A Note from Becky...

Once again it has been an incredible day as you can see by our group entry.

I am going to keep this short tonight for two reasons....I am not a word person as most of you know AND I have been going to bed much later than I am used to and I actually have an opportunity to get to bed by 10:30 tonight if I keep it short!

I must comment on my new accomplishment though....I sat on a camel today :) I didn't get to actually ride him because there was a line of people who wanted to sit on him. Basically, you stand in line, get on the camel, he stands up, a friend (in my case Katy) takes your picture, the camel sits down, and you get off. The two men in charge of Mr. Camel try to make this a very fast process because at $5 a sit they want to get as many people on and off as they can.

For some reason when my Mr. Camel was told to sit down, he got half way down and the two men got distracted and I was stuck in the middle on Mr. Camel. It was pretty funny until the two men realized they were supposed to be getting me down and suddenly Mr. Camel sat down and startled me. Another fun adventure in Jerusalem!

Good Night and God Bless ~ Becky

P.S. Thanks to everyone for your prayers while we are on our trip. I want to assure all of you that we feel perfectly safe here. Wisam wouldn't let anything happen to us!

A Note from the Holy Land Band…

St. George's Anglican Cathedral
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!

A Note from Nancy...

Each day I am surprised with all I see and learn. However, today was extra special for me. Spending quiet time in the Garden of Gethsemene, praying and listening to God. Oh how special! Then in the afternoon, to walk the Via Dolorosa as Katy sang 'Dolorosa' & 'Were You There'

Merchants did not shout or try to sell us anything. They respected our pilgrimage. The Old City of Jerusalem is narrow, crowded and very uneven. Many stairs - up & down, twists, turns with strange smells on all sides. It really brought home how difficult it was for Jesus to have carried the cross through those streets.

Today was truly a holy experience, filled with laughter, joy, prayer and blessings.

A Note from Becky...

Today has been a day of contrasts or opposites for us.

We started out bright and early in Tiberius where it was cold, rainy, and lush. We traveled to the wilderness where it was warm, dry, and barren. We saw Jericho, the oldest and lowest city on earth. It was very interesting. Especially interesting was the fact that archeologist found that there probably wasn't even a wall around the city when Joshua visited!

The next opposite was the lack of walls, fences, and barbed wire in northern Israel and the prison like atmosphere we encountered at the West Bank. Wisam even said that Bethlehem, where he lives, is an open air prison. We went through a check point to go the Jerusalem and had no problem. But when we left the city it took a little more work.

In Bethlehem we saw the Shepherd's field and visited the place where Jesus was born. What an incredible experience!

The next contrast was food related.....I eat hummus and falafel now! Can you believe it?!?!?!?!

I think the biggest contrast was the feel of the day. As Katy said above, the first day was emotional, the second physical, and today political. Wisam spoke quite a bit about the Palestinian/Israeli issue and it truly makes you want to cry, scream, and do something, anything to help the Palestinian people. Palestinians can not travel freely (they can not even use the Tel Aviv airport), they do not have access to water all the time (the Israelis turn it on once a week if they remember), and they can not live where ever they want to live.

It has been a long exhausting day that has given me so much to think and pray about!

A Note from the Holy Land Band…

"Hosanna, shout hosanna!"

We've made it into Jerusalem and are snugly tucked into our hotel (which is BEAUTIFUL!!) As usual, it was another busy day of holy sites. But despite the busy-ness of every day so far, the experience has been very different each day. The first day was very emotional, the second day was very physical and today, our third day of touring, was very political. Our tour guide,

Wisam, is Palestinian and explained many things about the Israel-Palestine conflict. And as we

drove into Jerusalem, it was indeed a disturbing site to see the beloved city surrounded by an ugly cement wall.

Jericho

Before we made our way to Israel in the afternoon, we went to Jericho, which is the oldest known city in the world -- 10,000 years old! It is also the lowest city in the world, at 1300 ft below sea level. A couple interesting things about Jericho: 1) They found tombs that dated 6,000 years ago, in which people were buried in special positions. Basically, this showed that they had developed faith, while other civilizations were still hunting and gathering, living in caves. 2) The "wall of Jericho" that we love to sing about, probably never existed! At least not at the time of the Israelite people.

Qumeran

Located in caves along the face of the mountains by the Dead Sea, scrolls, writings and other artifacts have been discovered and preserved. The most famous of course are the Dead Sea Scrolls. We saw one of the caves w

hich housed some of these artifacts as well as the ruins of a Bedouin community.

Bethlehem

What a blessing to be traveling with a descendant of the shepherds! Wisam can trace his family back many, many years, and they were shepherds in the fields outside Bethlehem. Very neat! We saw the Shepherd's Field (from a distance) and then were allowed to sit in a traditional shepherd's cave. These natural caves served (and still serve) people as temporary homes, stables for animals and a place to retreat from the elements.

We were also blessed to have Wisam take us to his own church where we saw beautiful carvings made by his grandfather. His grandfather, father, uncles, brothers, cousins and himself are all carvers, creating great and important pieces which have been gifted to many important people.

Our final stop in Bethlehem was to the spot where Jesus was born, which is one of the well-documented sites in the holy land. It was interesting to discover that the "stable" is not at all like the images we are used to seeing, but is actually a cave which was probably under the house of Joseph's family. Mary may have decided to go down to the cave to give birth, not because there was no room, but to avoid making her relative's house "unclean" (a cultural idea at the time).

Jerusalem

As we mentioned earlier, we had to enter the city through an Israeli checkpoint at a small opening in the wall. As we entered, we listened to music and sang songs in celebration of the holy city. We'll be spending more time in Jerusalem tomorrow, but today we spent time having lunch together, doing some shopping and checking into our hotel. We could hardly believe it, but the food here is even better than the last hotel! Yum...

Tomorrow we will begin our morning with worship at an Anglican church which holds an English-speaking service. We are all looking forward to a little quiet time to connect with God in this holy land. Much of our time is spent in a hurry and flurry of postcards, site tours and quick lunches. The opportunity to worship God in this land where His presence is so evident will be a welcome reprieve.

A Note from the Holy Land Band…

Due to physical EXHAUSTION our group has decided to give you a pictorial for our blog entry today.

We begin…

Bet She’han – During ancient times, it was the 2^nd most important city in the region, after Megiddo.

Amphitheater in Bet She’han – Katy got to do a mini-concert for us to show the amazing acoustics in this space.

Aquaducts – Perhaps the most relaxing part of our afternoon, the aqua ducts were located by the Mediterranean Sea, which calmed us all. Perhaps it even reminded us a little of home.

Megiddo – 25 different civilizations settled in this one place at different times. It was an important city because whoever lived here controlled the Yizreal Valley, which was an important caravan trail.

Church of the Annunciation – So-called because it is the traditional site of Mary’s home, and therefore, where Jesus lived as a child. The courtyard and inside the church are surrounded by “Marys” from around the world.

Cana of Galilee – Our last stop was to the church where it is said that Jesus performed his first miracle, turning water into wine. We celebrated in worship with all three tour bus groups. Mary & Jim had an extra special time in the ceremony of renewing their marriage commitment.

A Note from Mary...

Jim and I are having a wonderful time relating the Bible stories to “real” places. The trip makes the Bible come alive. Today, we experienced the reaffirmation of our marriage covenant. We both were nervous like the first time.