Stafford North

Below are miscellaneous hints to help you have a great trip.  Some of these are repeats from earlier information but it will give you a good check list.  Since some in our group have come along after I sent some previous information, I am combining a lot of things below.

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Some are interested in trip insurance.  There are lots of travel insurance agencies on the the Internet.  They all do about the same thing, provide coverage for bad things that can happen while you are traveling.   Things like:

• Trip Cancelation
• Trip Delay
• Emergancy Medical Benefits
• Baggage and Personal Effects
• Baggage Delay
• Accidental Death and Dismemberment
• Traveler Assistance

If you are interested, our travel agent recommends www.tripinsurance.com  If they ask about a travel agend then you can use: Strong Travel Agent ID# STRO8214TX. Dallas, Texas.

What am I going to do

Dad and I are not getting insurance for those we are paing for.  I hate paying for insurnce (although I have lots of it).  You will need to decide for yourself and make plans for it before we go.

Many have ask about the best plan to use to communicate back home while we are overseas. The most important thing to know about this is to plan before you go how you will communicate home. Here are some notes about communcation while we are on the trip overseas.

Email

• Some of our Hotels will have some internet access, so if you have web based email you can send and receive emails from the hotel.
• There is WiFi in some locations that you can use if you have a WiFi device like an iPhone. Free wi-fi access is common in cafés. All branches of ‘Aroma Espresso Bar’, ‘Arcaffe’, ‘Café Café’, ‘McDonalds’ and ‘Yellow’ convenience stores have free wi-fi access, though in some you will have to approach the staff for a password. Recently, the “Jerusalem WiFi” project started. This government started project aims to cover the entire Jerusalem area with WiFi although at the moment the only areas covered are in the city center. A similar project has started in Tel Aviv.
• There will be internet cafés in some locations that you can pay to use.

Voice

• Use your current mobile phone with an international calling plan.
  • You should check with your carrier (usually on their web site) to see if your phone will work in the countries we are visiting.
  • You should check the carriers plan for roaming and data for the countries we are visiting.
    •  The rates for ATT roaming in Isreal, Jordan and Egypt are 2.49/min
    •  Check the data plan for your phone for texting, email, etc. Sending text, pictures, email are usually pretty expense if you don’t have an international data plan. ATT does have international data plans
    • You should make sure you set up the plans for your cell phone in advance an advance with your carrier.
• Use Skype on the Internet – www.skype.com
  • Skype allows you to make low cost voice and video calls via the internet.
    • Skype to skype calls are free.
    • Skype to land lines and moble phone have very low charge ( 2 or 3 cents a minut)
  • Any location with a computer with internet access and is equipped with microphone and speakers can use Skype.
  • If you have an iPhone (or some other phones that support internet access), you can use Skipe (with Fring app) when there is wifi access.
  • You should set up the Skype service and learn how to use it before you go.
• Rent a cell phone
  • We have a group plan for mobile phone rental in Israel. Here are the significant points about it.
    1. If you get a phone and never use it, it will not cost you anything (it says $1/day but that is waved for us, as well as the delivery charge)
    2. Calling within Israel (like to other members of our group while we are in Israel it cost $. 19/min. (pay as you go plan)
    3. Calling to the US is $.38 per minute. (pay as you go plan)
    4. Local Number Service – For $10 you can get a US number (should get the number before we leave) that people in the US can call and you pay $.14/min.
    5. These are just for our stay in Israel. They will be available at our first hotel and be picked up our last hotel in Isreal.
    6. To sign up this plan you can do it on line Israel Phones 

 This will let us call each other while we are in Israel.

•  Get a calling card there and use a public phone or hotel room (may be some charge) to call
  • You can buy them when we arrive or order them now
  • Rates as low as 1.5 cents per minute to US land lines
  • Usually require dialing an access number and using a PIN

Here is what I am doing:

• Taking my iPhone.
  • Get International Plan turn on for my iPhone account
  • Get International Data plan for my iPhone account
• Set up a Skype account
  • I can use this from PC internet access in Hotel or Internet café
  • I can use this on my iPhone
• Set up Fring on my iPhone
  • This lets me use skype on my iPhone
• Getting a International calling card
• Renting a cell phone.

I have started presenting a series on Bible History and Archeology at Memorial Road on Wednesday nights. If you are in the Oklahoma City area you are invited to come.

I am also posting the audio, worsheets and powerpoint for these lessons here on the website. You can find them on the sermons tab.

To do one of the lessons online, open the worksheet (word document) and print it to fill in during the lesson. Then open the PowerPoint, play the audio and follow along with the Powerpoint presentation as you fill in the worksheet. Starting with Lesson 2 there is also a test over the previous lesson.

Hope you enjoy learning more about Bible history.

I hope you are starting you planning for the trip now. Here are some suggestions that will help your trip go better.
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For those in the Oklahoma City area, I will be teaching a class on Bible History and Archaeology at the Memorial Road Church of Christ for eight Wednesday nights beginning on the first Wednesday of 2009, January 7. While this class will be open to all who want to come, it will focus on those places we will be going on our trip and so will be a very useful study for those planning to go. We will also have a trip website before long which will post useful information about places we will be going as well as provide updates on the trip.

We now need to make our deposit to hold our airline reservations and hotels. To do this, each person needs to send in a reservation form with a deposit of $400.

Mail it to:
Hulin Fowler
Fowler Tours
8214 Westchester, Suite 670
Dallas, TX 75225.

Please mail me a copy of the form you send to Hulin so I can have that information for my files. This amount is fully refundable should you need to cancel later or should the trip be cancelled for some reason. The final payment will be due about two months before the time to leave.

Download Reservation Form