Hey there's a lot of stuff in here I haven't wrote about. So I figure I'll go chronologically. All the way to the finish. The last bit was written a bit later so... maybe I got it right chronologically.
We had a simulation of the Last Supper where I learned likely they were leaning sideways around a tri couched table. It's possible that Jesus celebrated the passover early according to one interpretation of the gospels.
I also performed in a wonderful choir for the Christmas program. It was awesome - so many awesome pieces were sung. I was also in a trio playing Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring (Eliza, and Scott played wonderfully). Also I was in a men's quartet which was awesome (Kaleb, Jeff, Adam and myself).
During our sites visited this week we had interlaced throughout it all a wonderful series of devotionals. We began where Christ did during his Final week in Bethany. We then went into a nice Church there in Bethany. We went seemingly around and to the side of where you would expect to get inside the church. There was an awesome garden at this site. Next was Lazarus' tomb where I gave the devotional on Christ knowing each of our names and comparing Lazarus' coming forth as our resurrection. As you go in the tomb there are several steps leading down to a room and then a slight tunnel to another room which is supposed to be the tomb of Lazarus.
Next we went to a church which commemorates Palm Sunday. It had paintings on all the walls as opposed to many mediums used in most churches. Following this and going out of the chronology of the whole week was the site commemorating Christ teaching the mysteries of the kingdom to his apostles after his resurrection. It was called Pater Noster and had a small cave wherein it was said the mysteries were given.
Next was the church named Dominus Flevit (The Lord's Weeping) - inside there was a mosiac of a hen gathering her chickens. I've been there before because it was close to the Jerusalem Center and on top of that free. It has a great view of the Dome of the Rock. We went next to the Orson Hyde park to review Christ's Olivet Discourse. Finally we went to a Crusader Church which remembers the event of the Last Supper. We sang some hymns there and fellow tourists joined into the singing.
And so with the formal guided tour over I went to the Dormition Abbey. It was nice and had some great mosaics I especially like one of Christ alone. Down below is a tomb looking thing with a ornamented top to look like Mary. So this Church commemorates Mary and I guess is thought to be one of the possible burial places for her. Then we just walked around a bit it was fun
Ein Kerem
This was the next day and a free day - man was this day lived out to it's fullest! We rode a bus to a bird watching location and despite the lack of any birds to release (if they have them you can physically release them). It was fun to see some of the birds and understand more about the compound there right by the Knesset. We then walked to Ein Kerem - of course that's more easily said than done. We never did get lost but we did decide to take a detour through a national forest and halfway through realized that the times weren't going to work out. So we ran up hoping there was an unmarked exit. There was an exit - basically it led straight to Mt Hertzl where I had been before. I didn't realize that's where we were. Anyway it worked out because we were led straight to the street we needed. We saw a tower we suspected of being the correct church. Sure enough it was! St John the Baptist Church there in that city has a grotto and star just like the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem for Christ. Super awesome church I loved it. At the top of the dome there was a dove which was cool. Next we went to a chocolate shop where the salesmen told us some directions on how to get places and let us in on a secret which we definitely would not have found otherwise. So that was nice. We checked out Mary's Spring Mosque which had a small fountain there but if you go behind the Mosque climb up to a fenced in area and then find and uncover a water well looking structure you can climb down inside to the real Mary's spring. It reminded me of Hezekiah's Tunnel except it was just a small cavern. We had very little light down there but it was fun. We stepped on the stones we could feel There was just the room at the bottom of the long metal ladder and another slightly separated room and a smallish one we couldn't reach because we couldn't reach it without getting out shoes wet.
After some deliberation some of us bought some pizza and we split up more or less. I was of the group which stayed and we had a bit of a time getting to the hospital and the acclaimed Chagall windows. We went down this dirt road and ended up on the highway and basically went around the hospital and then there was an obvious gateway to the hospital. Turns out the first section we went to was the shopping mall place. But finding the Chagall windows was a cinch once we were in and they were beautiful (12 pieces of art 1 for each tribe of Israel). We found the upper entrance to a convent where we did want to go inside. It's golden domed tops (reminiscent of Russian Orthodox style) were awesome to behold. After a brief misunderstanding as to whether we could actually get inside we were walking unguided through the convent. This series of homes for the residence of the clergy and among them this garden provided a impressive scene. We found the walls of the golden domed church and spent some time there. It was really amazing to be there. As we were heading toward a downward path in the monastery we saw another cathedral where we could go inside - we heard nuns signing - It was truly beautiful to hear. The trip out of the convent was actually pretty hilarious - We found the only bottom exit. It clearly would get us back basically to where we were at the start of this whole Ein Kerem Trip. But it was locked. And any attempt to climb over the wall at that point seemed suicidal. It was clear to the entire group that going back the way we came was not an option because that way literally took us hours. So we walked around trying to find any alternative. Well we found a still pretty suicidal option of trying to see if we could fit through a small hole in the barbed wire fence and down a pretty good jump down a wall. During our initial movements to put this plan into action a sweet young nun found us. She was really nice and lead us with a key down to the bottom door and let us out. It was super funny and I am eternally grateful to that nun - probably saved us all from some very bad decisions we were about to make.
Anyway we next went to the Church of the Visitation a site which commemorates Mary's visit to Elizabeth traditionally held to be right there on Mary's Spring. It had a tower which sadly is structurally unsound but we did go inside this chapel like area. and then as we went around and inside the cathedral it was awesome how the painted motifs all around lighted up the room. There is a particularly large picture of Mary as the mother of Christ symbolically place among the stars to show she was the mother of God in the flesh. Some of the paintings there I didn't have a reference for what they were about - I assume they had something catholic in their background. Then after we left that place we began our trek back. A quick taxi to the jelly doughnut place then another taxi back home ended a wonderful day!
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The time is short left in Jerusalem now so I try to make the best of it. This one last field trip remained. We went first to the Basilica near the Garden of Gethsemane which commemorates the lords suffering there. I saw an Irish symbol on one of the mosiacs in there. And I saw United States Eagle motif inside one of the domes -- the reason being that many nations combined the necessary funds to build this chapel. The whole chapel is kept in a reverant dimness to symbolize the weight placed upon our lord in this place. Outside is a gated garden of olive trees attempting to recreate a Garden of Gethsemane experience. Just outside the complex is a private garden which had more landscaping and a more peaceful atmosphere -- I had walked here many times to sit and contemplate. Now we held one final meeting as a group in that private garden, there were hymns sung and testimonies given.
A short van ride over to a different part of town lead us to "St. Peter in Gallicantu" the place held to be the place where is the palace of Caiaphas where Jesus was held in prison and Peter denied the Christ 3 times. From the outside looking at the chapel I was confused as to what they were trying to do with the dome. I didn't see that it was stained glass. So inside provided a magnificent stained glass work looking up at the dome. Down a series of steps inside the church you can see an additional room and rooms of the church as well as a couple of caves you can go inside to really get a feel for the prison rooms of this place. There are ruins outside and you'll see a roped off stairwell - those stairs are without a doubt the ones Jesus would have been dragged up after his arrest in Gethsemane. Near the church there is also an excellent scale model of Byzantine Jerusalem - it was very cool to look at.
We then walked into the old city to see our final sites for the day. In a series we saw some churches dealing with Christ last hours. The Church of Flagellation commemorates Christ suffering in that he was mocked and harmed by both Jew and Roman. The style of stain glass moved me. I liked their presentation of this event of the Savior life. The Scriptures show the parrallel of Jews harm and Roman harm to Jesus. Our professors explained to us that the argument over who's fault it is that Jesus was crucified is a moot point. It is easy to see that it was Jesus' choice whether or not to make this sacrifice for sin - But ours is the sin. Each of us has and will sin in this life and it is "our fault" that he was crucified.
Next and very close to that church is the Church of the Condemnation I remember some woodwork statues of Christ placed as if they were reliefs off the wall. And I remember looking up to the peaked cones of the inner spires of that church. Naturally we had testimonies in each of these.
We next went to the place where earlier in Christ's like he healed a lame man by the troubled waters. It was interesting for me to go here because I had done an archaeological history paper on this very site. So obviously I could write a lot about this site. I'll not post my paper here - but I would do my research on this site (which includes St Annes) before I visited it if I were you. I went to this site before I did my paper and afterward and the first was concluded with some very wrong ideas about what the site is all about. I would recommend if you go to see the map on site situated like a billboard and then to believe what you see. These two pools of Bathesda are enormous. You can only see one corner of one of the pools (only because they made a stairway near St Annes) despite the rather large and complicated site you CAN see the miracle Christ performed could have been anywhere along this pool. Like most sites there is both Byzantine and Crusader remains of churches here. If you go down and inside you can see roman expansion and arches of the pool structure. Also back when there was only one pool there 2 awesome events of the old testament happened right on the pools edges (ask me about it if you want to know). Next was St Annes a place known for its acoustics. It is situated right beside the ruins of the Pool of Bethesda. It honors the mother of Mary the mother of Jesus whose name is Anne. That's all I've got to say about that.
Next we went to the Protestant Garden Tomb (Catholics as I explained hold to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher as the correct location) But I would highly recommend going to both sites. Because even if the Protestant site is not 'correct' it certainly retains a clearer picture of the tomb. In their presentation here at the Garden Tomb which I received at the beginning of my tour here in the Holy Land they emphasized worshiping the Person not the places of Jesus. I think that was well spoken. The rest of the class mates and I sang and sang more hymns. It was wonderful.
Winding things up here we had a final free day in the old city which was actually an awesome day. We did many things but they are kindof a blur now looking back. I'm pretty sure there was shopping involved at one point. Then we spent some time at a Children's recreational center just playing tag with some of the kids there which was a fun time. Actually it was an awesome time - especially after being beaten to a pulp by a little kid who was way better than me at ping pong. These kids went all out trying to get me in tag and I was trying to keep it playful and fun between us. They didn't speak English and I don't speak Arabic but that didn't detract at all. Tag is a pretty simply game and does not require words -- Ha! They were sending their fastest kid at me. Or at times everyone was it and tried to get me. I was just trying to get them to laugh so I like jumped over fences and stuff to avoid them. Good times. Some Old City treats were eaten and we headed back to the Center.
That night Brother Huntsman our professor (whose book you see for purchase here and he has more out I think) put on an Christmas Advent Program lighting all the candles because we weren't going to be in the Holy Land for Christmas. I'm not going to lie the program was long when I was told it was going to be short so I wasn't allowed the mental preparation of a long event. But I loved it enough I didn't fall asleep for sure. There were many personal stories shared - scriptures read - musical performances given - and testimonies given. I played the melody of a hymn on my cello for it. It was simply wonderful.
Much packing was done and then we were on a Jet plane flying home. There was a band of us going through all the way together to Portland. In a stroke of irony we did have a connecting flight in Pheonix which was funny. But our band got to the northwest with no problems.
A Great Time - Wonderful Experience - Always in My Heart - I'll Remember the Good Time Forever!
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