JESUS IS THE WAY!

“It is better to think of church in the ale-house than to think of the ale-house in church.” - Martin Luther

 

Tell Counselor Timbo your problems.

 

http://timbosboarsheadtavern.blogspot.com/

Timbos euro trip part II   

     So I am in Kaiserslautern, Germany enjoying the place.  You know they go by the Euro instead of the U.S. Dollar approx .70 : 1.00  No problembo, Joe.  2-3 Euros are the sandwiches and 3.00 for the large beers, not bad at all. My ipod was puttering out, no problembo once again.  I enjoy some John Sebastian Bach at the local Lutheran church rehearsal.  I was the only one that clapped.  I was the only Pentecostal there I would suppose.  It made me think of  Martin Luther which I always enjoy reading his biographies.   And Germany threw a party for my honor what do you think about that?  Actually it was a party for some beer with live entertainment.  But I digress, the party was just great.  Timbo the Euro traveler had a great couple of days in Germany.  

     So it is off to Minsk, Belarus.  Took an hour train trip to Manheim, Germany.  I was told by the cab driver Manheim had a beautiful Bus garage but  was seldom used because the fee was too high.  Hitherfore I had to take a cab, about 7 euros from Manheim to where the buses, congregate.  Got out there and  my lack of  the command of the German and Russian languages I started to notice.  I had to catch my bus that was not clearly marked.  Being I missed the train in Kaiserslautern, I made up my mind I was not going to miss my bus.  Sure enough,  my bus, not by any means clearly marked the bus driver nodded his head.  Okay, I’m in a bus that nobody speaks English, mainly all Russians and a couple of Germans sprinkled in.  I can speak basic Russian so I thought.  Well 40 hrs in a bus of Russians with Russian TV.   I started thinking man, my Russian sorta sucks.

     A very unique vacation for me.  I enjoyed it none-the-less.  Made friends with with a couple of girls that knew a little English and we were on our way for an adventure.  Stopping for breaks was fun.  I enjoyed Poland and it’s food.  The bus line supplied us with a free meal was nice.  Friends, Food, and Polish beer. Getting across the Belarus boarder was very time consuming.  Took the whole morning.  But I got to Minsk I ask my little friends,  Is this Minsk?  You get off here they replied.  This doesn’t look like Minsk.  Minsk has a population of 3 million people.  So I got off the bus looked around.  Nobody here.  I enlisted help of some English speaking young man to call my mother-in-law.  Worked pretty good I might say.  Didn’t help much I emailed them I was there a day late.  Note to self.  I am going to have to be bi or tri lingual to make this work better but I am still having a ball.  I stepped out of my comfort zone.  A lot of people are in their  little world of routines.  I stepped of  mine and guess what, it was rewarding.

     So let’s get out of our little comfort zone and see the world. 

Reunited with Wifepoo

 

 

Now that I have my Wife/interpreter I am doing great! She was tanned from her recent trip to Jerusalem.  Immediately I thought of a verse from Song of Solomon about the Shulamite bride.

5 I am black, but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon.

In a foreign land and I certainly feel in a foreign land.  See few fat people and everybody is mostly beautiful. One reason being food is not as plentiful another is everybody is constantly walking.  The subways are the main way of transporting.  The busses are electric tethered to a sparkly electric line.  Lot’s of young people in crowds. We danced, we drank, we enjoyed ourselves me and my beautiful wife.   Stayed at the parents flat made during the Soviet era.  The same floor plan for every house and the other flats I visited had the same furniture.  This made me even more dependent on my wife.  Sometimes I felt like a 5 yr old having to take his mothers hand.  Nights came and my mother became my lover.  You don’t remember the Charlie Rich song behind closed doors?  Great times baby great times.

The daucha is Russian for country home. A nice home of about four stories built by my wife’s father.   Now that was fun!  The only scary thing is getting there.  I think my Russian brother in law Victolic thinks he is in the Transporter.  He drives like a madman,    He has this diesel BMW that is very fast.  He even makes the heart pumping action just like  the movie.   We get stopped by the cops, no problemo.  He shows he flashes a badge and shows he is a Captain in the police core and we are back on the road. Finally at our destination, I am so happy.  Change my pants and start a good day.

 

 

The whole family comes to the daucha and we start celebrating.  We eat good health food an the vodka flow freely.  My father-in-law makes his own wine.  Life on the farm outside of Minsk is good.  There is a river, and there is swimming.  The family has a good time together.

 

 

All good things have to end so is life on the daucha.  So I survive a ride home with Victolic.  I thank my Lord  we arrived alive.  My father-in-law drives me to the euro bus.

We depart.  Parting is such sweet sorrow.

 

 

From the bus, we got to Kasserslauten, Germany.   I took a city bus this time thinking I am wise to avoid the $40.00 taxi ride to Ramstein AFB.  So the bus takes me to the little village of Ramstein.  Well the base is about a 45 minute hike up a hill to the base only one problem.   They loaded me up with approx 100 lbs. of luggage.  Could of been carrying a Hollywood anorexic.

 Immediatly I thought of my Niece Rachel.  Wish she was here to carry my bag for me.  Glad I work out with weights weekly pushing barbells.  Think I'll skip todays workout I say tomyself.  If I was a marathoner I would be un deep doodu. Needed my upper body strength.   Still it was a chore let me tell you.  I felt driven, but the good Lord was behind it.  Got to the base and and this kindergarten teacher gave me a ride on the base.  Took me to eat, and to my lodging.  I called, they sad they had a flight going a 3 am to March AFB California.  Got a taxi lined up got to the flight line.  My flight was delayed for tomorrow.  They gave us an option of having a guaranteed flight for tomorrow or get on the list for the afternoon flight.  I was the only retiree that opted for the guaranteed flight.  Guess what, that afternoon flight was cancelled and I was the only on that was able to get on that delayed flight.  An Airman mentioned I was the only one that made the smart decision for that guarantee.  I mentioned, “I’m from Vegas, I am category 6, I know when to gamble.

The next day they almost cancelled the flight with no seats because of the weight of the cargo.  The C17 had 4 Tonka Trucks.  Then they relented after much prayer not to do an in-flight refueling, but stopping in Canada for refueling.  They did it so they could take passengers.  And because God’s kid was praying to get home.

I was just thinking of walking up the hill with my burden.  About Jesus and His burden.  No comparission of course.  But my wife did tour the area  Via Dolorosa "way of sorrows"

http://www.frugalsites.net/jesus/cross.html

It was customary for the condemned man to carry his own cross from the flogging post to the site of crucifixion outside the city walls. He was usually naked, unless this was prohibited by local customs. SINCE THE WEIGHT OF THE ENTIRE CROSS WAS PROBABLY WELL OVER 300 POUNDS, ONLY THE CROSSBAR WAS CARRIED. The PATIBULUM, weighing 75 to 125 pounds, was placed across the nape of the victim's neck and balanced along both shoulders

 

 

 

Grand Court Hotel, Jerusalem

We spent the entire day in the walled city of Old Jerusalem. Abed had us on the bus at 7:30 AM so we could be at the Rabbi's Tunnel by 8 AM. You have to make reservations six months in advance to make sure of having a place so he didn't want to be late. We all noticed the high security as we entered the Wailing Wall area.

 

 

The women and men had to pass through separate metal detectors. We saw quite a few armed Israeli soldiers and many police cars. No special problems, just the normal precautions at one of the world’s most sacred and contested sites. After making our way along the very narrow tunnel that parallels the western wall of Herod"s Temple, we began walking the Via Dolorosa, the traditional "way of sorrows" that includes the fourteen Stations of the Cross according to the Catholic Church. Today the crowds were moderate, and the weather was sunny and slightly cool, making our visit an enjoyable experience. In very quick succession we visited the pool of Bethesda and St. Anne"s Church where we sang "Alleluia" and heard the words vibrate off the hard stone surfaces long after we stopped singing. Then it was on to the Church of the Flagellation and the Church of the Condemnation, both of them built over or nearby the actual sites where our Lord suffered so greatly while Pilate tried to wash his hands of his own guilt (Matthew 27:24). Then we descended a stairway to view the stone pavement called the Lithostrotos, also called Gabbatha in John 19:13. Here we saw the games soldiers scratched into the pavement to keep them occupied when they were bored. Those scratchings are 2000 years old. Later we stopped for lunch at a pizzeria in the Arab Quarter. Abed has known the owner (and his father) for many years. Several of the women slipped away to do some shopping down the narrow street after we finished eating. Then it was on to the Temple Institute where we learned about the efforts of a Jewish group to prepare the necessary implements for the future Third Temple.

 

Just as I wrote that, I realized that I left out two very important items. After our visit to the Rabbi's Tunnel, we spent some time at the Wailing Wall, which consists of huge foundation stones, the only thing remaining after the Romans destroyed Herod’s Temple in A.D. 70. By custom, the men and women are separated at the wall. And for many years those coming to the wall have written their prayers on little pieces of paper and stuck them into cracks in the Wailing Wall. I put a prayer in the wall in 1994 and God answered it--not because I put it in the wall but because it pleased the Lord to answer that particular prayer. I wrote out two prayers and put them in the wall this morning. We will see what the Lord wants to do about those prayers--and the thousands of others placed there every day.

 

 

again--this time to enter the Temple Mount, the 35-acre space where Herod's Temple once stood (and Solomon's Temple before it). Today the Muslims control the Temple Mount and the golden-plated Dome of the Rock dominates the Temple Mount. Three times I have gone inside, but not today. The Dome of the Rock has been closed to visitors for several years. Abed thinks it will open to visitors again soon. In previous visits I have noticed a sense of tension, but today things seemed very relaxed, possibly because there were very few people on the Temple Mount this morning.Since the Temple Mount is sacred to Jews and Muslims especially, it is hard to see exactly how the Third Temple will be built without ushering in a world war, but believing as I do that such a temple must someday be built, I leave the how and when in the hands of God.

We wrapped up our day by visiting the ruins of the destroyed temple that were discovered and uncovered in the last twelve years. When we first visited in 1986, the area was mostly rubble. Today it has been excavated, revealing some of the boulders from Herod's Temple that fell to the ground in A.D. 70, fulfilling Jesus' prophecy that not one stone would be left upon another (Mark 13:1-2). Our own Paul Boesche spent a few weeks digging in this very area several years ago.

Abed kept us moving very fast so that we were all pooped by the end of the day. But a week from now, those who came will be glad for all they saw in the Holy Land. Tomorrow will be our final day before returning home. Tonight someone said that their head is so crammed full that it can't hold any more information, which is a sign of a successful visit to the Holy Land. On our last day we will visit Gethsemane, the Church of All Nations on the Mount of Olives, then back to the Old City to visit the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and on to the Israel Museum where we will view the Dead Sea Scrolls. Our final stop will be the Garden Tomb where we will celebrate communion and remember our Lord's death and resurrection.

Luke 13:3