Ode to Bob. I’m rooming with Bob Boyack on this trip which is a lot of fun. He is a wonderful guy and roommate. He has been wonderful to be around. He has taken some really great photos. I can’t put them all up because there are so many (mostly flowers, Shari you will love them!) I thought I would put up the one’s I haven’t gotten and to show off our grip’s talent.

Bob’s biggest addition has been his incredible love of the Lord (his love for candy is 2nd). He is just so excited to see everything and really helps keep this project in its right perspective. It’s real easy to eliminate the spiritual side of things when you are schlepping cables and running cameras, but Bob has helped with that. He shared a verse that the Lord had given him the other night after we were done shooting and it was Psalm 63. In this Psalm David is writing from the Judean Desert (where we were) and it really hit home hard about thirsting after God. To be in that place and be thirsty physically and be able to imagine what it was like for David was really neat. And how we were exhausted but really needed to cling to the Lord through the rest of this project.

Pictures from the last 2 days. Couple are from Bob. Yesterday we shot at Qumran, where the Dead Sea scrolls were found. Also they unearthed a tower that King Uzziah built. From there we went swimming in the Dead Sea. That was awesome! You were like a bobber on the top of the water. You could sit up in the water and float. Amazing! We then went out to the Judean Desert near Jericho to shoot. It was breath taking out there. We shot right at the edge of the cliffs out there. The pictures fail, it was awesome.

Today we started early again and broke into 2 teams one team went to Hezekiah’s tunnel the other (my team) we went to the City of David and set up. After lunch we actually split into 3 teams. One team went to shoot Jeff at the Rampart’s walk, one team went to set up the jib. And I went and shot b-roll in the Old city. It was really fast so I don’t have any good pictures of the neat things I shot. We then all met at the jib and shot in the Valley of Hinnom. In Jesus’s days that was Gehenna, which was the garbage dump he referred to when talking of Hell. Crazy busy so not a lot of good pictures, but definitely one of the more fun days. Tomorrow is the last day of shoots. We have shot 9 of the 10 sessions already. It went fast. Tomorrow or Saturday I will introduce the team and have some of Bob’s great pictures.

This morning we left at 4:30 and set up in the dark on the Mount of Olives. We finished at 8:30 and had the rest of the morning off, which was spent swimming and eating lunch. We also stopped at the Garden of Gethsamane on the way back. Really neat to see this location where Jesus was betraed and arrested. In the afternoon we headed out to the Valley of Zephathah. King Asa recommitted himself to the Lord on this site. On the way we drove past the Valley of Elah which is where David fought Goliath. Unfortunately we couldn’t stop since we had to get the team home since we had some hourly workers. Still neat to see from the car. Today was a smooth day. Everyone is getting into a rhythm. The break was perfect and allowed us to stay out of the 95 degree heat at its worst.

Today we shot at the Archeological park at the southwest corner of the Temple Mount. Here they uncovered a road from the first century that Jesus no doubt walked on. They uncovered the ritual baths outside of the Temple and some really interesting stuff. These have been covered since Rome destroyed the city in 70 AD. But in 2002 they uncovered all of these things. It was a rocky start to the day but it all came together and we were back by 6pm. Tomorrow we start at the Mount of Olives at 5am so good night!

Went to Tel Aviv after sightseeing to check out our equipment. Kim taught Bob and Dave how to assemble the jib. The team at Utopia Equipment was awesome. Also Sharon from Biblical Productions was there. She was great, she is a hook up with the guys at Utopia they have a great working relationship.

Jesus’ Tomb

Some sightseeing we did this this morning. We had an hour after breakfast before work. The Via Delarosa is the traditional path Jesus took to Calvary. The actual Crucifixion, burial and resurrection sites were interesting because they have been made so ornate and reverent. It was tough to contain our excitement while everyone was so somber. This is a place of victory!

We are here at the hotel and safe. Time to eat a little dinner and go to bed.

Israel

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