Shabbat, Communion, Golgatha, Holocaust, Bethlehem....and more!

I tried to update the blog 2 days ago, and failed: here is why.

Shabbat.

Shabbat is the Hebrew word for Sabbath. On Shabbat here in Israel there is NO WORK. Our hotel prepared our meals for Shabbat the day before. The elevators all have "Shabbat Mode" - which is basically autopilot: they go straight to the top from the ground level and then stop at every single floor o nthe way down. See, pushing elevator buttons is considered work. Using the internet is considered work. Therefore, the hotel computer was off for the duration of Shabbat. Shabbat starts from sun down on friday night (about 7pm) and then lasts until an hour after sundown on Saturday (about 8pm). Everything re-opens at 8pm: the drugstores, internet, etc. So....that is why this series of posts are so delayed.

Communion

Yesterday we visited what is known as the Garden tomb. In Jerusalem there are 2 spots that are supposed to have been the place where Christ was crucified. We know from scripture the name is Golgatha - meaning skull place - but the location has been hazy since the Romans destroyed Jerusalem within 100 years of Christ being crucified. The garden tomb is place number one, and the Holy Seplica (spelling help?) is the other. The Seplica is the orthodox location that was comemorated by the building of a church above the rock where Christ was crucified, etc. The church was built by the mother of Constantine, who built 14 churches over holy sites to preerve them. These sites are now known as the Via Delarosa, and this is where we get the 14 stations of the cross.

Lost? There is more....

So the garden tomb is where EVERYBODY ELSE (non-greek, armenian, and roman orthdox christians) hold that the crucifiction took place. The hill with the skull shaped side is pretty interesting, although an Israeli bus depo now is at the base of it (weird...). The tomb was, well, empty, but it had a slot for the stone to be rolled in and it was in a garden. If you need to read the description of the tomb you will need to check out the gospels, but we know it was outside the city gates, we know it was near a garden, and we know it was an unused tomb (they recycled tombs then).

So my conculsion is that I don't know which location I think that the crucifiction happened...but here is a truth I cling too: I KNOW it did happen.

Gethsemane


This is a picture of me in THE Garden of Gethsemane. The olive tree behind me with the thick trunk is likely around 4,000 years old.

Gethsemane is Hebrew for 'olive press' - there are thousands of gethsemanes in Israel. The Garden of Gethsemane that the Bible describes as the location where Christ was betrayed and Peter chops off the temple guard's ear (which Christ heals...) is in a valley between the mount of olives and the east Jerusalem wall. It makes sense that the olive oil factory was a the bottom of the mount of olives: natural supply chain.

We had an awesome time of prayer and worship in the garden.

Golgatha - The Place Christ was Crucified

This is Golgatha at the Garden Tomb

When we went to the Garden tomb after we visited all of the places where Christ went in the process of being tried and convicted of blasphemy, we took communion as a group. Pastor Scott, as he had done so many times before, took the bread and broke it and started his usual, "on the night which our Savior was betrayed..." lines to present communion to us. But the unusual part was that as he spoke about the disciples having the last supper, he pointed to the location in Jeruslam where they believe that to have taken place, and as he spoke about the temple guards coming to arrest Jesus after the betrayal, he pointed to the direction of the garden....he made commuinion come to life. And then he spoke about how he was hung on the cross, and exclaimed "right over there!" with his arm pointing towards skull hill. What an intense communion service it was!


Bethlehem
We have also visited Bethlehem. Our tour guide was not allowed (because he is Jewish) to go into the town. There is a wall around the town because iti scontrolled by the Palestinians, and the wall reminds me of the fragments I have seen of the wall that split east and west Germany in Berlin. It wa sickening. But we went with a differen guide to the church up the hill from the ACTUAL Shepherd's fields where the angel of the Lord came to the shepherds to tell them this:



Here is a picture of me touching this star shaped stone that was cut on the place where Christ is held by tradition to be born. The feeding troph manger that he was layed in was wood, and removed, but replaced by a stone one on the other side of this small fireplace-looking thing that you see me kneeling in and touching.

Dead Sea Scrolls
The other cool thing we got to see and experience were the Dead Sea Scrolls. Did you know they have recovered a fragment of every book from the OT that predates the time of Jesus except for Esther? Wow! We were not supposed to take pictures, but I knew what I had to do for my loyal blog followers. Here ya go!

This is just a small part. They found all sorts of different types of paper and in 3 languages: aramaic, hebrew and greek. We visited the area of the cave where they were discovered, but that wasn't too cool.....but the artificats themselves are awesome. It looks like an old treasure map....

Holocaust Memorial
Here is a link if you are interested in learning more about the Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem we visited. http://www.yadvashem.org.il/

This was a very sobering experience. Our guide told us a story that I want to pass on to you:

The children's memorial is incredible. It is this big dark room with 1 candle lit. Then there is thousands of mirrors all over the huge building that reflect the light and make it look like a million stars in the sky. There is a speaker somewhere in the dark, star-lit memorial that is listing the names, ages, and locations of every child to be slaughtered in the Holocaust.

Our tour guide tells a story of a women he had go through the memorial may years ago. She insisted on holding the hand of the tour guide and her husband for comfort because it was very hard for her to experience the memorial. Why was it extra difficult for this woman? She was a holocaust survivor, but her children were not.

You know where this is going.

As she was walking through the memorial, her children's names, ages, and location came reveling accross the PA system. She fell over faiting and had to be carried out of the room when she came to in complete and udder caious.

Unreal.

over 6 MILLION Jews lost their lives in the Holocaust.

Pray for Peace for the Israel Nation and the Jewish Heritage as a half-century later they are still recovering from this tradegy.

This is a picture outside the children's memorial at the Jerusalem Holocaust Museum

Here We Go

Finally a chance to update the blog! The last hotel we were at (Dead Sea, now in Jerusalem)....despite a ton of down time, I was unable to get on the internet.

The Dead Sea was un-real.

You know how when you lay flat in water and suck in a deep breath, you are sort of floating? Well the second you let any air out of your lungs you sink. In the Dead Sea you can do this (the end part):


The part where Baloo floats down the river....that was me. Laying on my back. You could "stand" in 20 feet of water no problem because you couldn't sink.....unbelievable. I have no pictures because I was in the water, but I could have brought a newspaper and read it without getting it wet. Crazy....


This is the view from our Hotel on the Dead Sea. The resort hotel was a spa with a 5 star restaurant and an incredible view! This is the view from my hotel room! We had a blast here: lots of time to relax and enjoy the the facilities. But we only had 1 night here. After this, it was off towards Jerusalem.....

On the way to Jerusalem we stopped in the Hills where Abraham's tribe used to shack up. We went to an "experience" called Abraham's Tent - it is an awesome deal where they have a servant who is sent by Abraham 3800 years into the future to find guests for a party. We are the guests the servant finds. He takes us on Camels to Abrahams Tent back in 1800 B.C. and we meet Abraham. Then we made our own pita bread and had the feast of a life time - a Byzantine Snack is what it was called; but think fattened lamb and the prodigal son. It was awesome!




I got to visit the Wailing Wall. I prayed like everybody else does: for my youth group in Antioch (Woot Woot!), for Justin (who asked me to...) and Nick C. (who I am discipling), and then a couple of general prayers....but oddly it felt like I was almost praying to a false Idol. Let me explain.

The Wailing Wall is a Jewish thing: the wall surrounds the Temple in the Old City (Jerusalem's 3000 year old part). The temple now is controlled by Muslims, and the picture I will post of the building with the Gold roof is basically right aroudn where the Holy of Holys was kept back in the days of David and Solomon, etc, right up through the time of Jesus. Jesus said clearly in the Gospels that the Temple would be destroyed and 3 days later he would rebuild it. What this means is to US Christians is that the Temple is US. We do not need to pray as close to the Holy of Holys as we can (like the Jews) because we believe the Holy of Holys is IN US: we call it the Holy Spirit. If you have any questions, let me know....but that is the short version.

We spent the rest of our time parading around the Temple learning about the various gates into the Old City and all of those things. We walked inbetween the "Golden Gate" and the Mt of Olives - which is where Jesus rode his donkey into the Temple Courts on Palm Sunday.....



This picture is of a place called Ein Geddy (spell check doesn't do Hebrew...). This is the place described in Judges 6 and 7 where Gideon does the whole test with a fleece (end of 6). Then in Chapter 7, he is to go out and fight the Midianites. God tells him he has too many people. So he lets 22,000 leave (left with 10,000). God says he still has too many. God tells him to take the men down to the water and let them drink. Those who lap up the water like dogs (stick their faces in it basically) are to be not taken to battle, but those who lift the water up to their mouths are to be taken to battle. Only 300 men lift the water to their mouths, and it is with those 300 men Gideon defeats the Midianite army. The water you see me lifting to my mouth as one of the 300 likely did is the exact same place where Gideon did it with his men. The natural spring at Ein Geddy has not moved for 3,000 years since the time of Gideon! How cool!


This is a picture I took with a friend I made: an israeli armed guard at the wailing wall! Did you know that if you take a youth group or church group or something similar ANYWAHERE recreational in Jerusalem you MUST have an ARMED GUARD with you at all times? There are people walking around with one hand holding a 6th graders hand, and the other holding a M-16 Semi-Automatice Machine Gun! We have it so good in Cali.....



Here is a picture of me jumping into a water fall spring in the area where David wrote the "as the deer panteth for the water, so my soul longeth after thee," psalm....

I have pictures of me on a camel and also a picture of father Abraham, but I'm out of internet time.....so I'll upload them later!

Shalom!

in secret...

I snuck into the office of the (new) hotel we are staying at and am using an office computer really quickly to update the blog. No time for stories or pictures unfortunatly. We are staying on the Dead Sea - which I will blog in detail about as soo nas I can.

Our pilgrimage is now moving to Jerusalem for the last leg of the Israel section of the trip. I'll update when I can.

Day 5: Caesarea Philippi

the cave is considered the Gates of Hades, and the rock mountain above it bears much significance. Read down!



Besides Caesera Philippi, we visited a bunker built into a mountain on the Syria-Israel border. It was intense! This me coming out of the door!



I had a lamb shwarma wrap for lunch today - in a massive pita. It was incredible, and the size of my head.

-----Day 5-----

Peter's Confession of Christ

13When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?" 14They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets." 15"But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?" 16Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ,the Son of the living God." 17Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. 18And I tell you that you are Peter,and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades[d] will not overcome it. 19I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." 20Then he warned his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Christ.

Hello Everybody!
Today, the highlight of the day was visiting Caesarea Philippi - the place described in the passage above and visited by Jesus with the disciples. For more on the location see this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caesarea_Philippi.

I learned today that the passage you just read is very very real. See, if you look at my picture in the next post with the cave - this cave was held by the people of this village as the GATES OF HADES (or the gates of hell!). The cave has a fresh water spring inside of it, and is the place where they would sacrifice goats, etc. It was a lavish resort-type place in the days of Jesus, and a sin-hole for sure. Jesus brought his disciples here as a test of sorts. And what he told them is revoltuoinary.

He told them that "on this rock I will build my Church." Well, if you look above the hill you basically see a mountain of rock! THIS is what Jesus was talking about. Often times we hear pastors jump from this passage to the good 'ole parable of the person who built his house on sand, rock, etc; and then they preach about building on the rock. That's not theologically bad or anything - but the meaning Jesus gave to the rock was much more tangible. Basically he was saying that at the gates of Hell, in a world of sin, he would build his church and NOTHING would defeat it.

That's us folks. That is OUR charge.

Pray on that and rejoice in the truth that the Church is built on the Rock, and it will never be destroyed!

Pictures From Day 4

We took a boat ride out on the Sea of Galilee. The water was glass and I deperatly wanted to wake board on the water. Then my father told me that I should actually give barefooting (Jesus?) a try if I was going to do anything...."when in Rom" I guess...



my feet standing in the Sea of Galilee. Unfortunatly, I am not Jesus and cannot walk on water....



I just studied the Franciscan Monks and Nuns in my seminary course. This is an actual Franciscan Nun.




this is the Synagogue from Capernaum where Jesus taught. The actual one. Like, seriously, the actual one!

Washed in the Water - Just Like Jesus!

The Baptism of Jesus
13Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. 14But John tried to deter him, saying, "I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?"
15Jesus replied, "Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness." Then John consented.

16As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him. 17And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased."


This is what our afternoon consisted of! We got to go down to the Jordan River, where the Pastor I have had my whole life up until last July when I took my new job in Antioch got to baptize me i nthe Jordan River. What a surreal experience - to be dunked where Jesus was dunked....the setting is gorgeous, and the water has smal lfish swarming all over. How incredible to celebrate the miracle of baptism - of declaring our public faith to those around us.

My brother's girlfriend Katie had this baptism as her original profession of faith. I, however, have been baptized before - as an 8 week old infant in the Armenian Orthodox Church - techinically catholic! When I was in High School, I went through the Presbyterian Baptism class at my home church, and then was annointed with oil in front of the congregation as my self-motivated public decleration....

I spoke with Pastor Scott about why at this time I was eligable to be baptized, but back in high school, the best I was allowed was to be annointed because of my prior baptism as an infant. He told our group that this baptism is less of a sacrament, and more of an opportunity to make or dedication to a life of pursuing God's will where Christ made the same commitment.

It sounds good, but the PCUSA I'm sure would have a problem with it. In my last seminary course I got to study how much drama there has been in the church over doctrine of baptism. It is fascinating, and frustrating all at once....but either way you spin it - the Presbyterian Church (PCUSA at least) does not allow for duplication of baptism.... so I guess I'll have to not be Presbyterian today...because getting baptized in the Jordan was incredible.

Walking A Fairy Tale

So today has been unreal, and we haven't even had lunch yet. Our first stop today was Capernaum - yes Capernaum. This is the Biblical place where Jesus did several miracles: remember the guys who lowered in the cripple through the roof? Yea - I was there this morning. We saw the ruins of the synagogue from the town - like the synagoge where Jesus taught....the actual one! I walked through it. We had a small devotional time just outside this place - and the beauty is unreal.... I'll upload pictures later...

Then we went from there to the ACTUAL place of the Sermon on the Mount. They know pretty much exactly where the people were and where Jesus was, just based on the geogrpahy of the mound. I never thought it was possible for 5,000 men (and so add 10,000 more for women and children) to hear 1 person speak, but the acoustics of this mound are incredible. Yesterday we visited a theater that seats 10,000, and I could hear Juli Winter (resident worhsip leader) sing in her normal voice crystal clear. It was incredible - in the greatest sense of the word!

At the mound I got a picture with a Franciscan nun: i just studied this in my seminary course. Now I have experienced what I read in a book. I've been describing the experience as this: its like watching the movie "Peter Pan" (yes, the Disney film), and then getting to jump on the pirate ship in the middle of Neverland. It is like experiencing a fairy tale. I don't want to leave, and could seriously see myself living here. I've never said that about any place in the world I have ever been....and I've been all over.

We then went down to the "Table of Christ" - which is at the base of the mount of olives. This is where Jesus told Peter to put his nets on the other side of the boat and he caught 153 fish. Then he cooked the disciples breakfast...the table where he cooked them breakfast is now inside a church - like the church is built with the stones coming up out of the ground. I'll show a picture later....

Then I went down to the Sea of Galilee, rolled up my pant legs, took off my sandals and waded into the water. It was a perfect temperature, and the water was smooth as glass. I so desperatly wanted a boat and a water ski....could you imagine water skiing on the Sea of Galilee? My father quickly told me I should try abrefooting instead....get it (Jesus walked on water....hahaha)?

Now we just finished visitng a boat that was discovered about 20 years ago that is 2,000 years old. They have preserved the ruins, and we got to see it. Now, I'm sitting in a coffee shop, sipping a Golstar Dark Lager Beer with a label I can't read (in Hebrew), about to take off on a boat ride accross the Sea of Galilee to the best restaurant on the water. What an adventure...

And it continues! More after we return to the hotel tonight....

The Pictures....

Soory, but the uploader is slow and internet is expensive.....When I have more time I'll upload more!



this is a picture from Nazareth into the valley of Armageddon (Megiddo).....amazing



this is the natural pool herod had put in. imagine a huge sea port out to the right, and this pool has balconies with open air windows around it.....just incerdible.



the dinner spread was awesome!

Travel Itinerary!

Day 4 - Capernaum, Mt. of Beatitudes, Ancient Boat Museum, Batpized in the Jordan River!

Day 5- Tel Dan, Caesearea Phillipi, Golan Heights

Day 6 - Bet Shean, Jordan Valley, Qumran

Day 7 - Masada, En Gedi, Jerusalem, Mt. Scopus, Wetern Wall Tunnels

Day 8 - Old City, Temple Mount, Temple Steps, City of David

Day 9 - Shrine of the Book, Holocaust Memorial Museum

Day 10 - Mt. of Olives, Garden of Gethsemane, House of Caiaphas, Scourging Floor, Garden Tomb

Day 11 - Free Day

Days 12-15 - Turkey (more later on that)

Arm-a-gettin

Wow. So it has been several days since I have posted. We left Thursday the 16th at 4 am. We traveled for 27 hours total and arrived in Tel-Aviv Friday night just in time for an incredible dinner.

Travel Story:
Think "Home Alone" except with our luggage. My families bags were not checked through our 3 flights like we thought, so when we flew into New York, before our flight to Madrid, we had to RE-CHECK our bags and go through secuirty again. What a disaster. We literally made our flight by 10 minutes. God is good. The horrible part is not about my family though. Everybody else who *thought* their bags were check through to Tel-Aviv found out at our transfer from Madrid to Tel-Aviv that they had no bags. The bags were lost! 14 people with no bags out of our gruop of 38. What a disaster...they were finally recoeverd today though....

Anyways, on to the good stuff!

So last night we spent the night on the coast of the Meditteranean Sea in Tel-Aviv, which is the Vegas of Israel. The place rocks. It is a busy modern city that also has the climate of a mild San Diego. The beaches are groomed by tractor every morning. I could throw a rock from my hotel balcony into the Sea....it was incredible. 5 Star hotel with the most amazing food ever. A huge buffet with everything you could ever want from the Middle East!

After we checked in and had dinner a handful of us made a trip down to the beach around 9pm local time. The beach was still busteling with activity - especially this one beach restaurant. My brother and his girlfriend Katie are of drinking age in this part of the world, and my brother had never had an alcoholic beverage before, so we made a big deal of getting drinks together on this small slice of beach paradise. What a great time....

Today was techinically day 3 of our journey. I'll post my agenda for the trip soon - promise.....

Today we piled into our bus at 7am after a lush breakfast buffett and headed north from Tel-Aviv towards the Valley of Armageddon. We spell it differently then the locals, but i'll leave that alone for now. We visited Nazareth, the home town of Jesus, and got to experience the culture of Nazareth in a refurbished part of town. The towns here are (much to my ignorant surprise) very advanced....well sort of. Nazareth during Jesus time had approximatly 400-600 people living in it, with a small synagogue that could seat around 150. I sat in a replica today. The town now is much much larger - maybe 50,000 people? It looks like a dressed up version of Ensenada though - much poverty and sort of a dusty-old feel. But it was nice just the same.

We also learned a lot about the valley of armageddon. It's very intense. The valley is about the size of the 680-corridor valley - maybe a mile wider at points, and a bit flatter, but all in all it looks the same: very good vegitation, etc. I learned that the valley has two roads that were used in ancient times, and that these roads were the object of much affection - meaning many wars were fought for control of these roads. Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Orient all interesect at these roads, and so those who controlled the roads in this valley controlled the trade routes and the "bridge toll" of taxes in the land.

We went to one of the forts built by Solomon (among others) to defend these roads. The fort's name starts with an M, and is essentially the word that makes up the second half of ar-Mageddon, although it is not spelt that way, etc....but the meanings hold over. This fort has been destroyed and rebuild 25 times. 25 times! This is the fort that the Bible references as the place where Solomon had his 450 horses and chariots, etc. I saw the feeding trophs with my own eyes from 3000 years ago! Wow, does it come to life! Nazareth is 10 miles from this place. We went inside the fort and saw a sacrifice altar of Solomon, and the we got to walk through a HUGE tunnel where they used to get water from a spring out of. They dug this tunnel for more than 40 yards through solid stone. Absolutely amazing.....

We also got to visit the Sea-side palace that Herod built - yes the bad Herod we all don't like much. Man did he know how to throw a party. He had a natural pool sea-side, 2 race tracks for chariots or gladiator fights, and an incredible theater we got to sit in. Truly a beautiful place...

Anyways, more soon. Here are some pictures!

Bon Voyage

So we leave at 4am Thursday morning for the airport. I'm planning on staying up quite late tonight so I can sleep away several of the 24 hours we have of traveling ahead. I have completed the packing process and it took about 2 hours (ashamed to say....). I'm actually getting quite excited now for what awaits me. I'm hoping to post up a trip itinerary that we will be following so everybody can know where I am, etc. Check back soon! I'll have updates in 2 days from the other side of the world! I think our final plane destination is Tel-Aviv, which I hear has a spectacular night life.

Shalom (hebrew for peace)

Packing Up

Today is laundry day. Yuck.

Wednesday will my packing day in the afternoon (last minute of course), and then we pile onto the bus to go to the airport Thursday morning at 4am.

We have pretty much a full day of flying ahead of us. I'll update more soon, and of course pictures when I can!