As you go up and up this mountainous mini nation, you get glimpses of the castles at the top. In fact its a silhouetted in the clouds.

At the time of writing this, the UK is reaching the climax of the negotiating a deal with the EU and it all still go wrong. Meanwhile, Europe has some little nations which aren’t part of the blue and gold star bloc which seem quite happy without it.

So walking up here was tricky, as a lot of the time there is no pavement, you have to walk in the road, so had to regularly glance on my left. Traffic and tourism is pretty quiet, seeing as I visited between two lockdowns.

There are very few buses, and I didn’t see a single taxi. There is no train, oh wait – there was one once, but it was bombed by the British – by accident, during the WWII when they want to destroy a military target in Nazi occupied Italy. Sadly some people died.

This main highway goes right up to the centre capital of the country at the top.

Sunlight peeps over the rock at the top

1. Planning visit to my final tiny country – 2. Flying to Italy for the price of two pizzas – 3. Getting there from Bologna via Rimini – 4. City of Rimini – 5. Walking from Rimini to San Marino – 6. What sort of mini country is this – 7. Serraville, San Marino’s northern town – 8. San Marino’s only youth hotel – 9. Castles in the sky – 10. Safe up the top – 11. The tall centre of community of San Marino – 12. novelty shops, post office and passport stamps – 13. The government buildings and plaza – 14. Automobiles – 15. The three towers – 16. What I didn’t see & finishing up

I like seeing live music. Christian praise and worship that’s modern, and traditional stuff. And also secular bands. Rock, pop, classical, funk jazz, reggae, I try to lean towards really most things that are positive and upbeat.

A picture or meme was often being shown on Facebook, of Christians worried about churches about putting too much emphasis on as an entertainment show. I thought I would explain what I think of this.

Quite a few churches actually use a rented building used for another purpose. The big famous Australian church group Hillsong do this. Why? often there is a big decision whether to finance your own buildings, office space, audio/visual gear, seating, catering and other requirements. Or, just rent someone else’s, which often could have useful kit for a band or speaking event.

In this case for Hillsong, it works better to use a theatre, be within where young people spend time in central London. This seems a good step.

Hillsong does use some fancy lighting and big screen there. But, I haven’t seen any smoke machines the time I went. For the most part, I think this is probably just myth.

Lots of folks on the internet bash Hillsong, and I’ve seen some great things, and some not so good, along with other churches, because they are run by humans. I think do some overwhelmingly great things for the gospel like my experiences I wrote here, and have helped young people really grow ready for the Kingdom.

I wonder if those who are critics are taking the time to speak into the unbelieving world.

Israel’s Messianic Jews meet together in Kehilas in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa, Tiberias, Beer Sheva and other parts of the country, this community is can be very different, in terms of some who grew in an environment closer to Christianity and some closer to Judaism. Some from a no faith system at all.

My main congregation was King of Kings in Jerusalem, which the Sunday 6pm service was in English, and they had a Friday service in Hebrew. Still – on Sunday, we sang praise and worship songs often in Hebrew, with both true Hebrew, transliterated Hebrew and English on the projector screen. If I went to Jerusalem Assembly at the other side of the city, there was a pastor preaching in Hebrew and someone else translating into English. At one point there was FIVE languages there, as you could borrow a radio headset and listen to the teaching in Spanish or Russian or others. This meant someone else sat down was translating, and you needed to turn the channel on the radio to the one you wanted.

If I went to at least three others, I think like Shemen Sasson, all English speakers were given a headset when you head into the door.

A congregation in Tiberias (that’s Israel’s largest city in the Galilee) had a community of mostly Russian people so the words to the songs were in English, Hebrew and Russian. It was there I noticed that the Russian symbols for ‘Sh’ sound looks like the Hebrew Shin ‘ש‘ which I find intriguing.

Somewhere in Beer Sheva (a city I’ve not properly visited yet) was a congregation for Spanish speakers. This was a long drive but worth it for Spanish Christian volunteers who headed there every weekend. Only a few congregations are Hebrew only, such as Tiferet Yeshua in Tel Aviv.

I like all the congregations I’ve been to as they are also centred on Yeshua (Jesus) and involve all Jewish holidays, some are more stronger Jewish familiarity than others.

The Arab congregation I went to in Nazareth was quite similar, with Arabic for the locals, but English speakers were welcomed with the same radio units.

1. Buildings 2. Christian or Jewish? – 3. Meeting place names – 4. Languages – more soon…..