Our long travel day started from the Grace Bible College commons, and although the bus was late and we hit some really slow traffic, we made it to Chicago in time to make the flight. Funny that a trip of 6000 miles starts with road construction in West Michigan,
There are 25 in our group, five veterans of previous GBC trips to Israel. Josh and Lisa Tweist were on the 2011 trip (which started in Jordan) and Becca Zuber was a member of the 2013 trip. She is along as a chaperone. Scott Shaw (professor at GBC) is along for the third time, providing his usual help and occasional Tae Kwon Do lessons. It was good to see Jeremy Herr, a pastor in Long Island and one my my former students. Jeremy flew separate from us and we met up at the Ben Gurion airport.
The Chicago to Frankfurt flight was long, eight hours flight time. Not much to do but sleep, although the small child sitting behind me kept that from happening. We had a short layover in Frankfurt before flying to Tel Aviv. Our drive to the Hotel Leonardo near the Damascus Gate was uneventful and we checked in with no problems. We had a great dinner, no complaints on the food from this group.
We start tomorrow at the Garden Tomb, just a short walk from the hotel. We will the head to the Jaffa Gate and walk the ramparts, visit the Western Wall and the Holy Sepluchure.
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