Day 6:
We packed our belongings and started the day with breakfast and a trip to the spot where Jesus helped the disciples catch 153 fish (John 21) beside the spot where he fed the 5,000. This is after Jesus has been crucified and risen from the dead to appear to the disciples. The area is called Tabgha "seven springs" and is a spot where there were 7 healing springs...3 now exist.
We went from there up the hill to Capharnaum (Capernaum-Jesus' hometown after he left Nazareth). It's also home to disciples Peter, Andrew, James and John as well as Matthew. We saw the house of Peter, an octagonal church, which now has a church built over it. This would have been the place Jesus used as his "headquarters" in Capernaum. It's also the place that Jesus healed Peter's mother-in-law in Matthew 8:14-15. This would have been the spot from Luke 5:17-26 and Mark 2:1-12 where the paralyzed man was healed.
A Roman centurion built the synagogue in which Jesus often taught. That same centurion is the one in which Jesus healed his servant. (Matthew 8:5-13) The town synagogue is still partially standing. It's dated to the 4th and 5th century from coins found on the floor, but underneath, a 1st century structure was discovered. We toured that and saw the first "tic-tac-toe" game.
From there, we drove through Cana where Jesus performed his first miracle (turning water into wine). My notes say that the wedding would have been on a Tuesday because it was the most Holy Day??
A Church over the spot where the miracle happened and the town well where Jesus would have gotten the water.
We drove past Nazareth, the childhood home of Jesus, to the Mount of Precipice. This is believed to be the spot where the people of Nazareth wanted to throw Jesus (who was about 30 years old at the time) off the cliff for claiming to be the Messiah (Luke 4:14-30). It was a great place to see the Jezreel Valley, Mt. Tabor, Megiddo (Valley of Armageddon), etc. A plaque at the top says Jesus jumped from this mountain when fleeting his pursuers. The first base jump perhaps? HAHA!!
Next we stopped in Megiddo, a fortress city of King Solomon, and toured. This was incredible and confusing! Armageddon has at least 20 layers of archaeology on top of each other. It dates back to the stone age. It was really hard to follow along, especially since I don't know history in that area as well. We saw a few of the city gates still standing and then climbed down to see their water system, way down below the city. It is said this will be the place for the rapture of the church and the great tribulation, but there is some disagreement on this and I haven't done an in-depth study of Revelation yet, so I can't tell you for sure.
We stopped for lunch at Tamer Halabi Restaurant. This restaurant was owned by a Druze Family. The Druze have broken away from the Muslim faith and they live in a community together. They were so nice! One of the ladies in our group speaks Arabic and the family talked to her for the longest time and give her their falafel recipe and a falafel maker. They were so honored that we stopped to eat with them!
From there we visited Mt. Carmel for incredible views reaching from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordanian mountains. 1 Kings 18 explains how Elijah went to Mount Carmel and brought down the prophets of Baal, 450 pagan prophets. There's now a Carmelite Monastery in this location.
Finally we wound our way into the beautiful city of Haifa, where our hotel overlooked the Baha'i Gardens. We enjoyed a walk around the neighborhood and dinner.
Kevin went out for drinks with our guide and I took a bubble bath and went to bed.
Day 7:
Unfortunately we had to leave Haifa after only being there for a few hours, so on the morning of day 7 we packed our bags and loaded on the bus with a first stop at Caesarea by the Sea (Caesarea Maritima/Caesarea Palestinae). This is the spot where Peter proclaimed the good news to the Roman centurion, Cornelius (Acts 10). This is another area Herod the Great built and where he had a palace. It later became a capital of Roman Judea. The ancient ruins include an amphitheater, a hippodrome (horse racing/chariot arena) and Herod's palace. There is an inscription on a building found here dedicating it to Pontius Pilate (who presided over the trial of Jesus and sent him to be crucified). An amazing find to prove Pontius Pilate was a real person. This is also supposed to be the location of Herod's tomb. On the grounds, there is a castle and Crusader church. We walked through the church on our way out.
We drove down the road to the Roman aqueducts Herod had built to transport fresh water into his seaside palace, ten miles from the base of Mt. Carmel.
We had lunch at a burger bar before heading to through the Judean Hills towards Bethlehem.
Bethlehem is currently a Palestinian city, so our Jewish guide needed to get off the bus before we entered the gates with armed guards to see Bethlehem. For the few hours we were there, we had a Palestinian guide get on the bus with us. Not only the birthplace of Jesus, Bethlehem is where King David was born, the burial place of Rachel and the home of Ruth and Boaz.
Our first stop in Bethlehem was a shepherd's field that is taken care of by the YMCA. In this field there are shepherd's caves and we were able to go in one to discuss the life of a shepherd and what those in Luke 2 might have experienced before Christ's birth.
Next was a stop in the Church of the Nativity which is the spot of the "manger" where Jesus was said to have been born. The church has a very small entrance door that is said to have two purposes: #1 to prevent people storming the church on horseback (This is the oldest church in Israel) and #2 so Christians would have to bow to Muslims (during their rule in Bethlehem). There was scaffolding up for some reconstruction and the church was very crowded, so only a select few got to go down to the spot in the basement where Jesus was born. Kevin was one of the ones chosen to go.
Once again, there are many things hung and left as gifts to the baby Jesus in this spot and it's a bit claustrophobic. There's a fourteen-point star that signifies the spot Jesus was born.
The rest of us walked from the church we were in into another church (there are about 3 or 4 on the site) to see a 1700 year old mosaic floor and admire a statue of Jerome who is the man that translated the Hebrew Old Testament into Latin, bringing the Word of God to more people.
Our last stop in Bethlehem was at one of the few Christian owned stores that sells olivewood products. Here Kevin and I got gifts for our family and friends and a nativity set.
Then it was off to Jerusalem to settle in for the night. It was Shabbat, so our hotel elevators weren't working (on Shabbat, the Jewish people can do no work from a few minutes before sunset on Friday evening until the appearance of three stars in the sky on Saturday night, so the elevators are put on a rotation where the doors open and close on their own so no one has to "work" by pressing the buttons). The dinning room was also VERY crowded because no one can work by cooking for themselves, so many families dine out. The restaurants are able to follow Shabbat because they cook all of the food before Shabbat starts or have food that doesn't have to be cooked/prepared. This was a very interesting experience for us.
Day 8:
Our next morning started with breakfast before heading out to the Mount of Olives. This is the highest point east of the holy city on the other side of the Kidron Valley and gives great perspective and good views of the Dome of the Rock. I didn't realize that the entire side of the Mount of Olives is a series of cemeteries. Jews have been buried there for 3,000 years and the area holds about 150,000 graves. This is a desirable spot for burial because of Zechariah 14, which says when Jesus comes again, he will come to the Mount of Olives and the resurrection of the dead will begin there. In Acts 1:9-12 we also learn that Jesus ascended to heaven here.
We walked from the top of the Mount of Olives down towards Jerusalem following the path Jesus would have taken on Palm Sunday when he triumphantly entered the city. (Matthew 21: 1-17, Mark 11:1-11, Luke 19:29-40, John 12:12-19)
Our next stop was the Church of All Nations (Basilica of the Agony) beside the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus prayed the night he was betrayed.
We spent some time here before moving over to the Garden to have a devotional in the midst of the thousand-year-old olive trees and have some quiet time for reflection. (Matthew 26:36-56)
From here we got back on the bus so we could enter the old city through St. Stephen's gate (Lion Gate). This is where we started our walk on the "Way of the Cross"-Via Dolorosa.
Our first stop was a Byzantine church believed to be built on the spot of the Virgin Mary's birth home. Her mother was Anna, hence the name St. Anne's Church. This Crusader church is designed for Gregorian chants, so we sang on our visit. Only religious songs are allowed.
Behind this are the Pools of Bethesda where people would go for healing and where Jesus healed the lame man (John 5:1-15), on the Sabbath.
We stopped at The Church of Condemnation and Flagellation where it's believed that Pontius Pilate judged Jesus and from where he was forced to pick up this cross and walk through the city. We went to the Sisters of Zion Convent beside this location to see the pavement where soldiers cast lots for Jesus' clothes.
We saw the Ecce Homo Arch and then continued on the Via Dolorosa into the Muslim Quarter for lunch at Panoramic Golden City, where we had a rooftop lunch with great views of the holy city.
We had some free time for shopping and we were supposed to continue on to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher where it's believed Jesus was circumcised and presented in the temple as a baby and where some believe he was crucified. Because it was the day before Palm Sunday, the crowds were too great and we weren't able to stop in.
So, we got on the bus and headed for the Israel Museum where we got to see a huge scale model of Jerusalem, which helped to make sense of what we had seen and imagine it as it once was.
Then we went in the Shrine of the Book where some of the Dead Sea Scrolls are displayed. The most famous are two copies of Isaiah that were written only six centuries after Isaiah first wrote his prophesies of Jesus. We were able to tour inside the Israel Museum for awhile. A highlight here was seeing Robert Indiana's "Love" sculpture in Hebrew.
Day 9:
We woke up and went to breakfast and between that and loading on the bus, I got sick for the first time. I had started feeling congested, so I gargled with meleluca and threw up in the sink. Yuck! And thus begins my decline.
Our first stop was the Western Wall (Wailing Wall). When the temple was destroyed in 70 AD, this was the only thing that remained standing. This is the closest spot you can get to the Holy of Holies (on the temple mount), so day and night you can find Jewish men and women praying at the wall. They write their prayers on pieces of paper and slide them into the cracks in the wall with the belief that those prayers will be closest to God, so they'll be answered. Men have to have their head covered, so there are yamakas provided for them. There is separation of men and women at the wall. This was a somber place and very sad for me to think that these people are desperate for their prayers to be answered so much so that they camp out at the wall.
We left here and went underground to walk on the original roadway beside the Western Wall. This was just discovered in 1967 by engineers laying water pipes. We got to see the HUGE rocks that were used to build the temple mount. Crazy incredible to know we were walking on the same "road" Jesus and his followers could have walked years ago.
Our next stop was the Jerusalem Archaeological Park and the Davidson Center. We watched a video of what the area would have looked like back in the day and learned how people entered the temple mount and participated in the ritual baths and made their sacrifices. We went out and viewed what's left of the Robinson's Arch (a huge arch that crossed the street we were on and would have been an entrance into the temple mount.) And then we saw the steps that rise from the south to the temple. We climbed the steps, like Jewish pilgrims would have done to enter the original doors of the temple. From here we could see down into the City of David and that was our next stop.
I really enjoyed the City of David. It was built before everything on the temple mount, so it was the original king's palace. It's very easy to see how David could have looked out and seen Bathsheba bathing on a rooftop. The slope of the hill it's on would have made that very possible. Just one more thing I couldn't picture until I was in Israel and now I'll always read that Bible story in a totally different way.
There are several water tunnels in this site...one which was built by King Hezekiah and still carries water. We walked down to see the water tunnels and then half of our group walked through (Kevin was in this group), while the rest of us stayed in the dry tunnel.
They came out in the Pool of Shiloah (Siloam). This is where Jesus healed the blind man in John 9:11.
This was incredible because how did people have the resources that long ago to build a tunnel? An inscription was found in the tunnel and it says:
No one knows what the word zidda means, so we don't know how they did it, but it was pretty incredible!
From here we loaded up and went over to Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Rememberance Center. We had lunch here. I wasn't feeling well and apparently others found their chicken was raw, so I could have gotten even more sick here. We went to the Children's building where the memorial is one candle and mirrors reflecting the light to look like stars in the sky, representing the 1.5 million Jewish children that died. There is a recording that reads off all the children's names. This was very moving! We walked around to see some of the memorials and ended in the garden of trees. From here we had the opportunity to stay or go back to the hotel for free time. I would have liked to stay, but I was feeling worse and I was already very emotional from what we had seen at the Holocaust Center, so we went back.
Kevin and I walked from the hotel to an outdoor mall just outside the Old City for him to get a coffee and window shop. We walked into the old city, entering from the Jaffa Gate and ran into some of our group.
We walked back to the hotel and stopped at the large windmill just across from our hotel: Ha-Takhana.
As soon as we got in the room, I crashed and the sickness came on. Fever, chills, I was sweating, but freezing to death. I slept. We missed dinner. We ordered room service because I really wanted some ice, my mouth was so hot and it's possible the ice contributed to my sickness too. I threw up again. I had a fitful sleep, but my fever broke and I felt much better in the morning.
Day 10:
It was time to pack up our bags for good...store all of our souvenirs and get ready to depart. I still didn't want to eat anything, but some of the ladies got me a ginger ale, which was really nice!
We started the morning at the Garden Tomb. Again, some believe Calvary/Golgotha is where the Church of the Holy Sepulcher is, but we went to another location, a garden just outside the old city where there is a rock-face that looks like a skull. This place would have been on a Roman road with lots of traffic to make an example of the criminals on the cross. It's also a place where they found tombs. One is much nicer than the others and is believed to be the one that Joseph of Arimathea (a wealthy man who believed in Christ) gave for Jesus' burial tomb. The Garden Tomb doesn't claim to be THE SPOT and is run by volunteers. Something about that and the peacefulness of the garden made me think it actually was the place. Our guide there talked about the skull in the rock and his faith journey. We were overlooking a bus station and the people there were doing everything in their power to be disruptive, which was kind of cool too because to want to disrupt me and my God means they recognize him!
We walked down and were able to go into the tomb to look around. I was making numerous bathroom breaks at this point, so I missed the part about the stone and it being rolled away, but there are channels in the rocks in front of the tombs where the stone would have been. We had communion here and various group members had the opportunity to share about what the trip meant to them. This was very powerful and meaningful!
We left here and went back into the old city, but this time in the Jewish quarter. We walked The Cardo, a stone-paved street between the Damascus Gate and the Zion Gate, dating to the Roman & Byzantine eras. We got some of the Jerusalem Bagels with za-atar for dipping and learned more about this area. The Jewish quarter looks fairly new compared to the other areas, probably because the 2,000 Jews that were still in the city in 1948 were forced to leave and the quarter was destroyed. After the Six-Day War in 1967 it was recaptured and the rebuilding started.
We had some free time here, so Kevin and I got a Gatorade for my stomach and he had a little snack while we watched groups of people celebrating Jewish boys on their barmitzvah. Some had bands and balloons and parades down the street. It was fun!
Next was lunch at The Quarter Cafe. The people here were so nice! We had a set buffet meal to choose from and I was going to get plain noodles, but when the staff heard I wasn't feeling well, they made me plain rice and fixed me up with some bland foods and a hot tea to settle my stomach. So sweet!
It was time to say goodbye to Jerusalem and make the drive back to Tel Aviv, but we had one more stop. On the way, we stopped to view the Valley of Elah where David slayed Goliath. In past trips Pastor Mike has talked about collecting a stone from in the valley, which we didn't have the opportunity to do because we were on the hill looking down, but it was still awesome to be there.
Our final stop was a goodbye dinner in Tel Aviv at Derby Bar. I had plain noodles, but everyone's seafood and fish and the cold salads looked great. The restaurant was on the water and we caught the sunset just as we were arriving.
And then it was back to the airport and the long flight home. I hate I got the bacterial infection in my gut because it was really hard to concentrate those last few days and to catch all of the details at every stop with running back and forth to the bathroom. However, this really was a trip of a lifetime.
If we ever go back, I do have a few must-sees on my list:
I must see Jericho.
I would spend more time in Tel Aviv and Haifa.
I must see the Upper Room (there are two locations, obviously).
And I'd like to see the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.
I'd enjoy going into Nazareth and learning anything I could there about the town as it relates to Jesus.
I'd like to go up on the temple mount and see the Dome of the Rock and the Mosque.
It's in Jordan, but I'd really like to see Petra.
If Israel has ever been on your list, go! And Happy Easter! He's Risen! I know because the tomb was empty!
