Monday, July 19

Today was our last day in Israel. We leave at 12:30am, just after midnight tonight. Checkout time was 11am but they graciously gave us until 1pm. We had our wonderful buffet breakfast late and then packed up to leave. Scotty got golf on his mind so we decided to do golf on the way to Tel Aviv. I actually had been trying to get him to go for a few days since the only two courses in Israel are located between Haifa and Tel Aviv. He waited until today to consider it since it would be on our way to the airport and we would have time to kill after we checked out of our hotel. We checked out around 11:30 and planned to take a taxi to the train station to go to Netanya and then a taxi to the golf course at Ga’ash. This would have been cheaper but the taxi driver wanted to take us all the way to Ga’ash from the hotel so he came down some and Scotty took the offer. The train ride would have been much more relaxing. He was on the phone most of the way with his boss/dispatcher ? and arguing (using his hands as he spoke even though he was just on the phone. I think his family called and he was much calmer and slower talking with them, at least most of the time. Ga’ash is a Kibbutz which is a farming community but they have one of the two golf courses in Israel. It is a small 9-hole course. As it turned out the only 18-hole course which is in Caesarea was closed on Mondays. We hated that because it would have been the choice place to play---maybe someday. Scotty had so much fun, he played another nine. I drove the cart for him. It was a nice breezy day near the Mediterranean Sea. They let us shower there to get ready for our trip home so that was really nice. We met some nice people there. One of the assistant pro’s was Chris from Washington State who married an Israeli. One nice guy from Italy, not sure why he was there and some Israelis. We also talked with a man from Chicago who said he came in on Sabbatical 30 years ago and decided to stay.

We got a taxi then to the train station in Hertzliya which is another town nearby. Ga’ash is between Natanya and Hertzliya and you can see both cities from the golf course. We bought our ticket for the airport and they said “Your train leaves in 4 minutes” and it takes a while to get your platform so we rushed and got to our train. We had been told that the train takes you straight to the airport but no one told us that you have to change trains. Scotty happen to ask a guy sitting across from us if he spoke English and he did somewhat and he told us we needed to get off at the next stop and change trains to go to the airport. We are so thankful for his help or else we would have gone too far and probably had to buy another ticket. Another young man really helped us as we got off the train to help us find out where we needed to be to find the right platform for the airport. He is coming to America next month, to Arizona.

We arrived at the airport 6 hrs before our flight but we wanted to get down here before dark and now we have our luggage so it is just not feasible to try to do anything else. They have a nice waiting here with several eating choices and shopping. We can’t check in until 3 hrs before our flight so we are blessed that they have this nice area where you can wait with your luggage, many airports do not.

I’m sure I have left off some things like every time you go in a train station or a mall they are security checks and they check any bags you have. It is a different world here but we always feel very safe. Actually all this security is great!

There is a mix of people here. There are Jewish Israelis, there are Arab Israelis, There are Orthodox Jews, Messianic Jews, there are Arab Christians, there are Arab Muslims, there are Palestinian Arabs, there are Russian Orthodox and other denominations as well. Palestinians are not Israeli citizens. The Palestinian areas (West Bank) are fenced off from the Israeli areas and usually there are checkpoints between each. It is like 2 countries within 1 country. The people co-exist well from what we have seen and want to live in peace.

It’s a beautiful country and the biblical sites are a joy to visit. We are blessed to have had the privilege to come many times. We will be bringing a group February 21 and we would love for you to join us. When we come with a group we have a bus, driver and guide waiting for us at the airport and they stay with us for the entire trip. We never have to worry about transportation or food. Our breakfasts and dinners are provided in the hotels and we usually stop for lunch on the tour at a very reasonable place or you can just bring a snack for lunch. Pray about coming with us.

If all goes as scheduled we should arrive in Huntsville around 2:30 Tuesday. We go from Tel Aviv to NY Kennedy to Atlanta to Huntsville.

Thank you for your prayers. We are very blessed and look forward to being back at Westmeade on August 1.

“I thank my God every time I remember you”. Philippians 1:3