Day 9: Our Last Day

Ah, our last morning to wake up in Israel and in beautiful Jerusalem.  We all greeted each other with friendly, "Boker tov" expressions which means Good Morning. 

I wrote in my journal that I would miss having salads for breakfast, not seeing fish with my coffee, but I would miss the strong coffee of Israel, the delicious mozzarella cheese, olives, dates, fresh fruits, pita bread, and even perhaps the felafels. 

Our travels began at the Israel Museum where we were so blessed to see the Jerusalem model.  The model is incredible and an absolute must see if you ever have the blessing of going to Jerusalem.  The model helped put into perspective all of the places we were able to see.  The model is built on a scale of 50 to 1.  Inside the museum, we saw remnants of the scrolls and a replica of the Isaiah scrolls that were found in Qumran. 



Click here for more information about the Jerusalem model.

We enjoyed walking through the gardens of the museum:



From the Museum we travelled to the Holocaust Museum...oh what a place. My heart aches just thinking about it. I was so stunned by the stories and the history represented in this place that I didn't take a single picture to share.



From the Holocaust Museum we travelled to the House of Caiaphas. Caiaphas had a prison under his house and this was where Jesus spent His last night before His crucifixion.


We saw the caves/prison where Peter and John would have been imprisoned too:
And then

we saw the pit where they would have lowered Jesus to spend His last night. Our feet walked down the steps to stand in the dark pit. The lights were turned out and we stood in darkness. My thoughts were: The Light of the world in the dark pit...for me and for you. Oh, what a Savior! Thank you, Lord Jesus!




The walls of the prison where Jesus was have stains on them as if even the rocks were crying too:



Outside of the prison, we saw the steps Jesus would have walked from the House of Caiaphas all the way to Golgotha.

From there, we made our way to the Garden Tomb area:

What a beautiful, happy place.  I enjoyed seeing all of the enormous palm trees and branches and hearing the birds singing:


From the Garden you can see what they believe is Golgotha-can you see how it looks like a skull:


Finally! We saw the Garden Tomb-the empty Garden Tomb! And we all rejoiced at the sight of it. It was amazing to walk inside and see where His precious head and feet would have been. I love the sign on the door that says He is not here for He is risen! Praise, You Jesus!

Here is Rachel getting ready to go inside:

Where they would have placed His precious head:

And the sign...yes!  He is risen, just as He said!




Our group had the Lord's Supper in the beautiful Garden and Margie beautifully sang, "How Beautiful." It was amazing. My heart was filled to overflowing with absolute gratitude and joy being in this wonderful place.



Sadly we all loaded the bus for our final dinner in Israel. I cried all the way to the restaurant as my eyes gazed on Jerusalem for the last time. I wasn't ready to leave; it is so hard to leave this place.

After travelling in our same clothes for nearly 40 hours we arrived back home safe and sound in Texas...but we will never be the same! My thoughts often are with the people of Israel and with all the Good Lord allowed us to see and experience. I'll never be able to thank Him enough for that great blessing of being there with my family.

Yes, it was a journey of a lifetime. One I hope that all of you are blessed to experience too. You will never be the same and your love for the Lord will be deeper than before.

Thank you for so graciously joining me on my Journey to Israel. Shalom!

Jerusalem Day 7 & 8

After making it through Hezekiah's tunnel, we went back to the City of David which is inside the gates of Old Jerusalem.  Here we saw the remains of the Robinson's Arch which is where Mary, Joseph, and Jesus would have walked to exit the Temple and we stood in front of the three arches of the Temple where they would have entered the Temple.


Here is the entrance to the Temple:


I zoomed out so you could see how tall the 3 arches really are.  This is just my observation, but there are three arches to the temple....hmm The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit-three in one, one way to Heaven. 


We visited the Western Wall where we stood and prayed at the Wailing Wall.  It was interesting to see so many religions represented here.  The wall made me even more thankful that we have direct access to God through Jesus.

If you look, you can see my dad placing a prayer request from one of our church members back home in the wailing wall.  He is the one wearing the yellow sweatshirt:

Yes, there is a side for the men and the women.

Men can go inside and pray, and the women can too, we just have to go upstairs and look through glass windows.  I'm not sure if I was suppose to take a picture, but I did anyone...don't tell! 

Okay, I took two pictures.  But, I had to get a shot of this.  This is where the sacred scrolls are kept:




After returning to the hotel, we quickly brushed our teeth and as the rest of the group was getting ready for dinner, we grabbed a taxi and headed back to the Old City.  We had fun shopping in the marketplace.  Mr. Incredible bought the girls and I beautiful cashmere scarves made in Israel and then we found an Armenian cafe (picture above) where we dined on a delicious cappuccino and omelet (me), club sandwiches (Rachel and my man), and hamburgers with french fries (Hannah's fave!).   Delight!



The next morning, our group headed toward the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock which is now under Muslim control.  Don't be fooled by the beauty of this building.  The words written across the top are curses to anyone who does not believe as they believe.  It is one of the most recognizable places when you look at a map of Jerusalem but from now on, I will look for the golden dome but my eyes will immediately look to the right of it....to the right is where the Holy of holies is located and our feet stood there!

This dome covers the exact same tiles that were in the Holy of holies:


And we got to stand there:

This is the Eastern Gate that is now sealed, oh but one blessed day....


After we walked down to the inside of the Eastern Gate, which is directly across from the Holy of holies, then we made our way to the Pool of Bethesda-what an enormous pool!  It is at least one football field long.  Our guide explained that directly across from the pool, another place was built for idol worship.  The idol was represented with a stick and a serpent, much like the medical symbols we see today.  People brought statues of ailing body parts that needed healing to this idol.

The pool of Bethesda:



How amazing that Jesus purposefully healed the blind man at the Pool of Bethesda right next to where the false idol worship would have taken place.  Jesus healed this man who had suffered for 38 years in this place to once again show that He is the Great Physician, He is the Healer, and beside Him there is no other!  Our eyes filled with tears as Poppie, my father-in-law, read the story from the Bible. 





Next, we entered St. Ann's church.  This beautiful church has the most amazing ceilings and acoustics!  We loved hearing various groups sing and the sound was what I imagine Heaven will sound like one day but probably even better.  My dad had asked Mr. Incredible and I to sing here and we were so blessed to do that.  The Lord led us to sing, "Wonderful, Merciful Saviour."  Words cannot express the great blessing and privilege of being able to sing praises to the King of kings and Lord of lords in this place!  Our group joined us in singing, "We Sing Praises to Your Name." 





Our group then travelled the Via Dolorasa all the way to the House of Pilot.  Our guide explained to us that this was where the soldiers would have played the cruel, "King's Game," with the soldiers...and with our Savior.  It was difficult to sit in the very room where our Savior suffered for you and for me.  Tears easily flowed as we sat in silence and took in this place (picture below).




We made our journey through the busy streets of the Via Dolorasa, even through the Muslim quarter, where we held on to our girls even more tightly than we had done before.  I didn't like this area.  We saw the Damascus Gate travelled through the Jappa Gate and then visited David's Citadel.





After the Citadel we visited the Temple Institute.  To be quite honest, I really didn't care for this place.  The Temple Institute is preparing things for the 3rd Temple that you read about in Revelation.  They believe that the Messiah will come when the Temple is built.  I wanted so much to tell them that He has already come but it would have been futile.  They don't believe Jesus is the Messiah....and how can they miss Him living here?  One day the veil will be lifted from their eyes and they will know.

We ate lunch at a Pizza place owned by a Christan family.  I loved the feta cheese with black olives and fresh oregano.  We shopped for about 15 minutes and then it was time to make our way to the Upper Room.

The beautiful ceilings in the Upper Room:



The Upper Room, or where they believe it to be was not what I had envisioned at all.  The ceilings were beautiful but it just didn't have the same feel to it as the other Holy sites we had already visited.

Rabbi's Tunnels:



From there we travelled back to the wailing wall where we could go through the Rabbi's Tunnels that were under ground.  Thankfully, it wasn't in water like Hezekiah's Tunnel.  Inside the tunnels, we saw a rock meant for the Temple, that was left undone/unfinished.



The rock was located at the corner of Antonio's Fortress where Jesus would have walked.  Our guide explained that perhaps this was a representation of the stone the builders rejected (Psalm 118:22) that became the Chief cornerstone-Jesus.  Pretty amazing thought isn't it?

Day 7: Jerusalem!

Finally we were ready to spend the day in the Holy City and I could not wait!!! The first stop was to take a picture overlooking Jerusalem.  And there was a camel there!  Here are two pictures of my dad on the camel:

Hannah had to ride the camel too.  When in Israel do what the tourists do!



From the top we stood where we could over look the City of Jerusalem:


On the Mt. of Olives, the place where Jesus was before He ascended to Heaven and the place where His precious feet will stand once again when He returns for His children.  Our eyes could clearly see the Eastern wall and the Eastern Gate pictured below:

One day Jesus will open wide the Eastern Gate.  But for now Muslism have the gate sealed, or they think it is them that has sealed it, and they have placed tombstones and graves in front of the gate to keep Jesus away.  They believe that the graves/tombs are unclean and that He would never enter there.  Oh, how they are mistaken!

There is a Church located on the Mt of Olives called Dominus Flevit:



From the Mt. of Olives we continued travelling the Palm Sunday trail where Jesus would have walked.



And then we reached the beautiful Garden of Gethsemane where we prayed among the 2,000 year old olive trees, like our Savior did:


These are branches from the oldest tree in the garden:


Mr. Incredible's Aunt Margie sang, "Holy Ground" and we all worshipped in the Garden together. 

And then we came to the Church of the Nations.  It is absolutely beautiful inside and outside:




We then travelled to David's City where the high place was.  We stood on the high places and looked down much like David might have when he saw Bathsheba.



In David's City, we made our way to Hezekiah's tunnel. What?  You don't know about Hezekiah's Tunnel.  This is the tunnel that has haunted my dreams for the last, um six months at least!  I am not kidding!  I am a bit claustrophobic and tight, dark spaces freak me out just a bit....okay a lot!  But, knowing my entire family was planning on going through the water tunnel, underground, in the dark with only flashlights and a lot of prayers, I decided to put my big girl panties on and go too.  I didn't want to miss out on anything. 

But, oh my merciful heaven I was resolved but scared!  We entered the water tunnel where the water rushed up to my mid thigh and this water was COLD!  Hannah was in front, Rachel was next, then me, and then my man.  We were in the middle of our group.  My family had flashlights but not me....the claustrophobic freak was flashlight-less!  Oiy!  My man took great care of me, he made sure the flashlight was always lighting the way and me being the brave creature that I am, clung to the hem of Rachel's jacket the entire time....I had a death grip on her jacket...no kidding! 

I am 5'10" and had to duck down a bit most of the time which made it really easy to cling to her jacket for dear life.  Some jerk man in our group decided it would be really cool to turn out all of the flashlights so we could see how dark the tunnel really is.  Hello!  Crazy claustrophobic woman here.  I will hunt you down if you don't turn that light back on!!!

As all of the flashlights were turned off for what seemed like an eternity, it became harder for me to breathe.  We were totally surrounded by complete darkness, standing bent over with our shoulders nearly touching either side of the tunnel in water that was now up to our knees.  "Help me Jesus!" was my cry. Finally after probably a minute we all turned our lights back on. Praise the Lord!  And then someone behind my man started saying, "I wonder what would happen to us if an earthquake happened while we were in here?"  Really?!  Oiy!

From that moment on, I began singing out loud, quoting every Bible verse that I knew and prayed and prayed and prayed!  I thought I was singing loudly, but my man, who was right behind me, never heard me.  I guess it was a moment just between the Lord and I. 

There were many moments where I wanted to run, but there were too many people in front of me and I didn't want to trample my children while their crazy momma headed for light!  Plus, there was no where to run, it was tight in the tunnel!

There were times my heart wanted to fail me, and allow my mind to panic, and those were the times I clung to the hem of Rachel's jacket the tightest.  And then the Lord spoke to my heart.  Not only was this a physical journey but it was to me a very real example of Spiritual journeys we go on with the Lord at times.  You know what I'm talking about.  Times when we feel surrounded by darkness and we wonder if we can make it through this difficult time.  Times, where all we can do is cling with all of our might to the hem of His garment and pray and pray and pray some more.  There are times when all we can do is praise Him in the midst of it all....times when our heart wants to fail us and we have to walk in faith even when we don't feel like we can see the hand in front of our face!

I have to tell you that I have never been so glad to see the light at the end of the tunnel in all of my life!  Tears filled my eyes as I saw glorious light again.  I can so relate to this spiritually too!  The darkest times  are always the darkest right before dawn.  If you are going through something like this spiritually, let me encourage you to just keep holding on to Jesus and keep keeping on.

I could have stopped and stayed in that tunnel, but I knew the only way out was to go through it.  What a spiritual analogy that is too.  Just keep on keeping on...even when you feel like giving in, even when you can't see what is in front of you, even when it is hard, hold on to Jesus and keep walking in faith....trusting all the way.  And even when you can't see Him, He is leading you through! 

And He led us though the tunnel into glorious light once again! 

Want to know something strange?  In one of the areas of the tunnel, we ran into two men and one very pregnant lady, underground in the tunnel.  I don't know where they came from or why they were going the wrong direction, but in most places there wasn't room to pass someone.  Somehow, one of the men got right in the middle of my daughters and I said, "No! Don't separate us!"  He muttered something and then got out of the way.  I still don't know where they came from nor why he walked in between my girls but I can draw so many spiritual lessons from that incident.  Perhaps I am reading too much into it, but this I do know:  when the Lord is asking us to go through a trial, a dark time, the evil one would love to throw us off track and keep us from going in the direction the Lord would have us go. 

Are you still with me?  I'll understand if you are not.  I did a little preaching from my heart and perhaps was a bit wordy.  The tunnel was life-changing for me.  Can you tell?  I was too scared to take my camera in the tunnel with me, I didn't want to drop it, so I don't even have one picture from our journey but I found this video that walks you through the tunnel.  I don't know this pastor but I like how he explained the tunnel.  If you want to see what it was like to walk through Hezekiah's Tunnel, just like me....well except without the crazy clausterphobia, then enjoy this video:




We experienced much more that day, but I think I'll close for now.  My fingers are tired from all that typing.  Thanks for letting me share my journey of faith through Hezekiah's Tunnel with you.