Sunday, 1/31

Well, the plan was to leave right after the morning church service, head up to Portland by noon. Relax and be ready for bed by 7:30 pm. Not to be! We drove about 30 miles and realized we forgot something - I won't say what - and went back home. The cats were happy to see us since they all thought we were going on a trip. Fooled them. We got back on the road and made three stops in Eugene - all necessary, of course. It's five o'clock, we're still on the road, and that 7:30 bed time isn't going to happen. Did I really think we could go to sleep at 7:30 anyway? BTW, We figured out the actual flying time is 18 hours. The layovers are lengthy so this is going to be a long journey - around 26 hours, I think. (Nothing compares to the Africa trip which was 36 flying hours.) But, we have our books, cards, games, instruction books for the new voice recorder and the I Pod to help pass the time.

Abounding excitement!

I don't think that I've been this excited in a long time, well, maybe I've just been perpetually excited since this trip was announced! (some of you are laughing at me right now...) I've been gathering for packing for months, I've been watching videos and taking notes, going back to my college notes, reading Bible reference books and checking out maps when I read my Bible and I don't think that I've scratched the surface as to preparation for this trip. This has been a far off dream since college and I feel so blessed that it is really happening. I'm looking forward to traveling with this team that God has put in place and getting to know them all in a special way. I have no idea how often I'll get to blog, but this is a cool way to keep our loved ones in the loop. I would ask that you just keep us all in your prayers for things like travel, health, relationships and that we would be able to take in all that the Lord has for us as we are there. I'll try to get back on here soon!

Note to our readers

I (Paul) sent an email to all of those going to Israel and let them "post" on this blog. This means that you need to look at the bottom of each post to see who the person is. When I make a post it will say in light letters "posted by Paul Glazner". Some people may only use their first name like: "posted by Joy". It will give you some good insight to many perspectives on the trip and that way several people can go to an internet cafe and post to the same blog all at once.

We are appreciative of the prayers and comments. It makes this trip all the more special!!

One of the requests will be the lOOOOOng flight to Israel. We leave at 6:18 in the morning on Monday, February 1 and arrive the next day at 6:00 in the evening. There are three legs of the journey....to Chicago, to Frankfort, Germany and then to Tel Aviv, Israel. Each switch has a couple of hours of wait time between flights. Israel is 10 hours ahead of Pacific Coast time, so we will arrive at 10:00 AM Oregon time meaning our total flight time is about 28 hours. We will be tired!

We're packing for this dream trip to Israel and Jordan. Or, rather, I'm packing and have been all week. Terry isn't. He will do it on the last day and it will take 30 minutes. I'm carefully considering everything. I'm not sure about the weather so I have to cover all the bases. I am excited about this trip. Not in the same way as I have been for other trips. This one is different because Terry will be with me. This will be really new. I've traveled a lot on my own and I'm used to doing things without considering another person so I don't know how this is going to work out. It will be something I have to work at. Another issue is the security of the country. I wasn't anxious about it at all until small group the other night when they wanted to pray for our safety. I guess I just didn't think about it that much. But, I know we're in God's hands and we will be guided by Him. Just the same, I'm going to pray for safe trip!

Thanks for all the support

I posted the notice on Facebook about the blog and had 25 response in one day. Many people will be keeping up with our blog...so0 that means I will make a priority of getting stuff on here. I think we should be able to put up pictures as well as get other people to log in and blog for their family and friends.

Thanks to those who marked "follow" so that we know you are checking!

Three more days!!....(so much to get done before we leave!)

Getting Ready

We are excited about going to Israel. There are 21 of us going to Israel, leaving Monday February 1st. We are going to publish updates here as often as we can so you can follow our adventures and pray for us.

We are going to fly from Portland to Chicago, where we will meet up with Todd and Letsy Fink who will hopefully be joining us from San Diego. Then we will fly to Germany which is a long flight and then five more hours to Tel Aviv. We will arrive at 6:06PM on February 2 which is ten hours ahead of Oregon (so that will be 10:00 Am here). We will be very tired but glad to be there.

Feel free to comment on any post you want and if we can find the time and an internet cafe, several of us may make a post.