Copper Scroll Project Israel Update
12/31/08

Israel Update Dec 31st 2008

Shalom Everyone,

Sorry for the delay in contacting and updating all of you. Chris Knight and I are in Israel making some arrangements and doing some logistical work to determine the cost for food, lodging, and transportation. Not to mention the many other items that come up that a person just can’t think of while planning to house so many team members.

Many of you are asking me technical and historical questions about the Copper Scroll and I fully appreciate your interest, but for now I must stop trying to answer them all. I just don’t have the time. I receive “lots” of email and just can’t answer them all. Please understand and forgive me, but for now it is just impossible. But thank you for your kind words and great amount of encouragement it is fantastic to hear from all of you.

This email will be posted on the web by our web-master Jared Sturgill for the rest of the world to see and bring them up to date. I have had a lot of emails from folks around the world wondering what was going on since we have not updated. The biggest delay has been the speaking engagements and the preparation for this trip.

We came over to contact the archaeologist and see for ourselves what the hold up is with the ecologist, since he is the one that has put up a yield sign wanting us to wait until April to do the dig at our first location. It is somewhat disappointing obviously. But in the scheme of things it is only a minor set back. Many others that have dealt with the Israeli government have told me, “Count your blessings that this has been your only hold up.” I spoke with a gentleman today in Jerusalem that was shocked when we told him where we were at on the process. He could not believe that we had come so far so quickly. None-the-less, Chris and I cannot help but feel some disappointment. But…we are still in the land and hope to see the ecologist ourselves in a few days.

Many people have been concerned about our safety, and we very much appreciate the prayers and the support. It was the Sabbath and I was studying when I heard jets ripping through the skies overhead and a short time later several muffled explosions of in the distance to the west. Being an old cavalry helicopter scout, I knew what was happening. Later we went online and read that Israel had finally come through on a promise to retaliate against the Palestinians for firing an endless barrage of rockets from the Gaza strip. Needless to say the tensions in the Middle East have since escalated. All around the world protests are mounting and certainly here in Israel.

Just last night as we pulled into the driveway of the home we are staying in we could hear gunfire to the north and west of us. We can’t be sure where it was coming from but it was close. Lots of automatic gunfire that sounded a lot like AK-47, which I have heard and recognize the sound of, and a couple of explosions. As a matter of fact the gunfire has just started up again in the same area. Chris is standing at the door and we can hear the automatic weapons going off.

Chris and I are also putting together a short video clip, if we can make our new equipment work, to send along with this email. The Youtube link is http://www.youtube.com/copperscrollproject for the short video update. The webmaster will try to have it on a location on the website for all to view. So if you can’t open it from this email, go to the website in a few days and see if you can find it.

Thank you all so very much for your support and know that we are doing our best to see this through. We have little to no authority, really no authority at all here, so we just keep pressing forward knowing the only the Father can know what will happen next. So, we ask all of you wonderful people to keep us in your prayers and know that we are doing our best.

We have gone to several of the sites to check them and ensure that they had not been molested in any way. It appears that one site had been tampered with but not to a large extent. That was good!

We would like to thank our supporters for the house we are staying in. It is a beautiful 4 bedroom home with everything that we need.

So…for now we will close. We have more arrangements and some small logistical problems to work out like our car 12volt -110volt transformer smoking because apparently the car voltage here is not “12” volts. Not a big problem, but a problem for our video documentation that we are doing.

Thank you everyone…

Jim Barfield

P.S. We will try our best to keep you all better informed.