Tuesday, September 13, 2011
2011 Regata de Globos
September is Independence month and every year they have the hot air balloon festival in our village of Ajijic. However, the hot air balloons are tissue paper with burning kerosene soaked rags providing the lift. This gives for great entertainment. Here are some photos and videos to give a feel for this. The photos can be viewed here. Here is a video clip of a successful preparation for launch and actual flight. Here is an example of a failure. To add ambiance we always have the proverbial Mexican band. They can be seen on this video clip. This year we even had hula dancers as shown in this video clip, in Mexico? Whatever, it is all part of the festivities.
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Brazil - July 2011
We just returned from another fantastic trip with GMP, but this time in Brazil. Rather than a narrative blog, the captions on the pictures speak for themselves. The slideshow of our pictures, in chronological order, can be found at here.
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Passion Play, Ajijic, Mexico
Our little village of Ajijic has only about 15,000 people (in high season) but each year, as in many villages, they have the Passion Play. We finally got to go this year and were amazed at the quality of the production. All actors are amateurs. However, the Passion Play is only one part of the entire Easter celebration. Go to this website to get the full set of activities. They reenact many parts of the Easter story over the course of the week. We figure in the next few years we will go to some of the other activities, like following Jesus up the mountain, as he carries the cross on His back to be crucified. We should point out also that in the scenes in Pilate's palace, the golden statues are actors painted gold who then stand in the heat for the duration. By the way, it was amazing to watch how they changed the sets between scenes, a very interesting production.
We found the Passion Play (in Spanish of course) to be very realistic and served as an excellent reminder of God's great gift to mankind, that of stepping on Earth as the man Jesus and then dying on the cross as payment for our sins and then rising again the third day victorious over death and the grave. When we saw the actor being flogged by the Romans we were reminded of something a local pastor said, "only an arrogant fool would reject the great gift of love from God". Sobering thought.
We recorded most of the passion play, and the following links will take you through them. The first video is just a quick view of the stage and the crowd gathering in front of the village church. The Passion Play begins with the Jews bringing Jesus before Pilate as shown in this video clip. The scene then moves on to Jesus brought before Herod. When Jesus stood without saying a word to Herod it was like He was thinking "Would you hurry, I am about My Father's Business and about to launch the most important event in all of history!" In the next scene Jesus is brought before Pilate once more. Now, in the next scene, Jesus is mocked and flogged in front of all the Jews. Apparently there have been times when there was real blood from the flogging as the actors doing the flogging got carried away. This is very realistic! The scene changes again to Pilate's palace where Pilate washes his hands of this whole incident, hands Jesus over to the Jews and Jesus begins the procession to be crucified. Note that the actor is really dragging a very heavy cross. He will go up the main street of Ajijic and up the mountain where there are twelve stations of the cross. He only gets relief when Simon the Cyrene takes the cross from Jesus. This actor then drags it the rest of the way up the mountain. Here is the crowd that followed Jesus on their way to main street Ajijic and up the mountain. Just as an aside, one of these characters is an effigy of Judas Iscariot that is to be burned later on.
Next year, hopefully, we will get more of the other events taking place.
We found the Passion Play (in Spanish of course) to be very realistic and served as an excellent reminder of God's great gift to mankind, that of stepping on Earth as the man Jesus and then dying on the cross as payment for our sins and then rising again the third day victorious over death and the grave. When we saw the actor being flogged by the Romans we were reminded of something a local pastor said, "only an arrogant fool would reject the great gift of love from God". Sobering thought.
We recorded most of the passion play, and the following links will take you through them. The first video is just a quick view of the stage and the crowd gathering in front of the village church. The Passion Play begins with the Jews bringing Jesus before Pilate as shown in this video clip. The scene then moves on to Jesus brought before Herod. When Jesus stood without saying a word to Herod it was like He was thinking "Would you hurry, I am about My Father's Business and about to launch the most important event in all of history!" In the next scene Jesus is brought before Pilate once more. Now, in the next scene, Jesus is mocked and flogged in front of all the Jews. Apparently there have been times when there was real blood from the flogging as the actors doing the flogging got carried away. This is very realistic! The scene changes again to Pilate's palace where Pilate washes his hands of this whole incident, hands Jesus over to the Jews and Jesus begins the procession to be crucified. Note that the actor is really dragging a very heavy cross. He will go up the main street of Ajijic and up the mountain where there are twelve stations of the cross. He only gets relief when Simon the Cyrene takes the cross from Jesus. This actor then drags it the rest of the way up the mountain. Here is the crowd that followed Jesus on their way to main street Ajijic and up the mountain. Just as an aside, one of these characters is an effigy of Judas Iscariot that is to be burned later on.
Next year, hopefully, we will get more of the other events taking place.
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Israel 2011 Praise Orchestra Trip
This was our second trip to Israel. All the orchestra members were new to us with half being students at the North Greenville University. Many of the sites we visited were different from our last trip so it was another exciting adventure. The blog on our first trip can be found here: Israel Praise Orchestra Trip. What we plan to do here is interweave HD video with the slides. However, either we haven't figured how to use it correctly or Picasa has a few bugs to fix, so it isn't as smooth as we would have liked. The caption from the slide previous to the video persists, so ignore it, and the slideshow must be advanced when the video is complete. We will go through the trip day-by-day.
Sunday
We actually arrived Saturday at 4 in the afternoon. We first checked in to Christ Church Guest House in the old city of Jerusalem, and after dinner and meeting most of the team we had our one and only rehearsal. Then on Sunday morning we had our first concert at Jerusalem Baptist Church. In the afternoon we went to the Prayer House, which we had seen on our first trip. Pictures of that are in the 2010 Israel trip blog. Prior to the Prayer House we did make a quick trip to Bethlehem and the Church of the Nativity. (It is in Palestine, and necessitates going through checkpoints, but it is very close to Jerusalem.) Again, there are many more pictures on our earlier Israel blog. While we were driving around we took some videos and a few more pictures. Remember, the videos are HD and, depending on your download speed, may not download in real time. These are shown here.
Monday
Monday we spent the day touring the area in and around Old Jerusalem. Our guide grew up in the old city, and was very familiar with the maze of little alleys. We saw the City of David outside the Southern Wall of the city, a house excavated that was burned during the Roman siege of Jerusalem, the Western Wall and the Temple Institute. The City of David has ruins that are believed to be part of King David's Palace. The Burnt House is reasonably intact but has ashes all over the floor from the burned roof. We were not allowed to take pictures in the Temple Institute, which was one of the highlights of the whole tour. The Bible states that the temple is to be rebuilt before Jesus Christ returns. The Jewish people of the Temple Institute are constructing all the elements defined in the Book of Exodus. The clothing, musical instruments, the lampstand, the washing bowls, the showbread racks, to name a few items. Although we couldn't take photos of the elements they can be seen here. We actually saw all of these items, behind locked glass doors. Our lead trumpet player had the privilege of playing one of the actual silver trumpets. The Jews are getting ready for the return of their Messiah, still believing in a political Messiah, and have all these items waiting. When the time is right they plan to rebuild the temple, for the third time in history. But their Spiritual Messiah has already come, as believed by many Messianic Christians, Jews that have understood the coming of Jeshua, Who will be returning again shortly. The reason that this was so exciting it is just another Bible Prophecy relative to the second coming of Christ that is being fulfilled. We ended the day by giving a concert at the Yuval School of Music and the Arts. The photos and videos we took on Monday are shown here.
Tuesday
We began the day by going up the Mount of Olives and then drove down to the Garden of Gethsemane. These were sites that we saw last time and only took some additional photos and videos of Old Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives. We then went to the Garden Tomb and again, had communion there. There are many more pictures here. Then we spent a good bit of time at the Davidson Center and the Ha'Ofel Archeological Gardens. These centers concentrate on the South and Western walls of the Temple Mount. These excavations were very interesting as they still clearly show the impact of the Roman siege of the Temple Mount. We ended the day by leaving Jerusalem and giving a concert at the Israel College of the Bible. We were running kind of late so weren't able to get any photos. Leaving Jerusalem may have been timely because they were predicting the potential of snow in Jerusalem on Wednesday due to a large storm coming in off the Mediterranean. The other photos and videos we took this day are shown here. On the last half of the Southwestern Corner of Temple Mount video you can hear the Muslim call to prayer emanating from the El Aqsa Mosque minaret.
Wednesday
Wednesday was highlighted by the fact that the big storm hit and it was extremely windy, cold and wet. But we braved the weather and went out and enjoyed ourselves. First was Caesarea. We were there last time but this time saw more new interesting features like the Roman Aqueduct supplying water to Caesarea. We had fun watching the large waves hit and go over the sea wall. After Caesarea we went Nazareth and spent time in Nazareth Village, an actual rebuild of Nazareth in Jesus' time with craftsmen demonstrating crafts with the tools of the time. Then we went to the Sea of Galilee and took a ride on a boat on the sea. The highlight was listening to the crew singing worship songs in Hebrew and English. The pictures for this day are shown here.
Thursday
The day began with a concert at the Museum of the "Jesus Boat", a boat excavated from the Sea of Galilee and determined to be 2,000 years old. Last time we gave a concert outside but because of the rain, this time we gave the concert in a room open to the lobby of the museum. We then went to the Church of the Primacy of St. Peter, where tradition states that Jesus reaffirms Peter as chief of the apostles. Then we went to the ruins of Capernaum, again, a place we visited before. We then visited the Church of the Beatitudes where tradition says Jesus taught the crowd the beatitudes. We ended the day with a concert at a messianic church. The photos and videos for this day are shown here.
Friday
This was our last day and very interesting. It began with several of our team wanting to be baptized in the Jordan River. So we went to where tradition states that Jesus was baptized and they were baptized there. We then went to Mt. Tabor, where tradition says that Jesus was transfigured and ascended to heaven. The top of the mountain was in the clouds so it was very damp up there and too foggy to see much. After that we went to the tell at Megiddo. This was a very interesting end to our trip. The tell is an archeological dig made up of something like 27 layers, where each layer represents another time in history when the city of Megiddo was destroyed. It was strategically located at the juncture of primary trade routes and so as the Northern Kingdoms invaded they destroyed Megiddo and as the Southern Kingdoms invaded it was destroyed again. Megiddo has an amazing view of the Jezreel Valley, which is believed to be where the Battle of Armegeddon will be fought - the final battle talked about in the Bible, at the end times when Jesus returns. The valley could be the place that Revelations 14:20 says the blood will be up to the horses bridles. Viewing the valley one sees how immense it is and realizes how much bloodshed that really amounts to. The photos and videos are given here. We ended the tour by going back to the Roman Aqueduct since after the rain washes away a layer of sand, small archeological finds are often revealed. We managed to find quite a few pieces of pottery, and a couple of pieces of Roman glass to bring home.
Sunday
We actually arrived Saturday at 4 in the afternoon. We first checked in to Christ Church Guest House in the old city of Jerusalem, and after dinner and meeting most of the team we had our one and only rehearsal. Then on Sunday morning we had our first concert at Jerusalem Baptist Church. In the afternoon we went to the Prayer House, which we had seen on our first trip. Pictures of that are in the 2010 Israel trip blog. Prior to the Prayer House we did make a quick trip to Bethlehem and the Church of the Nativity. (It is in Palestine, and necessitates going through checkpoints, but it is very close to Jerusalem.) Again, there are many more pictures on our earlier Israel blog. While we were driving around we took some videos and a few more pictures. Remember, the videos are HD and, depending on your download speed, may not download in real time. These are shown here.
Monday
Monday we spent the day touring the area in and around Old Jerusalem. Our guide grew up in the old city, and was very familiar with the maze of little alleys. We saw the City of David outside the Southern Wall of the city, a house excavated that was burned during the Roman siege of Jerusalem, the Western Wall and the Temple Institute. The City of David has ruins that are believed to be part of King David's Palace. The Burnt House is reasonably intact but has ashes all over the floor from the burned roof. We were not allowed to take pictures in the Temple Institute, which was one of the highlights of the whole tour. The Bible states that the temple is to be rebuilt before Jesus Christ returns. The Jewish people of the Temple Institute are constructing all the elements defined in the Book of Exodus. The clothing, musical instruments, the lampstand, the washing bowls, the showbread racks, to name a few items. Although we couldn't take photos of the elements they can be seen here. We actually saw all of these items, behind locked glass doors. Our lead trumpet player had the privilege of playing one of the actual silver trumpets. The Jews are getting ready for the return of their Messiah, still believing in a political Messiah, and have all these items waiting. When the time is right they plan to rebuild the temple, for the third time in history. But their Spiritual Messiah has already come, as believed by many Messianic Christians, Jews that have understood the coming of Jeshua, Who will be returning again shortly. The reason that this was so exciting it is just another Bible Prophecy relative to the second coming of Christ that is being fulfilled. We ended the day by giving a concert at the Yuval School of Music and the Arts. The photos and videos we took on Monday are shown here.
Tuesday
We began the day by going up the Mount of Olives and then drove down to the Garden of Gethsemane. These were sites that we saw last time and only took some additional photos and videos of Old Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives. We then went to the Garden Tomb and again, had communion there. There are many more pictures here. Then we spent a good bit of time at the Davidson Center and the Ha'Ofel Archeological Gardens. These centers concentrate on the South and Western walls of the Temple Mount. These excavations were very interesting as they still clearly show the impact of the Roman siege of the Temple Mount. We ended the day by leaving Jerusalem and giving a concert at the Israel College of the Bible. We were running kind of late so weren't able to get any photos. Leaving Jerusalem may have been timely because they were predicting the potential of snow in Jerusalem on Wednesday due to a large storm coming in off the Mediterranean. The other photos and videos we took this day are shown here. On the last half of the Southwestern Corner of Temple Mount video you can hear the Muslim call to prayer emanating from the El Aqsa Mosque minaret.
Wednesday
Wednesday was highlighted by the fact that the big storm hit and it was extremely windy, cold and wet. But we braved the weather and went out and enjoyed ourselves. First was Caesarea. We were there last time but this time saw more new interesting features like the Roman Aqueduct supplying water to Caesarea. We had fun watching the large waves hit and go over the sea wall. After Caesarea we went Nazareth and spent time in Nazareth Village, an actual rebuild of Nazareth in Jesus' time with craftsmen demonstrating crafts with the tools of the time. Then we went to the Sea of Galilee and took a ride on a boat on the sea. The highlight was listening to the crew singing worship songs in Hebrew and English. The pictures for this day are shown here.
Thursday
The day began with a concert at the Museum of the "Jesus Boat", a boat excavated from the Sea of Galilee and determined to be 2,000 years old. Last time we gave a concert outside but because of the rain, this time we gave the concert in a room open to the lobby of the museum. We then went to the Church of the Primacy of St. Peter, where tradition states that Jesus reaffirms Peter as chief of the apostles. Then we went to the ruins of Capernaum, again, a place we visited before. We then visited the Church of the Beatitudes where tradition says Jesus taught the crowd the beatitudes. We ended the day with a concert at a messianic church. The photos and videos for this day are shown here.
Friday
This was our last day and very interesting. It began with several of our team wanting to be baptized in the Jordan River. So we went to where tradition states that Jesus was baptized and they were baptized there. We then went to Mt. Tabor, where tradition says that Jesus was transfigured and ascended to heaven. The top of the mountain was in the clouds so it was very damp up there and too foggy to see much. After that we went to the tell at Megiddo. This was a very interesting end to our trip. The tell is an archeological dig made up of something like 27 layers, where each layer represents another time in history when the city of Megiddo was destroyed. It was strategically located at the juncture of primary trade routes and so as the Northern Kingdoms invaded they destroyed Megiddo and as the Southern Kingdoms invaded it was destroyed again. Megiddo has an amazing view of the Jezreel Valley, which is believed to be where the Battle of Armegeddon will be fought - the final battle talked about in the Bible, at the end times when Jesus returns. The valley could be the place that Revelations 14:20 says the blood will be up to the horses bridles. Viewing the valley one sees how immense it is and realizes how much bloodshed that really amounts to. The photos and videos are given here. We ended the tour by going back to the Roman Aqueduct since after the rain washes away a layer of sand, small archeological finds are often revealed. We managed to find quite a few pieces of pottery, and a couple of pieces of Roman glass to bring home.
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Sights and Sounds of Thailand 2011
We got a Flip mini HD video recorder and so took advantage to take a number of HD videos of our trip to Thailand this January so you can see and hear the sights and sounds of Chiang Mai, Thailand. We combined the clips into a number of general categories so that you can select the one you would like to see rather than one large video. Click on the title of each to see the video.
1. Adam, Cindy, Sean and Prang's Compound - Two large houses and a smaller one that we have the good fortune of staying in.
2. Grandkids at play - Adam and Cindy have four 4 year old boys and one five year old boy in addition to their baby and three older girls. A total of nine children, a real houseful. And Nana counts as an additional one on the slide.....Sean and Prang have 3 little ones as well as some older ones.
3. Feeding the 5,000 - When company comes for dinner the house is already full! They can seat about 12 around their big table, but when more people are there, the kids have their own table.
4. Feeding Anica - Everyone takes turns feeding her.
5. Anica dancing.
6. Anica Playing - Yeah, she was "almost" the star of our visit. She's at the stage where she imitates everything. It is fun to hear the little boys speaking Thai to each other.
7. House of Praise - Adam and Cindy's church taken on the day Adam played bass. Plus there is a little clip of their Australian pastor. It is an International church, with Thai, Burmese and English services. We do many of the same songs at our Mexican church (only in Spanish)
8. Miniature Golf - A real challenge with this plethora of little boys. We did not try to enforce the rules...
9. Sites Along Typical City Streets - A collection of video clips driving around Chiang Mai.
10. Old City Wall and Moat - The old city is surrounded by a wall and moat 1 Km square.
11. Mansions in World Club Muu Bahn (Development) where Adam and Cindy Live - Many judges, lawyers and wealthy Chinese.
12. Houses under construction in World Club - Similar construction as in Mexico. Note at the end the contractor and his family live on site in shacks until work is complete.
13. Gardens and Orchids in World Club Houses - Orchids on almost all the trees, beautiful.
14. One Room Shack with Garden and Tree House in World Club - Not all houses are mansions and no building code!
15. Carnival at Grace International, an English Speaking Christian School in World Club - The HS Seniors put on the carnival and some of the costumes are pretty elaborate. The theme, if you can't tell, was Disney.
16. Airport Shopping Plaza - Five floors of very modern shopping. Notice the motorbike parking lot, how do you find your bike?
17. Sunday Street Market in the Old City - Very colorful and picturesque. At 6pm precisely the Thai National Anthem is played and everyone comes to a stop. We love to eat our way through the market...
18. Ban Tawai - A village where Thai wooden furniture and goods are made and sold. Most places have posted "No Photos". So videos are limited.
19. Chiang Mai Night Safari - an interesting concept to see nocturnal animals, however, not good for photography. The highlight was we had a white tiger climb on our laps.
20. Goodbye for this year - Chiang Mai International Airport departure lounge, pretty modern.
1. Adam, Cindy, Sean and Prang's Compound - Two large houses and a smaller one that we have the good fortune of staying in.
2. Grandkids at play - Adam and Cindy have four 4 year old boys and one five year old boy in addition to their baby and three older girls. A total of nine children, a real houseful. And Nana counts as an additional one on the slide.....Sean and Prang have 3 little ones as well as some older ones.
3. Feeding the 5,000 - When company comes for dinner the house is already full! They can seat about 12 around their big table, but when more people are there, the kids have their own table.
4. Feeding Anica - Everyone takes turns feeding her.
5. Anica dancing.
6. Anica Playing - Yeah, she was "almost" the star of our visit. She's at the stage where she imitates everything. It is fun to hear the little boys speaking Thai to each other.
7. House of Praise - Adam and Cindy's church taken on the day Adam played bass. Plus there is a little clip of their Australian pastor. It is an International church, with Thai, Burmese and English services. We do many of the same songs at our Mexican church (only in Spanish)
8. Miniature Golf - A real challenge with this plethora of little boys. We did not try to enforce the rules...
9. Sites Along Typical City Streets - A collection of video clips driving around Chiang Mai.
10. Old City Wall and Moat - The old city is surrounded by a wall and moat 1 Km square.
11. Mansions in World Club Muu Bahn (Development) where Adam and Cindy Live - Many judges, lawyers and wealthy Chinese.
12. Houses under construction in World Club - Similar construction as in Mexico. Note at the end the contractor and his family live on site in shacks until work is complete.
13. Gardens and Orchids in World Club Houses - Orchids on almost all the trees, beautiful.
14. One Room Shack with Garden and Tree House in World Club - Not all houses are mansions and no building code!
15. Carnival at Grace International, an English Speaking Christian School in World Club - The HS Seniors put on the carnival and some of the costumes are pretty elaborate. The theme, if you can't tell, was Disney.
16. Airport Shopping Plaza - Five floors of very modern shopping. Notice the motorbike parking lot, how do you find your bike?
17. Sunday Street Market in the Old City - Very colorful and picturesque. At 6pm precisely the Thai National Anthem is played and everyone comes to a stop. We love to eat our way through the market...
18. Ban Tawai - A village where Thai wooden furniture and goods are made and sold. Most places have posted "No Photos". So videos are limited.
19. Chiang Mai Night Safari - an interesting concept to see nocturnal animals, however, not good for photography. The highlight was we had a white tiger climb on our laps.
20. Goodbye for this year - Chiang Mai International Airport departure lounge, pretty modern.
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