Mount of Olives

How had I never gone to the Mount of Olives? How had I never gone to the garden of Gethsemane?

I lived on the hilltop across from both of these places for a year and never thought of going over there. I am a bad tourist!

I have now, finally, visited these two places.

This is the view from the Mount of Olives looking down into the Old City. There is a graveyard on the hillside. It is believed that the Messiah will arrive on this hilltop and starting from there the dead will be raised back to life. So, those buried here expect to have a front row seat to that awesome event.

There are olive trees in the garden of Gethsemane that are supposed to be around 2000 years old. Jesus may have prayed amidst those trees behind me!

11 Years of Running

I have run on 5 out of the 7 continents. I have run in beautiful farm paths overlooking Lake Victoria and through boring cookie cutter neighborhoods. I have developed close friendships with running buddies and spent hours running alone. I've hated running and taken prolonged breaks and I've found running to be a source of escape and calm in the midst of stress. I have learned a lot through the discipline of running.

I started running 11 years ago, here in Israel. The Dead Sea half marathon was the first race I entered. My friend Angela drove me to the race and we took these pictures that day:

Since then I ran the OKC half marathon (the only race that I've run with a friend. Thanks Janna!!!). I then ran THE marathon - running from Marathon to Athens. That was followed two weeks later with the Route 66 marathon and then 7 weeks later with the Disney World marathon. That was 7 years ago. I thought I was done, but no.

This past weekend I ran the Jerusalem half marathon. There are many reasons why this was a special (final?) marathon.

1) I've now done three half marathons and three full marathons.

2) My first marathon and last (?) were in Israel.

3) Angela, my friend from 11 years ago, is here in Israel too! She helped me get to the race once again by letting me sleep on her couch. Once again, she took the pre-race photo of me and we got a post-race selfie together.

Odom, Odem - Same Thing Right?

I've always liked that there is a little village in Israel called Odem. I like to think that this is where my family came from. I also learned how to spell my last name in Hebrew from this village.

Snow, Snow, Snow!

I'm not a fan of cold, but there is something quite nice about snow. I didn't get to see snow while I was in the States but I did find some in Israel!

The children of the family I'm staying with had never seen snow before! So, we went up to Mount Hermon for the weekend. One side of the mountain is in Israel while the other side is in Lebanon and outside the window where we stayed we saw the fence that separates Israel and Syria.

But we didn't go there to be so close to these borders! We went there for the snow and throwing snowballs!!!