blogging about all the positive aspects of my Holy Land Tour. It’s appropriate that I should post about this early in my vacation blogging, because, when we finally got to Egypt after about 9 days of touring Greece and Israel, I found myself wishing we’d visited Egypt first. The reason I wished we’d toured Egypt first was because then I would have had the energy and enthusiasm to enjoy Egypt in spite of the Egyptians. I know, criticize me for complaining. I agree with you. But sure enough, our visit in Cairo, Egypt (boasting a citywide population of 20 million citizens!), for me, at least, was a two-day misadventure. I definitely dug the pyramids and the Sphinx and the boat rides on the Nile (accept of course for the sail boat without wind in which we spun around and around in circles!)

First of all, the border agents weren’t very patient with the little, old ladies who were chatting in the line waiting to show them their passports. If they weren’t paying attention when the agent was ready for them, he’d invariably slam his fist on the counter and snap at the women to get their attention and grouchily command them to approach the counter. I must say I found myself less than edified by this repeated experience.

Second of all, once we got on our bus and entered the city, and noticed what a war zone the working class section of town looked like, and learned the reason for the dilapidated appearance of most of their otherwise functional buildings, I went from annoyed to appalled! Our Egyptian tour guide informed us that in the less affluent side of town, the city government doesn’t charge taxes on buildings that are being built until the building is completed. Naturally, since it is an economic law that taxing a behavior discourages that behavior, many of the builders lost all motivation to complete their buildings to avoid paying their taxes–much to the detriment of the Cairo skyline!

Then there was all the traffic! Did I mention there are twenty million people living in Cairo, Egypt? Did you know that there are only seven more than that living in the entire state of Texas? Twenty million Cairo citizens–and they’re all stuck in traffic everywhere you go. Which means they’re all laying on their horns and trying like the dickens to get around anything and everything in their way. To add excitement to the mayhem, because the traffic is so congested, no one can really go that fast anyway, so pedestrians feel free to jaywalk anywhere they please, weaving in and out between the sardine-packed parking lots full of cars they call streets. Plus, realizing there’s safety in numbers some of them would join arm in arm in groups of about five or so, and step out into traffic to do their jaywalking. Then there were the children chasing our bus down the street like a pack of dogs! But to pump a little sunshine into this post, at least many of them were very happy to see busfuls of Americans and their wallets coming into town. We did quite often see happy Egyptians waving enthusiastically at us everywhere we went.

Another group of Egyptians who were glad to see us were the extremely aggressive souvenir salesmen whom you simply couldn’t make eye contact with, let alone discuss the price of their wares, unless you’re ready to lay down some cash! If they can’t get your attention, some of them will assure you they aren’t looking for money when they offer to take your picture with your camera, only to then stick their hand out and start asking for money once they’ve provided their neighborly service. God is so gracious with me. Would that I could have founnd such compassion for my neighbors, the Egyptians!

Here’s the speaker and the speech we heard when we visited the Garden Tomb. We also enjoyed a Lord’s Supper Service on site. They give away olive wood cups out of which we drank the grape juice. Click your way into YouTube and watch all three videos in the series. It only gets better and better!

Here I am on “main street” in the ruins of Corinth. I’m told it’s likely Paul used this road to get where he was going when he was in Corinth, but Dr. William Tolar (former dean of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and professor of Biblical or Theological History–I forget which) says he doesn’t think scholarship is on the side of Paul’s using it when he first arrived in the area. I’m not a Paul scholar, so that’s all Greek to me!

Here’s a picture of a “bema seat” to which Paul alludes in his writings.

Sorry so sloppy. I’m still new at uploading my own photos to my blog.

Okay, I thought I didn’t know how to do this yet, but I just figured it out. Here’s a few pictures from my trip. And more to come.

First we visited Greece. Here’s my wife and I, with my pastor and his wife in front of the Acropolis. My pastor, Bill Weaver, says, he visited the Acropolis over 30 years ago when there was no scaffolding around it, preventing entry. If I get a copy of that shot soon, I’ll post it. Even our Greek tour guide said she’s never seen it without scaffolding.

I’ll give you a couple more soon.

Yes, we’re home from our Holy Land Tour of Greece, Israel and Egypt, and we’re almost completely recovered . . . but not quite. But in the meantime, I thought I’d recommend an online gift shop where you could do some really unique Christmas shopping for your loved ones this year.

You may or may not be aware that the city of Bethlehem is under Palestinian control nowadays. This means that any Christians who live inside the city limits are an actively discriminated against minority, according to David Meier, founder of International Travel and Tour Consultants of Hurst, Texas, and former Children’s Education Minister at one of my pastor’s childhood churches. This goes for the Palestinian Greek Orthodox Christians who run The Herodion Store, which our tour bus visited on our tour of Bethlehem, where we viewed the Church of the Nativity.

My wife and I picked up a hand-carved Olive wood Nativity Set with a wind-up star that operates a music box which plays “Silent Night.” I expect to see it on my doorstep via UPS any day now. If you order soon, you can definitely get one shipped to you before Christmas. They have machine cut sets which cost less, but they feature less detail. I’m hoping you or someone you know will purchase a hand-carved Olive wood Nativity Set from Palestinian Christians in Bethlehem, Israel/Palestine. My travel guide (on which I’ll be posting later) says that Christians have been making these in Bethlehem for hundreds of years.

I think getting one of these things is a must for any traveller to the Holy Land, and it offers the added benefit of demonstrating the sincerity of your love and your “evangelical catholicity” for Greek Orthodox believers as well as the fundamentalist church whose pastor is friends with the proprietor of the shop and who, in fact, offices inside the shop itself, from what I understand. This church is full of real heroes of the faith. I’ll be posting on them later as well.

This Saturday morning, my wife and I will be departing for New York City, from which we’ll depart for Greece to tour Athens and Corinth, then on to Israel (Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Capernaum, Bethlehem, Sea of Galillee), then to Cairo, Egypt for a boat ride on the Nile, a camel ride to a pyramid, a laser light show, and then back to New York, then home on Thanksgiving Day.

As soon as possible after Thanksgiving, I’ll begin sharing some of my experiences and photos with you. Pray for our safety.