Day 6 - Jerusalem

Today we had a wake up call at 8 AM. But prior to that, I was awakened by my roommate and his trouble with his sleep movements. Now, Rufus also showed up this morning at 7:30. Anyway, we had breakfast this morning. Amidst the menu was this curdled and sour pudding that Kevin didn't want to eat, so he made others try it. I had some pudding, some Christmas bread with jelly, and some cheese. With cereal and milk. Cereal and milk…(for those of you who know the song :-)

After breakfast we had devotionals where we had some worship and talked about the day's schedule. We first went to the Garden of Gethsemane. That was pretty cool. There are trees there that are over 2000 years old - trees that were there when JESUS was there! That was cool. But before I get to that, when you are at the Garden of Gethsemane, you can see the eastern wall & gate. Now, there is a prophesy in the Bible that says that when the Messiah comes again, He will touch down on the Mount of Olives, it will split in two, and he will walk through the eastern gate into the temple. When the Muslims conquered Jerusalem, they purposely cemented the Eastern Gate shut, and then planted a Muslim graveyard outside the gate just to hold the Messiah off (they assumed he would be a rabbi or priest - in which case he couldn't be around dead bodies, as was custom). Little do the Muslims know that that's not going to stop Jesus when He comes again. On the other side of the wall is their big Dome of the Rock or whatever its called. I hope Jesus just looks at it and it just crumbles into the sand.

After we went to the Garden of Gethsemene, we journeyed across the street to a private garden, where we took time to reflect and pray. There were no tourists - just us. It was a peaceful time. I read about the night that Jesus was betrayed - the anguish he must have gone through, sweating blood. It was a good somber moment.

After we left, we headed up to the Mount of Olives. From this mountian you can see a lot of the city of Jerusalem (as you will see in pictures that are to come.) We saw a lot of important sites that we'll be seeing later this week. We also did a "commercial" shoot for Eagles Wings, updating them on our journey as today was our first "official" day on the Israel Experience. This was to update all of the donors as to our whereabouts and thank them for their support. It was fun. We then walked down to the Cathedral of Tears, which is where Jesus wept over the city of Jerusalem (obviously there wasn't a cathedral back then, but it’s the spot where historians say he wept). Also, they say that there was some type of synagogue or place of prayer there, and it is also commonly believed that this is where the prophetess Anna fasted and prayed, and eventually saw the Messiah. That was pretty cool. We couldn't go in, but it was interesting to learn about.

As we were at the cathedral, we heard the sound of the Dome of the Rock calling the Muslims to worship. It was erie, but there is something powerful about this call to prayer and the power behind prayer. I have a small video clip of what it sounded like.

We then journeyed into Eastern Jerusalem. This is the "Arab" part of Jerusalem. We were going to visit the Dome of the Rock, but they closed it early (they have the power to do that, and apparently do it without much notice). We then just went for lunch, where Billy, Ben, Josh, Hope, Amyann, Lydia, Shamir, and myself had FALAFELS! My first one ever - in Jerusalem. That was a lot of fun. Though, you can usually get them on the streets of New York for 4 bucks whereas a falaffel and a drink costs us 8 bucks here. Haha. But it was very good. We went window shopping but didn't buy anything (the vendors are very direct. And they are really persistent in their bargaining). Oh, and the street we were on, which I didn't realize for about an hour, was the Via Dolorosa. It is entirely covered in shops and businesses, and I didn't recognize it at all. I also didn't realize that it has SO MANY STEPS - which must have made it that much harder for Jesus to bear the cross as long as he did. I know there are like a million stations of the cross, I saw #8 - where Jesus speaks to the women of Jereusalem and tells them not to mourn or something (its in Luke I think). I called both of my parents cell phones and my sister's and all of them did not answer. So I left a lot of messages. And I found out that I can only text message in hebrew. So, I don't know how many of those I'll be sending.

The next stop, after lunch, was the Garden Tomb. This is the place where Protestant believers think that Christ was crucified and buried. Now, the first thing, according to Biblical archeologists, was that there is no such thing as "mount Calvary." The Bible never says that Christ was crucified on a mountian, and it would have been logical for the Romans to have a place on a hill to crucify someone. However, the Bible does say it was out of the city, and this is why the sites differ between Catholics and Protestants, because the Catholics hold to a site located in the city. In the Old Testament, whenever a sacrifice was given, it was always done on the north side of the altar. Similarly, this place is located north of the northern wall of Jerusalem. IT was cool - we could see the old walls about 500 yards away. This space also was a center of visitors and a great place to make a public spectacle, therefore, ideal for crucifixions. The rock behind the place has eroded, but has funny shapes, and scholars think that at one point, the stone resembled a skull, therefore it was called "Golgotha" or the place of the skull.

The tour guide emphasized that it really isn't the place that matters - but believing what the Bible says. Right now, where golgotha was serves as a bus station, and this is good because then people aren't concentrating solely on this "holy site" and more on just remembering the event and the significance behind it.

The tomb is located about 200 yards away. Historians hold that this is the tomb for a lot of reasons - but its important to note that they're not definitely certain. Most speculate this is the site, but they could be wrong. This site, however, was built by a rich man, as there is a huge cistern dug into the ground out of stone, and the tomb dug directly into the stone HAD to cost a lot of money. In Isaiah or Pslams it is prophesied that Jesus will be buried in a rich man's grave or something like that. Also, on the stone, there is a symbol of a cross and an anchor, with was an early sign for Christianity in the Bysantine Era. There's also a mark on the stone that could very well be the signet of Herod, as the Jews asked him to mark the stone and place so no one would roll the stone away. Both graves have never been used - this was also prophesied, that Jesus would be buried in an unused tomb. Also, if we check the gospels, when we read about the story of the ressurection, when the women got to the tomb, it says they bent down (the door is a low door) and looked to the RIGHT and saw that the body was gone. This is the exact placement of the current tomb. Details like this can seem insignificant in scripture, but in proving this archeological find - it is really cool. There was also a huge crevise as to where the stone would have been in, with walls guarding it so it wouldn't roll away or fall over. It was really incredible to experience this.

After we all visited, we gathered as a group in the garden and took communion and had a time of worship. I read from the gospel of John about how Mary Magdelene (sorry my spelling is bad, but I'm typing fast so I can get to sleep!) was in the garden when she met Jesus, but she didn't recognize Him. Twice he asked why she was crying, and then he said her name; "Mary." And she knew. And memories of me playing "In The Garden" came back, and He walks with me, and tells me I am his own…and it was a powerful time. It choked me up anyway. Jesus walked HERE - he was buried HERE and was crucified HERE. I've been where he prayed, where he died, and where the stone was rolled away and he conquered the grave of death and gained us victory! HALLELUJAH! It is awesome to be here.

We returned to the hotel and had about a 2 hour rest break before we met back as a group. Me and a couple of the guys (ben, burtrund, rufus, & myself) talked about authority and respect and blessings and God's work in the work and the old testament traditions and covenants and fasting and prayer. It was a solid discussion time. Burtrund is from Brazil and Rufus is from Kenya. It was interesting to hear how God is working all over the world.

Before and after dinner, we had a time where we shared testimonies with each other. IT was really cool to hear how God is working in everybody's lives, and we all feel an incredible sense of unity among each other - and it is really cool to be one in the Spirit. There are people called to MISSIONS and CHILDRENS MINISTRY and it excites me! God is doing work in everyone's life - its so encouraging!

We had a good dinner tonight of fish and "hot wings" but not really hot, more like…I don't know how to describe the flavor. We also had kuskus, carrots, beets, and some other mysterious vegetables I steered away from. We told blonde jokes, I somehow thought Hellen Keller was still alive and got made fun of for a while about that, and I also told the infamous Rowand/Morris "toothbrush" joke which made me very popular.

These people and this country is amazing. And you know what else is amazing? Sleep. So I'm gonna catch that now.

Shalom from Israel.