It was a true blessing to start our day with worship at St. George's Cathedral. This is an Anglican church which has two congregations, an english-speaking congregation and an arabic-speaking congregation. (We'll let you guess which service we attended...) We received a message about having faith with our whole selves - head & heart - and we shared in Holy Communion. 
Mount of Olives
Our official tour began with the Mount of Olives. On the way we had a group picture taken (none of us blinked!) and Becky had a special picture taken atop a CAMEL! At the Mount of Olives, we saw where Jesus wept for Jerusalem and where he predicted the destruction of the temple.
Garden of Gethsemene & Church of All Nations
Next was the Garden of Gethsemene and the Church of All Nations (also called Church of Agony). We saw the rock where Jesus is said to have prayed before his arrest in the garden.
We are not sure if it was Wisam's reputation and persuasion, or E.O.'s connections, but we were gifted about 20 minutes alone in the side portion of the Garden of Gethsemene to pray or meditate or simply be still in the presence of the Lord. We left refreshed, recharged and ready to go on with our day.
After lunch, we did some shopping and were able to see our guide Wisam's carving. Almost all the men in his family are carvers and they are VERY GOOD! We saw a huge carving done by his father which depicts the entire old city of Jerusalem. It is bittersweet to think that he has to do this by memory, since as a Palestinian he is rarely allowed to come in the city.
Via Dolorosa & Church of the Holy Sepulchre
Our afternoon was spent in the Old City of Jerusalem along the Via Dolorosa, as Katy sang - "Via Dolorosa" and "Were You There". (Katy is happy to now say she has sung the Via Dolorosa ON the Via Dolorosa.)
We ended at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre where you can find the rock, or base, of the cross. The entire area inside the church is very gilded and "high church". There is a rock where it is said Jesus was washed and wrapped for burial, but Wisam says: "This is not true." (Wisam tells about a lot of things that aren't really true.) There was also a shrine for the tomb of Jesus, but Wisam says: "This is not the tomb." We believe Wisam.
P.S. It's said that every group thinks they have the best tour-guide, but we would like to tell you that we really DO have the best tour-guide! We've been able to listen to a couple of the other guides and we feel very lucky and blessed in new ways each day that Wisam is our guide.
Also, because we think he's great, we think you should check out www.grottoarts.com which shows some of his family's woodworking. (Of course, he didn't ask us to do this, but the bus basically begged him for more info on his family's business.)
We give thanks for Wisam!
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