Category Christianity

Jan 30 2010

Bethlehem – journey to birthplace of Christ part II – nuts on Christmas

Parts 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5

Ok, which food reminds you of Christmas?   Turkey? mince pies? Christmas pudding?  Ok, some of these will depend of regional customs that different Christians celebrate Christmas, ie: Christmas pudding is largely a British thing I think.

Now think which food really actually could be found in the Holyland during Christmas?   I have blogged before about Pomegranates before, but how about nuts?

More specifically almonds.

One of the group pointed out this tree, its got ripe nuts on it!   So after shaking it quite a bit, most of the nuts fell onto one of the metal shelters next door (duh)   after a few times, I got a few on the ground, and after breaking them open with a big most of them were quite nice.

Before leaving the grotto park, the garden also had strangely lots of small holes and tunnels in the ground.  Didn’t see if these were natural quirky bits of geology or if they made by someone.

Below Christmas is in full swing here, decorations were mostly quite discrete and tasteful.  Tourism from Christians of course is the life blood of the economy of Bethlehem.

more soon….

Parts 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5

Jan 29 2010

Bethlehem – journey to birthplace of Christ part I – The Grotto

Parts 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5

Today (27th December)   I went to Bethlehem, I was planning on going Christmas day, but as I had no else to go with (travelling to the Palestinian territories on your own is not advised)  and that it would be hugely crowded I went with a family who are parents of one of the other volunteers here.   This family was partly here with a tour of some Filipino Christians who were here for a couple of weeks.   I got to Hillel Street at 8.30am and we all packed onto a coach.

The trip out of Jerusalem into Bethlehem is pretty short, getting through borders to the Palestinian territories is nothing that complex either.   Once through the gate in the concrete walls, this hotly contested area of the middle east isn’t at all that different from a regular part of Israel.   I can see olive, orange and lemon trees with fruit on, houses in the familiar style stone, none of the land is particular flat, you are forever going up and down and around curves, there are children playing, of course this is an Arab district and I see mosques and minarets more or less the same as Jerusalem.

Bits of Bethlehem do look quite untidy just like outer parts of Jerusalem, half finished houses (or should that be houses with extensions unfinished?)  broken cars rusting away, rubbish strewn around rocks, but at least where I could see, it doesn’t seem to be all full of poverty, there are large modern houses with swimming pools as well, and just like Jewish culture, the Arabs have plenty of small businesses of all kinds.   The cars look noticeably older (despite most cars in Jerusalem are old and knackered looking) mostly 1980s Peugeots, Renaults and Toyotas, and they have green licence plates and sign posts are in Arabic with no Hebrew to be seen.
The first stop on the coach was at this place called the The Shepherd’s place, which had a park which had an entrance with the words “Gloria in Excelcius Deo” (sounds like some words from a hymn?)  Here is a very pretty chapel and some really beautiful views of the Judean hills.


Here is the inside of this chapel, the pictures here tell some of the story in the Christmas carols…

Spent a good while here, this picture below shows me with the hills in the background, this location is where the Shepherds watched their flocks that came to visit Jesus.


aha, now I know where Santa got the idea of calling his workplace a ‘grotto’ 🙂

Parts 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5

Jan 23 2010

Zionism – a bad word to some?

I have always wondered why some people think Zionism is a dirty word.

Many times in the news its kind of used as a slur for the way the way Jews have been returning to Israel from all across the diaspora, occasionally its even Christians, some that have studied all kinds of theology but appear to be perhaps lacking in what was taught in Isaiah and Jeremiah maybe.  When speaking to people about my interests and visits to Israel, a couple of times I have been responded “Oh so you are a Zionist are you?  ah yes these sorts of people hate Palestinians, Arabs and Iranians…” This is sad when people make rash and quick judgments like this.

There is plenty of authors of books critical of Israel, plenty are on sale on Amazon (even including some Jews, including people like Noam Chomsky, Norman Finkelstein etc) ex-US president Jimmy Carter and former TV newsreader celebrity nutter David Icke like to look at Zionism being the worst kind of evil organisation ever.    Likened to the Freemasons or some other paranoid organisation which has a corrupting influence on the world, and that Jews in some way are controlling.   Really this is and should be quite laughable.   There were famous books printed like the Elder protocols of Zion and founder of the blue oval motor maker, Henry Ford wrote some similar poisonous material, some of these nasty propaganda manuals are still treated as legitimate reference material today, as part of other modern day hatred such as holocaust denial.   Its part of what I think make Anti-Semitism a bigger problem than people think and worse than other hatred of any specific racial group.

In reality these views can be held completely nonsense, when you look at the wide number of ethnic people in Israel, and different types of Jews worldwide.   If you look at Aliyah, its true people emigrated to Israel, especially around the early 1990s with going with ideal of all Jews going into one nation closely to what the Torah said, but at the same time many Jews also made Aliyah because they had to, albeit sometimes reluctantly, as persecution in their previous homelands of nations like Yemen, Iran, Kazakhstan, Ethiopia etc, was unbearable or meant they could of faced death.   For some other Jewish people the idea to go may have been purely economic, the promise of a job and financial security.  For this reason many Israelis I have met can be secular or atheistic.

Where as Israel gets sizable amounts of money from the US government, its no secret so has the Palestinian authority.  The Magon David ambulance organisation in Israel has all its fleets of vehicles donated by Jewish organisations mostly in the US but sometimes also from Canada and France.   There are many Christian organisations in the US that have supplied money to charities and needy people in Israel, mostly because a good proportion of tax Shekels have to go to the military defending Israel against frequent threats from terrorism or war with its neighbours.   Despite this and than poverty in Israel is high, Israel has made a high contribution to the rest of the world in terms of its exports, large amounts of fruit and vegetables, technology (IT, telecoms, renewable power, water treatment, etc) medicine and healthcare innovations are just a small example of these.

I am a supporter of Israel and the Jewish people, this could mean I could be considered to be a Christian Zionist, but would like to clarify things first.  I believe God still has a plan for the Hebrew as outlined in the scriptures, that as Christians we are grafted in as his people.  Sadly because of the false doctrine of what often known as replacement theology, people assume that Israel in the bible is more of a metaphorical ‘Israel’ for the modern day church.  Paul says clearly in Romans 11 : 1 about this common misconception.   I believe Jesus will still return to Jerusalem one days as promised in the scriptures, this is why Israel is never not in the mainstream news, as Satan attempts to twist and alter things in order to change unsuccessfully what God is planning.

Christians that support Israel are not always one particular breed or denomination.  I have seen quite a few Christians visit Israel, from all over the place including Nigeria, South Korea and Japan.   I have even seen a small group of people (they had name tags) at the Kotel recently from the Faeroe Islands, an extremely small little known Nordic island nation between Scotland and Iceland.

As a Christian I think its vital we don’t become complacent, and speak up and pray against hatred and lies spoke in governments around the world and in the media.  I think God loves the Palestinian and the Arab and Persian people, its true also in recent times there have been large numbers of people in Islamic nations (do some searches on Youtube) come to Christ, normally this is secret as they can be in extreme danger, for this reason its hard to gauge how many Moslems, Hindus, Sikhs, etc come to Christ each year around the world.

The newspapers in the UK most definitely want to pick someone to blame for current world problems, whether its overpaid bankers, foreign immigrants coming in and wanting to change things to suit them, change the way our children are taught in British schools, worryingly extremist political groups like the BNP or Islam4UK, a kind of ‘bogeyman’ we can all blame.   The scriptures in Ephesians 6:12 says “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” Here its sin which can manifest into many different things that causes worry and distress.

For me, I only identify myself as a regular Christian, I may contribute in my church in welcome team, or being in prayer groups in some IT businesses I have worked at and in looking after the computer systems for Christian charity in Jerusalem.  I am purely here as a servant to do whatever God leads me into doing, the only incentive or reward being able to see help go to the people that need it, make some new friends and get to study biblical places in more detail.  I am not in Israel to convert people as this is greatly frowned upon and is illegal, its more of case of just a loving attitude in terms of me serving out there in terms of the context of my official volunteer job and spending time with some of my native Israeli friends.

When I see other Christians I know volunteer in nations like South Africa, Chile, Uganda, China etc, I don’t usually ask about politics, as its not fair to make assumptions based on what the media say, its not always easy to sum up what is right or wrong from casual observance.  I also avoid mentioning political stuff to friends back in the UK (both Christian and non-Christian) due to antagonistic questions I have been asked and such.

For me, Israel is where almost all of the events of the bible happened, and where Christ himself will come again, and many things prophesied in the scriptures have become reality, the reformation of the modern state of Israel, a lot of its neighbours being its enemies, the way the Hebrew language which was something only ever kept for reading religious books has now made it into a usable language in business and every day, all of this in little over sixty years.  It is only by sticking to a roadmap of what the Lord outlined in the bible will there be peace, as opposed to any artificial plan created by any other authority.

Jan 22 2010

Israelis go to help children in Haiti

Perhaps you wont have seen this in the main stream news so much but a group of Israelis set up a field hospital to treat people affected by the recent tragedy in Haiti.  At the moment the little state in middle east remains one of the biggest in setting up emergency health care in the stricken Caribbean island.

Someone like the BBC probably wouldn’t be interested in publishing such a story with its frequent harsh criticism of Israel but one of the heart touching parts here is the Doctor that gave some of own blood to save a child’s life.

Story here

Jan 17 2010

three flights for 2010…

I am looking to return back to Jerusalem to volunteer a bit longer.   I am seeking means to get sponsorship as I am expected to raise funds for airfare, health insurance, rent, bills and food.

In May, I wish to go to a close friend’s wedding in Spain, also my sister has a baby (ETA is 21st May) this time, I am planning to stay this time till the summer, so a rough idea of a schedule is as follows:-

Fly Luton to Tel Aviv (approx £200 return) – February
……
Fly Tel Aviv to Luton – 3rd week of May
Go home, see sister, husband and new baby
Fly Stansted to Asturias (Spain) – 4th week of May
Fly Asturias back to Stansted – 3 days after above
Stay somewhere in Luton or Stansted, one night, then;–
Fly from Luton back to Tel Aviv
………
Fly Tel Aviv to Luton – some point in summer?

All flights are to be done with Easyjet, the budget airline.   Flights from UK>IL are expected to be around £200 lowest end of February’s prices, to include all taxes/baggage allowance.

So I am needing at least £500 for just three flights and all the messing about in between.  I am not working at the moment whilst in the UK, and its not possible to get anything due to my recent broken elbow.

Also with my recent injury I need to get a good deal with travel insurance that doesn’t mind dealing with customers with an ongoing health issue.  Not sure how this normally works.

I am prayerfully looking to raise funds for the first part of my second chapter in my volunteering, would be grateful of any suggestion of ideas or opportunities.

Jan 12 2010

broken arm on ice

After yesterday walking in treacherous conditions into town in Portsmouth, it might be considered a bit silly to walk again, but I needed to meet up with my church leader at church two miles away in Southsea, opposite a bike shop in Victoria Road I took a tumble onto the ice covered pavement backwards pretty hard taking a lot of the force on my left elbow.

The blow feels like when you see children hurt themselves, there is a few seconds delay before they cry as there is a sudden sense of shock, for me it more of a case of  down in agony on the street in pain than saying a few rude words. But seriously, it felt like it could be something more than a bruise, I carried on walking with my left hand in my pocket and went to chat to people at my church, after a brief while I felt like there was something stuffed in the sleeve of my jacket, I often might keep my camera in there while I wander around Jerusalem which has typically British autumn weather in winter period in Israel, however in turns out my elbow has expanded to the size of a small grapefruit, first of all the church staff drove me in the direction of the NHS walk in centre, a place to go in if you have a minor injury like a sprain, but it was clear I was going to need an X-ray so I got dropped off at Queen Alexandria hospital near Cosham at their Accident and Emergency ward.

It was a little frustrating waiting around after taking a ticket to get seen and then get a brief consultation of asking how much it hurt from one to ten, this was hard as the pain is more of a dull ache, and this can be worrying as it suggests there could have been a problem with the nerves that pass through the elbow. After some pain killers and it put in a sling I get put on a triage list, and they checked to see if I have feeling sensation and in moving my fingers and wrist which worked all ok.

The xrays proved I had a break in the bone near the elbow, after remembering injuries from various people from BFP staff that had breaks that required operation needing metal plates and screws put in, was something I was dreading. Later on I was offered some stronger pain killers and told to be nill-by-mouth (nothing to eat or drink, not even water) for next day as I need to be called into hospital for some kind of treatment, possibly an operation then.

At the moment I am learning to type one-handed, called a couple of people in Israel on Skype to get them to pray, I am just in a sling, as opted not to have plaster put on, at least until I find what treatment I get tomorrow.

I decided to still cook for my parents today (tuesday) as still wanted to try and cook some middle eastern food, so did some couscous with saffron, meat balls, fried eggplant and pepper with Israeli salad (chopped cucumber, tomato with olive oil and parsley, just took me a bit longer but cutting up vegetables wasn’t too hard one handed. Came out pretty good but forgot to buy some humus.

Jan 4 2010

Jimmy carter and his apologies

There has been a lot of talk lately in the news this week about Jimmy Carter, the former US president preceding Regan about his apology to Jewish and Israeli people over his frequent comments about accusing Israel of ‘Apartheid’ and erroneous similarities between the racial problems of South Africa.

I tend to avoid politics here but if you want to see some factual information on this, link.

Anyway the debate was if Carter was truly sorry for the words spoken to Israel over the last few decades or not, he has written quite a few books critical of the state, and has been something of a mouthpiece for evil comments this side of Islam, and probably a huge influence on other hateful people and organisations.   I get sad when I see groups of people marching blaming the Israel for the treatment of the Palestinians (the PA’s corrupt government spent the money promised on food and aid on weapons) through main streets in my city of Portsmouth.   The war in Gaza wasn’t a good thing, but no other country in the world would tolerate its neighbours sending rockets over the borders each week.  Israel has the decency to send recorded phone calls and drops leaflets over towns to civilians warning of an impending bombing on terrorist facilities in recent wars.

If Carter, now 85 years old really wants to make amends, he should first of all tell Amazon and all the bookshops with copies of his disgusting hateful lies to recall the unsold copies and have them destroyed, the profits from the books he has already sold should go to a charity.   Some say that these apologies are more of a PR thing for his grandson who is just starting out in politics, either way, I don’t know this new chap but I don’t think its fair to judge Mr Carter Jr on his grandpa’s views.

My opinion is hatred of Israel and anti-Semitism are one and the same, both are attempts to discredit and change God’s plan and purpose for his plans for how the Messiah will arrive on earth and how all the nations wit Jerusalem in the very centre play a part in these events to come.   This doesn’t mean that Israel has always done the right thing, but the media puts a magnifying glass over this tiny slither (0.5% of the middle east) of land, and there are many injustices in the world that are get to be overlooked.

I have seen first hand for myself through a close friend who is an Arab who turned to Jesus about a year ago, how lies and hateful talk can be U-turned.   I pray that both that more Arab (I hear a lot of exciting stories from new believers in many Islamic nations, even Iran and Sudan) people will come to know Jesus and that the rest of the world will not quickly jump onto a soap box to join a band wagon they heard on the internet.

Please note, don’t write any comments at all on this story.   If hateful comments and links posted, your computer’s location will be logged and your ISP will know about it.   For people who know me I am happy to talk about some of the complex background to middle east privately if you want.

Dec 29 2009

Christmas in Jerusalem

Unless you can find the small number of shops owned by Arab Christians in one or two parts of the old city of Jerusalem, and theres a few in the Palestinian territories with decorations of some sort, the Armenian and Greek churches didn’t have much in the way of decorations, Christmas is something of a non-event here, everyone is working as usual, but I get the day off as well as monday in leiu of boxing day being on the Shabbat.This came out a bit blurred but I put my phone here to show the date being 25/12/09

Dec 29 2009

Chinese cult gathering by old city walls

On Christmas day I was at the Jaffa (that the main and most famous) gate of the old city.

Firstly just a few metres away I was given a leaflet from some people in yellow Tshirts about people being killed for organ transplants and to campaign against this thing from happening.   This may be true but some truly nasty propaganda only few months ago by a Swedish newspaper accused Israelis of doing this to Palestinians.

By the gate are all these people doing some kind of meditation.   I did some research and found out this organisation are called Falun Dafa.   Its sad and seems hugely insulting to promote an Eastern cult outside the gates of a holy city.  The Torah (Christians know as the old testament) says that worshiping idols and believing in other gods is totally forbidden, nevertheless these things of all types go on in Israel, mainly in the more secular cities of Tel Aviv or Haifa.   When using Facebook I often get adverts (in Hebrew) for astrology web sites, anyway I just prayed for these people discretely as I walked to head to the Kotel.