English-speaking church in Eindhoven

Day 9 – Yad Vashem

Today was a free day in Jerusalem without guided tours. We took the opportunity to visit Yad Vashem – the Jewish memorial to the Holocaust, also known as the Shoah (שואה), meaning “calamity” in Hebrew (link to Wikipedia page on the Shoah – in Hebrew). As a student of twentieth century history I have been…

Day 8 – Towards Jerusalem

Sunday was a day of moving from Tiberius in Galilee via two significant sites to Jerusalem, a name that generates so much expectation. Our first destination lay half way between Galilee and the Mediterranean coast. It’s a place people know in English as ‘Armageddon’ which renders the Hebrew Ha Megiddo = ‘Mount Megiddo’. While God…

Day 6 – Galilee

As I begin to write this the appropriate greeting is ‘Shabbat Shalom’. Tiberius has suddenly grown quiet as Friday comes to an end, and the Sabbath or ‘Shabbat‘ begins. We have had a momentous day in north-west Galilee [map]. It was another hot day with 60 to 90 minute visits to various sites and activities,…

Day 5 – Sepphoris & Nazareth

Day 5 took us to the site of Sepphoris or Zippori, a town the first century Jewish/Roman historian Josephus described as “The ornament of all Galilee” This romanised town had spring water and fertile lands enough to make it prosperous and important but its real interest to us is that it is in walking distance…

Day 4 – Into Israel

Day 4 saw us leave Jordan and enter Israel. We crossed at the Allenby Crossing over the Jordan and this was quite a process! It was not tense but very careful. As we passed through that crossing into Israel we were led in a meditation on a hymn many will know that begins: Guide me,…

Day 3 – Petra

Petra of the Nabateans is not mentioned directly by name in the Bible, but it was a neighbouring civilisation that flourished south of Judea. It was contemporary with Jesus and probably had trade links that connected with the land of Israel and the Roman world. In fact the Romans took it over a century after…

Day 1 & 2 – Jordan

Francis and Barbara have the opportunity to fulfil a long held dream to visit the Holy Land.

This special blog post series, written by Francis, will document their journey through Jordan and Israel ending up, of course, in Jerusalem.