Today is the last day of my sabbatical -- tomorrow I go in to my office to
prepare for Sunday. Phil, Emily and I spent today wine-tasting at Mary Hill
(photos 1 and 2) and in Hood River -- Emily says it's an official
after-Thanksgiving tradition, since we've done it the last two years now. It
was a perfect November day - crisp and clear and the mountains were out (see
Mt. Adams in photo 3). Jeff stayed at home, because he has his first real
job -- working as a bell ringer for the Salvation Army(photo 4)! The rest of
the week I spent getting ready for Thanksgiving which was at our house this
year. During this thanksgiving season, I'm once again thankful to God and
all of you who have made this sabbatical possible. I've also been reading
"Walking in His Steps: A Guide to Exploring the Land of the Bible." It's
helping me review and put together some of the pieces of my trip to the Holy
Land -- especially the history and the Israeli/Palestinian issues. I
appreciate how the authors put visiting the Holy Land in perspective
pointing out that "no special privilege adheres to those the visiting the
Holy Land. Christ can be just as near and real to those in far-flung lands,
because he is no longer bound to any one place. This is an amazing aspect of
the Christian gospel, too easily taken for granted."

After being in sunny Jerusalem I'm having a little trouble adjusting to wet
and dreary NW weather, so having my friend Trish here was like a burst of
sunshine. A special delight was spending the weekend at the coast with some
of the wonderful women whom I have known since my children were small and
who have helped me through my parenting years. (Some of us are a bit worse
for wear -- photo 1 ). Most of our children are now out of high school, but
we still had parenting challenges to share (those things that don't make it
into the Christmas letters). Of course we needed a little time for fun and
recreation (photo 2 ). We even had some literal sun as we walked the beach
(photo 3)! My sabbatical work was not forgotten -- I took Trish to the
library to get a book about the Holy Land (photo 3). She was quite impressed
with the library as we spent time playing on the kid's floor (after all,
she's a first grade teacher) and learned that Thursdays are the quietest
days at libraries. If you need a mini-sabbatical I'd suggest a few hours at
our wonderful new Vancouver library. My friends even helped with some small
gifts that I'll be distributing at church on Dec. 4 (photo 5) -- you'll have
to come to find out what. For those who might be wondering, I'll be back at
church on Nov. 27, but the formal "welcome back" and forum takes place on
Dec. 4.

One more treat of this sabbatical is hanging with one of my best buds Trish.
She flew here all the way from Indianapolis! We met in Corvallis -- her
husband was the music director at the church where I worked, and we
discovered that we lived two blocks away from each other in matching houses,
with matching two year old daughters. Since Emily turned 24 yesterday, that
means we've known each other for quite a while. We're spending time together
in rainy Vancouver -- our daughters plan to spend time together during
Christmas break in sunny Cancun! Of course, during Trish's time here we are
doing things related to my sabbatical theme, like watching "The Syrian
Bride" which touches upon some of the politics I've learned about while
being in Israel and the Palestinian territories. That and going to the beach
for the weekend to hang out with some other Corvallis girlfriends...

Our trip to Santa Barbara has been a wonderful grace note to my sabbatical
time. In our two days here, we've seen and found some delightful things.
For example, while I was walking the Trinity Episcopal Church labyrinth
(photo 1) near downtown S.B., Jeff was able to watch the Veteran's Day
parade a few blocks away. Although it was a bit of a disappointment since it
was only a block long, he did enjoy watching the Veteran's Day concert later
that afternoon while I explored the art museum. Today we found local
strawberries and raspberries at the farmer's market (photo 3), plus I bought
pomegranates to take back home to juice (I bonded with freshly-squeezed
pomegranate juice while in Jerusalem). Then we visited the SB Mission (photo
4). Next stop was UCSB, where it took a bit of sleuthing to find their
labyrinth -- it's beyond the lagoon on the edge of the beach, without
signage (photo 2). It's a stunning setting and Phil and I were able to walk
it before the showers began. One other thing I found today at the mission
were these sweet last words of St. Clare: "Go forth in peace for you have
followed the good road. Go forth without fear for God has created you, has
made you holy, has always protected you, and loves you as a mother."

Since we have some unexpended funds in the sabbatical grant and at Phil's
encouragement, I thought it would be nice to visit and walk a couple of
labyrinths. The fact that they happen to be in Santa Barbara and we'll take
a train (two of Phil's favorite things) is just an added plus! Of course, I
plan to work on organizing my slides, etc. on the train. By the way, for
those who are around and interested, I'll be doing a presentation about my
sabbatical on Sunday, December 4, 12:30 to 1:30 p.m at St. Andrew (5607 NE
Gher Rd.). I'll share some slides, stories and insights. All are welcome
(come to church at 8:30 or 11 am too)!

Since I'm still on sabbatical, attending my favorite church (St. Andrew, of
course!) wasn't an option. Initially I planned to mix it up and go to an
"emerging" church in Portland. However, after reading their faith statement
and noticing the male-centric language and debate about the role of women, I
decided I couldn't stomach it. In a conversation with Phil, we quickly
decided to attend St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church in Portland
(see photo 1) instead. We know this church because of their involvement in
catechumenate ministry and because we often attend their Advent Carols and
Lessons service. It was a lovely service with wonderful music focused on
remembering the saints in our lives and the world since it was All Saints
Sunday. I liked how we were surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses --
pictures of saints were hung around the outside of their sanctuary (see
photos 2 and 3). An added treat was enjoying tasty coffee hour goodies and
catching up with our friends Kate and Dick who belong to St. Michael. BTW,
the first song in the service was "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," which reminded
me of my mother who passed away two years ago, since she sang this song to
me when I was a child. Later in the day we celebrated new life as I
"presided" at the festive and fun commitment ceremony for my dad and his now
officially committed partner, Nancy.

I made it safely home and I've been reflecting on my time in the Holy Land.
Although I didn't have any incredible spiritual epiphanies, it was a thrill
to find myself in places like the Temple Mount, Bethlehem, the Sea of
Galilee and the Judean desert (and in my dreams at night, I'm still visiting
Holy Land sites!) Visiting these places gave me extra motivation to immerse
myself in the biblical story - to read the bible, reflect on it and read
supporting materials. This will continue. For example, as I read Mark
yesterday, I imagined the stories differently as I recalled the places I
visited that are mentioned in this gospel. Sometimes here in the NW I feel
that Christianity is a dying faith -- I experienced quite the opposite in
the Holy Land. I was buoyed by seeing so many Christian pilgrims, alive and
well and from all over the world (although I must admit I sometimes wished
there were fewer of them at the sites we visited!). And while my group was a
bit unwieldy for seeing the sites (40+ people!), it was a delight to be
surrounded by people who were growing in faith and as interested as I was in
learning all we could in our "Palestine of Jesus" class. And I can (and
probably will at a later time) go on how my time in and around Jerusalem has
affected me. Today's photos are some of the staff for my course -- Kamal,
our very scholarly and inspirational teacher; Rod, our chaplain; and Rachel,
the course assistant making sure we're all on the bus. The last photo is the
college dean, Graham Smith -- stay tuned, he'll be in the Portland area in
January and may do a forum for those interested in taking their own Holy
Land pilgrimage.

Today I finally took a ride on the new Jerusalem tram (photo 1). It began
service around Sept. 1 and I was told there was no fare for the first month.
On Nov. 1 when I rode it, it was still free -- apparently they haven't
figured out the ticketing system yet. There have also been some other
problems along the way -- like they initially laid the wrong gauge track!
But it was fun to ride, and my roommate and I took it to Mt. Herzel, where
we walked through a park (photo 2) funded primarily by US donors (as you may
know, there's a lot of US money in Israel). My flight departed from Tel Aviv
at 10:40 p.m. (check out the flight destinations in photo 3) -- I counted
seven security checkpoint and lines I had to go through, and then I had to
dump the water out of my water bottle right before loading the plane -- but
I never had to take my shoes off!

Today, the last day of our course, we reflected on the Emmaus story (Luke
24), by going to Abu Ghosh, one of the traditional sites for this town. The
location is greatly disputed, perhaps because the Risen Lord doesn't like to
be tied down to any one place. We had a communion service in a 12th
century Crusader church (photo 1), where we were reminded, that indeed,
Christ can't be boxed into the Holy Land or any location. He has gone before
us, calling us to be witnesses to his presence in whichever community we
find ourselves. After worship we went to the nearby church of "Our Lady of
the Ark of the Covenant" (see the icon from in photo 2). According to 1 and
2 Samuel, the Ark of the Covenant "rested" for 20 years in this area until
David took it to Jerusalem. The Ark contained the 10 Commandments (the words
of God in stone) and a pot of manna (the bread-like substance that the
Israelites ate while wandering in the desert). Mary is the new ark since her
womb contained Jesus, the living Word of God and the living bread from
heaven. You learn something new every day here! Photo 3 is me with my
roommate Jackie from Calgary. Photo 4 is my "family" group -- me and three
mates from Australia. A joyous Reformation to you Lutherans and a happy
Halloween to all of you (a holiday that doesn't appear to be celebrated
here).

It's late and I'm tired, but I know you'll all be excited to hear that we
visited Bethany today. That's right, the town where MARTHA lived along with
sibs Mary and Lazarus. What I don't understand is why all the excitement is
about Lazarus -- the town in Arabic and the church are both named for
Lazarus. But this sickly chap is pretty passive in the story -- it's Martha
who runs out to meet Jesus and makes an amazing confession of faith, saying to Jesus
"I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God" (John 11). I say we
start a movement to call this St. Martha's Church!