So, who is Francis Asbury?

A Methodist preacher in England, and a contemporary of John Wesley.
A minister who volunteered to travel to the American colonies to preach and never returned to England.
Lived from 1745 to 1816.
Was reported to be an extraordinary preacher.
For 32 years he led all the Methodists in America.
One of the first bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church, now the United Methodist Church, in USA.
Like Wesley, he preached in all kinds of settings, often outdooors, anywhere a crowd would assemble to hear him.
As an itinerant he rode horseback about 6,000 miles a year, preaching nearly every day.
As a Methodist he preached about the need of personal heart-felt conversion and also the deeper life of sanctification and holiness.
A godly man whose influence is still felt today.

Asbury University and Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, KY, are named after him. (I am a graduate of the Seminary, class of 1968.)

The Francis Asbury Society also has its headquarters in Wilmore. The message of this society is as follows:
God created every man and woman to encounter him in such a radical way that our lives become totally, 100% surrendered to him, resulting in pure love towards him and towards others. Absolute surrender and obedience to Jesus Christ: we call it holiness.
See more at: www.francisasburysociety.com.

A statue of Asbury was erected in Washington, D.C., in 1921.

The statue is located on Mount Pleasant Street in the Mount Pleasant neighborhood in the northwest quadrant of the city. (The above photo is by Mr. T in DC’s Photostream.)

Note again the Asbury quote at the beginning of this blog. What is your overarching desire in life?

After a bit of searching, we came upon about ten birders parked on the side of the road, looking at something through their binoculars and spotting scopes. Sure enough – a snowy owl, sitting on the ground in the short green stems of a wheat field.

It was perhaps 60 yards away, so I had no way of getting a good photo, but here is an image from the internet, a free download from Owl-pictures.com.

This owl is typically found in the polar regions, but in the winter an individual sometimes comes as far south at places like PA, perhaps because of limited food supply in winter in its normal range.

As we watched this owl, thirty students and their teachers came out of the nearby one-room school and walked up the road to see the owl, too. One of the men with a spotting scope set it up and allowed each student to see the owl through the scope.

The owl turned his head from time to time, surveying the field, but in the hour we were there, he never moved from his spot on the ground.

The field also had a number of horned larks, sitting on the ground, flitting through the air, sitting on fence posts, and singing their short,tinkling musical song. Unlike the snowy owl, horned larks are common in our area every winter.

This image is by Tom Grey or Tom Grey Bird Photos.

Have you seen a snowy owl? Do you see horned larks? Post a comment if you will.

I do not know how to reconcile the newspaper report with the more modest number – I would guess 2,000 at the most – that we saw in Manger Square from 3:00 to 6:00 PM.

It is true that I did not stay for the Midnight Mass conducted by the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem in the Church of the Nativity. Is it possible that as midnight approached, the crowd swelled in number to a much large size than was there at 6:00 PM? Or did the article give inflated numbers?

If I ever get to visit Bethlehem again on Christmas Eve, I would like to attend the Midnight Mass, if I can get in.

The group was international, with people from Japan, India, Holland, Norway and Canada, to name a few.

Bethlehem, as you may know is only two miles south of the edge of Jerusalem. We arrived in Bethlehem at 2:00 PM at the Pilgrim Residence Hotel, a ministry of the Russian Orthodox Church, and had a bit of orientation to the city and then walked several blocks to Manger Square.

The plan was this: everyone from our bus was welcome to sing as an informal choir, standing in one corner of the square. It was more of a sing-along than a formal choir. You could sing for awhile, then wander about if you wished, and then return to sing again. So JoLene and I did just that, warming ourselves in a restaurant with tea, onion soup and shwarma, a delightful food consisting of pita bread filled with hummus, chopped vegetables and meat, either beef or lamb, roasted on an upright spit. We also bought a few olive wood pieces and then rejoined the choir.

The small crowd that gathered around our group included a handful of young Muslim men who were mimicking and mocking us, but we proceeded with smiles, love and silent prayers that the Holy Spirit would touch their hearts with truth.

I expected that the square would would be packed in every square foot with people, but not so. Much of the time the area was only about half full. Someone pointed out that tourist traffic is low this year in both Jerusalem and Bethlehem.

Join us by way of a few photos.

The Church of the Nativity, in the southeast corner of the square.

The mosque on the north side of the square.

The most valuable gift for all the world is the name of Jesus Christ.

As I mentioned earlier, when our group sang in the corner of the square, you could come and go, so we were usually rather small in size.

You can see the mixed reactions of the crowd. The fellow in white – from his other actions we gathered he was not rejoicing with us but was poking fun. So I kept giving him the biggest smile I could give.

I had imagined there would be a service of some kind in the square, but that was not quite the case. Indeed, there was a large stage set up with lights and a PA system on the south side of the square. But the “service” consisted of the fact that, beginning at about 5:00 individuals and groups,including ours, were scheduled to sing Christian songs, each group being given a 15-minute segment.

Unfortunately, just before our group was to go on stage a cold wind blew in and a light rain began, so the authorities disconnected the lights and microphones, which of course put us at a huge disadvantage. But we had a lot of zeal, and even though we were amateurs, we sang joyfully with guitar and trumpet and much rhythmic hand-clapping. This was different from the style of previous groups and caught the attention of the people, even without benefit of a PS system, and by the time we were finished the crowd was larger than for any of the previous features. As you might imagine, Pastor Al Nucciarone included in his comments a simple gospel appeal.

The program was to continue with other groups singing until 10:00 PM or so, but because of the rain the rest of the event was canceled, so we were indeed grateful to God for the opportunity we had to sing for his glory in this historic setting.

Next, we walked back to the Pilgrim Residence Hotel for a magnificent buffet dinner, glad to be warm again.

And then the bus ride back to Jerusalem in the rain.

Our experience at Manger Square was not as tidy as a church service, but it was an incredible joy to be there, to be part of this singing, not just to be tourists or pilgrims on our own.

Thanks for joining us, by way of blog, in this celebration of the birth of the Savior of the world.

* * * *

For tomorrow, Christmas Day, our plans for the morning are not clear. But at noon we will have Christmas dinner with the Danneckers and another couple from the Jerusalem Baptist Church. Then in the evening we go to the airport in Tel Aviv for a departure at 12:40 AM Monday, December 26.

Thanks so much for joining us in our travels. And special thanks to all who pray for our ministry. We are richly blessed by your friendship and your partnership with us in world missions.

Today JoLene and I walked to the Old City, wandering trough the maze of narrow streets, saying no over and over again to shopkeepers eager for a sale, and visiting the two chapels of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, located next to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in the Christian Quarter of the Old City.

In the shops the T shirts caught my eye, especially this tongue-in-cheek message to America.

Just outside Jaffa Gate is a modern promenade, a long walkway through many upscale shops. We enjoyed tea and pastries at Aroma Espresso Bar.

The day included, again, work on emails and reports.

Then in the evening we took the Hank Dannecker family to dinner at Focaccia Restaurant, off Hillel street, in the modern part of the city. Focaccia is a thin, oven-baked Italian bread and is often served with spreads such as goat cheese, sun-dried tomatoes, pesto and chopped olives.

Shabbat, the Jewish Sabbath, began about 6:00 PM today, so most restaurants in the city are closed. Focaccia, obviously, is one that stays open during Shabbat.

Be sure to include a stop at Focaccia on your next trip to Jerusalem.

Earlier I posted a blog for this day, but somehow it disappeared and couldn’t be retrieved, so here I am recreating it. Sigh…the joys of cyberspace.

This morning Hank took JoLene, Chris M. and me to Tel Aviv to see the facilities and meet some personnel of Save A Child’s Heart (SACH), the charitable Israeli organization that I described in my blog about December 19. Hank’s organization (1 New Heart) and Brethren in Christ World Missions work in cooperation with SACH, sponsoring children to come from the West Bank to the hospital for surgery. SACH accepts children from many nations, but so far, we have specialized in children from the West Bank.

Our tour started at the Wolfson Medical Center.

This is a general service hospital; the heart surgeries done by SACH take place in one wing and are only a part of what goes on in this Center. Dr. Houry, who does the ICU work with the children, gave us a tour and a careful explanation of the program. Two other doctors also do the work of SACH. Dr. Sasson, who does the heart surgeries, gets paid for his work. The other doctors and nurses all serve as volunteers; they work full-time at other medical duties and serve with SACH free of charge. They are all compassion-minded Jews but welcome partnership with a Christian like Hank.

Here is Dr. Houry, talking with our group in an ICU ward. How many people do you recognize in this photo?

We met Hanan, a two-year-old girl from a village in the West Bank who was admitted for heart surgery and who will be sponsored by 1 New Heart. Unfortunately, son after entering the unit she got the flu, so surgery had to be delayed and she returned home to get over the flu.

We learned that on Tuesdays SACH has a clinic for Palestinian children, free of charge, to screen them regarding their heart issues. Have you ever heard of this kind of cooperation between Israelis and Palestinians being reported in the news in USA?

Next we drove a few miles to the children’s house, where the children and their mothers, or other relatives, stay before the surgery and again after the surgery until the child is deemed recovered enough to return home. Here is a wall in the house, with a tribute to past surgery patients.

Then we drove a bit farther to tour the new house for children.

It is state of the art and spacious and will soon be ready for occupancy. The wall around the property features the logo for SACH.

After this we returned to Jerusalem and my mini-apartment for the three of us men to spend a long afternoon working on review and planning. The session was quite productive, and we all felt a sense of accomplishment.

The gospel of Jesus Christ is a message of reconciliation, and it is a great privilege that the Brethren in Christ have a part in reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians. Thanks for your prayers for, and your participation in, this great work.

This is the second day of Hanukah, a Jewish celebration that goes on for eight days.

Today we began a two-day tour of northern Israel and the Golan Heights. We went from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv to join our tour group, which consisted of seven tourists and our guide Menachem.

Menachem and the other five tourists were all Jews. Four were from USA, and one was from Chile. The woman from Chile was the mother of one of the women from USA. The mix of people and faiths made for dynamic conversation.

I will give a brief report now, hoping to give more details later, since there is so much that could be told and shown in photos.

Th tour was not what we expected. We thought it would include some stops at the Sea of Galilee and the scenes from Jesus’ life, but instead it was a lot of history of modern Israel and her wars and bunkers and border disputes. You can imagine how enthralling this was to Jolene! But there were many nice aspects to the tour.

We traveled northeast from Tel Aviv and were near Nazareth but it was not on our itinerary so we just nodded to it and kept going.

Went to Bet She’an, the ruins of a large Roman city, and the tel (hill) where extensive excavations have revealed at least 20 layers of civilazation, including the time of King David and Solomon.

Here is a view of the Roman ruins, from the top of the tel.

Just south of the Sea of Galilee we crossed the Jordan River to the east side of the river and then drove a hairpin-turn road high up the mountain to the plateau that is the Golan Heights. This was Baashan in the OT stories.

Went to the Peace Vista outlook, looking down on the Sea of Galilee and all the surrounding mountains. Heavy haze, so exceedingly poor conditions for taking photographs. Menachem narrated the Six-Day War that took place in June 1967.

We visited Katzrin, the Talmudic capital of the Golan, walking through what remains of the synagogue of Katzrin.

Went to a high peak called Mt. Bental. Cold and windy in the late afternoon. Saw the bunkers used in the wars. Looking north, we saw faintly Mt. Hermon. srael owns 20 percent of it, and Lebanon and Syria each own 40 percent.

Drove south to the Hula Valley, located north of the Sea of Galilee. It used to be the Hula Swamp, but the Israelis drained it to provide more farm land.

Arrived at Kibbutz Senir, so named for being near the Senir River.
We stayed in clean, neat apartments, with a kitchenette-living room, a bedroom of course, and a jacuzzi in the bath room. Ah! Relaxation.

Thursday, December 22

Breakfast at a guest dining room at the kibbutz. All you can eat of breads, several cheeses, tuna, olives, olive oil, omelets, juice and tea.

A tour of the grounds by “Buffy,” who loves kibbutz life. Like most kibbutzim, this one was originally communal – no personal property.
But the “equal work by all” did not work out, and some other aspects were not satisfactory, so this kibbutz, like almost all the others, is now “privatized.” Each person works for pay and pays rent for his apartment and his own car if he wishes to have a car. Much better arrangement, Buffy says.

This is a small kibbutz, with 500 people. It was built after the Six-Day War, on land that was formerly held by Lebanon.

Next, to the Banias Nature Reserve, where three of us walked a long, tree-filled canyon upstream to the Banias Waterfalls.

The falls are not that tall – maybe 60 feet – but impressive nonetheless, when the nearby mountains are so stony and dry.

Then we hiked another hour – great for cardiovascular health – to the impressive ruins of the temple of Pan, and a clear, ice-cold spring that is one of three headwaters of the Jordan River.

The above general area was Caesarea Philippi in Jesus’ day, and it was at Caesarea Philippi that Peter made his great confession that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. See Matthew 1.

Driving through mountains again, we saw at a distance Ka’alet Nimrod, a castle fortress built by Muslims as a defense against the Crusaders.

Next, on to Birkat Ram, a natural lake in an extinct volcano. This was the closest we got to Mt. Hermon, shown below.

One more stop, at the city of Safed (pronounced Sfat – don’t ask me why), which is described as the world capital of Jewish spirituality and culture. Several old synagogues, and many shops with all kinds of artistic creations.

In the distance we saw Mt. Meron, the second highest mountain in Israel, Mt. Hermon, of course, being the highest.

And so, back to Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

Today we celebrated our 46th wedding anniversary by bouncing around the country with six other people crowded in a van and returning to Jerusalem too late to walk to a nice restaurant. So our anniversary dinner was olives, crackers, peanut butter a cookie and tea in our apartment, which, by the way, is very nice. Very noisy, too, as we are on Hebron Road, the main road going south to Bethlehem, Hebron and everywhere.

One of the joys of being here is that we are seven times zones away from the usual hectic Christmas rush.

This morning Hank drove JoLene and me and Chris to Tel Aviv. We picked up the one piece of our luggage that was not on our flight yesterday. Then we attempted to go to hear a special speaker talk about the work of Save a Child’s Heart (SACH), the humanitarian organization that arranges for children to come to Tel Aviv for life-saving heart surgery, and through whom Hank sponsors children for surgery. But we got an unclear address and unclear directions for the meeting place, which was in Yafo (or Jaffa), just south of Tel Aviv. So despite phone calls to SACH’s office and confusing directions from people on the street – we stopped several times and asked for this Center – we missed the meeting entirely and drove back to Jerusalem, a 45 minute drive if traffic is light.

Hank says that in Israel receiving confusing directions is a common experience, just part of the price you pay for living here.

NOTE: You may learn more about SACH through their web site: Save A Child’s Heart: Wolfson Medical Center.

In the afternoon Chris, Hank and I worked on a detailed review of our strategic plan for the ministry here. We made excellent progress in what we need to accomplish.

JoLene spent the afternoon with Michele and family and made chili for their supper.

We three men (not to be confused, of course, with “we three kings”) went out for dinner at Focaccia restaurant.

Then back to our apartment. I worked late on emails and such while Jolene went to bed at a decent hour.

We arrived at the Tel Aviv airport at 2:30 AM!
Hank Dannecker met us and took us to our apartment in Jerusalem, on Hevron Road, the main road, noisy with traffic, that goes south out of the city toward Bethlehem and all of southern Israel.

We got a few hours of sleep, then went with Hank and family to the Jerusalem Baptist Church on Narkis Street. This is the church they attend.
The service included “Christmas in Vienna,” a program by their children and teens. Michele was pianist for the entire program.
There was a Christmas buffet meal following the service.

In the evening, after dark, JoLene and I walked 25 minutes to the Old City and had a light supper there.

Along with the usual reports and emails we were able to spend some time at the Victoria and Albert Museum.

A view of the courtyard.

An immense Chandelier by Dale Chihuly – hanging in the main rotunda. It has about 3,000 components.

An astounding Christmas tree made of 3.3 miles of elastic cord, with the cords tied into precise geometric designs at regular intervals along the lines.

Women grieving the death of Christ.

The Burghley Nef (ship), made of a nautilus shell (the light-colored hull of the ship) and fine metalwork. Made in 1527. About 14 inches tall. It is actually a salt cellar. A small basin at the back of the deck is where the salt would have been placed.

And we saw many other wonders at the museum. By the way, all museums in London are free.

After that, dinner at an Italian restaurant, just off Oxford Street, a street with more Christmas lights than anywhere else in London, from what I have seen.

Evening, we attended All Souls Choir Christmas Concert, with organ, orchestra, and flute and harp duets by two guests. Beautiful in ever way. We had to leave at the intermission because of our plans to meet with…

Mrs. Fadzai Moyo and her son Tha.
Her husband Elias is in Zimbabwe for talks relating to Ekuphileni Bible Institute.
We talked about many things about the six churches in UK and North Ameria.

Tomorrow, Saturday, will be a day for packing suitcases and making our way to Heathrow airport on the busiest air travel weekend of the year (they expect three-quarters of a million people will go through Heathrow from Thursday through Sunday), and flying to Israel.

See you later.