In 1988 I went to Israel for the first time. I was part of the Valley Stream Church of the Nazarene tour group. My good friend, Art Alexander, invited me to join him. It was life changing!
Our tour guide was a Zwi Gafni. He had grown up on a Kibbutz, been a farmer and was a retired Israeli Colonel. The man was in love with his country. He would keep us out on the daily jaunts until the sun set. We came back to the hotel each night after dark.
When I was in Israel for this unusual trip of which I have been blogging about in recent posts I contacted him.
Sunday Evening, June 12, 1994, we reconnected. He was leading a tour and was in Jerusalem. He came by our hotel and had dinner with us. It was real good to see him again!
After dinner he took us up to the top of Mount Scopus, which sits next to the Mount of Olives. The view and the sounds of Jerusalem at night are incredible! That scene and the sounds are in my mind today, 18 years later.
He fought in the 1948 Wsr of Independence, the1956, 1967 (Six Day War), the 1973 Yom Kippur War and
the 1982 War.
After we came down from Mount Scopus he dropped us off at this Middle East Restaurant. He said it was his favorite in all of Israel. The food was the best we had on the whole trip.
Across from us was this party of six people talking about the peace process. It turned out to be the ambassadors for Syria and Jordan along with a dignitary from Israel and their wives. It was quite a day.
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