Center for Unity Origin Story – Part 2

2016

Fast forward two more years, to August 2016. Diane comes back with another spiritual retreat and we discuss again the idea of  “The Urantia Holy Land Pilgrims Center”. After the retreat, I open up to dream (my usual creative mode). The first brief is written and I start to research the situation on the ground. I approached the Jordan Valley Regional Council and asked for a meeting with the chair, Mr. Idan Greenboum.

In early September 2016, I traveled to the 2016 Urantia European Conference in Budapest. Here’s the poster I presented.

A team has formed to start working on this project. The first contributors were Jean Asher, a dedicated Urantia Book student from Denmark, as well as Wayne King from the US and of course Diane.

I met Mr. Greenboum just on the eve of the Jewish new year of 2016, in the beginning of October. He heard me, and then he stepped up to a big relief map in his office, put the finger down on Bethsaida and said - there is land for development here, let’s talk to Adv. Gideon Fisher. I felt the shivers, which is usually confirmation that this is the way to go. I said, sure. He picked up the phone and called Adv. Fisher. Thirty minutes later, I was driving to the Park Hayarden area, in the northeastern region of the Sea of Galilee.

This video shows what I saw.

That began the Park Hayarden phase of this project. This phase eventually proved to be a dead end, as I will soon find out. Still, it was instrumental in clarifying a new aspect of the project.

Sandra and I met the Fishers for dinner in Tel Aviv in mid October 2016. They own a top law firm in Tel Aviv and have invested in developing the concept for a luxury hotel resort. They were interested in selling the rights to develop this resort.

To be continued...

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