We left Bethlehem this morning and went to Qumran. After seeing the sights there for a little while we had lunch in Jericho. Jericho is the lowest city on earth, and perhaps the oldest continuously inhabited city on earth. And they make good falafel. After lunch we made our way up into Galilee and finally…

Today we went to an Israeli settlement where we met with two rabbis who spoke with us about Zionism and the function of settlements within it. Their presentations were rather different, as one seemed much more militant than the other. From the settlement we went immediately to a Palestinian refugee camp in Hebron. We spoke with…

I couldn’t blog for a while because there was not easy internet access at St. Catherine’s monastery. (Go figure.) Regardless, St. Catherine’s was incredible. Many of us climbed Sinai, attended the Greek Orthodox service, and took a brief tour of the monastery sanctuary. We made our way into Israel yesterday and spent the night in…

We had a great meeting today with Jesus the Light of the World Church deaf unit in Cairo, a ministry of the Anglican Church (technically, the Anglican Diocese of Egypt with North African and the Horn of Africa).  About 10% of the population of Cairo is hearling impaired. This church ministers to Christians from all…

We went to Saqqara today outside of Cairo. We saw the Step Pyramid, which is very impressive, and later we went to Dashur and saw the Bent Pyramid and the Red Pyramid. You can go into the Red Pyramid, which was interesting, though it had its challenges. For lunch I had flatbread and considerable amount…

Morning came really, really early today, but it was worth it to see the pyramids and sphinx at Giza. These are massive structures that demonstrate incredible skill in engineering. After leaving Giza we went to Al Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies and met with Dr. Dina Shehata. Dr. Shehata discussed with us some…

We arrived safely at our hotel in Cairo today. We’re all pretty tired after a long day of travel, and we have to be up in about five hours for breakfast and the next day’s activities. Cairo is an incredible city of about 20 million people (including the surrounding area). It is massive and an…

I’m having a wonderfully exciting time sitting in DFW airport right now. I’ll fly to D.C., then to JFK, then to Amman, Jordan, and then to Cairo. The flight to Amman is overnight, so hopefully I’ll be able to sleep a bit. At least I can get some good reading time in. I’m going to try…

I was in Bethlehem a couple of years ago just after Christmas. Although it’s the city of our Lord’s birth, Bethlehem is a tense place, situated as it is in the West Bank, so close to Jerusalem, in the midst of seemingly unresolvable religious and political conflict. Two students and I were walking to the…