He is the king?!

It says, “May he live, the king, the Messiah”

We are well. The dig starts next week. Feel free to send Julie an email. She’s feeling lonely. We went from family in the house 24/7 to just us, no TV, and no friends. It’s been tougher on Julie than either of us expected. If you’re praying, that’s something to pray about. Mail should take 5-10 days to get here so if you want to send a letter, email me and I’ll send you our address. Otherwise we’re doing great! We have a week to go before the dig starts. Still have lots of interesting things to see.

Speaking of seeing interesting things. The gentleman on the left is quite famous here. His face adorns the backs of many road signs, and his portrait hangs in many shops in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City. His name is Menachem Mendel Schneerson but the sign suggests that he is much more than just a man. A prominent rabbi from New York City, Schneerson, at the time of his death, led an organization of Hasidic Jews called Chabad-Lubavitch. He was an influential man no doubt, and very popular among his followers. So popular, in fact, that some took to pronouncing their conviction that he was the messiah. He died in 1994 at Beth-Israel Medical Center in Manhattan. Interestingly, my sister was in the same hospital on the day he died. My father tells me that there were crowds of followers waiting to hear that “the Rebbe” had come back to life. They were disappointed. I was surprised when my father recounted this story because I had not reckoned with the fact that some men and women of Jewish faith are actually waiting for a resurrected messiah. Pray that the light of the gospel would penetrate hearts in this part of the world. It is a “stumbling block” to both Jews and Muslims. Impossible for us, “but with God, all things are possible.” Pray that many will believe the words of the angel, “He is risen, just as he said!”

These guys are part of a for-hire bar mitzvah troupe. They were waiting for the show to start.

A nymph on the edge of Herod’s pool at Caesarea.

That’s salt, not frost. The Dea Sea is so laden with minerals that it feels like oil.

Those are Roman catapult balls she is trying to knock over.

You can get a cheese burger at this McDonalds!

Tombs on the Mt. of Olives

They would have signed up to join the tank division of the IDF in a minute.

A pottery dump pile.

If you can tell me what this is maybe you’ll get a prize…