Palestinian Christians

Palestinian Christians

Recently I spent three weeks in the Middle East on a study tour titled Ancient Stories, Current Struggles: Engaging the Lands of the Bible.  Beginning in Cairo, Egypt, we traveled to Luxor, through the Sinai, into Jordan to visit the partially-excavated city of Petra, then to Bethlehem, north through the Galilee, and ended in Jerusalem.  Throughout the tour we combined visits to ancient archeological sites and holy shrines with meetings and discussions with those who were able to give us varying perspectives on the current reality in their countries.

Over the next few months I intend to report on a number of those meetings.  I’m also preparing photo essays depicting our days of travel and posting them on my Facebook page.  Links to the photos can be found in the post titled Travels in the Holy Lands. 

Journey to the Holy Lands - Part 1

For most of the past month, I've been traveling through the Middle East ~ from Egypt to Jordan to Israel/Palestine.  Now I'm home again with over 1700 digital photos and half a thick notebook full of notes and jottings to edit, reflect upon, and publish.  I've started with the photos, and I'm putting them on Facebook because that's the easiest way to share them with family and friends.

Two albums are up so far and more will be coming.  I've added a running narrative so that they are more like photo essays than just albums of pictures.  Here are links to view them if you are not one of my FB friends: Cairo and Luxor.  I'll return to this blog post and add more links as I finish the remaining albums, so please check back every few days for the next couple of weeks.  And enjoy!

Monday morning, 14 May: I've completed the album on the Sinai.

Monday evening, 14 May: Here's the link to Petra.

Thursday afternoon, 17 May: Jordan is now posted.

Wednesday, 23 May: After a few days' delay, I'm back up and running on a brand new computer.  It does make uploading and editing photos a lot easier.  So here is April 27 in Bethlehem.

Friday, 25 May: On Saturday, April 28, we drove north to Tiberias through Taybeh and Nablus.

Monday, 28 May: Our first full day in the Galilee was spent in Northern Galilee: Safed (Tzfat), the Golan Heights, and Banias (ancient Caesarea Philippi).

Wednesday, 27 June: Well, I've finally gotten back to editing photos.  Here is the album from our day on and around the Sea of Galilee.

I've run out of tags and still have a week to go, so please continue with Journey to the Holy Lands - Part 2.