Forget the regular Bible Code. This guy has Bible clues for drilling for oil.
And we thought we'd seen wildcatters hit rock bottom...
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Backstory: Praying for petroleum
By Amelia Thomas | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
CAESAREA, ISRAEL – At first glance, Texan John Brown might be any graying insurance broker or mid-level executive crunching numbers in any concrete-and-glass office park in any suburb of the world. But, surrounded by maps depicting ancient Judean tribes and thumbing through a well-worn leather Bible, Mr. Brown's business is what he considers a mission from God himself: to strike oil in the Holy Land.
Never mind that Israel is a notoriously dry rock in a Middle Eastern sea of petroleum. Never mind that the skeptics are unrelenting. So far, Mr. Brown and his associates - a mixture of Christians, born-again and otherwise, petroleum engineers, oil executives, and even a few Jewish believers - have raised and invested $12 million in the quest for "black gold" in the past six years. Brown, who has contributed his life savings to the project ($1.5 million, he reckons) is a David wielding a very small stone compared with Middle East oil Goliaths with billions in financial strength.
Zion Oil drilled its first well in the dry sod of Kibbutz Maanit here in April 2005, only to hit technical difficulties and come up dry. The company is searching for funding to resume drilling.
"I was certainly disappointed," he says, but, "I'm optimistic. I'm a faith-based person. I believe in what I'm doing. I know there's oil in Israel. And we're gonna get the oil." That means this kindly born-again Christian is attempting "water into wine" financial maneuvers to keep the vision alive (not the least of which is shuttling here from Texas on frequent flyer miles to save a buck.)
Reminiscent of "Da Vinci Code" intrigue, Brown's astonishingly unshakable faith in the riches buried here is based on Bible clues and his own sense of God's calling.
Read the rest here.
