Israel #1 - Israel by Invitation

Shalom,

Later this week, I have the privilege of heading to Israel with my family. This won’t be a typical guided tour of the Land. I highly recommend visiting Israel with a tour group (I've been on three organized tours myself), but we're looking forward to the informality of this trip. Here are a few things that will make our trip different:

• Our visit will last for three weeks, not the usual eight or ten days of a guided tour.
• Rather than staying in a hotel, we’ve booked a three-bedroom apartment in Jerusalem for the duration of our stay.
• Instead of travelling about on a tour bus, we plan to use public transit, cabs and a rental car.
• We’re going to shop in local stores and markets for our food – not hotel restaurants.
• We’ve planned and arranged most of our itinerary on our own rather than rely on travelling with a guide.
• We plan to visit some of the typical highlights of a tour, but at our own pace.
• We’re going to visit a number of less well-known tourist sites that don’t make it onto most tour itineraries.

But there’s another element that will make our trip a little different.

Last summer, my father, Rick Beurling, was contacted by a representative of the Israeli Ministry of Defense and invited to visit Israel as their guest. The purpose of this invitation was to honour Dad’s brother, the great Canadian WW2 fighter pilot, George Beurling (often called Buzz Beurling), who joined the Israeli Air Force in 1948 and who died before Israel’s War of Independence had ended.

Dad has been asked to lay a wreath at the Israeli Air Force service on Pilot’s Mountain outside Jerusalem during Israel’s Memorial Day (April 19); this day honours those who have died defending Israel or by terrorism. On another day, he will also have the privilege of attending a military memorial service for George at his grave in the Haifa Military Cemetery. Additional plans include a visit to one or two Israeli Air Force bases.

Needless to say, my mother, sister and I decided to join Dad and “supervise.”

We hope to have many moments when we can explain to Israelis just why Christians love the Jewish people. (Because of the Jewish Messiah, of course!)

Lord willing, we’ll arrive in Jerusalem on Thursday, so start watching the blog for our reports on Friday!