Unfortunately this post was delayed and I don’t have pictures to add. You will see why if you read to the end….

After our free day, our final day in the Holy Land was packed (as usual). We began the day on the Mt. of Olives where we visited the place where Jesus ascended to heaven 40 days after he was resurrected. On this site is also a church dedicated to where Jesus taught the disciples the Lord’s Prayer. On the walls all around the church are beautiful renditions of the prayer in over 100 languages.

From the Mt. of Olives you get a spectacular view of the Old City of Jerusalem, the walls, the Temple Mount, the Dome of the Rock and many of the places we had already visited. There is also an ancient and huge Jewish cemetery and our guide gave us a lot of information on how Jewish burials had been done over the centuries. We actually saw some stone workers creating a new grave tomb for someone.

From there we walked to the Garden of Gethsemane and the Church of All Nations. This is holy ground, folks. In the garden are olive trees which are older than 2000 years, “if these trees could talk”. We do know this is the actual spot of the garden where Jesus prayed “not my will but thine be done”. The Church of all Nations is beautiful and a very spiritual place. Inside you can pray and touch a slab of rock, purported to be the very spot where Jesus had knelt in the garden while the disciples could not stay awake “one hour”. It was here of course where our Lord was arrested after Judas betrayed him.

We then walked the path down from the garden along the way Jesus would have ridden the donkey from the Mt. of Olives into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. WAY COOL. We met our bus at the bottom of the road and drove into the Old City, entering Mt Zion. There we were able to see the place believed to be the Upper Room where the Last Supper took place and perhaps Pentecost happened as well. There is not a lot to it, it has been a variety of things over the years, including a mosque. Under it is the Tomb of King David, a large rock with an ancient tombstone attributed to David, but no bones were ever found there. The space is divided between men and women and there are Orthodox Jews (both genders) praying there around the clock.

We walked through both the Armenian Quarter and the Jewish Quarter of the Old City. These are still residential areas with a lot of shops and people traffic. You can see where the have excavated the Roman Cardo, a wide boulevard which was a major market place in the Old City centuries ago.

We eventually came to the Western, or Wailing, Wall. You must go through a security checkpoint to reach the plaza where the wall is. This wall is not a part of the ancient temple, but rather what remains of a retaining wall built by Solomon as he built up the space the temple would be built upon on Mt. Moriah (where Abraham had gone to sacrifice Isaac). Still it is one of the holiest places for Jewish people (Christians too). The wall is separated into space for men and women with a fence between. Men must cover their heads at the wall. You have probably seen pictures and videos of people praying there and the custom is to write your own prayer requests on pieces of paper which you can leave in crevices in the wall. I did so, although my pictures of those prayers are gone now. Just know if I told you I would write a prayer for someone, I did. And of course most of mine were about my own family and Jennifer’s. It was quite a holy moment, I felt I was in a “thin place” as I prayed and felt the presence of God in a place where millions have come and offered prayers for centuries!

There were several Bar Mitzvahs taking place right at the wall and alas my videos of them (it was ok to video) are now gone, but how cool to have that ceremony in that place! The families and friends of the young boys were having a blast!

Next to the wall is an archeological park where we watched a film depicting what the temple area was like in Jesus’ time. They have done some very impressive excavation work there, you can see the remnants of an arch where the men could enter into the area of the temple where they could hand over the animals they were giving the priests for sacrifice. You can see steps, some of them ancient and some not as old (having been rebuilt over time but still centuries old) which led to the area the money changers would have been when Jesus turned their tables over and drove them and those selling animals out of the temple area. And there is now remnants of the ancient road Jesus definitely would have walked on as he was led to Pilate’s fortress on Good Friday.

We then had lunch at a beautiful spot overlooking the city on Mt. Scopus. From there we traveled to the Garden Tomb. The Garden Tomb is an alternative site which could possibly be where Calvary and Jesus’ tomb were. On a cliff overlooking the area, which the British still have authority over, you can see what definitely looks like a skull. It is also outside the old wall of the city (as Scripture says about Calvary). Unfortunately since my last trip, the huge skull face in the cliff wall has deteriorated a lot and doesn’t quite look as “face like” as it used to, but they have pictures dating back to 1900 where it clearly looks like a skull and you could see how the name “place of the skull” makes perfect sense. The Garden Tomb is in a garden of course, and evidence shows the are has been a garden since before Jesus’ time. A wonderful British guide taught us all this and showed us around, he was a retired British army chaplain who worked there a week a year, giving his time in service to the Garden Tomb. They have a tomb which, if this is the place, would have been pretty much how a tomb a rich man like Joseph of Arimathea would have had. There is a trough in front of the opening for a stone to be rolled in front of the entrance and they have such a stone near by. Inside is a large chamber where mourners could gather and to the right are two places where bodies would have been laid. It fits the Biblical description pretty well.

The Garden Tomb folks allowed us a private space for us to have Eucharist. This was a beautiful time as we sang, read the Gospel from when Jesus appeared in the garden to Mary Magdalene who thought at first he was a gardener, and shared Christ’s body and blood. Near us another group was doing the same and we joined in their singing during communion. Groups from all over the world were in their various places doing the same, all singing and praising God, it was quite moving. I blessed all the articles people had bought while on the trip as well as a beautiful new chalice and paten given to me by our guide which we used for communion of course. A very moving time, weeping was certainly involved!

Leaving the Garden Tomb we browsed in the gift shop then headed for the bus, which had to be moved a few blocks up the street. Like at most places in Jerusalem you are constantly hounded by street vendors selling their wares, they are very loud and persistent to the point of annoyance. This whole trip I have stayed in the back of our group making sure know one gets separated or has any trouble. I constantly urge folks to keep up, pay attention, stay together, etc. The crowds at many of those holy sites are huge and it is very easy to get separated from your group but we managed well. Jennifer had setup a buddy system so no one was ever supposed to be alone and also helped us make sure we all got on the bus together. As we left the tomb, one of our group was missing her buddy so walked back up to the gift shop to look for him. As we all headed up the hill to the bus someone else reported she had returned to the group but when I got on the bus she was not there. Her buddy was. So I headed the several blocks back to the tomb area and found her, a little frazzled because she had no idea where the bus was. I was able to get her moving in the right direction and offer some comfort (it can be really scary to be all alone on a street corner in that city, with no idea where your group is!). I had my phone out along the way in case she had shown up on the bus and someone could notify me to come back. As we turned to walk up the hill we were confronted by a vendor, who acted VERY aggressively, shouting in my face, and I mean inches from my face, to buy his post cards. I was not in the mood for this and had to physically move him away from us. After taking about five more steps I reached in my jacket pocket for my phone and discovered it was gone! This is the only time the whole trip I had not zipped my jacket pocket up with the phone in it, and it was most likely due to the distraction of dealing with this guy. I told the person with me he took my phone and turned to chase after him and he was no where in site! I mean long gone. I believe he had an accomplice he reached into my jacket when the other guy confronted me. There was nothing to do but return to the bus. I was able to use Find my iPhone and you could see the last location was at a bus station around the corner as you return to the old city, in other words were thousands of people would be. I did all the things you do when this happens, including shutting the phone down. I discovered when we got back to Miami that my Apple Care plan does not cover “lost or stolen”, so a very expensive lesson learned the hard way! I am more upset about the last photos and videos (since we had very limited WiFi the whole trip, things were not uploaded to the cloud on a consistent basis, the last photos that were saved were from two days before). Once in Miami I was able to get a new phone, reluctantly having to pay off the stolen one first! UGH! Kind of ironic it would happen to me and very frustrating of course.

But this experience does not put a damper on this amazing, spiritual, miraculous time we all had! I will reflect more once back home on the whole trip, and of course all you poor St. Simon’s folks will be inundated with sermon stories about our adventure! Stay tuned for much more, and if you have been following along, thank you and God bless. Your prayers have meant so much to us all.

We headed to the Dead Sea this morning. First stop Qumran. This is where the Dead Sea scrolls were found. They have done wonderful excavation work of where the Essenes sect lived and worshipped. Much of the scrolls contained their rule of life, how they purified themselves several times a day, their prayer life and rules for common living. As our guide said, in some ways this was the first monastery in history. The Essenes has separated from the temple as they did not believe those Jews were strict enough in their obedience to the Law.

You can see the caves where the scrolls were found by a shepherd boy in 1946. There are many caves in the rocky Judean mountains.

On to Masada, the amazing fortress built by King Herod high on a cliff overlooking the Dead Sea. It is the site of the Jewish rebels last stand after the revolt in 66 -72 AD. That story is too much to type here but well worth looking up if you don’t know it. It was a palace and a fortress with an intricate water retention and delivery system as well as huge store rooms for food. You can still see much of the elaborate mosaic floors and the ingenious water system.

It was then time for some fun! We had lunch at the beach and then many of us floated on the Dead Sea. It’s hard to describe how weird that is! The group was having a blast, rubbing the mineral loaded mud on our skin and floating raftless on our backs.

Our last stop was Jericho, a surprise from our guide. We drove past the archaeological dig of what is known to be the oldest city ever uncovered – 10,000 years old! Yes it is where Joshua made the walls come down! We drove to a small lookout where you can see the Mount of Temptation, where Jesus was tempted by Satan after his baptism. There is a stunning Greek Orthodox monastery built into the mountainside and only accessible via cable car.

While there our guide arranged for a camel for many of the group to ride! It was a blast. Jennifer was probably the most excited, a real bucket list item for her!

Every day is full of amazing experiences. Today was no exception.

Our guide, the amazing Rueven, planned just right. We left early for the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, built over the most preferred site of both Calvary and the tomb. I will wait for you to google it……

We entered the Old City part of Jerusalem through the Jaffa Gate and proceeded to the church. We went straight to get in line for the tomb, which is inside an edicule within the large rotunda. This area is controlled by the Greek Orthodox. Six churches have authority of various parts of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The Greek Orthodox, Armenians, and Roman Catholics have the largest, and the Coptic, Syrian Orthodox and Ethiopian also are there. Read up on the Status Quo agreement and then the pictures of a ladder by a window will make sense. Too much to type for now!

The first time Jennifer and I came to the Holy Land the line was too long for us to see the tomb. I was so excited to get to this time. By being early our wait was only half an hour. You duck down into the actual room where you can touch a marble slab which is on top of the place in the tomb where the body would have laid. Opposite the slab is a window into the rock itself so you can see this was not always a church! The rock is limestone and obviously part of a cave. It was a very very spiritual moment, thinking here Jesus laid dead until the 3rd day.

From there you go upstairs to two chapels, one depicts Jesus being nailed to the cross while the next is the actual spot of Calvary and the crucifixion. Wow. You can crawl under the altar where you can see thru a small window the rock of the hill. Again a powerful moment.

Back downstairs there is a slab of rock where Jesus was laid after he died. Many people place objects on there for blessing.

Leaving the church we walked the stations of the cross, the Via Dolorossa, through the old city. We walked backwards from stations 10 to 1, as 11-14 are inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The power and awe of waking and saying the stations in the very place where Jesus walked from where Pilate sentenced him all the way outside the original walls of Jerusalem to Calvary, albeit backwards, is something we won’t forget. Due to the crowds and narrow way, our guide would point out the stations and every 2 or 3 find us a quiet place off the path to pray and say the words and prayers for the ones we had just passed.

We ended at the Pool of Bethesda where Jesus healed a crippled man who had waited by the pool for 38 years to be healed and then were able to pray in the gorgeous Church of St. Ann, Mary’s mother. We are blessed to have some excellent singers including several from our choir and our choir director with us, and they led us in Glorify Thy Name, with the sounds echoing throughout the church. So moving! Again Jennifer’s Facebook tells the tale in words and images as well.

We left the old city through the Lion’s Gate, also known as St. Stephen’s Gate as this is the gate the mob carried him through before stoning him (Acts 7).

We rode to a beautiful monastery dedicated to the prophet Elijah and had lunch. Love this place and the amazing church there.

Next was the Shrine of the Rock museum which has this incredible model of Jerusalem during Jesus’ time.

It also tells the story of the Dead Sea scrolls and the saving of our best text of the Old Testament, the Aleppo Codex. The architecture is stunning.

Last stop of the day was the village “in the hills of Judea ” of John the Baptist. We walked up the VERY steep and long steps to the Chapel of the Visitation where Mary visited her cousin Elizabeth and uttered the beautiful words of the Magnificat. These words are on the wall in 65 different languages. The chapel is very pretty and the church around the corner also, we walked in to it as a worship service was ending. As a group we decided to say Compline together in the courtyard there as the sun was setting, ending with another beautiful song!

By the way our group gathers every evening to “debrief” and talk about the day and about what the next day will bring. This has become holy time. Last night they recognized Jennifer for all the behind the scenes work she does for all of us (especially me, duh), and then surprised me with an amazing gift of a beautiful red chasuble and stole, handmade in Bethlehem!

Holy Land Day 5

We departed from the Galilee area and headed south. It was REALLY sad to think this might be the last time I see the Sea of Galilee.

We stopped at an amazing excavation of a Roman city. Complete with bath house and public toilets, Roman road thru middle of town, a large amphitheater and columns galore, we were able to explore on our own for an hour.

From there it was a two hour ride south. We drove through the stark baroness of Samaria and then through Jerusalem on the way to Bethlehem. There we changed guides (they use Christian guides in Bethlehem). We visited the Shepherds Field where the shepherds heard the news of the birth of Christ. We saw a replica of a house in a cave just like Bethlehem has in Jesus time (and actually up to as recently as 120 years ago). The visual helped us at our last stop, the Church of the Nativity.

We had some shopping time in a huge Olive wood factory/store before we headed to THE PLACE, the Church of the Nativity which sits on top of the site of Jesus’ birth. The place was wall to wall people and we knew we had a long wait ahead. It was worth it of course. Despite some jostling in line we made it to the stairs

in about 90 minutes. You descend stairs behind the altar to a grotto. On one side is a star imbedded in the stone floor marking the place of the birth. On the other side is the reputed place of the manger. Unlike my first visit we had the opportunity to touch the star and kneel to pray. After our entire group had a moment we stayed in the grotto and sang Silent Night. A beautiful time. I am so blessed to be able to come back to these holy places with the wonderful group we have. Better pics to come and you can also see LOTS On Jennifer’s Facebook page.

The day began with a praise and worship service for all the tourists who are using the same travel agency we are (Journeys Unlimited). About 800 people with a praise band and several (too many actually IMHO) pastors speaking. I will let others in the group give you their opinions when you see them.

The venue was next to the museum of the boat where they have a 2000 year old fishing boat found in the mud of the Sea of Galilee when the water level was low. It is believed to be the type and size boat Jesus and the fishing disciples would have used on the lake. Pretty cool story of how they dug it out.

Next we went to Yardenit, a site on the Jordan River where you can get into the river, fill up water bottles to take home (I add a little bit to the font when I am doing baptisms), and they have places setup for groups who want to do baptisms. After I led renewal of baptismal bows with the whole group and prayed over the water, about 15 of us “Waded in the Water” for a renewal of our baptism by being submerged in the Jordan. It was absolutely AMAZING! You can see a lot of pics on Jennifer’s Facebook as I was a little busy baptizing people IN THE JORDAN RIVER and couldn’t take any pics. I did purchase a video of the whole thing so stay tuned! This was truly a holy experience. Here are some pics.

We then traveled to a Carmelite monastery on Mt. Carmel, built on the site of Elijah’s victory over the Baal prophets (1 King’s 18).

Last stop of the day was Nazareth and the breathtaking Church of the Annunciation. This is where Gabriel appeared to Mary and she said yes to God’s plan of salvation for us all! The church is so beautiful. We also visited the Orthodox Church built over Mary’s well, where, according to the proto gospel of James, Mary was when Gabriel first spoke to her, causing her to race home where Gabriel appeared again to driver the message.

Next to the Church of the Annunciation is St. Joseph’s church, dedicated to Jesus’ earthly father of course. Underneath is a grotto where they have excavated what was a home during Jesus’ time. The Holy Family is especially honored there. So grateful we had time to spend in both of these holy spaces.