Sit and stay awhile

A cool walk through a country garden in Porterville California.

Birthday Bash at Neff Park

Happy 1st Birthday Titus!

Coming home.

Jeff and I are heading to the airport. We are coming home. It's been an amazing trip and we have lots of stories to tell. See you all soon!

Pet rock?

Petra! Indiana Jones! Rocks! Hiking! Cool sites! Tired.

The saga continues...

Hello from Amman, Jordan! We just arrived today. It's been a quite unique and exciting trip to Jordan, and that's only with the border crossing! Jeff and I got to ride in an armor plated Suburban (windshields about 2 inches thick and a blast door for a trunk) from Jerusalem to the border of Jordan. We then got dumped off at customs, stood in line for more then an hour to travel literally 10 feet for a stamp in our passport, hopped onto a bus, got dropped off right before the Jordanian border (about 4km of no-man's land between Israel and Jordan), and was stopped and told we couldn't cross because we didn't have visas. Luckily we had some amazing connections (Jackie's cousins) who had got the chief of the border customs to call the Ministry of Internal Affairs to get us OK'd to go into Jordan without visas. We waited a long time as calls were made and finally we got clearance. We shook hands with the Chief and left in another armored Suburban.

Kid's camp was really fun and I met a lot of great people who took time out of their lives to serve these kids. I had four 13 year old boys in my room. There were really great kids. They had a lot of questions and they talked a lot too. It was also really great to work with the kitchen staff and help them out. It was good to be able to stay in one place for longer then 24 hours.

Jeff and I will be staying in Jordan for several days exploring here and there. Especially Petra. I'll post more pictures when I can. Below is a picture I took in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Old City Jerusalem. (If you didn't know you can always click on the little picture below to see the big picture)

To Paradise and Back

Jeff and I are back from Galilee and the Golan area a bit early. We have changed our plans a bit (A bit more detail at the end about our plan). We rampaged through the Galilee, Golan, and North Coast Israel these past couple days. We visited Mt. Carmel where Elijah had challenged the prophets of Baal (1 Kings 18:25-40). Then we drove through Nazareth, got lost looking for a place to stay, so we headed eastward to the Sea of Galilee to find a place to lay our heads down. We ended up in Tiberias, a fully commercialised tourist town. We found a nice place to check in and we headed out to the town to look around. We grabbed a bite to eat and rested for our journey onward. The next day we visited Capernum, Mount of Beatitudes, Church of the Loaves and Fish (where Jesus multiplied the fish and bread to feed the 4000 people), and we then, unfortunately, visited Korazin (Matt 11:21-24) and blew a tire on our rental car. We got the spare donut attached and drove out to find the closest Budget rental car place. We eventually found it but it was Shabbat and it was closed. We headed to Acco, explored, and stayed there a night. We got our flat fixed the next morning and continued our trek through Northern Israel. We hit up thge beautiful Tel Dan, Banyas, and Nimrod Fortress. After a nice bake in the sun from visiting these places we headed back down to the Sea of Galilee to stay in Tiberias again. This morning we slept in a bit and headed out to Beit She'an (which was amazing), then Tel Megiddo (where in Revelation Armageddon, the last battle is suppose to happen.), and to Caesarea. We arrived back at Ayelet's place shortly afterwards to prepare for our next adventure. Kids Camp! We are going to volunteer to work at the camp Ayelet is currently working at right now. Below is a picture of Jeff and I by the Mediterranean sea at Caesarea.

Onward Ho!

Jeff and I are heading up to Galilee for 4-6 days and will probably be without internet. I'll post as soon as I have internet access again.

Hot stuff

Jeff and I are back from the dead. See? We spent two days by the Dead Sea at Qumran, Masada and En Gedi. Qumran was where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. Masada was the faciniating and emotional story of rebel Israeli's fighting the Roman army. En Gedi was an oasis in the hot desert that King David probably stayed at during his fleeing from Saul. Here is a picture from up top of Masada looking down to the Dead Sea.

Holy Land escapades

You can feel the city of Jerusalem alive. The constant murmuring of different tongues. The sounds of distant church bells ringing. The shop owners at the bazaars shouting for your attention. One amazing moment during the trip so far was being in the St. Anna church by the the pool of Bethsheda. The church is known for it's amazing acoustics. What really hit me hard, in a good way of course, was when different groups of people came into the church and started singing worship songs in both their own language and also in English. I sat and sang with them in English as they sung in their own tongue. It was my brothers and sisters from around the world singing together in Jerusalem. If we could see heaven on Earth it would be this experience I had. Then a Christian Muslim man stood up, told us the lyrics he was about to sing and sang the song solo in Arabic. It was so moving. The best part of it was that over the loud speaker outside was another Muslim announcing the daily prayer for Islam but as the Christian Muslim sung it would completely drown out the loud speaker and all you could hear was the Christian Muslim's song to God. Anyways, below is a picture of two weary but excited travelers with their most favorite and trusty Israeli guide.

Destination arrived, exploration initiated

We have arrived safely in Tel-Aviv after a fun but tiring 'picking random streets to explore' through Brussels, Belgium. The 17 hours of flying on an airplane also helped with being tired. Here is a quick photo of Jeff and I standing by a statue of King Leopold II in Belgium. It's a little off balance because I was using my packback. More photos to come!

Going to the Holy Land.

I'm going to Israel! Leaving for the airport in 2.5 hours!

This is going to be an amazing trip.

I will try to post pictures on here throughout the 3 week trip.

This
is
going
to be
amazing!

Psalm 113:3

The beach is one of my favorite places to be during a sunset. I remember lots of great bonfire's with friends. The crackling of fire, the smell of s'mores, and the salty air can refresh one's soul. This one was taken at Newport during a random beach day excursion.

Pumpkin seeds

This was my first huge pumpkin carving party. It was at my Brother-in-law's parent's place in Porterville. It was amazing to see the community come and bring huge cauldrons of soup to share with everyone. Then the fun began when the 4-5 dozen pumpkins arrived in a truck and unloaded. This was one row of many of pumpkin creations. (You know you're in the country when...)

Line up

This picture is one of my most prized picture. It was taken at the Legion of Honor museum in San Fran. I was taking a bunch of pictures and was pleasantly surprised at how good this one came out. The shadows and columns are so cool! This is one of the reasons why I love photography.

Not from around here, are you?

Scenic pictures are my favorite types to shoot. Here is an example of one that I really like.

Matthew 19:14

This little angel was the flower girl at my friend's wedding. She kept playing with strands of ribbons from her hair. Photographing kids can be really fun.

Scroll down, scroll up

This was taken from my parents house. They actually got the scroll from China a month before I took the picture. Can you see my last name in the scroll?

Blooming flowers

Macro's are so much fun. Too bad this wasn't one of them but this is the closest I could get on the lens that I had at the time. I really want a macro lens!

Sally sold sea shells....

This was a shot I took in my beginning stages of photography. I actually think this was my first outdoor super sunny shot. This was at a beach in Newport in a more private beach. It was fun exploring around but I was so scared of getting my camera wet that I didn't bring it during my exploration. Haha.

Still hands, still picture

This was hand held so I have no idea how this shot came out this well. It should be really blurry because I don't have steady hands. But I'm not going to complain about the outcome. This is one of my shots that I really do like a lot. It was taken at a friend's house when we were having Thanksgiving dinner with a bunch of people. The focus was the candles and in the distance you have the carefully laid dinner table awaiting it's guests.

Different perspective

This picture was when I tried to shoot at different angles and more close up to a subject. Just ordinary objects with a different perspective.

The calm before the ninja.

This was a shot after a storm in La Mirada, the very few storms in California. I love the sky after it rains and the overcast weather made it really fun to shoot outside.

Lair of Ninjas

Can't have a ninja lair... without a ninja. I don't think this was even Halloween.

Rosecran's Ninja Lair

Can't have an asian house without asian warning signs. This was set above our stove top, courtesy of Mike Owen bought in China.

First shot

This was my very first picture with my Digital Rebel camera that I got in 2004. I love the bright red ribbon that contrasts with the darker clay Tea set. This was the beginning of a new love. A very pricey new love but worth every penny. It gives me a place to go. Hiding behind the viewfinder when I don't want to be in full view of this complex world. A place to go where focus is only within the mirror's edge.