Today’s the day!! A Traveling Grandma’s Guide to Israel is officially available. I’m so excited to share this book with the world, and especially those who are interested in visiting Israel. As with all my books, I pray it will be a blessing to those who read it.
While I tell the full story in the book, today I felt it was important to share how my adventures to Israel actually came to be. Years ago a visiting archaeologist gave our college $3,000 if I’d travel to Israel to study archaeology and come back to teach it … so off I went.
I traveled to Israel the first time in June, 1984. I lived in British Columbia, Canada, then, so it was a long flight from Vancouver, B.C. to London’s Heathrow Airport. The friend with me and I got two hours sleep in the crowded gate area before our next flight. After extensive security, we flew all night to a new day and continent.
Israel keeps good track of its borders. Long before we neared land, the pilot announced we were over Israel’s territorial waters. All passengers quieted, straining our eyes as we hurtled through darkness until finally, we could distinguish the Mediterranean’s long dark coastline from lighter white-capped waves pounding the shore.
The land of the Bible remained dark until sparkles began to outline Tel Aviv. Then one single knife blade of silver light slashed the horizon, dividing the black sky above from the swirling waters beneath as Israel’s orange sun rose to unveil the coast. Breakers rushing to shore fell back in white foam. Tel Aviv’s landscape emerged, edged by corridors of graceful palm trees. And then, our plane touched down, and I began to discover why visitors feel at home.
Riding in a sheroot, a large shared taxi from Ben Gurion Airport up to Jerusalem, we met travelers from Argentina, other S.A. countries, and Europe. We were tired but happy. Several asked if I was making Aliya, a Jewish person choosing Israel as my new homeland. I said no, but that the roots of their faith were the valued foundations of mine.
We were a joyful bunch climbing limestone hills to the beauty of Jerusalem that first time. I’m astounded at the friendships and experiences my nine trips in the nearly forty years since have brought—incomparable and heart-satisfying.
A Traveling Grandma’s Guide to Israel: Adventures, Wit, and Wisdom is available in print and eBook and will be available in audio soon. It’s full of the notes I kept from Day One of my first visit for my own recall and has now grown into this publication.
Welcome to the world, long-awaited book baby. I’m thankful for every true experience and lesson in your pages. May you live long and bring inspiration and joy to many!
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