Last March when I wrote to you, I shared about my February trip to Israel where I took an archaeological course, the "Third Annual Seminar on Archaeological Reconstruction, Conservation and Maintenance," which was put on in a joint effort with the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) and Blossoming Rose, the ministry I am now working with.  I really enjoyed the training and time spent at Biblical Tamar Park.  Now I am preparing to head to Israel again.  This Saturday, April 25, I will be leaving for a one month stay.  I am scheduled to return on May 26.  That’s about 4 ½ weeks.  The couple who have been managing Biblical Tamar Park (Darick and Kate) for the past couple of years are needing to spend some time in the States to be with family, take care of some paperwork, and do some support raising.

I have been asked to help out at Biblical Tamar Park while they are gone.  There will be two others there with me during this time: a college-age guy (Chris) and a lady (Trina) in her mid-thirties.  It should not be a real busy time as far as tourists and people staying at the park.  Most of the tourism takes place in the spring and fall.  The summer season in the Negev and Arava warms up a bit.  I will be working some to irrigate the 800+ trees and shrubs planted over the last few years.  I will also be doing maintenance on the buildings and clean up after the occasional dust storms.  I will also be working to transform one of the buildings into a facility for prayer and study.  It needs some remodeling.  I may be doing some work on the ancient archaeological site as well, which I was trained in February to do.  I will find out more when I get there.  I believe I will be staying in the building on the right, pictured above.  Here is some more of the park, pictured below.

I am also looking forward to spending time with the Lord in this Land that is on His heart.  There is just something about being in Israel.  Not only being there for praying in a contemplative, devotional way, but Israel is a very strategic place for praying for what is happening in the Middle East and for our world as a whole.  On one of the prayer tours, that I went on with Earl and Trish Pickard, we as a team each read the book "Epicenter" by Joel Rosenburg.  It touches on the idea of how Israel in the past, present, and future is all a part of God's plan for mankind, thus being a very key place to pray as the Lord leads.  This is just a great place to be doing the Lord’s work!  

I am helping Earl and Trish as they work on taking a strategic prayer team to Israel this coming October and look forward to being a part of this team.  I will keep you posted on this.  Earl and I just completed producing a DVD that shares some perspective on praying in the Negev and some of the prayer vision for the Biblical Tamar Park.  We also worked on a DVD last year, with a friend of ours, that shares with people the concept of a prayer and study center in the wilderness.  When I get back in June, Earl and I plan to finish one more.  This last one will be on strategic places to pray in the Negev area using Biblical Tamar as a prayer base to go out from to pray.  They are each about 15 minutes long and give a great picture of the work we are involved with.