Day Two

March 13 (I think) 3:28 a.m. Texas Time
Day Two…Let the vacation begin!

We are having so much fun! It is more than I imagined, but all I expected.
I am amazed at this place. More surprisingly, I am amazed by my reaction to this place. Of course, I knew that this was the place that Christ lived and died and I expected the history loving side of me to come out. What I did not expect was the flood of emotions that has overwhelmed not just me but many who have made this trip. Tears have come quickly and easily, and the places that did not draw tears drew equally deep love, admiration, and even further questions from my heart for my Lord.

Now I will start sharing some pictures (but still try not to bore you).
I feel like just the places we went today could have been spread out over a week! In fact, our tour guide (Joey or “yossi”) said that many people do exactly that. We saw so many things.

The Old City of Jerusalem
This is overlooking the old city of Jerusalem (you can see the walls behind us). We are standing in Beth Anee (Bethany, the City of the poor) where Jesus visited often.

He would have walked from here through the Kidron Valley and into the city through the eastern gate. (Pause for Interesting Factoid –PIF) The eastern gate was sealed by the Turks because that is the gate that Jesus (The Messiah) is to return through. In addition, there is a grave site now in front of the eastern gate. The Turks and other anti-Semitic groups that ruled hoped that he would not desecrate himself by walking through a graveyard. In fact, just recently Yassar Arafat asked to be buried there just before he died and the Palestinian Government pushed for that request but was quickly denied by the Israeli government.

The Garden Tomb
There were some tears for me here. I never thought I’d cry…but it is overwhelming. I could write of this spot forever but I’ll try not to do that.

(PIF)
The tomb door was originally half the size it is now. You can see the original height right at Kate’s eye level. This is why the Disciples had to stoop to look into the tomb, and probably why Mary was the one that went inside. It is very small.

This site is an A+ site, which means that there is overwhelming evidence that this is where it actually happened. I will try to mark these sites as I go from now on. Some of the site we see may be ‘traditional sites’ meaning that they happened in the general area but maybe not on this exact spot.

This site was overwhelming because of the evidence. It was difficult to look on the spot that He laid. The door to the tomb now says ‘He is not here…He is risen!’ Joseph of Aramathia (Who owned the tomb) was a shorter man. This tomb was honed out of a rock for his specific body height. One of the reasons why they believe this is without a doubt the actually tomb is because the slab and the entire inside of the tomb was prepared correctly and was carved very smoothly. However, the heel space was carved very quickly and is very roughly carved (implying that they did not have much time). Normally there would be not heel space because the tomb is prepared for the size of the person to be buried in it. Obviously Joseph was much shorter than Jesus. That is just one of the facts that overwhelm. There are many more… The crack in the foundation that archeologist know was carved by an earthquake, the early Christian symbols carved in the stone on the outside. The fact that it is the only garden tomb discovered and very close the Golgotha and many more. This is a MUST SEE for anyone coming to Israel in my opinion.

Lugar Park
Not a Christian Historical spot, just a place that we stopped after eating a FIVE COURSE LUNCH! (Honestly, we were too full to keep on walking)

The lunch was fantastic, but just kept on coming…and coming…and coming. It was an authentic Kosher meal served in one of the finest restaurants in Jerusalem.

And it was the place where we met with Mr. Perrez. Prime Minister of Social Affairs in Israel. It is with PM Perrez that we are feeding 500 Jewish families for Passover. These are families that recently immigrated to Jerusalem during the recent fence rising and cannot afford the items needed to have a proper Passover Meal. We presented him with the check at lunch!

Last but not least…
Kate’s Nine Year Old picture
Since we were on the ‘trip of a lifetime’ and we are celebrating Kate’s Ninth birthday here. We thought it would be appropriate to have her nine year old picture here also. So here it is…
It was taking in the Garden that surrounds the Tomb, only feet from the entrance of the Tomb itself. We are so proud of Kate. She is very easy to travel with and has many questions (that she is NOT afraid to ask). She has made us proud.

Also today we visited
1) The Upper Room
2) The Old border of Jordan and Jerusalem (in fact, as a child Yossi would stand on the wall a pray that God would some day let him visit the wailing wall which, because he was on the wrong side was not possible…and now he does…three times a week!)
3) The Garden of Gethsemane

As another side note: Our luggage has still not arrived so I had to go buy clothes for Darren and I (very interesting) The rate is 4.5:1 dollar right now and the airline gave us 100 dollars to spend. I wasn’t able to spend it all in the time I had, but if the luggage doesn’t come tomorrow we might get more. Apparently, it never left Washington D.C.!

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem!
Pray for the piece of my Luggage too!

Until tomorrow,
Shalom