Here’s an announcement of competitive and fun bike rides next week:

An invitation to residents, riders, visitors….

Come watch Israeli’s top Competitive Road-racing Cyclists compete in Beit Shemesh! Races begin at 7:00 am; Elite long-distance riders start at 10:30 a.m.

Then, take advantage of closed roads for a Public Ride – fun for the whole family! (6.5 km).

WHEN: Friday, July 21st

To register, go to www.bikeisrael.com and click on the Tour de Beit Shemesh banner at the top
of the page (the banner is in Hebrew). Enter each registrant separately.

COST: 30 NIS per person until July 18th. (Special rates for more than 4 family members.) All pre-registered riders (by July 18th) receive a bottle of water, t-shirt, medallion, and certificate of participation.

Riders who do not pre-register may register at the race site on the day of the race. Cost is 40 NIS (but does not include t-shirt, certificate, or a medal.)

Payment for ALL riders is on-site (next to the Beit Shemesh Memorial for Fallen Soldiers on Sderot Ben Gurion, across from the Fire Station), from 8:30 – 11:30 a.m. All riders (pre-registered and unregistered) must check-in before 11:15 am.

Riders under 12 MUST be accompanied by an adult rider. All riders MUST wear helmets.

Competitive riders (ICF insured and with completed health permit), should go to www.shvoong.co.il for more information.

Middle Bronze gate, Beth Shemesh, January 2006

In my completely non-objective opinion, the Pictorial Library is the best collection of Bible-related photos on the planet. But that doesn’t mean that we’ve stopped taking pictures. Today was just one of many incredible days that the Lord has given us lately for photos. It was so good though that I am very tired, and so this blog is going to give only questions and no answers. If you want the answers, sign up for the BiblePlaces Newsletter. If all goes well, we’ll have a great issue out next week that answers these questions and more.

The question: where were these pictures taken and what are they?

Hint: they were all taken within a 10-mile (15-km) radius.

Our preference would be that you not put any answers in the comments section (and spoil the fun for others). You are welcome to make other comments or to note how many of the pictures you correctly identified (place and object). My guess is that very few, if any, of my readers know them all (with correct specifics).

Richard Bangs is claiming to be the first guy since Lynch 150 years ago to float a boat down the entire length of the Jordan River. If he succeeds, I’ll be impressed, and not only because it’s an international border between a Jewish state and an Arab state. But he has reached “Day 4” of the journey and I see that the trip intro was hype and not reality. He’s now driving down the road parallel to the river. Now that’s an “adventure.” Still there may be something of interest to viewers here, as in addition to his narration, there are photos and videos for each day. Unfortunately he does perpetuate the myth (see Day 4) that the Jordan is 200 miles long between the Galilee and Dead Seas. In reality, it’s closer to 130 miles.

This weekend there was a big storm in Israel. I slept through most of it but realized the magnitude when I saw that my home modem was fried and a network switch at the office wasn’t working. I didn’t realize how much rain had come down or I might have done the smart thing and jumped in my van to go take pictures. The flash floods closed some roads and killed a few people, but for those with a safe vantage point, they were impressive. That evening I had a dinner scheduled with my friend Ferrell Jenkins. He had scheduled his group to spend the day in the Old City but re-routed because of the storm and thus was out in the wilderness watching the rivers run. I got to sit in his hotel room that evening as he downloaded the pictures from his camera. The shots he got were amazing. He had pictures you wouldn’t believe if you couldn’t see. Ferrell has graciously sent me a few of those with permission to post them here. I’m up north now and have only a slow internet connection, so these pictures are unfortunately low-res.

This first one shows a wider view. There are multiple “rivers” of water flowing down into the Wadi Qilt. The wadi itself has become a river. This photo was taken from a viewpoint overlooking St. George’s Monastery (which is just off to the left).

The second is a close-up of one of the “waterfalls.” Most of the year this area is brown and dead. You wouldn’t guess that it had seen a drop of water in centuries. Now you know better.

The last shows the Wadi Qilt in Jericho as it runs under a modern bridge. Normally as we cross this dry riverbed on the bus I comment to the students that when it rains this could be a raging torrent. They shrug and ask the driver to please turn up the A/C.

My thanks to Ferrell Jenkins for letting me share these photos here. If you’ve got a minute, take a look at Ferrell’s website, www.biblicalstudies.info. He has put together many excellent and helpful resources during his years of teaching.

Periodically I am asked to recommend tours to various countries of the biblical world. I usually don’t have good answers for them. That is not because there are not lots of tours, but because they aren’t ones that I can be comfortable recommending. But I just received this email and can recommend the trip to you. Dr. Mark Wilson is a scholar who knows Turkey like few others.

This May 14–31 I will be leading a study tour to Turkey, and would like to invite you to join our group. The tour theme is “The Journeys of Paul in Asia Minor in their Historical and Geographical Setting.” During our travels we will visit almost every site in Turkey connected with Paul. Full tour details with the itinerary and costs are posted on the homepage of our web site: www.sevenchurches.org.

A unique feature of the trip is our participation in the Ephesus meeting on May 28. For more details on this event, see http://www.ephesusmeeting.com/.