Day Trip Photos to the Negev & Dead Sea

In mid-August one Saturday, we took a day trip out of Jerusalem. We headed west until we reached the bottom of the Judean Hills, then south past Beersheeva to the Negev Desert. We stopped at Sde Boker by the canyon known as Ein Avdat. After that we went further south to the Ramon Crater, the Negev Mountains, and then finally started heading back north along Highway 90 on the eastern edge of Israel. Highway 90 brings you past the Dead Sea to Jericho where you turn back west to go up to Jerusalem.

Teepees in the desert for overnight campers.

Ein Avdat.

The Ramon Canyon.

This little Ibyx walked right up to us. I have it on a video if it uploads.

The highly concentrated water known Biblically as the Salt Sea (the Dead Sea).

A series of Dead Sea Hotels and Spas known as Ein Boqet.

With the sun setting in the west you had a perfect reflection of the mountains in the Dead Sea.

Encouraging the IDF on the Golan

On Monday, August 17th, I went with Karen, the IDF Outreach Coordinator, to the Golan Heights to make two different visits to the young men defending God's Land. "Be strong and courageous, for you shall give this people possession of the land which I swore to their fathers to give them. Joshua 1:6.

"Only be strong and very courageous; be careful to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may have success wherever you go. Joshua 1:7.

When the armies of the world turn towards Jerusalem, the God of Israel Himself will defend His Holy City. "In that day the LORD will defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the one who is feeble among them in that day will be like David, and the house of David will be like God, like the angel of the LORD before them. Zechariah 12:8.

The Golan Heights, immediately east of the Sea of Galilee, is a very strategic area for Israel. Today the US and the rest of the world wants Israel to give the Golan Heights back to Syria, one of Iran's best friends. Around 3400 years ago, when the Jews entered the Promised Land from wandering in the desert, the Golan Heights was known as Bashan where two and a half of the 12 tribes lived. So Moses gave to them, to the sons of Gad and to the sons of Reuben and to the half-tribe of Joseph's son Manasseh, the kingdom of Sihon, king of the Amorites and the kingdom of Og, the king of Bashan, the land with its cities with their territories, the cities of the surrounding land. Numbers 32:33.

The commander of the tank unit met us in a different location and we followed him here.

It was a short walk down the dusty road where the young men were training.

These young men are very comfortable walking all over and taking care of their tanks.

The IDF assigns four young men to a tank complete with sleeping facilities.

They were replacing a cracked wheel on one of the tanks.

To get the wheel off, you hit it with a slege hammer. On this particular day, the young men had been hammering all morning and the wheel had not budged.

This morning we actually just delivered T-Shirts to the entire tank unit. Karen always orders from an authorized IDF supplier and the T-Shirts are personalized with each unit's logo, symbol, and/or name. The young men were glad to receive them. Every one of them has a tremendous sense of pride in their unit and duty responsibility.

Several of the young men spoke English which certainly helped me. They were impressed when we told them about the work of Christian Friends of Israel.

We also told them that we are just volunteers in Israel and the money for the T-Shirts comes from Christians around the world that love Israel.

One young man told me "You did not have to bring T-Shirts, just to come and visit encourages us more than you know."

This is a short movie I took showing a tank being backed into a parking place. The driver cannot see and has to rely on navigators outside the tank.