We will call this section, The Life of Dan...

Here Pastor Dan is shown consuming an entire waterfall due to his great thirst!

Let's have another Dan moment:  this editor isn't crazy about the little elevators in our hotel.  Six of us came out from supper and went to the elevator, the editor offered to wait for the next lift to which Dan replied:  Don't worry this is not a claustrophobic moment at all!!! (Very pastoral to be encouraging).  We got in and for some reason the elevator went up instead of down.  Then suddenly it stopped near the top level but the doors didn't open as they usually do.  Ok, so Dan is not a prophet at all.  It is hot etc and no matter what we push nothing happens.  Trying to recover his caring spirit he pushes the alarm button.  Nothing.  Then the lights go out.  Finally someone says "Just a moment..."  In the end the elevator is reset or something and we all exit happy to be out of the little box that holds 450KG max (I'm still doing the math to see if we overloaded it or if it was just a case of Dan needing to know he isn't always correct!

On a somewhat more serious note, the following two posts are by Andrew Fortuine who happens to room with Dan and the second by Dan himself:

When we first arrived in Jerusalem, my first thought was not “holy.”  Crowds bustling…vendors clamoring for attention…people shouting back and forth…all in the context of a hot and dusty land.  But then it struck me:  taking away all the modern trappings, Jerusalem today probably isn’t very different at all from the Jerusalem of Jesus’ day.  People are still thirsty for living water, still in need of a Saviour.  Does Jesus still weep over Jerusalem?  A.F.

 This is my third trip to the Holy Land.  I had a deep conviction and passion to help lead this discipleship experience for our conference, because I believe the Lord meets us here, opens up His Word and teaches us.  There is something about this place.  Maybe it is simply that when God became man, He did it in Palestine.  And to visit the places of the Bible it becomes so real; the Lord was here.  He lived, He died, and He rose again!

Two places have touched a chord in me most this time around:

First, was the Judean desert.  The vast dry and dusty, hot and barren wilderness where the Israelites wandered and God sustained them.  Where Elijah, Jacob, David and Jesus fled to, to be alone and quiet before God.  Where John the Baptist preached and baptized.  We read Psalm 63 together and each sat alone and quiet before the Lord. 

O God, you are my God, I earnestly seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.

Here, alone and quiet before God I realized how much I need the Lord, and just how busy, full and distracting my everyday life is and how I thirst for my God and need Him.  Only He is my living water that sustains, speaks, guides and can love me so completely.

Second, was visiting the beautiful Palestinian children and families in one of the poorest, most oppressed places of all the land.  Living imprisoned behind a wall, living in the largest unemployed (40%+) place, living with little water resources, here World Vision and the Palestinian church have come to their aid.  There are nearly 200,000 Christians living in Israel and the West Bank, but they are often forgotten by us in the west.  We can com to the Holy Land, see the ancient ruins of where Jesus walked, but fail to stop and visit where Jesus IS today.

He is alive and living among the poor, and in the faces of His children, and in the hearts of His people.  The families were so thankful we came.  They gave us a huge lunch, treated us like kings and queens.  The kids asked me all about Canada and wanted their picture taken.  They were just like my 6 and 4 year olds back home.  My heart broke and I felt all this love and call to embrace. 

I heard Jesus say: I was hungry, did you feed me, I was naked, did you clothe me, I was thirsty, did you give me something to drink, I was in prison, did you visit me?  Whatever you did for the least of these, you did unto me.

I also heard Jesus say:  Let the little children come to me, for of such belongs the Kingdom of God. 

I still love the holy sites, but I love the living stones even more, because Jesus in me loves them and that is where He is today.  D.O.

Sorry but the Picture Man still hasn't brought his magic to the laptop so we are working with old pictures...