Getting Back To It

Wow a lot has been going on the last few days. Yesterday, we took the easy way out by posting pictures. Note: We would really like the 5 or 6 of you following our blog (just to know we are alive) to respond with a comment or two to any of our posts (so we know you're alive).

Without futher ado...

When we last left off, we had just visited the Mount of Olives, Garden of Gethsemane, Calvary, and The Garden Tomb. The next day, Mike felt really bad, so we spent most of Sabbath sleeping in the Hostel.

Our last day in Jerusalem, we made up for all that lost time. Heading off at 7:30am, we were at the Western Wall at 8:00am. Mike wasn't shy at all, going up to the wall, touching it, and watching the people up close. Of coarse, since the wall is divided between men and women, Sara had somewhat of a different experiance on her side. Sara likes to point out that there were many more women praying at the wall than men. Since the women side of the exposed wall was so much smaller, she couldn't go up and touch her side. Truthfully, she felt unconfortable altogether on that side of the wall. Mike, on the otherhand, was watching young Hebrews bind themsevles in the Orthodox manner, men crying, and the Torah being read out loud. Don't worry, he got video for you when we get home (and embarrassing Sara in the process). Even cooler things were to come. We finally found the tour of the Western Wall that went under the Muslim quater of the Old City. Actually, most of the Wall is covered by the Muslim quarter.

The Tunnel

The Second Temple was built on the top of Mount Moriah, the second highest mountian in Jerusalem (or it prevously was before Herod flattented the top of the mountian and constructed a platform on which The Second Temple stood...an amazing feat in itself during the time). Every stone on the Wall surronding the Second Temple was hand chiseled by 10,000 men each day for between 2 and a half months to a year. Each massive stone was placed 2 cenimeters futher back than the stone below to create the optial illusion of being straight when viewed from the ground. More than just the Western Wall survived ancient times (not the orginal wall that Jesus viewed, but the one we view today rebuilt after the destruction of the temple). The Western Wall is considered the most Holy site by Jewish people because its the closest to where the Holy of Holies previously resided. Also, the Western Wall was the closest the Jewish people could get to the destroyed Second Temple for centuries.

The tour took us along the underground Western Wall past the closest point to the Holy of Holies. Sara and I were able to spend some somber moments at this spot. We even placed a hand written prayer in the Wall.



Hezekiah's Tunnel

Lot's of walking, very narrow tunnels, and little payoff and the end.



Yad Vashem (Holocaust Museum)

The Holocaust Museum was very touching. It is named after Isaiah 56:5 "And to them will I give in My house and within My walls a memorial and a name (Yad Vashem) that shall not be cut off." It's constructed in such a way that one has to systematically go through the entire timeline of the Holocaust. From the setting of the stage, to the rise of the Nazis, to WWII, to the Gettos, to the Liquidation of the Gettos, to the final soltion at the death camps such as Auschwitz and Treblinka, to liberation of the camps. As a gentile, one of the most touching rooms was to celebrate those who hid or helped Jews avoid the camps during WWII. Antoher touching room was a memorial to the 1.5MM Jewish children killed during the Holocaust. Its a room of mirrors with candels in the center giving the appearance of numerous lights heading off into infinity. A striking view while an endless list of names and ages is read aloud.

After Yad Vashem, we rushed to catch our bus to Eilat. A four hour bus ride later, we arrived in Eilat.

To be continued...

Pictures

Finally we are on a computer that can post pictures. Enjoy!

• Bental Mountian (Golan Heights) Signpost.
• Camel.
• Garden of Gethsemane Olive Tree.
• Picture of the old city from the top of the Mount of Olives.
• Golgotha (place of the Skull)...Calvary.

Pictures!

• Garden Tomb.
• Garden Tomb door.
• Mosaic near Garden Tomb.
• Wailing or Western Wall.
• Mike and Sara in underground tunnels of Western Wall. Closest spot to where the Holy of Holies previous was.

Riding On a Donkey

We didn't ride on a donkey, but bright eyed and bushy-tailed at 5 am we set out for Jerusalem in our ford focus. Driving on the 90 all the way there was uneventful (except for young shepherds and sheep crossing the highway). Passing Jericho and turning on highway 1, we took the advice of our former hosts and stopped at the shops to buy some souvenirs. One thing that was very evident was the change from the rocky green Galilee to the dry desert leading up to Jerusalem.

Entering Jerusalem, we were completely lost. It didn't help that it was raining quite steadily. We trecked into the city, up to the old city, and just about to Bethlehem when God gracious placed us right on the street where we needed to return our rental car :) . After dropping off the car we took a cab to our new hostel. So far not as impressed as our last hostel, but it could be worse.

We settled in our room and headed off to the Mount of Olives on foot. The city was quiet as it was almost Sabbath. We reached the Mount of Olives and were looking around a bit when a friendly cab driver named Jakob kidnaped us. He took it upon himself to be our personal guide for the rest of the day, so we went with it. First we went to the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus prayed before he was taken captive starting the chain of events that led to his death. Jakob explained the sigificance of the area and drove us up to the top of the Mount of Olives (the highest of the four or five mountians in Jerusalem). It was beautiful with a view of the entire area of Jerusalem, inculding the Old City.

From there we went to Calvary and the Garden Tomb - by far the highlight of our day and probably our trip. The Bible says that Jesus was taken outside the city for execution near a rockface that looked like a skull (Golgotha...the place of a skull. Mark 15:22). In those days the Romans wanted crucifixtions to be public to diswade any further bad behavior, so the location was near a public road for all to see. After Jesus died, Ponitous Pilate had Roman soliders stab a spear into Jesus just to make sure he was dead. As the Bible accounts in John's gospel, blood and water flowed from Jesus when the spear pierced his dead body. Medically, when someone dies the blood and water seperate within the body, showing that Jesus had died on the cross.

Two of Jesus' followers, who happened to be wealthy, took Jesus' dead body and buried it in a tomb with 75 pounds of spices and tradional burial garments. Because Jesus had predicted His rising on the third day, a large stone was placed in front of the tomb and two Roman soliders guarded it's entrace. Two common arguments against the resurrection are 1) Jesus' disciples stole the body, and 2) Jesus wasn't dead and walked out of the tomb. The first argument is unlikely for a couple of reasons. First, there were Roman soilders guarding the tomb. In that day if a Roman soilder failed in his duty of guarding a prisoner he recieved the punishment that was due the priosoner...in this case death. That's good motivation to not mess up your duty and let anyone steal Jesus' body. The next reason has always been the most convincing to me. We know that the early Christians were serverly persecuted during the first century. Out of the twelve disciples (including Paul) eleven of them died horrific deaths and the last one (John) was burned alive in hot oil, but survived. Would anyone be willing to die for a lie. If the disciples stole the body and they knew the resurrection was a lie, why would they contiune to die and be persecuted for something they knew wasn't true? The second argument we talked about in the pervious paragraph with the blood and water. If Jesus wasn't dead but still severely beatened and bloody, he would have had remove the 75 pounds of burial spices, removed the stone, and fought off the Roman guards...highly unlikely. If he was still alive, managed to take off the spices and roll back the stone, then the guards would have just put him back on the cross to finish the job. Instead, the Bible says that Jesus rose on the third day that he "might free those who througth fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives" (Hebrews 2:15). Let those who have the ears to hear let them hear what the Spirt of God is saying.

It was an awe inspiring day and we're glad we get to share a little bit of it real time with you.

All our love and blessings,

Mike and Sara

North Israel Adventure

We started out the day with another wonderful breakfast from our hosts. From our hostel we went north. The highest mountain in the Golan Heights is called Bental. It is high up for the area (1,170 meter above sea level) and has a 360 degree view of Israel, Syria, and Lebonon. It's a great view and it has a signpost showing the direction of and distance to Jerusalem, Damascus, Baghdad, and Washington D.C. (11,000+ km away). It was extremely cold with a wind that chilled to the bone.

After that we headed towards the top of Mount Hermon. Lets just say that the town of Hermon isn't the cleanest or most modern city in the Middle East. At one point I felt like we had a target on our Ford Focus because of the Eldan Rental Car sticker on its side. Two thirds of the way there I jumped out, took a picture of the beautiful snow covered scenery, and we called it a mountain.

After defrosting for about 20 minutes, we headed out towards Caesarea Philippi. On the way we saw the Nimrod Crusader castle. We wondered if that castle is why Nimrod, as a word, has a negative connotation. Caesarea Philippi, called Banias in Israel, is a spectacular convergence of structures from different place for one reason...its lush beauty. Water from Mount Hermon flows down the Hermon river making that counrtyside green. The water and greenery, combined with beautiful reddish rock formations makes for quite a sight. This water feeds into Israel's most famous river The Jordan. The bible dosen't say if Jesus ever actually visited the city with its temples to pan and Ceaser. The bible does say that Jesus asked one of the most important questions in history on the way to this city. Who do you say that I am?

Sara and I hiked all around Caesarea Philippi. Hiking trails to Pan's Grotto, an acient mill, Aggripa's palace, and the crusader gate, we were tired before heading out towards the Banias Falls just a couple of miles away. The Banias Falls were stunning with tons of water rushing quicking down the river.

More adventure to come soon.

Mike and Sara

Pictures Capernaum

Picture of city ruins. Synagogue pictures outside, inside, shot of original stone.

"The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men"

We're here! We made it safely and its been quite a trip already. Sorry we didn't blog sooner, but as you can imagine it took a while to get our barrings. Let's start from the beginning...

Eric, my brother, graciously agreed to take us to the airport. After picking him up from his almost oceanside apartment in Hermosa Beach, we were just minutes from LAX. Suddenly, my good buddy Thomas called to wish us well on our journey. Even more suddenly, a not so friendly police officer pulled me over for talking on my cell phone and gave me a ticket. Thankfully, by the grace of God, we still made it to the airport in time to catch our flight to Zurich.

The plane was a spacious A-340 and Sara and I had a row just for two. There weren't any crying babies, just someone with noticeable B.O. The flight took off and we were on our way. The first 2 hours and 59 minutes were fine. At the 3 hour mark the stomach ache began. At 3 hours and twenty minutes excruciating pain. Only 8 hours to go....great. After we mercifully landed in Zurich, instead of exploring the city like we planned, we searched for the nearest doctor on hand.

Thankfully there wasn't too much of a wait and we were in to see a nice, English speaking Swiss doctor [Sara wanted to add handsome to that list, but I wouldn't let her. Checking out forgien doctors in my moments of pain... ouch :( ]. With some tests he confirmed my own diagnosis based on the familiar pain that I had experienced a few years ago, Kidney Stones :(. He gave me pain medication to last the trip and sent us on our way. We would like to note that everyone in Zurich was quite pleasent (doctors, nurses, flight attenants, food court workers). When they found out we were from Los Angeles their eyes lit up and smiles came to their faces. We spent a little more time in Zurich and then we were on our final flight to Israel.

We landed at 3:17am local time, grabed our luggage, rental car, and we're off. We reached our first destination, Caesarea, at 6:00am. We had a nice breakfast at a resturant next to a gas station and saw our first holy kitty. One thing we've been noticing is that cats are just running free in abundance over here and we aren't complaining. We were the first vistors to Caesarea at 8:00am when the park opened. It was spectatular! Much larger than we expected, the city was home to 50,000 people at one time. It's a very important site for those of us that aren't Jews, because Caesarea was the first place gentiles became believers of the gospel. The theater was massive with great acoustics. A few yards away was a replica of the Pontius Pilate stone found in 1961. It's basically a stone dedicating Caesarea to the Governor of Judea during Jesus' time. Until then some doubted the historical account of the Bible because there was no archeological evidence of a Pontius Pilate existing. That stone is just one of the many archeological proofs that confirm what is written in the Bible. Caesarea is also the place where Paul spent two years confined, until he made is appeal requesting the Court of Caesar in Rome here his case. We saw the actual spot where the appeal took place sending him to Rome, never to return.

Next, we drove to the Mount of Carmel. We were very sadden to see that there is little lush mountainside left. Most of it had been burned by the January fires. We tried unsuccessfully to find the Carmelite Monastery and then drove to Meggido.

Meggido (translated Armageddon in Latin and English) was a very cool Tel to visit. This city built upon city, built upon another city (Tels) captures the historical period of each city. From before the Canaanites to Solomon to the Roman period, after each army conquered, they built another city over the remains of the previous city on this strategically important location connecting Africa (Egypt), Western Civilization and Eastern Civilization. It was awe inspiring to look out on the valley where the future battle between good and evil will be (ask me if you want to know who wins).

It was becoming late and we were pretty tired, so we set off for the Hostel without visiting Nazareth. Going up the Safed mountain we reached our destination and were home for the night.
Day Two

After a wonderful breakfast from our hosts (eggs, bread, cinnamon pastry, tea, etc), we set off to Ginnosar for a boat ride on the Sea of Galilee. The ride down the mountain from our hostel over looks the Sea of Galilee. It was a spectacular day with the sea glistening. The sunlight shining through the puffy clouds looked as if the fingers of God were touching the Sea. We stopped at the Mount of Beattitudes where the sermon on the Mount was most likly preached. Some of the famous quotes from that sermon are:

• ^{Matt 7:24} “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. ²⁵ The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. ²⁶ But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. ²⁷ The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”
• Matt ^6:14 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. ¹⁵ Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. ¹⁶ In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven."
• ^{Matt 6:20} "For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven."
• ^{Matt 6:38} “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ ³⁹ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also."

Then we were on to Ginnosar. Ginnosar is a Jewish kibbutz (settlement) where the people gave up all their possessions and worked together for the single purpose of redeeming the land. This particular kibbutz is famous for a museum that holds a 1st century fishing boat that was used during the time of Jesus. It also had a harbor where we met up with a boat called Faith on our maiden voyage on the Galilee. Faith was crewed by Messianic Jews (Jews who have become Christians). Galilee was bigger than we expected and we defiantly see why they called it a Sea. I tried to jump and walk of the water like Peter, but Sara said I didn't have enough faith. I said we're riding on Faith and Faith alone. Isn't that enough? She said "yes, but I'm still not going to let you leave me here on this boat." It was a touching ride, warm, sunny with a whole overview of the Sea. You could picture where the miracles of Jesus took place; the feeding of the 5,000, the crowds following him from place to place, and the numerous healings.

Speaking of miracles, healings and teachings, that's a great transition point to our next location Capernaum. This is where Jesus lived during most of his ministry. In the middle of a town full of ruins is the Capernaum Synagogue. This synagoge was acutually built right on top of the one in Jesus day, so you are on the spot where Jesus did some really awesome things. This is the spot where Jesus declared "For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day." (John 6:40). It's also where Jesus looked at the religious people of the time "with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart" (Mark 3:5) because they would rather a person remain disabled than Jesus do something good on the Sabath, which was against their tradition. Jesus healed disability anyway.

After Capernaum, we set out to for Nazareth to go to the 1st century Jamestown of the Middle East"The Nazereth Village" and a place were there was suppose to be cool mosaics. Unfortunately, in the winter things tend to close a bit early here and both places were closed.

As you can probably tell we modified our itinerary a bit to match more of the historical timeline of the Bible during Jesus' ministry. First Capernaum and the Sea of Galilee, next Ceasrea Philipi and Mount Hermon, and finally Jerusalem.

We love you all very much and we feel safe.

Blessings,

Mike and Sara