Saturday, March 8, 2008

I awoke in the Bedouin camp around 5:30 and went out to the desert to pray as the sun was rising. (Woody was up at 4AM and went out to the desert even earlier. His cell phone rang four times during the night!) When I got up it was very chilly in the tent, so I put on an extra sweater. I stepped outside and it was already getting hot out there! I saw people from our group like dots all over the desert rocks and hills - all with the same desire to spend time with God there. That was a cool sight.

There was a refreshing smell of fresh-baked bread in the air at 5:30.

We had an amazing tent-buffet from breakfast - let's see how much of it I can recall. There were at least 3 types of flat bread, scrambled and boiled eggs, spicey pickles and green olives, cold cuts, at least four types of creamy sauces (which were unidentifiable, but good), houmus, sour cream, herbed cheese cubes, eggplant, delicious tomatoes, and cucumbers. I tried as much as I could and liked it all except the spicey pickles, for obvious reasons.

We packed up to leave by 8AM. We were going along a windy road when I noticed our driver was sleepy. I was debating what to do when his head literally fell on the steering wheel! Hitting the wheel woke him up. Our guide, Corem, noticed and chatted him up to keep him awake. We stopped at a high point of En Gedi. (I wish I could remember what Dave Patty talked about there, but I was busy translating for the Latinos, so didn't take notes. Maybe I'll find them on the GYI website and share them later. It was based on 2 Chronicles 20:23. "March down to meet them. You won't have to fight." Take up your positions and I will fight for you. Put the choir in FRONT.)

At the high point we saw an interesting animal which I call a ROUS (Rodent of Unusual Size.) I think the guide called them ground rabbits, but they were actually in the TREES!

We went to another spot of En Gedi to hike along the canyon and see the Springs of David. It was a hot, hard, long hike, but my foot did great! Yeah! When we got to the spot of the springs, it was delightful. I could just imagine David and his companions frolicking in the pool underneath a small waterfall. I wished so much that I could swim there (several did), but I didn't want to hurt my foot on the many rocks or wet my only shoes. (The hike took over 2 hours, if I remember right.)

Woody was Mark's assistant for our bus and he had a huge challenge to keep people moving.

We drove on another 15 minutes to Qumran where they discovered the Dead Sea Scrolls. We ate box lunches there, though I couldn't actually eat any of the contents except the apple! They gave our group a limited shopping time there, but our group took WAY too long, partly due to the slow check-out, but mostly due to one of our Latinos who took his time.

Driving along the Dead Sea we saw how the level has dropped significantly. Along the shore lines we saw sink holes - a new phenomenon.