Updates for my world

Well, I have been so busy lately.  First an 8 day trip to Cozumel with our motorcycle group where we swam and ate and snorkeled and ate and toured the island in jeeps and ate and parasailed and ate.  So, you get the idea.

Then I was home for a week and then off for 10 days to Israel with my beloved sister and a wonderful, trip of a lifetime with other members of  Bible Study Fellowship, an inter-denominational group.  I cannot begin to tell you of all the inspiring and thought-provoking, emotional places we went, how much I learned about current events and situations of life in Israel and how many sweet people we met.  We had an absolutely fantastic guide, Olga ( http://www.holyland-christian-tours.com/ ) who was very versed in the New and Old Testament and knew the country inside out.  And we had a bus driver, Amir, who could turn that bus on a dime and maneuvered us wonderfully through city and countryside in some very tight quarters.  Here's a picture that a friend took of me and my sister (won't make you guys sit through a slide presentation of the entire 2,452 pictures I took).   I have always wanted to know more about the land, the history and the country as well as the Bible as I personally feel that despite the differences, our religions and culture are all connected and related.  I can tell you for sure, I left a part of my heart in Israel.  This entire trip was very meaningful to me....

Brief History from the Internet:  This is the holiest shrine of the Jewish world. The Western Wall is part of the retaining wall supporting the temple mount built by Herod in 20 B.C. After the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 A.D., Jews were not allowed to come to Jerusalem until the Byzantine period, when they could visit once a year on the anniversary of the destruction of the Temple and weep over the ruins of the Holy Temple. Because of this, the wall became known as the “Wailing Wall.”  Jews were again not allowed to visit the wall from 1948-1967 when it was in the Jordanian section of the city. After the Six Day War, the Western Wall became a place for national rejoicing and prayer, as the last accessible relic of the last Temple