Quite an exciting find….
Tag Archives: Jerusalem
New bike!!
Last week I got another bike. It used to belong to another volunteer up in Karmiel at the food bank facility I work in every so many months. This chap has left now, but the bike was abandoned after something broke on it and he couldn’t afford to fix it.
After it was brought down in a van, I got the local bike store to take a look at it, the gear controls on the right hand side don’t work and the chain had come off. After some components in the gears were replaced and this slightly odd bodge, as the man in the shop said the original twist operated gear parts would be much more expensive, hence I have a thumb operated control ontop instead.
On thursday I managed to get a puncture, so back to the shop again, there is a Jewish owner of the shop and young Arab chap in the workshop and he is super quick and efficient in changing over the inner tube and has me up and running in 3 minutes. I asked him to remove and discard the kickstand which doesn’t work properly and is more of a nuisance as a sharp bit of metal that could cause an injury.
This writing suggests the bike may actually be made by a company in Israel. Interesting as cycling is not that popular here.
Its heavier than my old one so its a little tricky carrying down from my 2nd floor flat steps, but it was free and a huge blessing to not have to just rely on buses.
I also got asked to fix a Toshiba laptop with a dead screen from a friend of a friend, so after procuring a new 13″ LCD panel off ebay for UK£67.50, a financial gift for the repair work I did in form of the exact fee it took to get my new bike servicable.
Palestinian archeologist at Hezekiah’s tunnel
I will add a few more articles on my trip around the Galilee very soon.
I went with some friends to Hezekiah’s tunnel in the City of David museum in Silwan, a volatile Arab neighbourhood close to the Dung Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem.
There is over a mile of tunnels you have to walk through in darkness and in water upto your knees.
I have been here before actually, you can see my original article here.
This plastic pipe seems to be a temporary replacement for the modern drainage system which was removed with this area was dug up.
At the back of the museum is this place, dug up not so long ago.
This places was once a source of water, from the museum web site:-
In June of 2004, municipal workers who were repairing a sewage drain in the City of David were shocked to discover a staircase deep underneath the ground. Salvage excavations done at the site revealed that the stairs are part of an ancient thoroughfare, leading from the Shiloach Pool – the major water drawing source in Jerusalem from Biblical times, to the Temple Mount over 2300 feet to the north. Excavations conducted by Eli Shukron are discovering the original stones walked upon by the Jewish people as they made their pilgrimage to the Jewish temple most notably on the festivals of Passover, Shavuot and Succoth.
In places, the pavement was broken, revealing an underground drainage channel filled with whole pottery vessels and coins. Josephus Flavius, a famous historian of that period, describes this very place as one where the Jews unsuccessfully attempted to hide during the Roman Revolt in 70 CE. For over 2,000 years this road has secretly laid, hidden from the world. Today, in the center of Jerusalem, in the historic City of David, we have the unique opportunity to once again reveal this road before the eyes of the world.
Sign here say that this ground on the surface is a cemetery for Arab children.
What surprised me was there was a Palestinian man working in the museum who had a love of history. Silwan is quite a troubled neighbourhood and often Palestinian groups and their supporters around the world, try to show this part of the world as stolen land, despite the wealth of historical information that shows its been occupied by many different groups of people; Roman, Byzantine, Jewish, Arab, Crusader, Ottoman, British Mandate etc, that have lived here.
This man showed some coins he personally found himself, this coin to the left can be clearly seen as being Roman, the one to the bottom right has a Christian cross on it.
He told us he had his car set on fire by other people in his neighbourhood for working with Jews. He told us he was not religious and not interested in politics, only liked working at the museum and finding discoveries from past.
With the large numbers of Christian visitors that come to this site every day, I am hoping the most of them will be praying for this man, for his safety and for him to find his Lord and saviour.
One we were out the rear entrance of the museum, I found myself in a Palestinian community.
Next to this simple sandwich shop is this fruit tree which I think has plums on it, far from ripe of course. House opposite has a Palestinian flag on it. We got a ride back to the main high street in this blue VW taxi van.
British blogger in Israel appeals for sightings of lost bike….
Came back from a nice day out in the old city with friends from work, only to go back to Zion Square in Jerusalem to find the tree where my bike was locked up was empty.
Its been stolen 😦 Was locked onto this tree in between these phoneboxes. Actually I would of thought it would be easier to saw through the tree than the chain myself.
This is most annoying as I need to it to get to and fro work. I work in three buildings, normally one in central Jerusalem 4 or 5 days a week, one in Talpiyot 1 day a week, and on rare occasions up in Karmiel (I go up there in a bus to this one) I usually do an 8 mile/12 km round trip each day to work.
If anyone spots it, its a ‘Vision’- don’t know much about the model number, frame size etc, its just a gents mountain bike that looks like this, blue, with white and red stripes with plenty of scrapes and rust. The police were not that helpful but I am sure they have plenty of more important things on, and the officer on duty didn’t speak English when I filled in the forms there.
A lot of businesses in Israel have a security camera system linked up to a small computer which records video footage onto a hard drive, I asked a few businesses around if they have any recordings, one of them told me yes, but these only are kept for 24 hours. There must be loads of security cameras around Zion Square, Jaffa Street and Ben Yehuda Street in Jerusalem.
As a Christian doing voluntary role in IT system administration and technical support, its essential tool for me to get around, buses are much better and cheaper than in the UK but still eat into budget.
I would be prepared to give a reward to anyone who can help, just would like any info, or anyone seen anyone acting suspicious (with boltcutters!) as it was taken outside the Leumi bank at the corner of Ben Yehuda Street and Jaffa Street, between 11.30-16.00 on sunday 14th June. This is a very busy part of town, it would hard to commit any kind of theft without getting seen in day time.
You can email me on jp.hayward@gmail.com or call or text 052 789 7520.
toda raba.
A day in Christian IT work in the Galilee
As I have mentioned before, my job as a volunteer IT support and system administrator for the charity Bridges for Peace means I am normally based in one of two offices in Jerusalem, and on odd occasions I work up in Karmiel, which is a city in the centre of the Galilee.
This means a 180km visit by car or bus when I have to do work up there. The food bank I work does a huge amount of service in helping the poorest people in this area especially new immigrants to Israel mostly from Russia or some of the other ex-Soviet Union nations. Every so many months I need to do a trip probably not that different from journeys Jesus did himself.
I have learned since being here this site requires careful planning as its an awful long way if something breaks unexpectedly.
This empty room in the middle of the warehouse seems like a good place to put the server. This server will replaced later this year as its running Windows 2000 which is very old now and we need a new more reliable system that helps us with our day to day food bank operations up here. This room is good as it means an easier job of adding some extra wiring here as its close to the network cabinet which is in the cupboard opposite the door.
This rack full of network kit needs a good sort out. I manage to swap cables around to enable computer network use in some offices that moved around. We only have 5 staff up here and there will be at least 3 more and there is not enough ports on the 16 port switch here so I have to put in another switch. The glass door on the cabinet does not shut as the wires are in the way. I think I can rotate the brackets on the switch at the top 180 degrees so this sits flush better and should make the glass door shut properly.
There is an other switch supplied by Bezeq (Israel’s no.1 telephone company) for several VOIP phones. Not quite sure how this works as I think they maintain it.
The black things are UPS power back up units to keep equipment running in case of power failure or spikes in the electricity supply, these are a few years old, most of the equipment was set up when this building got running in 2007 and the chances are the batteries are no good as they have a 3 year or so life span. I want to get a new UPS that has network connectivity so I can see the status of it using my Spiceworks network management software. These small ‘shoebox’ type UPSes should be able to be refurbished with new batteries and they could be used on regular office PCs in another part of the building.
When I was staying at one of the staff’s place over night, looking out of the balcony, I get to see an Arab bedouin house across the road, and modern (Jewish) flats in the distance. Here in this city, these two types of communities seem to be get on well it seems. It does mean you get woken up up by roosters at 5.30am though!
I have to speak to the rest of the IT department to get some more telephones installed, test wiring for network ports and telephones, get 3 more PCs installed and test the spare server. This trip was mostly about planning to give extra capacity for this site for future expansion as I know the Lord will provide more resources so we can help the most needy people in this area. I will need to do another visit up here in July I think.
The main thing I was doing, is a careful back up of the main server and applying all the latest updates and patches. This is always a delicate thing for IT administrators to do, it puts you a big security risk if you don’t bother, and if you do it without carefully planning it can crash the server. One of the team had their monitor suddenly stop working, so a local computer store (thanks to KSP) I got a new Samsung 18″ wide screen TFT monitor.
I really like this job as I always have plenty of interesting and varied challenges so work is never boring and I get to know everyone in the organisation. It also means I can combine this with a weekend seeing some friends who moved from home city of Portsmouth UK to Karmiel Israel, and later visiting the city of Tiberias which is right on the Kinneret, or the Sea of Galilee, and a few significant places of the bible, I will show soon.
A day in my work in the Galilee – The Jesus boat in Ginosar – The Kinneret Lake – Tiberias evening light show – Preaching and miracles of Jesus in Capernaum – Tiberias city centre and Muriels and Maimonidies
My car accident in Jerusalem
I was with some people coming back from the Mini Israel model village, I was in the front passenger seat of a car (this Renault Clio) and dropped off some friends sat in the back, when there was a bang from another vehicle that struck our driver’s side front wing (fender to you Americans)
In turn this pushed us against this bus putting a small scrape on it.
This silver Peugeot that hit us must of been going some speed as it rolled on its side facing towards us and slid along for some distance.
Fearing the worst we got to the car and remarkably the woman inside got out of the seat on her own, but it took a couple of people to help hold the door open for her to get out. Its awkward opening a door when a car is on its side!
A few of us and some bystanders pushed this car back the right way up. The fire service put sand on the road to clean it up.
Our car had front bumper missing, front wings broken (they were plastic) and both tyres flat and rims bent. The Peugeot had extensive damage from being scraped along the road, and where as the Renault doesn’t look like it has serious chassis damage I expect the steering and suspension is all messed up. There was oil and petrol leaked out onto the road. Both cars were declared write offs.
After a police statement was done, and the Magon David ambulance didn’t need to treat anyone, a bit later a breakdown truck driver arrived.
The man asked me to help get the cars loaded, so got into both cars and tried to steer (not so easy with flat tyres and bent up wheels) each straight whilst he used a winch attached the front to be pulled up onto the truck.
But thank the Lord no one was hurt, AT ALL!!
I want to find somewhere locally to get some coffee after this experience, but as it was a Jewish holiday there was nowhere open, so I went to a friend’s house which was a couple of hundred yards away.
Road safety here is quite poor and the styles of driving here worries me, but I was glad God kept us and the woman in the other car safe after this unpleasant experience.
Mini Israel – holyland in minature
I went with some folks from work to Mini Israel a place with lots of models of famous sites in this country.
Downtown Tel Aviv. Here there is a street with moving Scaletrix style cars and trucks that go up and down. A lot of the trucks having recognisable brands such as the blue, green and red one being Tvuna, Israel’s largest dairy.
You do actually feel a bit like the oversized main character of a B movie walking along very detailed places here!
This tourist place is a kind of Israel’s “greatest hits album” as its a way seeing a hundred odd places in one location, and a good way of seeing a glimpse of places you have yet to visit, everywhere from Mount Hermon to Eilat. 🙂
Capernhuam next to the Galilee, one of the places Jesus preached. I also went to the real one in May. Will write on this soon.
Here is the Garden of Gethsemane in Jerusalem.
More sights of Jerusalem’s old city.
Tel Aviv water front. Looks great but is there a model of the Zohan? 🙂
The attention to detail on the models is excellent. There are small background noises put in, such as traffic, crowds etc. Only trouble is maintaining this stuff must be a full type job as the hot temperatures and dust has caused some of the models to crack in places, so regular repair is often needed. There are a lot of places miniaturized, not just religious sites but even Coca Cola factory and people working a Kibbutz.
This was a nice day out, although some scary experiences on the way home…..
Glow of light in valley in Jerusalem during day of rage
I am away working in Karmiel in the middle of the Galilee at the moment,
During the Palestinian day of rage, there was fear about riots in the street, now one person died in Jerusalem and one in Tel Aviv, and there were a few cars set on fire and stoning, but a far less worse that people feared it could of been.
I heard helicopters above my flat, and a lot of police and army in the city which gave me a lot assurance as a lot of people had been dreading this day for fear of violence. We had been told not to go near any Arab areas.
Before I went to church on sunday I went off early to meet a friend for coffee, when I was cycling along the park which is at the top of hill near my house, I saw this:-
I didn’t have a proper camera on me so this was done on a phone, I ‘stretched’ this picture by joining up the pics together from the phone, but other than that, I have not altered anything, ie: brightness etc.
The glow of the light through the clouds made these apartment look bright. I think these flats there are Jewish although surrounded by mostly Arab buildings.
Minutes later this glow moved along a bit towards the troubled district of Silwan.
Just a pattern from the clouds or a symbol of God’s eternal covenant? Either way it was a nice sight.
Peace monuments in Israel part 1
Back in the 60s and 70s, the word ‘peace’ was a greeting used by hippies, I wonder if they got the idea from Jews and Arabs who have used it as a regular hello in their respective languages for a few thousand years.
Just lately I have found it interesting with seeing examples of false peace here in Israel, not just what I see on the news. Normally its from other nations who are asking the State of Israel to compromise with its security arrangements and borders, but there are some other things as well.
In southern England, around the countryside there are small buildings we called ‘follys’, they are buildings that where made with no specific purpose whatsoever, they were just made to provide a centrepoint on the hill above a village or mark a land boundary and to provide employment for local labourers.
In Nazareth, I saw a slightly odd aerial shaped monument next to the precipice. Now the precipice is a hill which was meant to be where people tried to throw Jesus off that got upset by his teaching in the synagogues.
On top of here looking south you can see a spectacular view over Megiddo and Mount Tabor. One is the place of previous wars and a future one planned for the end of the world, and one is a possible location of Jesus’s transfiguration. On the other less steep side of the hill facing northwards is a TV aerial shaped thing at the front with a series of concrete steps to sit on which looks like a pleasant place to watch a concert or (small) sports event. The paths that lead in between the step have rough gravel on them, certainly no good for people with baby carriages or wheelchairs. It looks unfinished and rushed to be honest. If I remember correctly this project was a gift for peace to the people of Nazareth from the Pope and the Vatican in circa 1997. Having said that, the view up here is terrific, and it would be nice to see some live bands up there, but I didn’t see anything on any posters about any live music scene. If you are interested in my travels to Nazareth, start here on part 1 of my trip the city of Jesus’s youth.
In Sderot, I went with my friend Daniel from work with one of his community projects to a small town that most of you will know gets used as target practice for terrorists in Gaza. These poor people live with worry of being next hit by Katusha rockets. Next to some fields and an army base on a hill I can see directly into Gaza less than 1.5km away. Up here is a giant musical instrument, with some chime bars and a hammer thing on a piece of rope you can use to ring as a ‘peace’ gift for Israelis and Gazans. I don’t remember who made this thing, but it a novelty chime instrument doesn’t help people having to rush into bomb shelters especially when they happen when their kids go to school.
Jerusalem is the same. Near my house is the UN headquarters, and close to there is a monument with some inscriptions in English, Hebrew and Arabic, probably say people need to give each other a hug or something.
Closeby is the Haas promenade, there is a really nice place to walk along the side of the hill which attracts Arab and Jewish families having picnics and foreigners on rented electric Segway chariots. On the paths that go down, is a few peace monuments here, these actually look quite decent that are designed a viewpoints over the city.
That is until you go up the steps to view out of them, there is graffiti inside them, and smells of that they have used as a toilet. One of the monuments that was a gift from Canada, has some wooden steps that go sideways onto the path. Trouble is most of the wooden slats of the steps you can see below are missing, as someone stole them probably for firewood for their barbecue.
Ezekiel 13 : 10 “‘Because they lead my people astray, saying, “Peace,” when there is no peace, and because, when a flimsy wall is built, they cover it with whitewash.
Really, these buildings from foreign nations trying to help Israel, seem like nice gestures, but are not implemented well and are a bit shortsighted in their actual useful value. Its a bit like getting a present of a picture of an ornament you don’t really like and having to put it on the wall when you friend comes round so not to hurt their feelings.
Other examples of false peace are so called authorities that provide prizes or bestow awards, such as PLO chairman Yasser Arafat who got a Nobel Peace award in 1994. Also a well known ex-Palestinian terrorist who wrote a book about accepting Jesus, has be spoken about as being a fraud as still hating Israel, after some things spoken about recently in Arabic appears to be different from the story he originally gave in his book.
Architects seem to like create buildings for peace purposes that don’t quite yet have a proper purpose to them.
My thinking is if you want to do a tangible construction project for peace purposes maybe start with something that has a social benefit like hospitals and schools. I really like the Magon David ambulance service which I think is entirely funded by foreign donations, but assists Jewish, Arab and foreigners to Israel if an accident or emergency happens.
I am really proud to part of Bridges for Peace, true, our two food banks won’t win any design awards, our headquarters looks lovely and has a wonderful garden but is tucked away from the public with an electric gate, and my role is in a backroom to look after resources and equipment, but the works we do impact the poor people in this nation, as well try as close as we can to follow the actions of Jesus in this land to the most needy.
Jeremiah 8 : 8-12 “‘How can you say, “We are wise, for we have the law of the LORD,”when actually the lying pen of the scribes has handled it falsely? 9 The wise will be put to shame; they will be dismayed and trapped. Since they have rejected the word of the LORD, what kind of wisdom do they have? 10 Therefore I will give their wives to other men and their fields to new owners. From the least to the greatest, all are greedy for gain; prophets and priests alike, all practice deceit. 11 They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. “Peace, peace,” they say, when there is no peace.
It smells nasty in this look out post, signs of arson and grafitti, not all of it bad though!
My point isn’t to poke fun too much at efforts to make peace between nations, but for me, true reconciliation will only happen between Israel and the Arab neighbours will happen with Jesus’s return.
Megiddo – The end of the world?
Just taking a brief break from Nazareth, I thought I would share an important place on the way up….
This road looks actually quite exciting as it goes along a viaduct into a tunnel in the side of a mountain to Nazareth, but the bus took a left at these lights.
But before I came to here on the bus went through the town of Ha Megiddo, which in the Greek; Armageddon as mentioned in Revelation , the place of the end of the world.
Its mentioned in Joshua, Judges, 1 and 2 Kings and first Chronicles. There has been previous battles here.
This is a prison in the town of Megiddo, I think it contains long term offenders, ie: terrorists.
A little while ago, some archeological remains were found underneath (hopefully not from convicts trying to tunnel out!) showing some very significant history of early Christianity underneath the prison. Check out this link:- http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Israel+beyond+politics/Megiddo+Prison+dig+yields+rare+3rd-4th+century+Christian+structure+9-Nov-2005.htm
Some people have said that this find is important enough to tear down and move the prison to somewhere else maybe.
These fields look nothing that special, but in the middle is where the last war will be fought it seems.
Petrol station if you want to get fuel, go to the loo, get a can of Tango and a choc-ice before the end of the world.
Revelation 16 : 16 Then they gathered the kings together to the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon.
Now Revelation is a very symbolic book and probably the most difficult part of the bible to understand, but its quite clear this is the place outlined.
Many people I speak to think that Jesus’s return is not far away, I see more people slandering God, Jesus, Israel, Christians and the Jewish people today than in the past, here in Megiddo is a place where you want to be on the right team when that battle happens.
Brit In Jerusalem 