Aqaba

 

This past week Kent and I took a much-needed vacation.

We drove to Aqaba, Jordan for 5 days. It's equivalent to driving from Orem to St. George - approximately. It was the perfect place to get away.

 

There were parks to stroll through:

 

 Oh, I guess I'd better explain the cane. The day before we left for Aqaba, Kent went on a hike with some of the men from the branch. It was about 10 miles, I think. One spot, fairly early on in the hike, they had to go down several sets of steps - big, deep ones. Kent's knee strated to hurt - badly. He finished the hike in a lot of pain. That evening the couples in the center were invited to dinner at a friend's home. I went without Kent - he was hurting so much. We were both worried that our trip was not going to happen. I brought the doctor with me when we got home from dinner. The doctor diagnosed it as osteo arthritis. He recommended that Kent take anti-inflammatories and use a cane to help take the weight off of his knee. Thus, the cane in the pics. I'm happy to say that his knee has improved a great deal!! :)

This was a beautiful mosque surrounded by lovely grounds. 

We wandered the streets and people watched, window shopped, and soaked up the warm sun!

 

 

This is looking across the Gulf of Aqaba at Israel.

 

If I turned just slightly to my left I was looking at Egypt!

 

 These were some beautiful gardens - we wondered if they might be community plots or something.  

We had wonderful meals in fun places: 

With the best company!

 This is the Fort of Aqaba - the one that T.S. Lawrence helped conquer.

 

It was closed for renovation, so this is Kent trying to get some pictures of the inside!

 

He succeeded.



Unlike in Jerusalem, Aqaba decorates for Christmas:

 

 

This was the view from our balcony. We spent a lot of time playing games on our balcony.

Close up of the view from our balcony:

 

 

 

The beach was just a short walk away. Lovely!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

On our last night there, the hotel staff brought me a birthday cake and wished me a Happy Birthday!! Wow - I was so touched. The cake was good, too! :)

 

 

This was a terrific trip - we loved every minute of it!!

More time with the Snows

 

Our second day with the Snows was spent in Galilee. We didn't get to see a lot - it is a 2 hour drive each way and we had to be back to Jerusalem by dark. But, here is what we did.

 

First stop - Nazareth. There are 3 churches there that we visited. One is the church honoring Mary, the second is St. Joseph's church and the third is a Synagogue/church. Here are a couple of windows in the basement of one of the churches.

 

This is the church that honors Mary:

 

The next 2 were windows in the St. Joseph church. First is of the angel appearing to Joseph to tell him of Mary's pregnancy:

 

The second is of Mary and Joseph getting married:

It was already lunch time by now. The Snows had been eating "foreign" food for 3 weeks. We saw a McDonalds in a mall just outside of Nazareth. That is where we had lunch! Tasted really good! :)

After lunch we drove to the Mt. of Beatitudes. Kent pointed out key sites that we only had time to drive past: Mt. Tabor [Mt. of Transfiguration]; Nain;  & Kursi [where the pigs jumped off the cliff].

The Mt. of Beatitude is a lovely place with lots of areas in the gardens, where pilgrims can sit and worship together.

This stone mosaic is a new little side-path with beautiful flowers and a fountain. I love it!

Our last stop before leaving Galilee, was Capernaum.

Sorry I don't have any pictures. The church here is actually too modern and weird for my tastes. I prefer the Greek Orthodox church - but we didn't have time to go there so I have this picture only --

 This is the view from behind the church:

 

There is something very sweet about watching other Christians worship their Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. They don't have all the truth but they do have testimonies of Him and his atonement. Galilee is one of my favorite places in all Israel. There is a real peace and beauty to the place! Add to all that, the really good and wonderful people we were traveling with and - it was another amazing day.

Catching up

HALLOWEEN

Halloween fell while the students were in Jordan, so the Sunday before they left, they had a trick-or-treat hour for the kids in the branch. It was a lot of fun. On Halloween eveing, those of us still in the Center, had dinner together and then the kids decorated cookies. More fun.

Last semester, one of our student's parents came for a visit. They asked if we needed them to bring us anything. Halloween decorations was my request: Here is what I got:

 

 

This sign I printed off a website and hung outside my office door. :)

 

 



 

 

On Saturday evening, Oct. 27, Elder and Sister Snow [he is the Church Historian] and 2 of Kent's friends also in the Church's Historical office, arrived at the Jerusalem Center.

 

Part of our job here is to host General Authorities when they come so the following day we took them to sites in the Old City. Unfortunately, the temple mount was not open because it was a Muslim holiday.

 

We did visit the Western Wall. The men's side has more to see and this is a picture that Kent took inside the tunnel that runs next to the Wall.

 

 

 

 

Next we visited one of the Upper Rooms and the Dormition Abbey - I have no pics, sorry.

 

Kent and I have another site for the Upper Room, that we like better. It is in St. Mark's Church. No pictures here either. :(

 

We wandered the streets and did a little shopping and then had lunch.

 

After lunch we went to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre:

 

 

This is the big dome in the middle

 

This is looking into the tomb of Jesus. We didn't have time to go in - there is always a really long line to go inside:

There are dozens of small chapels throughout the building and in the basement. Each honoring a sacred event around Christs's death/burial/resurrection.

This is in the basement and is a Catholic chapel where a piece of the cross was found. The first picture is on the wall of the stairway going down to the chapel - covered with crosses that pilgrims carved there:

 This is another chapel in another part of the basement. It is Armenian. 

 

 

  Our last adventure of the day was to walk along part of the Via Dolorosa to Steven's Gate, where we were picked up.

More to come. :)

 

People and life

 

I wanted to show you my heroes: Dave & Jan Peterson. They are the ones who were there through all my broken wrist traumas! What angels they are and how I miss them!

 

 

This is our Branch President and his wife, Bob & Elisabeth Schafer. The day that I found out I was going to have to have surgery, Kent was in Galilee with the new faculty and I was alone and feeling sorry for myself. Schafers had me over for dinner and a nice, cheery chat! Awesome people whom I love!!

 

This is a bad picture - but the best I have right now. This is Norm and Dorene Squires. They have loved me and cheered me up through broken bones etc. Dorene has"been there" and more - she was a good shoulder to cry on! Love the Squires!!!

TOTALLY DIFFERENT SUBJECT :)

The weather has been weird. We should be having cooler temperatures and some clouds - winter is coming. But it has been hot and sunny. Until Sunday evening - we actually had thunder, lightening, and just enough rain to make a mess of everything. See our patio below:

 

 YUK!

The day following the rain we had an all-day field trip to an area called the Shephelah. It was SO hot and HUMID. That is a switch for here. Like I said, the weather has been weird. Anyway, this is a region of 5 valleys that lie between the Judean highlands and the coastal plains. We had several stops where we reviewed the biblical events that took place in this area. Samson/Delilah; David & Goliath; the Babylonian conquest of the children of  Israel. Here are a few pictures of sites.

Bell Caves - nice and cool and great acoustics:

 

This is at a place called Lachish. The last high place guarding the way to Jerusalem - it fell. This is a view of the grape vineyards that were everywhere we went that day. And I can never resist sheep. :)

As I mentioned, Winter is coming. There really isn't much change in the world around us to indicate any kind of Fall season, so I have my own Fall leaves outside our door.

It is also Sukkot here in Jerusalem. That is a Jewish holiday that celebrates the harvest. Families and businesses build sukkots on their roofs or balconys which they eat their meals in for the week of Sukkot and sometimes even sleep in them. My door has Sukkot pictures on it and the lights around the door are little ears of corn. The middle picture is of a sukkot being built. I'm a nut with holidays, I know. :)

This last picture was colored for us by our little next door neighbor, Linda Stratford. She loved the middle of the flower because both colors came from the same pencil. :)

 

Coming up next - more Turkey photos. We were in Turkey from September 16 - 23.

 

Arm update

So, I went back for my 2-week follow-up visit. They removed the huge bandage/cast, took out a few stitches and fitted me with a removable cast. This picture actually looks better than when they first removed the cast. Then, it was very swollen, black and blue, and my hand was stuck in the "cast" position for awhile!

 

 

As it turns out, the man that put my original plaster cast on also fits people with removable casts. He met us at the clinic and we purchased it on the spot. Very convenient!

 

 

 

After the "fitting" they sent me down to x-ray. The surgeon was very please with how it looked and we were SHOCKED at how many screws they put in!!!! I made the pic xtra-large so you can count them yourselves!  :)

Here is a picture of the doctor putting the plate in my wrist:

 

 

 

The following morning, Kent drove me to me first visit with the physical therapist. It actually felt mostly good to have him stretch and massage my hand, wrist, and arm. He gave me several stretches to do everyday - multiple times per day.  Things are looking great and I think maybe life will be a little more normal, now?!