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•w■RK*«*lt;*•« .v^v.'.y. » * »v*r m •: :$* - V' ^ •*• • . :*. .v.v.lt;*.*Xv5^ ^ *V* a*. * v. * * *a■ :v :• ■*■-■'^r^v,:,,x:;:;, ... mGroup of Springs ‘pilgrims’ tours the wonders of IsraelBy Pat MoellerShalom, Shalom, Shalom.This all-inclusive Hebrew word, along with “toda”(thank you) was a popular utterance for the bus loads of visitors to Israel when this writer was privileged to see that holy country.The brilliant Israeli guide for the tour explained to the visiting group that shalom may be used as a salutation for good morning, good evening, good luck, best wishes, God go with you, etc. And so it was by the thousands of visitors who had traveled to Israel to either follow in the footsteps of Christ as stated in the New Testament or to pay homage to their Holy Land as ordained in the Old Testament.El Al and TWA, plus dozens of other airlines land dailv at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport bringing Christians and Jews from around the world to view and study the birth country of | ranged by the U.S. Educational their religions. This writer was I Opportunities travel group.The Wailing (West) Wall of Jerusalem.traveling with a group of pil-The tour was reasonablygrims from the Springs’ First I priced although first class, stay-TA 1 m t 1 1 • 1 1 ! • « /'t 1 - 1 • ”• 1Presbyterian Church, which has been sponsoring trips to the Holy Land annually for the past eight to 10 years.-One church member, Herbert Lockyer, now in his 80s, has led most of the church’s tours to Israel as well as other group tours to that country and other historical Christian locations for a total of 35 journeys.The Springs group of 64 was joined by another 90 pilgrimsfrom California and Greeley. The groups from different states were initially separated for the flight to Tel Aviv through Boston, while the Californians boarded the plane in Los Angeles joined later in New York by five Coloradans who visited family in the East prior to the tour.The El Al contact was a story in itself as the top security measures maintained at LAX, JFK and Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airports were tedious and time-consuming, but also reassuring. One could be certain that there were no terrorists near any El Al planes, which are currentlying in five-star hotels including two seaside resorts and the Jerusalem Hilton. Three meals per day were included, the noon meal being taken on the road at picturesque Arabian or Yemen restaurants and an Israeli kibbutz. The tour group viewed the countryside from Mercedes and Volvo buses with Arab drivers.Along with explaining their 4,000 years of early Hebrew history and the nearly 2,000 A.D. years (referred to as the Common Era), the various guides also discussed their efforts to fulfill their biblical destiny by resettling and rebuilding Israel.After the 1948 U.N. partitioning of Palestine between Israel and Jordan, following a war between the Jews and Arabs, the thousands of Israeli Jews remaining in the country have been inviting Jewish refugees from all nations to help in reestablishing their cultures and recreating “the land of milk and honey” promised them in the Old Testament.In spite of the fact that the filled to capacity with Ameri- j Jews are surrounded by mil-can visitors, many on tours ar- lions of Arabs, with many ofthem having been displaced, they have redeveloped the land with innovative irrigation, tree planting and additional reservoirs in the desert. They can now boast of producing twoments from the English and the U.S. (under President Richard Nixon). Josef, although only in his early 40s, had fought in four Israeli conflicts, mostly as an officer. He speaks eight lan-Another day, the ruins of Jericho and Bet Shean were visited and finally the mysterious Valley of the Shadow of Death on the way back to Jerusalem, the Holy City of three religions: Judaism, Christianity and lam.Jerusalem, inhabited by more Arabs than Jews, provides a multitude of historic ruins built by these worshipers, the Crusaders and Byzantine, as well as the Romans, from a total of conquering countries which occupied the city. It has been besieged 50 times and destroyed 10 times. David captured the city in the 10th century B.C., took the Hebrew Ark of the Covenant there, and established it as his capitol. Having been founded on the trade route between the Mediterranean and the Persian Gulf, the many temples and shrines built throughout its history were often built on top of each other making for an interesting study of different conquerors, art andculture.Among other Christian shrines visited were the MountOlivesGardenGethsemane, where 2,000 toand a half times more cotton guages fluently and comes to 3,000 year-old olive trees stillper acre than any other nation. They’ve also invented household solar energy units and ex-the States annually to lecture bear fruit, and Mount Calvary, and arrange for tours. He has Outside of Jerusalem, such lo-cations as the Dead Sea (1,411also brought his family toport loads of bananas, olives, Disney World.dates and four million flowersper day. Minerals from the Dead Sea and manufactured products go mainly to Egypt and secretly to Jordan.Currently, Israel’s number one industry is tourism with diamond cutting second andproduce third. Unfortunately Israel produces no oil, so thepeople of this country, the size of New Jersey, drive only small, affordable, energy-efficient Japanese cars.To simulate European and American culture, Israel has built a ski area on 9,232-foot Mt. Hermon on the northern Syrian and Lebanese border which attracts around 20,000 skiers during its 50 winter days in operation.The tour’s chief guide, Shraga Ben Josef, revealed that the Yom Kippur War would have been lost due to the Syrian tank invasion, but for the arms ship-Our tourist group rejected its | Bethlehem, the birth town ofleisure-time to take the busMasada and Jesus were viewed.daily to biblical places such as This tour ended with a visit toCaesarea, Nazareth, Cana, the Garden Tomb where an im-Tiberias, Capernaum and the Mount of the Beatitudes wherepressive communion service was held prior to driving backthe Sermon of the Mount was to Tel Aviv for the return given. Also toured were the dis- evening flight to the states.The best time to visit Israel isputed Golan Heights and we sailed across the Sea of Galilee.during the U.S. winter.
Newspaper Details
Colorado Springs Beacon
Colorado Springs, Colorado, US
Tue, Jul 01, 1997
Page 30
Full Page
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Anonymous
GB 29 May 2021
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