Last week I finally got around to visiting the House of Hope, a special home for blind and handicapped people. My families connection to House of Hope goes quite a ways back.  Years ago a couple in our church, Henry and Sarah Kroeker, sponsored a young man from Bethlehem, Michael David, who came to the US for an education. He returned to Bethlehem, becoming the director of House of Hope. He died several years ago. Michael David's wife, Rhoda, took over the House of Hope and continues to run it. Before they died, the Kroeker's set up an education trust for Michael David's children.
On our way home from Lebanon, we paid  a visit to House of Hope. Rhoda said that she has a picture somewhere commemorating the event. She did have a picture of our family dating back to a 1992 trip to Oklahoma. I think one of the girls produced this after some sleuthing.
One of the most intriguing aspects of the school is a woodshop designed to be run by the blind. They make simple brooms and cane chairs, although the latter is fading in popularity with the advent of plastic,  stackable chairs.
Friday afternoon Stephen and I left for Eilat. Eilat is the Israel's southernmost city, and only access to the Red Sea. Unfortunately, we didn't take into account the "Shabbat" (Sabbath), which grounds the main bus lines at sundown on Friday. Thus, we got stuck in Be'er Sheva, one of the deadest cities I've ever seen in my life. I'm sure much of its deadness was due to so many Jews celebrating Shabbat at home. Nobody was around. Everything was closed. Almost all the signs were in Hebrew. Those that weren't were in Russian. Speaking of Russian, there's over one million Russians in Israel. So far I've found about as many Jews that speak Russian as speak English. A good chance to practice my "Kak de la's" (How is it going?)! We eventually found our way to a seedy little hotel with an almost comically cadaverous manager.
This is the same place that you read about in the Bible so often, as in, "From Dan to Beersheba." Be'er Sheva is the Southern-most habitable town in the Negev, so saying from Dan to Beersheba was like saying from the top to the bottom of Israel. Abraham lived there, and named it. Isaac also named it, or a place like it, by the same name. Doing Scripture word searches on the towns you visit is an intriguing pastime.
The next day we went to the main highway leading towards Eilat and tried to "finger" a ride. You don't "thumb a ride" in Israel. Rather, you point your index finger at the opposite side of the road. But it didn't work. The only people that stopped were taxi drivers. Finally a taxi stopped that already had one rider. Thus, he was willing to take us for a more reasonable fee. Thus, we made it to Eilat. From Eilat, Stephen planned to cross into Jordan and visit Petra. So we split.
Here is what my guide book has to say about Eilat. "Eilat has two goals: to get you tan and to make you poor. The city is soaked with the sweat of rowdy Israelis, international backpackers, and European tourists; the air is abuzz with jet skis and cell phones. Some swear by Eilat's sun, coral, and nightlife, while others see the city as a huge tourist trap attached to a nice beach. In between the cocktails and Coppertone, stick your head in the ocean and you may notice some of the most spectacular underwater life the world's seas have to offer. Above the waves, the wildlife in bikini-clad and muscle-bound."
Accordingly, I didn't plan to spend much time at all in Eilat. In fact, I considered hitting Egypt. What changed my mind was The Shelter Hostel. While I was still in Bethlehem, fruitlessly working the phones to find a hotel with vacancy, a friend had recommended The Shelter Hostel as a good place for Christians. Little did I know...
The Shelter was started twenty years ago by a wandering couple who found Christ while in Israel. Figuring that they had a pretty good idea of what the average backpacker was looking for, they started The Shelter. Every morning the staff has devotions and reads the Proverbs of the day. They also work with a local church.
Saturday evening I attended their services. The main speaker spoke in Hebrew, with English and Russian translators standing beside him.  Afterwards I joined Thomas, a staff member from Holland, for a vigorous round of soccer with two local kids.
After spending the night under the stars, I borrowed The Shelter's snorkeling gear and hit the beach. I've never snorkeled before, but I got the hang of it quickly. Thousands of multicolored fish swirled around me. Below, hunks of coral the side of a minivan glowed with color. Some other snorkelers did some diving deeper down.  I tried, but found myself too buoyant. All I managed to do was fill my snorkel pipe with water, which had to be blown up or choked down once you ran out of air. Then I thought, here I have these nice flippers. Why not use them? so I pointed myself downwards and tried to kick. But what would happen was that I would float upwards, thrusting my feet out of the water. There my nice flippers would flap uselessly in the air until I gave up and came gasping to the surface.
That evening after supper I came upon a group of Jewish teenagers at the shelter holding a vigorous conversation with one of the staff members. The topic? Christianity. The staff member was a former drug addict who made a very convincing argument for his case. It was not at all what I had expected to find in Eilat!
I left Eilat Monday morning for Mitzpeh Ramon.  Again I refer to my guidebook. "Mitzpeh Ramon sits on the rim of Makhtesh Ramon (Ramon Crater), the largest crater in the world. At 40km long, 9km wide, and 400m deep, its sheer size is mind-boggling. The crater makes visitors feel small in every respect: its rock formations are millions of years old, its 1200 different kinds of vegation span four distinct climatic zones, and evidence of human life in the area predates written history. Since some of the geological formations are found nowhere else in the world, hikes pass through what seem to be landscapes of desolate, far-away planets.  Uphill treks wind toward phenomenal views of the desert expanse, a rainbow of multi-colored sand."
The crater wasn't formed by a giant meteor, like most respectable craters. Rather, a layer of hard rock, with softer rock underneath, was pushed up into the air. An ancient sea (or flood) washed off the crown, leaving the present gash.
One highlight of Mitzpeh Ramon was a glimpse of the first bona fide military aircraft I've seen in Israel. They were doing some training missions or something, because they just went in circles.
After a short hike to the bottom,  I headed back to a local hostel. I wound up spending the evening with a bunch of high school students from the Tel Aviv area. They were happy to practice their English on me, and share their pizza. They were a little rowdy. Many of them were Orthodox Jews. Getting away like this was a chance to let their guard down a little. I bumped into one of the girls several days later at the Western Wall. It was interesting to see her reaction then! I spent some time talking to the girl pictured nearby,  one of their chaperones. She moved here from Russia several years ago and plans to go into medicine. She was happy to pose with me for a photo. Her military status requires her to carry a gun at all times. Failure can lead to a fine.
The next day I took off on a very long hike. It was much more tyrannous than Petra, given the ups and downs of the terrain. In the picture nearby you can see the edge of the crater in the distance. Dragging myself up the rim at the end of the day almost did me in!  I arrived back exhausted but in good spirits, just in time to catch the bus to Be'er Sheva, and from there to Jerusalem.
Traveling through the desert I would occasionally spot a couple airplanes sitting afar off in the desert, their twin deltas attesting to their military status. The bus would stop frequently at military bases and checkpoints, picking up some soldiers and dropping others off. The M16's and machine guns sitting around gives one a gnawing sense of safety.  | 
