This morning a small group of us set out to tour; we only took one van. Hanan, Kristi, and Adam hiked up Mt Gilboa. Dr. B took our group first to Belvoir, an awesome Crusader castle. Outside the entrance, there is this funky display of modern art by some guy. The sign said cheesy stuff, like he “paraphrases history,” and the “death of ideals,” and the machine age. Anyway, we took some great pictures – it was a hoot!

Belvoir had a huge moat with no water in it, secret tunnels, and a great view. I have to say that I liked Montfort a lot more because it was so beautiful, but Belvoir was pretty dang cool.

After that, we went to Peace Island, right on the border of Jordan. Several years ago, a psycho Jordanian shot 7 Israeli schoolgirls there, and there was a memorial garden for them. You could also pay 10 shekels for a quick trip across the border, just to say you’ve been in Jordan. The woman asked for our passport numbers, and Jenny didn’t have hers, so she used her boyfriend’s telephone number. So I was officially in Jordan for 30 minutes.

Then we went to the Jordan River, to the “official baptismal site,” which is not only historical hogwash, but not even the real Jordan River! And the souvenir shop was funny – “rent a robe,” baptism certificates (numbered!), sanctified this and sanctified that. Utter tourist trap. At least I finally found a pretty olive wood rosary for MaMaw.

After we got back to the kibbutz, we had an amazingly boring afternoon. I watched: 1) Will pack his suitcase; 2) an old Barbra Streisand movie. Yikers!

After supper, we sat on the hill by the river and had a little worship service, which was very nice. Dave played some songs on Hanan’s guitar, we read some verses, talked, and prayed.

Tomorrow the Vikings should be returning to THE PIT. Tuesday is the Fourth of July, and I think we might have a cook-out.

Well, 10:15, and I’m about to wake up at 4:30 and begin my last week at Tel Rehov . . . my last week in Israel! It’s sad and hard to believe. How will I get used to not heading out to the Sea of Galilee for a sunset on Friday nights? Or not running to the van with these people for an emergency trip to McDonalds? How can Quitman compare with all this – castles, tels, the Mediterranean Sea? I’ll stop thinking about it and get to sleep.

~ See the pictures for this day
~ Go on to Tel Rehov Week Three