The Holy Land!

I don't even know where to begin this...I was just in ISRAEL. The past 10 days I walked in the footsteps of my Savior, seeing where he was born, where he lived, and preached, and prayed, where he was buried and where he ascended to heaven.

We departed the Artemis at 7:30 Monday night for our 10:30 flight out of Athens airport. When we flew into Tel Aviv early Tuesday morning and finally landed at 12:30AM, it was hard to wrap my mind around what the next week and a half held in store for me. This Israel trip was a huge reason I chose to go to Harding's Greece program over their other very tempting selections. Being able to see Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Jericho, Nazareth and the Dead Sea? How could I pass that up?

One of the first things our tour guide Yossi says to us once we load the bus and drive to our hotel in Jerusalem at 1:30 in the morning is: "Welcome home."
Maybe I was a little tired and delirious, but I remember looking at the bright lights and the ancient city thinking,Yes. This does feel like home in a way. All my life I've heard stories and sang praise songs and read about these places. I've never been to them before, but I feel as if I already know them. This is the setting of my faith. This is the place my Savior walked. This is my home.

(Warning: This post is going to be pretty jam packed so get ready.)

February 5 Day 1 - Intro to Jerusalem

10AM we departed the hotel to begin our grand Jerusalem adventure. We started with Zedekiah's Cave (also known asking Solomon's Quarries. Right by the Damascus Gate but 60 feet under the city, it was the biggest underground quarry in the Roman world. This is the cave Zedekiah is said to have hidden in from the Babylonians. You can still hear him weeping over the destruction of Jerusalem in the dripping of the water...

The Damascus Gate!

Our talented tour guide Yossi playing us a classical Hebrew piece on the flute

The caves we had fun roaming around in

Next we moved inside the city into the Muslim quarters and walked into an Austrian Hospice, where we climbed to the top for a great view of the city of Jerusalem. The city is such an amazing mix of cultures. There were fluent Germans there, as well as Jews and Arabs.

The market place

An old lady selling goods

On top of the Austrian hospice

After that: The Church of the Holy Sepulchre. It was breathtaking. A little background info: inside of it is Calvary (also known as Golgotha) the supposed crucifixion site of Jesus Christ. It is made up of 42 Chapels, some elaborate, other really simple.

Site where King Solomon is said to have answered riddles from the Queen of Sheba

Worshiping in the Church

Golgotha

I tried schwarma for the first time after that! It was definitely different from the Greek gyro. (It wasn't bad, but I tried falafel a few days later and liked it much better.)

Schwarma!

Got some Shekels. I'm so money confused right now.

Lastly, the Garden Tomb. The supposed burial site of Jesus.

Inside the tomb!

February 6 Day 2 - Bet Shemesh, Elah Valley, Bethlehem

The day started out with a long tour of Bet Guvrin Maresha, one of Israel's national parks full of caves, an old oil press, an old mosaics.

Then came the Elah Valley, most famous for the location of David and Goliath's fight! We read Samuel 17 where the story is and had a short devo about it once we got there, with a fun reenactment between our tallest guy and the little boy Isaac with us (the son of our bible professor) I, of course, took back with me five smooth stones.

After that we hiked up a hill to Cleopas' house who saw Jesus on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24.

Then came Bethlehem! The birthplace of Jesus and David, it means "House of Bread." Our Jewish guide Yossi couldn't enter the city with us as it is in Palestinian territory (perfectly safe for us though.) We visited the Church of Nativity, which was built by the Catholic church on the supposed site of where Jesus was born. (Now I say supposed for all these sites because these events happened thousands of years ago and historians are not entirely 100% certain in happened in this particular spot)

The site of Jesus' birth!

Then where he lay in the manger. This old woman was just so beautiful.

Outside the Church.

We asked this Palestinian guard to take a picture with us and he was happy to! (although he doesn't look it here)

 February 7 Day 3 -Hezekiah's Tunnel, Mount Olive, Temple Mount

This day was one of my FAVORITES. First, we walked through Hezekiah's tunnel. 533 meters long, it was built by King Hezekiah when the Assyrian army was about to invade. Because there is no source of water right near Jerusalem, he built this tunnel to divert water from the Gihon spring that leads into the Pool of Siloam. It was pitch black and narrow, but we sang our way through this cave from hymns like Amazing Grace and Swing Low, to some good ole country like the appropriately picked Zac Brown band's "Knee Deep."

Then came Mount Olive, a hugely important site in the Bible. It's right outside the city of Jerusalem, and much closer than I imagined it in my head. It's where David hid from Absalom, where Jesus frequented to pray and meet with his disciples, and where he ascended into heaven in Matthew 26:30. We had time just to be by ourselves and pray there, and it was just wonderful. There are a ton of rosemary plants there, and the mountain was beautiful.

Overlooking the city of Jerusalem

Random horses at the top of the mountain.

The Garden of Gethsemane was at the bottom of the Mount of Olives, where, as everyone knows, Jesus prayed the night he was arrested.The exact location isn't known but there are several guesses.

One of the oldest trees in the world in the Garden of Gethsemane

The Wailing Wall and Temple Mount were next. This is the moment when it really hit me that I was in JERUSALEM. Seeing the Wailing Wall, all the people gathered around it, writing prayers onto notes and leaving them in the cracks, it just felt so real.

A little boy having his Bar Mitzvah! The whole family came to celebrate the ritual with him at the Wailing Wall.

There's so much I wish I could write about this place. The significance of it to the people is tremendous. And it has such an amazing history. But I'm trying not to write a novel here so maybe more later.
After we ate a late lunch in the city again (falafel) and walked around a little bit, and then we visited the Israeli Museum next to see some of the Dead Sea Scrolls they have there and looked over all the ancient artifacts. It was really interesting, but at that point it had been such a long day and we were all so tired that we just hurried through haha.

February 8 Day 4 -Ahava, Masada, Sodom, Dead Sea

We started the day off by visiting Ahava, a cosmetic place that makes products from the Dead Sea. The water contains minerals that make for great health treatments.
Then we went to Masada, a site made famous by the stand taken there by Jewish rebels in 73 AD. The Romans had already taken Jerusalem, and almost 1,000 Jews fled to Masada. When the Romans came and built a ramp up to the city, the rebels made a decision. Either be taken as Roman slaves, or die free people. So the next morning when the Romans overtook the city they discovered the Jews had committed mass suicide. It's a tragic story, but very interesting all the same.

The site of Sodom was next, where Sodom and Gomorrah were. As most know, it is a city destroyed by God because of it's wickedness. Today it's just a desert.

At the top of Mt Sodom!

The girls after hiking up

And FINALLY our favorite part - The Dead Sea! We had the best time swimming (floating) and rubbing mud all over us!

February 9 Day 5 -Qumran, Nabi Musa, Jericho, Bet She'an

We started the day off at Qumran, where the Dead Sea scrolls were found. We then hiked through the desert to Nabi Musa, where Moses is said to be buried. It's an important site not only to the Christians and Jews, but also to the Muslims and Palestinians who control the area.

 Next we went through Jericho! The city is one of the oldest inhabited cities in the world. We were invited for a "barbeque" at a friend of Dr. J's friend. Now, this isn't your typical Texas barbeque with ribs and sausage, it was chicken and lamb with pita bread and it was DELICIOUS.

We went to the historical site of  Bet She'an next, where ancient Roman civilization ruins remain.

February 10 Day 6 - Nazareth, Sea of Galilee, Jordan River

We went to Church the next morning with a congregation in Nazareth. It was wonderful; we sang in English while they sang in Arabic. The people were so friendly and asked us to sing for them (Every where we go we sing, I feel like we're a traveling choir sometimes because Church of Christ kids have such a good reputation for harmonies)

Then the Church of Annunciation. This is supposedly the site where Gabriel came to Mary and told her she would conceive and give birth to Jesus.

Afterwards we went to the Sea of Galilee, the site of many of Jesus' miracles (he walked on water here!). We had a devo out on the water and sang, which was awesome.

Then went to the Jordan River, where Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist.

February 11 Day 7 - Mount Bental, Caesarea Philippi, Capernaum, Mount of Beatitudes

So I know this is already super long but I'm near the end! We went to the top of Mount Bental in the Golan Heights and overlooked the borders of Lebanon and Jordan.

We went to another national park after that at Caesarea Philippi where Pan's Temple used to be.

Pan's temple

We stopped in Capernaum for lunch, where the daredevils in the group tried the St. Peters fish.

 Next, the Mount of Beatitudes, where Jesus delivered the Sermon on the Mount. Our group read this around in a circle and sang at the spot where our guide Yossi thinks the sermon happened.

February 12 Day 8 -Mount Tabor, Caesarea

We started the day at Mount Tabor, where the Transfiguration of Jesus occurred. We hiked around the mountain and took pictures, then sat inside the church.

 

We went to Caesarea after that to view the ruins and play at the beach for a little bit. They had this really neat old aqueduct you could climb around on.

February 13 Day 9 - Tel Aviv

Today was our free day! We slept in, played at the beach and hit a volleyball around, and walked around Tel Aviv.

We flew out the next day early, so we left the hotel at 2:30 in the morning! Most of us took a short naps and stayed up the rest of the night. Once we arrived in Athens around 9AM we all went straight to sleep. We ate lunch at 1 and are just hanging out the rest of the day recovering. Now? Watching Pride and Prejudice with a group of girls and eating chocolate together. Happy Valentine's day! Hahaha.

Sorry the end isn't as detailed! Tired now and may add more later!