Israel - Wednesday, November 9

The journey over was uneventful.  I was sitting on the side on the plane with two women, I had the aisle seat.  The woman in the middle seat got up a dozen times during the night --- as you can imagine, I did not sleep very well.

At about 4:00 pm, on Wednesday, we arrived in Tel Aviv.

One we found our bags, and our bus, we began the bus ride to Tiberius where we would begin our journey.  We arrived to the Royal Plaza hotel around 8 pm, ate dinner, and then the five of us from Ridge walked a little over a mile into the city of Tiberius.  After our walk we returned to the hotel and went to bed.

Holy Land Adventure

Tuesday, November 8

The trip begins on a crazy note as I go to O'hare to pick up Nancy for her 9:30 arrival from visiting her parents in North Carolina.  The plane is late (and traffic was horrible), and I pick up Nancy at a little after 10:00 am.  We rush back to Munster, grab a quick bite at Panera and meet the group from Ridge as we begin our odyssey to the Holy Lands.

Our flight from Chicago to New York was late (are you noticing a theme), which turned out to be good.  Instead of a jam packed full plane, the flight to New York was relatively empty. We arrived just a little late, and had about an hour and a half wait until we boarded our plane for Tel Aviv.  Ran into the group from Church of Our Savior from Cincinnati, Ohio.  Grabbed a quick bite to eat, made a coupe of phone calls and boarded the plane a little before 8 pm for our departure at 8:50 for Tel Aviv.  The adventure was really beginning.

Every seemed to be on schedule for an on time departure, the plane was absolutely full (actually had more passengers than seats --- don't ask, it is a long story.)  A little before our scheduled time to pulled away from the gate to jump into the air ---- but alas, it was not to be.  A man, sitting in front of Kathy, was ill.  A doctor on the plane tended to him and the airline stopped the plane on the tarmac.  After a long delay, the airline decided to remove the man from the plane, he, however, refused to deplane without his bags, so they had to find his bag.  After a long wait (and we had no idea that this was going on at the time), we finally backed away from the gate once again to make the long jump to Israel.  At 11:11 pm our plane was airborne and on the way.

Israel Bound

I heard from my father last night that there was to be a general strike in Israel beginning today that would shut down the airport and thus jeopardize our trip.  Fortunately, the strike was short lived (only four hours), so as of now, we are a go.  Tomorrow at this time I will be heading to O’Hare with the group from Ridge Church to begin our great adventure.  We depart O’Hare at 2:50 and fly to NY where we will change planes and depart around 9pm.  We are scheduled to arrive in Tel Aviv at 2:50 local time on Wednesday afternoon.  Once we gather up our belongings, go through customs, etc, we will be on our way to Tiberius and the Royal Plaza Hotel.

The Royal Plaza is not one of my favorites, but by going their first we will enjoy the hotel in Jerusalem all the more!  We will spend 3 nights in Tiberius before heading to Jerusalem on Saturday. 

I will try to blog every day, but I am not sure that I have internet access in Tiberius.  If not I will post my daily blogs once we arrive in Jerusalem.

I am ready for some Sabbath time!

Zombies!

I don’t think that I have ever read a book quite like Jeff Kinley’s: Christian Zombie Killers Handbook: Slaying the Living Dead Within.  It is a strange book because it really wants to be two books inside one cover.  Part of the book is a fictional narrative about how Zombies are trying to take over our world.  The other book is about how our sinful nature is like having a Zombie inside of us.

I am a big fan of Christopher Moore’s irreverent stories about misfit angels and childhood friends of Jesus.  Kinsley’s imagination is not up to Moore’s, and I found his preaching a bit over the top

The fictional story is pretty slow getting developed, and at times I really had to force myself to stick with it.  And his theological understands are so out of touch with reality that those tended to turn me off.

Overall, the fiction story turned out to be decent.  The preaching, or Biblical application if you will, was a bit much.  If you are looking for a decent Zombie story and typical Evangelical Christian Biblical Application (seemed awfully Calvinistic) then this book is for you!

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com <http://BookSneeze®.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”