Latest Blog Posts
The most recent blog posts from Bob in every category.
The JJ Seabrook Story
An excerpt from : O’Dell, Bob, Five Years with Orthodox Jews, (Jerusalem, Israel: Root Source Press, 2020), 290-291. In 1975, eight years before I first set foot in Austin, a debate raged in the city council about renaming one of the larger streets, 19th...
Is your “Five Years” book a new movement of God? (Video)
This is one of my favorite interviews I did on the new book Five Years with Orthodox Jews. https://youtu.be/XkuGrBCloEo That footage was part of a Jerusalem Channel Television show hosted by Christine Darg of Exploits Ministry. The full 28 minute broadcast can be...
The Gallant Chief Placido of the Tonkawa Tribe
I recently captured a brief panorama of Placido, the former chief of the Tonkawa tribe that lived in Central Texas until 1855. His statue was placed as part of the Leadership San Marcos Class of 2007, in cooperation and under the leadership of Chief Don Patterson of...
A Jew reacts “live” to the Prodigal Son story
I love to interview and interact with the Orthodox Jews of Israel. Here’s a story of a live interaction that happened after I submitted a blog post to the Root Source newsletter about the Prodigal Son--the story originally told by Jesus in Luke 15. My Israeli Orthodox...
The Tonkawa Camp in Northeast Austin (photos)
One of the best places to envision the life of Native Americans in the 1800s is Pioneer Farms in northeast Austin. As you make your way down through the late 1800s pioneer Texas town, you walk back even further in time. Pathway to Tonkawa encampment. (All photos by:...
Visiting the Places of Israel
In my five years of working with Orthodox Jews, I created a number of videos that show interesting locations in Israel. We called this series Root Source Tours. The Inn of the Good Samaritan is one of my more recent videos on that series. The ancient road from...
Tonkawa Tribe – Red River crossing site (Timelapse)
Below is a short time-lapse video of the probable Red River crossing site of the Tonkawa tribe when they were required to leave their reservation on the Brazos river and move to Oklahoma in 1859. The footage is shot from a drone that was flown just before sunset in...
The man behind MLK Blvd (KXAN)
This story by local TV news channel KXAN Austin was published in January 2011, on Martin Luther King's birthday, the day that we all marched over the J.J. Seabrook Bridge for the very first time. AUSTIN (KXAN) - In honor of one civil rights leader, thousands...
How I Got Involved
An excerpt from : O’Dell, Bob, Five Years with Orthodox Jews, (Jerusalem, Israel: Root Source Press, 2020), 290-293. Twenty-seven years after the death of J.J. Seabrook, in 2010, my wife and I attended a fund-raising dinner for the Austin House of Prayer. There...
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