"Listen Here to The Alberta Excommunication Tapes"
September 6 -13, 2004
September 6, 2004
Our Good Bye this morning to Bob and Carl marked the end of our time after convention in Austria. Our week not only was restful, and entertaining, it was spiritually uplifting. It added to our deep impressions of a country rich in scenery of striking beauty, in music, in architecture, and history.
You would know that Vienna is the music capital of the world. One can dial a number called "Dial a Tone" and get the International tone of Middle A on the musical scale. At check-in I was questioned quite thoroughly. I had to show both Passports where and when I had been and particularly how long I had been in Pakistan and when I was.
Honesty is the best policy. The plane was late on take-off but with a near full load it made up most of the time en route. We were above the Mediterranean for quite some time on the last leg of the journey. It has a jagged coastline in some areas. The adjacent lands were bleak and treeless, but the only other place I have seen water blue as ink is in Oregon's Crater Lake.
My first glimpse from the air of this Land of the Bible showed a smooth coastline in contrast to what viewed at the first. The Passport control accepted that I would be staying with friends, whom I was surprised to learn did know me from California days.
The only one I knew was Jennifer Horton. She with Bill and Lavonne Mestman, and Geri Weiner, all stood with welcoming waves as I came through the Exit. Tel Aviv is about an hour's drive to the south from Haifa.
Arriving safely in a new Mazda Station Wagon, we sat at a nourishing meal and had a get acquainted session.
I learned that Bill and Lavonne knew me in the Los Angeles area of California, particularly at the time of the Hymn Book Panel.
They own a condo situated atop Carmel in Haifa. One of my first impressions: The writing looks upside down! They do read from back to front, but the letters are in line on top instead of like ours which goes evenly along the bottom of the line. A good night's sleep was a welcomed prospect.
September 7, 2004
These folks have things well planned for the next five days. We are concentrating on a special study each morning apart from the meeting and visiting schedule. Today Bill kindly declined because of his work load, but four of us first went north to Akko, a friendly Arabian town of several thousand Arabs. It still has the walls that were built during the Crusades, and has become quite a tourist point for visitors. We had a special meal of fresh Red Snapper fish, plus then trimmings. Our seating was under cover but wide open to the Mediterranean Sea. It is so large that the natives call it the Ocean. I love how blue it is. The waiter could speak English. He told us of their Soccer team made up of Jews, Arabs, and Christians who learn how to accept each other and work in harmony. He hopes that will work toward a harmonious peace in place of the tumultuous present distress.
En route from Akko to the Lebanon border we stopped at the Ghetto Fighters Museum which features how children fared in the Holocaust. It lies on one side of a huge open air amphitheatre. Facing the Amphitheatre from another angle is the museum showing more of what we saw at Auschwitz in Poland, but additionally much of what took place at
another death camp called Treblinka.
The two questions flash again before my tear dimmed eyes: How man could treat his fellow man so incredibly cruel, and yet how others could stand by, knowing it was happening, but do nothing about it.
From there we drove to the Lebanon/Israeli border. We met friendly Israeli soldiers with their guns. One young man so readily agreed to have his picture taken with me. We clasped each other around the waist. He asked why I wouldn't come to live in Israel. About the present conflict he said the Lord put both Arab and Jew here and it is up to us to co-exist. At the border is the interesting Grottos and Cableway where a railroad tunnel was built to bring troops and supplies all the way from Europe for WW1. One reaches this lower lever and returns on the shortest cable lift I have ever stepped in.
The documentary was enlightening. Along with the construction they showed the habitat of turtles. They lay eggs as do chickens and snakes, and when the little ones hatch in their sand covered nest, they are already programmed to hit for the sea, lest the heat would dry them too quickly and they would perish.
September 8, 2004
We do not have a Wednesday night study. It is a Wednesday morning study. We sit around the table and only one prays. A quieter day followed, to catch up on a few personal things with this machine, but how could you be in a new land and miss a visit to their `shook', or what a market is called here. Such an experience makes one stand gaping with his mouth open, and wondering in mind what's next. The noise level does not hold a candle to Hong Kong's, the first one I ever saw and heard. But Isaiah must have known its equal when he wrote that Jesus would not cry( out) nor lift up (his voice above the din) nor cause His voice to be heard in the Street -Isa. 42:2. Just anything and everything is found in a shook. There is merchandise and toiletries, nuts and candies, fresh foods and fish, fresh meat and vegetables, fresh fruit and flowers.
Everything is literally spilling out into the street, with the vendors right in the midst of it all. While I had seen fresh figs before, I never knew such a thing as fresh dates! My mental picture of dates was seeing them hanging in their ripened state high up among the fronds of a date palm tree. Live and learn! I even found Gillette Aftershave balm! And pitted prunes, ripe peach textured mangoes, but no papaya today!
September 9, 2004
We ate at 7:00 am this morning for an earlier start to visit Jerusalem. Yes, it is not a problem to visit there. Bethlehem lies beyond a forbidden boundary. It didn't strike me so forcibly until today, that I am setting foot on soil with a history that goes back not to hundreds, but to millenniums of years.
To say this is a most compelling experience is putting it mildly. We call Europe the Old Country. We call our America the New Land.
What should we call this land of hills and valleys?
Ancient?
The cradle of civilization?
The centre of History?
We stepped on stone where once our Saviour trod , where Kings and prophets also left their now hidden footprints. It is the land where King David and King Solomon reigned; the land where other Kingdoms once ruled and then fell. It is an area which until now was to me just words in a book of Ancient History, with names and where peoples of Egypt, Assyria, and Babylon existed; where Medes and Persians, Greeks and Romans later held sway.
May I know how to treasure this day that will never be repeated. I shall never be thankful enough to have been within sight of Bethlehem, where Jesus was born. Because of the present conflict, it is out of bounds except we could stand on an opposite hill where a beautiful Hotel is built, and pause and ponder as we looked beyond a barricade fence to wonder just where the Inn would have been and the adjoining stable manger.
May I be thankful enough for the people who have so carefully constructed a smaller scale model of Ancient Jerusalem. In the scale a man would stand two centimetres high. With such detail of buildings, walls, temple courts, even the temple itself, and pools, etc., memory sharpens and one can better visualize where Abraham took Isaac up the mountain, where Solomon later built the first temple, the same site where after it was destroyed, Zerubbabelbuilt the second one in Ezra and Nehemiah's day; where the Romans gave Herod a realm to govern within their Empire that included Jerusalem and where to please the Jews he restored and extended this latter temple which the Jews still call the Second Temple. We could visualize in this model where Jesus was led to Pilate after being led to Annas and Caiaphas, where Golgotha was outside the camp, the place where Jesus suffered and died.
A recording described the Roman siege and the destruction of the Temple in A. D. 70. All was made so informative all the more so because we were denied admittance by the Arabs to that part of the old city proper where the actual Temple Mount is, because the Arabs control that area still. They allow visitors only when it does not conflict with their own activities and days of rest.
The Arab Dome of the Rock, plus another Mosque stand enviably in the very area that was most sacred to the Jews when their Kingdom was at the high water mark of David and Solomon's day. I stood with mixed emotions at the Wailing Wall earlier, but later toured the tunnels, called the Western Wall; Tunnels which show the much longer portion of the wall that for years has been covered. Part of these tunnels were water cisterns.
The Arabs covered this area and have built buildings right up to the wall of the old Temple. The length and depth of that fill would boggle the mind why they would go to all that effort to reclaim property away from the Jews. We visited the Armenian part of the City, the Jewish part, and the Arab part where Jews do not show themselves, but we could walk freely through any area. Upon taking a picture of a mill stone, it is easy to see that no one would casually act defiantly in such a way that would result in one of these being hanged about his neck and cast into the sea.
What an additional, exciting and totally unexpected opportunity came to end our day! Here we were at the right place (before the Wailing Wall) at the right time, 8:00 pm (just after we concluded the Western Wall Tunnel Tour) to witness several thousand young soldiers being inducted for three years of active service in the army.
Instead of a Band, we heard the Bugle. Of course, we could not understand the ceremonial speeches, but the whole environment was monumental. Literally thousands of people gathered to attend the ceremony which added an extra dimension. The soldiers were so friendly to us while they were gathering. We had to move among them to get back toward our vehicle. They were roused to a phobia as the time drew near for the Bugle to sound. Being two hours from home, it would have been too late for us to have remained to the end of the ceremony.
How could we ever retain the emotional impact of this day as we tried to immerse ourselves in the historical reality of this city. This is where Jesus did what He could to share with its inhabitants the true purpose of life, but was met with such cruel indifference. It must have been in the Temple Court where he uttered those penetrating words: "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not." Matt 23:37.
September 10, 2004
This day began with a 7:30 am Gospel meeting in a nursing home.
A coloured man was my interpreter into Hebrew.
He plans to bring his family to the Gospel meeting tomorrow night.
The sisters feel he is being touched.
I recall an article describing the return of the Jews to this land like a desert blossoming as a rose. This is much in evidence with the greenery of trees, banana plantations, orchards of many fruits, nuts etc. In fact there was a booklet on sale containing the many varieties that they now can grow here. Our meal of the day commemorated a birthday of a lady who is near the Kingdom. Her husband, daughter, and another friend sat at the table with us.
Two rocket candles were lit in succession. They blow themselves out. Cake and ice cream was standard fare for dessert. Then followed one of the better conversations anyone could have with keen listeners drinking it in.
These folks are Russian with a background of life experiences we in our land know so little about. We expect them all in the Gospel meeting tomorrow night along with my interpreter and family, and a few others. Excited? We are! Wouldn't you be?
September 11, 2004
Our fellowship meeting was today with one other professing brother bringing our total to six. Quite the experience to thank God for Calvary after being so near to where that precious blood was shed. We knelt in the meeting to pray, which marks another first for the memory bank taking me back to our beginning of days. We sat to give our testimony and used up the hour.
This other brother was my interpreter into Russian for the meeting tonight. I was pleasantly surprised to see those present we were expecting and another couple besides.
With three children we were twenty all told.
If we had that many listeners amidst a hall full of friends back home we would be thrilled indeed.
Back in Saskatchewan one year I had my message in the Gospel meeting punctuated by thunder and lightning. Tonight we thought it was with rifle shots, but it turned out to be a wedding nearby using large firecrackers for part of their celebration! All is well that ends well. It has been a pleasant day.
September 12, 2004
We had our final morning study before departure day.
The plan was to visit the Sea of Galilee and other points in the area where Jesus not only grew up but where He spent a good deal of His time in the ministry. We entered and passed through Nazareth, of course not knowing where Joseph and Mary's home or the carpenter shop would have been. We entered and passed through Cana, where Jesus made the water wine and where He raised the widow's son as her boy was being carried to his burial. We came to Tiberius on the Sea of Galilee which is below Sea Level. It is surrounded by high cliffs.
Our dinner table was right on the shore where it was a delight to feed the fish while we ourselves each ate a St. Peter's fish. We later saw Capernaum where He called his first Disciples to become fishers of men. It was exciting to place my bare feet in the water of the Sea where those fishers of men may have forsook their boats. We would have been near where He fed the multitudes, where He sent the disciples away in a boat to the other side of the Sea and where He went up the mountain to pray.
He then watched the disciples toiling against the tumultuous waves of the Sea, but didn't come to them walking on the water until the fourth watch of the night. We then went to both the inlet to the Sea and the outlet of the Jordan River from the Sea. Here I stood with my bare feet, this time in the waters of Jordan, and pondered wherever John the Baptist would have baptized Jesus and those first disciples. The day brought a thorough and delightful satisfaction, even down to the Ice cream Sundaes at McDonalds on our way home!
Upon being asked of my impressions, I begin with the breath taking view of the Mediterranean's deep blue sea water, and from there try to roll back the time clock of the mind to AD 30. I stand in awe and at a loss.
Whoever can draw comparisons of the incomparable?
Who can grasp the depth of the profound?
Who can measure the immeasurable?
Who can describe the indescribable?
Who can explain the inexplicable?
Paul and Peter resorted to the negative when they wrote about the unspeakable gift, and the incorruptible inheritance. My attempt fails me even to describe what this week has done to flood my mind and trigger my emotions. Indeed, this was a privilege of a lifetime that I never dreamed would come my way. I recalled that Jesus accomplished the work His Father gave Him to do in a mere thirty three and a half years. Who else can meet that equal? I go over all He suffered to leave us an example that we should follow His steps.
I think back on so much we included at Jerusalem a day or so ago, that moved me to visualize in a fresh way the antagonism, the hatred, the blasphemous tongue lashing, the scourging, the mock trials, the mock coronation, the utter rejection, the ignominious death by crucifixion of the sinless One.
This became so alive as we contemplated at the very site where it occurred. But we can rejoice that in the end He triumphed over all that was against Him. The powers of darkness had their hour, but by His resurrection He made a show of them openly.
I remembered that He was set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel and for a sign that would be spoken against. The resurrection later made the great difference to His frightened scattered disciples. We rejoice over all He accomplished before He died, and all He accomplished when He died, further still what was accomplished by His resurrection in electrifying a renewed courage in His disciples, and what is still being accomplished by it for the ages ahead. The thrill of the coming resurrection for His people should mean the same to us.
Deep gratitude flows out from my thankful heart to those who prompted this visit for me.
I am deeply indebted to Bill and Lavonne Mestman, who made me so welcome and shared their generous hospitality so freely day by day. Grateful thanks go to our sisters, Geri Weiner and Jennifer Horton, who included me so readily in their schedule of the Kingdom's interests.
Thus I say of all my vast impressions, I am simply and profoundly overwhelmed.
Yours as ever, Willis (Propp)
