Oh Come Let Us Adore Him

Greetings Friends and Family,

What a full day we have had here in Jerusalem! It is a lot to process and a lot to take in, not only being in a place where so many significant things in our faith have taken place, but it is a different city with a different culture and lots of people.

We began our morning on the Mount of Olives, where Jesus would stay during His visits to Jerusalem, and we walked the same path He walked on palm Sunday for the triumphal entry. So often when I read Scripture before coming here, I would skip over the parts which talked about where Jesus was when He taught certain things, because I wanted to get to the content of the story or the teaching. But here I am finding lines like, "as they were sitting on the Mount of Olives looking at Jerusalem Jesus began teaching them..." because I am sitting where Jesus was sitting and seeing what He would have been seeing. It is a powerful experience.

View of Jerusalem through the chapel where Jesus wept over the city of Jerusalem

At the bottom of the road was the Garden of Gethsemane. We saw the olive trees and a beautiful church of the traditional place where Jesus prayed, "Not my will, but Your will be done." When we go into the churches here we are asked to be silent to show reverence and respect. It is pleasant to be in such a remarkable place and simply to be quiet, to try and be a sponge and soak up the experience of a particular place as best as we can. I have been looking forward to the Garden for a long time, and I found myself trying to identify with Jesus and what He must be thinking and feeling as He could see the torches of the soldiers coming down from the city to arrest Him. After kneeling in prayer for a while I prayed the same prayer that He did on that night long ago, "not my will, but Your will be done."

Mural at the Church of All Nations in the Garden of Gethsemane

Mosaic tile flooring in the church

The Garden of Gethsemane

We continued on to Mt. Zion across from the Mount of Olives to the House of Caiaphas, where Jesus was taken after He was arrested and imprisoned before being taken to Pilate.

View of the southern wall from the house of Caiaphas, the high priest

Courtyard of Caiaphas, where Peter denied Jesus three times

After our stops in Jerusalem we continued onto the "city of bread"-Bethlehem. Bethlehem is currently in Palestinian territory so we crossed a border and our wonderful Jewish guide, Pilar, was not able to accompany us. It certainly felt different being in Palestinian territory but we felt safe the entire time and met a Christian Palestinian who gave us a tour of the Church of the Nativity, the oldest church in the middle east as well as the Shepherd's Field where the angels announced the birth of Jesus to to shepherds...we even saw a modern day shepherd herding his sheep! It was fun in both of these churches to sing Christmas carols as a group.

Our delicious lunch in Bethlehem

Great coffee in Bethlehem

The Church of the Nativity (the bells were ringing when we arrived)

touching together the traditional site where Jesus was born

a mural above the manger where Mary laid Jesus

Statue of St. Jerome, who translated the bible into Latin in the 4th century A.D. and is buried here

When we returned back to the hotel after dinner we went walking through the Damascus Gate and into the Old City, through shops and bazaars and lots of people. It was wonderfully overwhelming, in fact, today was that way. We are trying to 'sponge' everything we are seeing and learning here, but there is so much going on that we do feel quite tired by the end of the day.

Exploring the city at the Damascus Gate

Tomorrow should be a little lighter, we are driving out to the Judean Wilderness where Jesus was tempted for 40 days, the dead sea scrolls discovered at Qumran and the ancient city of Jericho.

The food is really good here. It is very similar each day but there are lots of options. The desserts and the hummus and pita bread are Kealy's favorites!

Grace and Peace,

Ryan and Kealy