"First and Foremost"

For the love of Christ and the common good! While the First Church construction project digs down, builds up, and takes off, you can watch it in real time. Check out the web-cam on the website. You’ll find it on the FPC homepage. The Lord is at work; His FPC “base-camp” is being restored and [...]

Ready? Set. Go! Several hundred First Church members have taken the challenge of reading the Bible cover to cover in 90 days. Many more have committed to reading shorter portions every day. Larger and smaller groups, students and families, are gathering throughout the city for rich conversation and deepening friendships. In a culture where the family dinner table [...]

We began our second full day in Jerusalem by driving to the east side of the city, straight up the Mount of Olives.  The ridge overlooking the Kidron Valley offers panoramic views of the old city of Jerusalem. The importance of the site for Christians can hardly be over-emphasized. It is here that Jesus begins [...]

The sun rose over the Sea of Galilee about 5:45 a.m. and Dr. Tom Marberry and Paul Means were both there to capture it with their cameras. The rest of the group arose a bit later and some, well a couple, woke up a bit later than that. The day began with lots of laughter [...]

Another beautiful day begins in the Galilee! Our bus drove up the west coast of the Sea of Galilee until we arrived at Hazor (pr. Hatezor), an ancient Canaanite city, dating to at least 3000 BC. Clearly a strategic and important city, Hazor was almost certainly a city that  Abraham would have known and perhaps [...]

We awoke to our first full day in Galilee. The Scots Hotel, where we are staying, began as a medical mission outreach of the Church of Scotland. Pictures on the wall and a well-done five minute introduction on TV, presents Dr. David Torrence, the Scottish doctor who worked to establish this hospital and served here [...]

We awoke in Jericho to a beautiful morning and headed for a visit to tel Jericho, the archeological site which the British began excavating in the 1920′s. Considered by many to be the oldest city in the world, Jericho has been inhabited for some 9000 years. It sits just across the Jordan River about a [...]

We awakened to our first full day in the Holy Land! Jericho. 846 ft. below sea level. Arguably the oldest city in the world. An oasis in the desert. Palm trees, springs, wells, water. But the oasis is small, surrounded by dry, barren land. Jericho is part of the Palestinian Territory called the West Bank. [...]

We headed south from Petra early this morning and drove about 80 miles straight to Aqaba, the only port city that Jordan has on the Red Sea. Aqaba is not only a major commercial port but it boasts some of the finest beaches and best scuba diving in the world. It’s a major middle eastern [...]