Our first stop was at the Mount of Olives where we took a group photo. Barry will post a copy of the photo on his blog this evening, so go there to see all of our smiling faces. Sadly, the tour director's wife (Tabatha) is absent from the picture. She was ill during the night and stayed at the hotel today to rest. While we were on the Mount of Olives, we were given a detailed description of what we were looking at. Most of the structures were buildings we would be viewing close up during our visit to Jerusalem. The elevations of the land (valleys and hills) made Bible stories make even more sense.
Also, there were camels on the Mount of Olives. The temptation was too great for many of our friends. Wyndy, Mckenna and Austin, and Petie were among the camel-riders. Note that Petie is doing this with a bandaged leg!
We walked down from the Mount of Olives to the Garden of Gethsemane, which gave us a first-hand experience of how steep that climb would have been for people on foot in Bible times. We walked around the Garden of Gethsemane and went inside the Church of All Nations. While we waited for everyone to finish seeing that area, most of us rested on the steps of the church.
The next stop was what is called the Garden Tomb, or Gordon's Calvary. They do not claim that this was the actual tomb of Christ, but an example of a tomb.
While there, we were also taken to a site that could have been the "place of the skull". If the shadows are just right and you squint, the hillside did look somewhat like a skull...if you had a good imagination.
Gus told us where his house is located in the old city. Much interest was shown in the location of his house. Finally he told us that on Wednesday we would be in the old city and "that is the day we will be fasting, so we will eat at my house." That left him with an "out". We are enjoying his sense of humor.
While driving around the walls of the old city, Barry explained to us that the traffic in Jerusalem is terrible on a good day. He told us that David and Solomon did not take into consideration the number of tour buses that would be coming to the area thousands of years later.
We had lunch at a local kibbutz. (Google it if you need to. It is a Jewish communal-type settlement.) After lunch Olen brought a full bottle of cold water into the bus, and as soon as he opened it Fawzie made an unexpected stop and the bottle bounced out of his hands, on to the floor, and down the floor of the bus rolling toward the front, spilling water all the way. Barry took it in stride and told us that after this event on our bus was not an "official wadi".
Fawzie did the impossible for bus drivers...again. He drove us to a lookout at the Herodium. The Herodium is the remains of a castle and the burial site of Herod the Great. His structure was built on a rolling hill, but he added much more additional height to it. Imagine bulding a mountain first...and then building your palace on top of that! From the site where Fawzie took us, we had an excellent view of not only the Herodium, but also the Wilderness of Judea and the Dead Sea in the distance. In this photo Jean and Brett had their photo taken with the wilderness in the background.
Our next stop was at the Shepherd's Field where we learned that in Bible times quite often animals were housed in local caves instead of barns. This begs the question about where baby Jesus was born...possibly in a cave instead of a stable as is pictured in most nativity scenes. While still in Bethlehem, we went to visit the Church of the Nativity, the traditional place of Jesus' birth. The Church of the Nativity is not easy to reach in a tour bus. Most of the buses are asked to park in a garage about a 7-minute uphill walk to the church because tour buses were not allowed to drive on the narrow streets around the church. Gus made a phone call to the local police, and got special permission for Fawzie to drive us to the church, because of "Petie's condition". Permission was granted, but we feel fairly certain that they had not seen her ride the camel earlier in the day!
While in "downtown" Bethlehem, we passed a local coffee shop named, "Stars and Bucks". Barry surmised that their name MIGHT be an infringement of copyright. Hmmmm. While we stood on the sidewalk waiting for Fawzie to pick us up, a car belonging to one of the locals stalled in the road. Gus and Blake went out to help push him off. Blake is probably the only US preacher that can add "pushing a stalled car in Bethlehem" to his job skills list.
Late in the afternoon we went to the Kando Store. The Kando family has one of the original jars that housed the Dead Sea Scrolls. Here the current Mr. Kando tells our group the history of the jar. There are only four of these jars in the entire world. One is in the Vatican, two in the Israel Museum, and the fourth one is in his shop!
Fawzie drove through Jerusalem rush-hour traffic to get us back to the hotel in time for dinner. After dinner Barry led us to a nearby hotel that has the original, hand-written text of the song, "It is Well With My Soul." If you are not familiar with the background to the story of when and where this hymn was written, you should look it up, and the song will have even more meaning to you. Photographs were difficult to get, because the paper is old and the writing dim...and we were taking the photo during he evening hours, but here it is.
It is time to get some much-needed rest. Tomorrow we head to Masada, Jericho and the Dead Sea area. We hope you are enjoying your day as we end our day over here on the other side of the world.
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