Everyone into the water.  But what river is this?

This is my final posting on the Finding the Flame Travel Blog.  I hope you enjoy watching our last video and hearing the various audio clips we have prepared.  It has been a joy to travel with these folks and experience the Holy Land close up with them.  I hope you have enjoyed it.  If you have thoughts and ideas for future travel blogs please do not hesitate to send them to me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .  Please read on for some of my personal sign off thoughts.

Towards the end of his pilgrimage to the Holy Land, Father Chris was afforded the unique opportunity to interview the Patriarch of Jerusalem, His Holiness Theophilos, the 141st Patriarch of Jerusalem. The Patriarchate of Jerusalem has a unique and challenging role as the guardian of the holy sites in Israel. In this interview, His Beatitude speaks about that critical role and the role of pilgrimages in the lives of the Orthodox faithful. His Holiness also explains the true purpose of the Church, and how the Church reconciles the world to Christ.

Father Chris Metropulos, Executive Director of the Orthodox Christian Network and host of the Come Receive the Light radio program, will be traveling as a pilgrim to the Holy Land with over thirty other Orthodox Christians from June 21st to the 30th. This exciting trip will take Father Chris and his fellow pilgrims to some of the holiest sites in the world - including the Church of the Holy Sepulchre where Christ arose from the dead. During the pilgrimage, Father Chris will be sharing daily blogs, photo galleries, videos, and interviews. In the accompanying video, Father Chris explains the upcoming Travel Blog - brought to you exclusively on The Sounding Blog by the Orthodox Christian Network! Click below to see the video.

JUNE 29, Wednesday  
This is our last day of the pilgrimage.  You can see it in everyone's faces.  We just can't believe it is over.  The last day however was not disappointment from visits to the Wailing Wall and the Dead Sea.

JUNE 28, Tuesday      JERUSALEM /NAZARETH/ JERUSALEM  
Today was just incredible.  We didn't stop for a moment as you will see and hear from our blog.  Just read on to see where we were.

Today's visitations included the Monastery of the Holy Cross, The Church of St. Elijah and the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem amongst other sacred places.

This morning, our initial plan was to drive to Bethlehem, the birthplace of our Lord and Savior. The cradle of biblical history, Bethlehem, is located five and half miles from Jerusalem. Instead we decided to attend the Divine Liturgy at the Holy Sepulcher.  What can I say?  It was breathtaking.  Bethlehem tomorrow.

We awoke early from our sleep in the beautiful Intercontinental Hotel in the Jordanian Desert.  Yesterday the temperature hit over 100 degrees so we needed a good rest that night and we got one.  Today we visited some truly inspiring sites and one that tried our strength even more as we visited the Mount of Temptation.

After breakfast this morning, we checked out of the hotel and began our journey to the sacred city of Jericho.  We visited the Churches in Cana of Galilee, Nazareth and Mt. Tabor as well as the spring of Elisha.  We also were blessed to have the seen and venerated the tree utilized by Zaccheus. 

Our group woke up early today to a very busy day of visitations to the Holy Sites.  After breakfast we began our short drive to the Greek Orthodox Church of the Apostles.  From here it was on to the Mountain of Beatitudes, Church of the Multiplication of the Fish and the Loaves then to Capernaum and finally to the River Jordan for a blessings.  A very powerful day spiritually for all involved.

JUNE 22, Wednesday     ROME / TEL AVIV / TIBERIAS
The pilgrimage has begun and we are off to Find the Flame.  Some of left yesterday from Miami International Airport at 4pm and have just now settled into our hotel.   The flight from Miami to Rome took 10 hour and then from Rome to Tel Aviv another 3.  We then were met by Danny who gathered the group which had taken several flights from different part of the Country and we were off on our first day of touring.