DAY 8: WHAT A DAY! (With Wyoming and Elvis)

Jesus answered him, "If a man loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him" (John 14:23).

Our plane landed in Omaha at 4:00 p.m. central daylight time, Friday, March 21, 2014.  Helen asked me if I was good to make the 3 hour drive home.  I assured her that I was.  About an hour from home, I went to sleep and our car nearly went into the ditch, but providentially, I came to my senses in time to prevent a bad accident.  From our experience, the most dangerous part of a trip to Israel is the drive from the airport home.

Actually, the day began at 6:00 Thursday morning, packing because we would not return to the hotel, this was our last day in Israel.  The last day was a day of remembrance of modern Israel.  We left the hotel at 9, our destination being Yad Ben Zvi.  Izhak Ben Zvi was the 2nd president of modern Israel.  He was a very modest man in terms of his accommodations.  He did not think it right for political leaders to live in plush housing, elegant clothing and prestigious treatment while the common folks experienced lack.  As a result, he lived in a modest house and did not care what visiting heads-of-state thought about it.  Also on display at Yad Ben Zvi were the Ezekiel tablets, thought by some to be at least as old as the Dead Sea Scrolls. The tablets are absolutely unique in that the lettering on them is relief lettering, that is it is raised lettering.  No one knows for sure how the lettering was done, but the theory is that it was a kind of etching process where the letters were made with wax and acid dissolved the surrounding material.  It had to have been pain-staking work!

Our next stop was the Holocaust Museum.  Israeli policy is for every person that serves in the military, every public servant and politician, every foreign dignitary to visit this museum so they understand what happened, why it happened and that it could happen again if it is forgotten.  No pictures were allowed to be taken in the museum, and it was the most emotional experience of the tour.  After this day we were emotionally drained.  When we went to lunch after the museum tour, I asked Keren if she had read "Man's Search for Meaning" by Victor Frankl.  I was amazed that she had not.  Because of the crowding at lunch my explanation of Frankl was a stumbling, bumbling affair that did not help her--she probably thought I'd gone schizo or something (I did buy and send her the book).  I was amazed that the museum did not include any of Frankl's work because he was a Jewish psychiatrist who did survive the Nazi death camps.

We next went to the Israeli national cemetery where the honored military dead are buried.  They are all buried alike with little difference between various ranks of officers and soldiers because in Israel it is important for people to be treated alike.  We saw the grave of Prime Minister Netenyahu's brother who was killed in the raid on Entebbe and other heroic dead.  We saw the graves of Theodore Herzi, Yitzhak Rabin and Golda Meir.

Keren gave us an hour to shop and tour in a market area in Jerusalem.  The markets are interesting to me because there is so much and there is so much that is perishable and it is open air.  Keren told us that there is much that is simply given to the poor on Friday afternoon.  It was time to say our goodbyes to Keren.  We had grown close to her in 8 days, so it was sad to say goodbye. Keren, though a warm friend, knows how to maintain emotional distance.  In her business, guiding as many people as she does, she would be an emotional wreck if she did not.

What are the odds?  On the way to supper we saw a chevy van with a Wyoming license plate.  It was the only American plate I saw in Israel and that from the least populous state in America.  It made me ready to go home.  We also had to make a potty stop, so we stopped at a convenience store/restaurant that had a 10 foot statue of Elvis in front and featured Elvis music inside--it's almost like Israel is our 51st state.

We had a farewell dinner in the Christian village of Abu Ghosh.  It was a great, all Israeli, dinner.  We ate until we were absolutely stuffed.  We arrived at the airport in Tel Aviv at 9, stood in a long line to check in and were on the plane just after midnight.  Two crying babies kept us awake during the most of the flight.  We said goodbyes to our new tour friends--another sad time.  Helen and I arrived in Omaha at 4:00 with very little sleep in 36 hours and it took a full week before we felt like we had recovered from time zone trauma.  But, you know what?  I'm ready to go again if we can find 20 people who want to go with me.  Interested?

Our Father's Love,
Tom

Helen, Keren and me.  This picture came from one of our group's I phones.  Keren was our tour guide and we could not have asked for a better one.  It is interesting to me that Keren's voice and English speech patterns are very much like a friend's in eastern Europe.  It was fun to listen to her talk.