It's all a matter of perspective.

I just got back from a week of summer camp, at Snow Mountain Ranch near Winter Park Colorado, with an amazing group of students.  It was tiring, but absolutely worth the loss of sleep.  Once again I am truly amazed by how God works through people and in peoples lives.  The students openness and passion is awesome.

One of my personal little learning moments happened very early in the week.  I had five middle school boys in my cabin.  All amazing young men.  It didn't take long before our room was an absolute mess.  I'm not making excuses but I remember camp at that age and it is to be expected.  By morning the wet bathroom floor was covered in dirty undies.  Initially I just shook my head and was put off by how messy they were.  But after a little bit of thought I've determined this is not necessarily all bad.  If you change your perspective you can conclude that firstly, they are showering and secondly, they are changing there underwear.  In my book that is a win!

Awesome video!

So much of this video is where we where.  I stood in many of these spots.  This clip just brings a whole new dimension to everything we saw.


Jerusalem | Filmed in Imax 3D from JerusalemGiantScreen on Vimeo.

This is an upcoming IMAX 3D film scheduled for release in 2013.  You can bet I'm going to go see it.

Pictures posted

My Israel & Jordan photo album is available for viewing.  I chose about 200 photos from over 1500 shots.  I hope you enjoy the pictures.

Thursday June 16th

Today is the last full day of our trip before we start our return home.  We left the hotel with bags packed because we fly out in the early AM hours of Friday morning.  But that does not mean we did not accomplish anything today.  Our guide kept us on a strict schedule and wanted to make sure we saw as much as we could with our few remaining hours.

We started by going south wall excavations.  These ruins are just adjacent to the south wall of the Old City.  From there we talked about Jesus' final week.  At the southern wall there is a sealed entrance that was the public entrance into the temple mount.

South Wall Excavations

Our guide said with more certainty than anywhere else in all of Jerusalem, Jesus must have been at this very spot.  From here we could follow his path from the upper room (the last supper), to the Mount of Olives (were Jesus was captured after he went their to pray), back up to to where he was tried and sentenced.  We really got a sense of that final week there.

From there we walked just down the hill a little bit to the ongoing excavations at the City of David.  The City of David is King David's Palace.  From here you can stand at his roof and looked down on the dwellings beneath him.  This is where he more likely than not he saw Bathsheba.

View from the roof top of David's palace

You can also see the wall reconstructed by Nehemiah.  They are making significant discoveries here on an ongoing basis.  This sight, as so many others, is currently being excavated. Within the last couple years they have found seals with the names of scribes that are recorded in the book of Jeremiah.  Our guide is absolutely convinced of the historicity of the Bible.  He was not convinced of this as recently as 10 years ago, but now he believes you can't adequately understand what you find without the Bible.  As here has stated many times the Bible is a treasure map.  This says a lot coming from a man

Jerusalem is city of layers built upon layers.  Every time something is built is it is built the ruble of whatever is beneath it.  To dig here, as with many other places throughout Israel, one must overcome political obstacles.  Many times our guide said everything in Israel is politics.  For example they have found solid evidence of Jewish tombs under land occupied by Palestinians.  Many sights are not excavated due to the implications that might result.  The Dome of the Rock is a primary example.  This is the location of the Temple Mount, but it is under the control of the Muslims (interesting side note...it is owned by the Jordanians) and it is off limits.

We concluded our time in Jerusalem with a visit to the garden tomb.  From here you can view what is purported to be Golgotha, the location of Jesus' crucifixion.  From there it is a short walk to what is thought to be the garden tomb of Jesus.

Garden Tomb

As Christians everything we believe in revolves around the empty tomb.  That He is who He claimed to be.  He is the Christ, the Son of the living God.  We had the opportunity to reflect on our experiences the last 11 days.  We sang songs of praise and took communion there.  This was and ideal way to conclude our time there.

From there we started our drive back to Tel Aviv to catch our flight home.  Along the way we stopped at Emmaus.  On the road to Emmaus Jesus, after his resurrection, spoke with two travelers.  After some discussion with them about all that had happened in Jerusalem the prior week, Jesus revealed himself to them.  Jesus did not die, He is alive.  We continued driving through the area in the fields where David met and defeated Goliath.  Finally we were transported back to the 21st century to start our trip home.  This was a trip of a lifetime!

Wednesday June 15th

To start today I would like wish you a happy St. Vit day, and happy birthday to my dad!  Last night we finished our day by hearing from some young missionaries (oops...I can't use that word here because it is against the law to proselytize here) and today we started by going to a ministry called “Bridges for Peace”.  This organization is like a food closet but does far more.  Often among the Jews and Arabs they try to reach it is difficult if not an impossible for them to accept aid from Christians.  It is a wonderful ministry.

From there we went to the Israeli Museum.  We saw a scale model of ancient Jerusalem.  It must have been something to behold back in Jesus' time.  The temple mount would have been impressive even today.

Jerusalem model in Jesus' time

The historic relic we were able to see was some of the scroll fragments that were found at Qumran (near the dead sea...see blog post from day 6).  Portions of the Isaiah scroll was on display.  This is called the shrine of the book.

After our brief visit we continued to the holocaust museum.  We spent a short amount of time there but is was very impacting.

Hall of Remembrance at the Holocaust Museum

The whole trip our guide has been teasing us with the meaning and origin of the Star of David symbol (this is the double triangle star found on the Israeli flag).  One night when I had internet access I google'd it and it did not give a definitive answer.  Actually the symbol has no Jewish significance.  Up until the holocaust the symbol was largely unknown.  Hilter used it to identify the Jews.  So the symbol on the Jewish flag is a Nazi design borrowed from India (FYI the swastika is also a symbol taken from India).  Our guide told us most Jews don't even know this.

Then we went to Bethlehem.  Our guide left us because as a Jew he is not allowed to go there.  Bethlehem is located in the Palestinian occupied territories.

Bethlehem

The political situation here is difficult.  There is no easy solution.  The Palestinian occupied territories are surround by a large concrete wall and there is a check point to pass through.  I've never been to Berlin but it reminded me of the Berlin wall.

In Bethlehem we went to the Church of the Nativity.  This is the “location” of Jesus' birth.

They even have memorial to the “spot” of the birth.  But the church was built some 6 centuries after Jesus' birth.  It was meaningful from the point to know that Jesus was born somewhere here.  From there we went to the Shepard's field.  This is were the Shepard left to go see the baby Jesus.

Jerusalem is a very unique city.  A lot of cultures clash here.  The city goes by over 70 different names.  Everything here, regardless of who you are (Muslim, Jewish or Christian) is so religious.  People make relics and idols out of everything.  I don't even like the term religious.  I think of religion as a man made system that is all about dos and don’ts and about man trying to please God.  I think “true religion” is God reaching down to us, to our level to save us.  That is exactly what Jesus has done.  It is up to us to either accept it or reject it.

Tuesday June 14th

Today is our first full day in Jerusalem, and it will be impossible to encapsulate it all.

Jerusalem

I will try to cover some of the highlights.  Overall we have been extremely blessed that the crowds are very light.  We are getting everywhere so easily so our wonderful guide keeps adding more and more items to our itinerary.

First thing this morning we returned to the Wailing wall.  It is customary to write a prayer on a piece of paper an stick it into a crack in the wall.

Wailing Wall

My prayer was something that Ron shared earlier, that I have been thinking about frequently on this trip.  The prayer is the same as Peter's answer when Jesus asked who do you think I am. It is something I know I do not acknowledge as much as I should.  “You are the Christ, the son of the living God”.

From there we went to the Dome of the Rock.  Inside the structure there is a rock that is said to be the alter upon which  Abraham placed his son Isaac.  Later Solomon built the temple on this sight.  The Holy of Holies, the place of offerings, was built over this rock.

Dome of the Rock

This is the most holy sight for the Jews and now there is a mosque built upon this spot.  Up until recently this sight was inaccessible by visitors.  For the Muslims this is a very holy spot also, because they say Mohammed ascend here.  There is a lot of tension because of this.  More then ever I have realized how unimportant this physical spot is to us as Christians, because the true temple is in our hearts where the Holy Spirit resides.

In my small group we have been studying the book of John.  We are familiar with a lot of the occurrences in that book.  We went to the pool of Bethesda where Jesus healed a crippled man on the sabbath.  We studied this recently and now I visited the spot.

Pool of Bethesda

Adjacent to this sight is the Church of St. Ann.  We went in and sang some hymns.  This place had the most perfect acoustics imaginable.  It made a bunch of novices, like us, sound like a heavenly choir.  I'm sure regardless of how we think we sound, this is what God hears coming from our heart.

In the evening we had the privilege to go to the tunnels under the western wall.  This allowed us to understand how the temple Solomon built originally looked.  We were able to follow the western wall, a continuation of the wailing wall, underground for practically the entire length of the temple.  We were at the very base of the wall where it blends into the bedrock of Mount Moriah.

In addition to the above we also visited: King David tomb, the upper room (sight of the last supper), the Via Delarosa, the prison of Christ, Church of the Holy Sepulcher, Mount of Olives, garden of Gesthemeny, Church of Agony, several of the gates into the old city, Absalom's tomb, Zachariah's tomb, and several other items.  This day was definitely and overload on information.

We finished the evening listening to a group young people who are here in Jerusalem reaching the Jews and the Muslims with the good news of Christ.

Monday June 13th

This morning we got an early start because we had to drive north again for several hours, to return to the same border crossing to go back into Israel.  We were hoping for it to go more smoothly than when we entered Jordan.  Once again I was selected for special screening.  I'm convinced it has to do with my Egypt Visa.  Additionally my baggage was deemed suspicious because of stone tile mosaic I purchased in Jordan.  There was some waiting but it went pretty smooth and we made in through in about half the time.

From there we went to Qumran.  Our guide said this a very poor archeological sight except for the fact that it did yield one of the most significant finds ever discovered.  The Dead Sea Scrolls were found here.  We did not spend much time here because there really isn't much to see.  The scrolls are the oldest copy of the Old Testament in existence.  He said the entire Old Testament, except for the book of Ester, is found in the scrolls and it is 99.9% the same as the writings we have today.  This find just adds to the credibility and reliability of the bible.

Afterward we drove down to the southern end of the Dead Sea and went to Masada.

Masada

Masada is a fortress on the top of a plateau.  It is the last bastion of Jewish freedom fighters against the Romans.  The Romans built a giant ramp that ascended to the top of Masada and attacked the fortress from there.  The leader of the Jewish community convinced some 960 members that it would be better to take their own lives rather than to live in shame and fall into the hands of the Romans and become slaves.

Structures at Masada

That is the traditional account but there are some alternate theories to this because suicide is completely contrary to Jewish beliefs.  At the end of our stay a couple of us guys decided to hike down from the top of Masada.

From there we drove a back to the north side of the Dead Sea and took a swim.  The Dead Sea is the lowest point on earth.  My GPS showed 1360 feet below sea level.  The Dead Sea is shrinking and large portions of what used to be submerged are now dry ground.  The Jordan river flows into the Dead Sea, but not at a rate that will sustain its level due to evaporation.  Israel dammed up a portion of the Jordan river.  Water is such a scarce resource that they cannot allow it to be wasted.

Covered in Black Mud from the Dead Sea

I was able to completely cover myself in the black mud of the Dead Sea.  It is supposed to be good for the skin and I can report that my skin is softer.  I think it just acted as an exfoliate.  Swimming in the Dead Sea is an experience.  The water does not feel any different but you are extremely buoyant.  The water contains one third minerals and hence it is much more dense than regular sea water.  You don't even have to make an effort and you just float.

That pretty much ended our program for the day.  We started driving west through the Judean  wilderness were Jesus was tempted for 40 days.  We went through a tunnel that goes under the Mount of Olive and than all of Jerusalem was reveal to us in a moment.  It was a breathtaking sight to see.

Once we were settled into our hotel and we finished dinner.  A couple of us decided to go for a walk.  We were pointed in a direction and just started walking.  We walked though a Muslim district and tried to soak in the entire experience.  We walked through an opening and to our surprise to the left we had stumbled into the Wailing wall.  This was something I was really looking forward to.  I was able to go up and touch the wall.  It was quite an amazing experience.  I think I'm going to walk every night just to soak in as much as I can.  We will stay in Jerusalem for the next 3 nights until our departure.