Israel

Hello family and friends of the Israel Team,

The team had an early start yesterday. All seemed to being going well for the crew until Jason walked up to the ticket counter and the agent didn't like the looks (literally) of his passport ... yep ... it was the first little hiccup for the Israel Team. But this isn't the first time Keith has had a "problem" occur with travel, so they immediately strategized about "Plan B" for Jason and the airlines were gracious in providing an alternate travel schedule for him on Tuesday. A little disappointment quickly turned into an opportunity to watch God work and by the time we said our good-byes the smiles were returning for all.

So for the team that boarded the plane - all is well. They arrived as scheduled in Tel Aviv this morning and Keith sent word through a text message that they were off to Caesarea! How great is that!

As for Jason - "Plan B" is in the works as I type this message. He and Johnny Polk left for Houston (by car) to get a one-day passport. Their appointment went well this morning at 8:30am and now they are just waiting for the new passport to be printed and ready for pick up this afternoon. (For those of you that know Johnny Polk, I can guarantee that there will be no wasted time in Houston . . . the last I heard Johnny had found two camp dads to have lunch with!) They should be back on the road to New Braunfels by 3pm! Jason will then board a plane early tomorrow morning and meet up with the team Wednesday around lunch time!

If anyone has any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to call me personally. I am Keith's wife and will be happy to help you out in any way that I can. You can reach me on my cell at 830-481-7073.

Hope to have more news tomorrow!

God bless,
Alice :-)

Hello family and friends of the Israel Team,

All is well in the Holy Lands! Keith called this morning and said that everyone was rested and ready for the day's adventure! The skies were letting down rain, but that wasn't stopping them from enjoying the sites in the Galilee area. His call was brief ... just enough time to let me (and then that means you) know that they were safe and having a great time.

Please pray that God will continue to lead their steps and shine a light where they need to serve. We appreciate all of your prayers!

God bless,

Alice :-)

p.s. Jason is in the air now heading to meet the team. He should meet up with tomorrow!

Hello family and friends of the Israel Team,

Just go this email from the team! Have fun reading!

Hey Everybody!

Thanks so much for all of your prayers and support! Israel is AMAZING!!!! We are all safe, and Jason should be joining us tomorrow morning. Its actually pretty cold over here, and even though they told us it would be... I still didn't buy it until i got here! The flight over was really long, but i think everybody got at least a little sleep, which is good because when we landed we were going! We started off at Caesarea and got to see ruins from the Roman and Crusader time period. We got to see the Amphitheatre where Paul was most likely put on trial in front of King Herod. Yesterday we went to Mt. Carmel and Megiddo, both were absolutely beautiful, and gave a whole new perspective on the stories of the Bible from those areas. Today, (yes today!) we toured all around the Sea of Galilee. We got to see the mountain where Jesus cast the demon Legion into the pigs. We got to see the place where Jesus called many of his disciples. We went to Capernaum, which was the center of Jesus' early ministries. The synagogue there was built in about 300 AD, but it was built on the foundation and had the same structure as the synagogue where Jesus taught!!! It's the place where I knew that Jesus had stood in that exact spot! At the end of the day we got to go down to the Jordan river and Keith Baptized Amy, Jonathon and me. The water was really cold, but it was an awesome experience!!!

Israel is amazing! Keep praying! We love you!

Brent and the Timothy Team

Wow! How do I put into words even a smidge of what we have gotten to see... what we have gotten to learn from our tour guide and Arlie... or what we have been challenged to think about? I will just try to give you a little glimpse. For me, on day two when we went to the top of the Carmel Mountains and Megiddo I was absolutely blown away right when i turned around and saw the view overlooking the Jezreel Valley also known as the Valley of Armageddon. You can look one way and see the Mediterranean Sea and another way and see I think Caesarea and yet right in front of you is Mt. Tabor and Nazareth where Jesus lived in PLAIN sight! The valley goes on forever and is the greenest of greens. Not to mention the defined fields and crops that I loved seeing from up above (i know I'm country). There is so much history and stories that you can close your eyes and picture in those moments and it definitely brings things alive and makes thing make more sense. I also love that at each place we stop we have a wonderful tour guide named David who is the best of the best and who sings Johnny Cash songs etc. So hilarious! To make it even better we have Arlie... a man whose knowledge of the bible is almost as overwhelming as the passion that he has for it! As a group, we would all agree that he has taught us so many little things that we have never put together or ever heard before. We are so blessed to have him with us here. We have ridden a boat in the Sea of Galilee, visited Capernaum where most of Jesus ministry existed, stood in the area in which they think Jesus fed the 5000, some were baptized in the Jordan River (what an honor and lifelong moment) and the list goes on. And better yet, we still have like five days here. Our minds are overflowing, exhausted, and amazed at the same time. Continue to pray for our team, our safety, and our openness to experience what God has for us here. Pray for people to be sent our way that we can love like Christ loves. Thank you all so much for letting this trip be a mission for ME, and also everyone else that has been affected in these few days so far. We love you all!

Amy and the Timothy Team

How fun to hear the stories! I'll pass along more when I receive more messages!

Alice :-)

p.s. Please continue to pray for Jason's journey ... a little snow and bad weather in New York has delayed his flight.

Hello family and friends of the Israel Team,

After a much delayed travel schedule ... Jason has finally caught up with the team! Praise God! The team wrote the message below:

First of all, PTL Jason finally arrived!!!! We greeted him with much rejoicing; he might have been jumped on a few times. Today we spent time traveling around the northernmost part of the country; it was much different than the Mediterranean coast cities as well as the Galilean cities. One of my favorite moments was lunch in a Druze settlement. Druze are a break off from Islam, they don't even follow the Qu'ran, other than that I don't know much about them. Their food is a slight variation of the normal pita with meat and salad stuff in it we had in the Galilee. The pita here, was more like a large thin tortilla with cheese (not your normal every day cheddar) and olive oil put on a big stone oven. Some liked it others didn't, I enjoyed it. But they do know how to do dessert. On the same big tortilla, pita thing, they spread chocolate across and put it again on the stone oven, mmm... mmm... mmm... it was amazing!! Another interesting thing about our lunch is that it SNOWED!!! Yes, you read correctly SNOW!!! Big flakes coming down hard (for those of you who didn't realize this, it is pretty cold up here in the north, most of us were thinking we should have brought some warmer clothes). It didn't last long, but it was beautiful. It's predicted to snow again while we are in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, 2 places it very rarely snows.

After Korazim, we went back to Tiberius just before dinner. We spent a couple hours just walking around the city trying to make random conversation with different people that we encountered. Denae, Amy and I ran into a guy named Ben. He was asking us where we were from, and we told him Texas...he responded "tell me not from anywhere between San Antonio and Austin." Funny thing about Ben, he just returned from working at a kiosk in a mall down in San Antonio. Anyway, this ended up sparking about a 45 minute conversation where we began to understand his very business oriented mind. He tried to teach the 3 of us some Hebrew, and we were fairly unsuccessful at learning just because some of the words needed to be spoken from the throat. It was a blessing getting to talk with him just because he spoke SOOOOO much English, and it also helped us understand the way that most Americans act effect the views of people from other countries. He made the generalization that Americans are always in a hurry and lazy, just because of the way a few (if not most) of the people he met in the mall treated him. How we act, even on days when we are having bad days, can affect people's view of Christians as a whole, and could even try to use it as an excuse to not believe in Jesus.

Thank you for praying for us. Love y'all

>Cody and Denae

So the journey continues. Keith has assured me that all is well where they are. If you have any questions or concerns, please know that you can call me any time. 830-481-7073

Until we hear from them again ... keep praying!

Alice :-)

Hello family and friends of the Israel Team,

Got a text message from Keith late tonight (early though for them). It's brief, but just enough to let us know that all is well with the team.

Had a great day. Slept in one big tent all together. Rode camels. Farkeled and brent and cody lost. Going to jsalm today.

For those that need a little "de-coding" ... sleeping in one big tent ... they actually stayed in a bedowin "hotel" just like the bedowins live today ... in tents! Large tents. Not the type of tents you and I would take on a hiking trip. (Not sure if I'm spelling bedowin correctly)

"Farkeling" ... it is a dice game that all teams play on their trips. The losers usually have some type of consequence. I'm sure there will be some stories about this when they return.

And "jsalm" ... that I'm sure is the shorten text spelling for Jerusalem. How exciting to think that they will be touring this ancient city!

I hope you find this message without too many errors. It is very late (T Bar M Camps sponsored a Steven Curtis Chapman concert tonight that was great but made for a long night) ... just wanted to make sure everyone knew that the team was well!

God bless,

Alice :-)

Hello family and friends of the Israel Team,

Good news from Jerusalem!

Well we have made it to Jerusalem the city of David. What an incredible adventure we have had so far. God continues to teach us every time we turn the corner. There are so many teaching moments here it is hard to process it all. The team is doing really good with all the information they are getting each day. Arlie has them memorizing scripture, the history of mankind, as well as the eight covenants of the Bible. This is no pleasure trip, but what an opportunity to learn hands on.

The hardest part of the trip is trying to figure out how to do ministry. We continue to look for divine appointments each day and have had several interesting meetings with people, but have not felt like we have really been used yet. We know God can use anything including prayers if that all we can offer. We have taken a couple of opportunities to go down to the city centers and just walk around looking to start conversations. One of the areas we did this in was Tiberius. It was neat to think that we were walking and looking for people to minister to in the very town that was here in Jesus' day. Wow what a feeling.

Tonight we did the same thing in Jerusalem. We went down to an area that is for foot traffic only and walked around praying and looking for people to talk to. It's amazing how this city is just like any other city in the world. The people look a little different, but the actions are the same.

Towards the end of our day, we stopped at a coffee shop to sit and have our WOW time. This is the time we spend each night reflecting on the days activities. As I was talking to the group about how God had spoken to me that day, I noticed a young man listening in on our conversation. After I concluded, he came up to me and told me that he liked what I had been saying and asked what group we were with. His name was Velve and he was from South Africa but here studying for 6 months. I was able to share a little with him and connect him with the Ariel ministries web site. Wow, God is good.

We hope and pray for more opportunities like this. Please continue praying that God would give the team boldness and wisdom as we look for ways to impact the people here in the Holy city. Until tomorrow,

Shalom,

Keith and the Team.

God bless,

Alice :-)

Hello family and friends of the Israel Team,

How fun to get another email. For those who have teamed with us for past trips, we don't usually get this much "mail" ... but I'm not complaining. Just getting a little spoiled!

Hey everyone! Here's a quick update on our trip.

We just spent our first full day in Jerusalem, and it is quite a sight! We started the morning on the Mt. of Olives and then proceeded to the Garden of Gethsemane. We spent some quiet time there reading and praying just like Jesus did the night before He was crucified. It was pretty cool to know that He was some two thousand years ago in the same place we were praying. Wow!

Next we proceeded into Jerusalem and got to see an archeological dig at the base of the wall around the temple mount. Later that afternoon we toured the Armored Core, which is the tank division of the Israeli army. It was really cool to hear about the story behind the core, and what they've been through. Also, it's awesome to see the passion of the Israeli army … it is very evident in all the soldiers and we learned more about the short, rich history of today's Israel.

Please continue to pray for our safety and that God will use us to be encouragements and lights to those around us. It has been quite a trip so far! Know that we are safe and sound!

Tim Team

Keep praying!

Alice :-)

Hello family and friends of the Israel Team,

Here's a message from Mel ...

Shalom Y'all,

It was another amazing day in Jerusalem! We visited the Temple Mount, the Wailing Wall, the Holocaust Museum, Mount Zion, the Jewish Quarter, and the underground tunnel system. It was a lot to take in, but there were some moments that really stuck out. It was amazing to walk around the same temple square where Jesus did some of his teaching. However, instead of a temple, there is a mosque standing in the middle of the square, which is a little disheartening. The Wailing Wall was a pretty depressing place to me. Many people were standing against the wall praying out to God, thinking he resided nearby. They are so passionate about what they are doing, but they are completely lost b/c they don't realize the Messiah has already come. The Holocaust Museum was moving and a great way to remember the history of the Jewish people. Finally, tonight we were able to go through the excavated tunnels that lie beneath the current streets. Basically, we were walking on the streets from two thousand years ago. Like I said earlier, it was an amazing day, and we are all so excited about our last couple days here. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers. We can't wait to get back to the states and share our pictures and stories.

Love,

Mel and the rest of the team (this was for you Nicki!)

I actually got a phone call from Keith earlier and he said the weatherman is predicting snow tomorrow!

Thanks for your prayers.

Alice :-)

Hello family and friends of the Israel Team,

The team woke up to a white Jerusalem this morning! What a treat! Not many people see snow in the Holy Lands!

I am actually sending this message with little news. I got an email from the team with an update, but unfortunately I am having some technical problems at home this afternoon and cannot get the message to you. I will send it tomorrow when I am back in the office.

So until then, please know that the team is having an amazing trip and they appreciate everyone's prayers. They will begin their journey home tomorrow and should arrive in San Antonio on Thursday at 10:50am.

Alice :-)

Hello family and friends of the Israel Team,

Here is the email from yesterday.

Shalom!

Kathryn and Jason reporting live from Jerusalem internet kiosk.

Jason:WHAT A DAY! Today YES TODAY, we woke up and it was snowing!
Kathryn: Yes Jason it was actually snowing in Jerusalem, a rarity in these parts. Good thing I'm from Colorado, I wasn't scared at all...except for those awesome snow tires on the tour bus. Whoa Jason...When did you get here?
Jason: thanks for noticing Kathryn; I actually made it here last Thursday! After the fiasco with a passport, traveling to Houston for a new one, getting snowed in Newark and finally getting here, it's been great being here! It was snowing today though but that didn't stop us, did it Kathryn?
Kathryn: No it didn't Jason. We traveled to several places around Jerusalem despite the weather. However just to give you an idea of the conditions that we braved, let me tell you what I wore today. I started with a t-shirt, added a long-sleeved shirt, a light jacket, a hoodie, and a Northface limited edition Tim Team 2008 rain jacket...and that was only my upper body. It was crazy cold and very wet. Jason, tell them where we went today.
Jason: Thanks Kathryn, our first stop today
Kathryn: YES TODAY
Jason: ahem. Our first stop was located at the church of the holy sepulcher where five different religions believe it is the site of the crucifixion and burial of Jesus. We then traveled along the Via Dolorosa the same path that is believed to be the path Jesus walked down with the cross before his death. Whew, I get cold and tired just thinking about it. What else did we do Kathryn?
Kathryn: We were able to the house of Caiapus where Jesus was likely put into prison before he was arrested. We also went to the chapel of Saint Anne which is the most well preserved chapel of the crusader period. Pretty amazing. We joined together in a song to test the acoustics of the place which a certain Mel Harrell describes as heavenly. "We all sounded like angels." she exclaimed
Jason: Well some of us did.....tomorrow is sadly our last day of traveling in Jerusalem and ultimately in Israel as we will be flying out late tomorrow night. Thank all of you for your prayers and thinking of us on this trip; it really has been an incredible experience.
Kathryn: We can't wait to see you when we get home!

They will be heading to the airport today!

Alice :-)