The trip has started out strong and is maintaining!

I’ve tried to divvy up my meal time and travel time among the different people on the trip to either catch up or get to know one another!

It’s great getting to further expand my circle of peeps and to hear the stories of the new-to-me faces!

The entirety of our itinerary today was spent on the whole of Mount Moriah (there are three main mountains of Jerusalem: Mount Zion and Mount of Olives with Mount Moriah sandwiched in the middle).

Our first stop was walking through the Damascus Gate to get to the Western (aka Wailing) Wall. This photo was taken by someone else in the group, but I thought it was a lot better than mine!

This was one of the stops that I had visited on my previous trip and just as before, I hung out in the back with the books.

I decided to read the Shema and the blessings attributed to it. Though practicing Jewish people don’t recognize Jesus as the Messiah, it was a great way to meditate on truths that are relevant to who Jesus is!

We then went onto Temple Mount, where the First and Second Temple were built, but now is controlled by Palestinians and thus has several mosques built on it.

The area is highly sought after between the Palestinians and the Jewish people because this is the area that Abraham almost sacrificed his son. If you ask a Christian or a Jew, Abraham almost sacrificed Isaac, their personal ancestor/ancestor of their Savior. If you ask a Palestinian, Abraham almost sacrificed Ishmael, their ancestor.

One mosque pictured below is Al-Aqsa, which commemorates the location where Muhammad allegedly ascended.

Another, probably the most famous, is Dome of the Rock.

Here is the area where it is believed the Holy of Holies was stationed in the Temple. Notice that it is outside and not inside the mosque. This is in line with the Eastern Gate (pictured yesterday), which historically makes more sense to where the Temple was actually located versus the area the Dome of the Rock is built over.

I had stated to a friend that I felt slightly blasphemous being in the area where the Holy of Holies might have been (hence a reason why practicing Jews do not go up onto Temple Mount). Her response was so on point, “Well, the curtain was torn” (Matthew 27:51). How true that is! The Spirit of God isn’t something we can walk over because it lives in us as believers (1 Cor. 2:12, 3:16)!

We then took the short walk over to the Pool of Bethsaida and the St. Anne’s Church, which is known for its great acoustics!

Arie shared with us on John 5 and really brought out some wealth of information from the Hebrew language!

“Bethsaida” means “place of GRACE/mercy/lovingkindness” (English translation just doesn’t seem to do the depth of Hebrew justice). The words “grace” (chesed) and “truth” (emet) are paired together 34x in the Bible, most notably in relation to Jesus in John 1:14.

We got to listen to a group sing within St. Anne’s, but didn’t have time ourselves to wait in line to sing.

A silly side note that amused me was the plastic bird hanging in the doorway.

A sign inside explained why it was there and just further amused me.

Right beside the church is the Pool of Bethsaida, which is marked as to the area where Jesus might have healed the crippled man.

A special treat was being able to go inside a hotel/church which is connected to the only remaining archway from Jesus’ day. The archway can be seen on the main road, but Arie’s connections allowed us to go in the church where the supporting structure still remains as well.

One nugget from our time there was the “tear jar”. When a Jewish person passed away, tear jars would be used to collect the tears of the mourners. If one saw many full tear jars, they felt that person must have been well-loved and respected. If one saw there weren’t many tear jars, it was a disgrace. This was so serious of a matter, professional mourners were hired to help boost numbers!

Why this is relevant is that Jesus very well could have used one of these when He wept for Lazarus.

Another beautiful commentary from Arie was the broken jar. When Mary anointed Jesus with the perfume, for it to fill the room with the fragrance of it (John 12:3), the jar had to have been broken. The following quote trailed the explanation, “Broken people give much more perfume before the Lord than the strong”. The Lord doesn’t ask us to be strong before Him; in fact, it is more pleasing to Him when we recognize just how broken we are without Him.

We then walked through the city onto lunch!

This restaurant was the same one I visited last time I was in Israel and I was NOT mad about it. Though it isn’t as hot here as it was in June, the mint lemonade was a treat I enjoyed having again! The shawarma was also so tender and delicious!

Afterwards, we continued on to the Garden Tomb. Protestants tend to hold that this is the more likely location of Jesus’ death and burial (versus the Church of the Holy Selpuchre, which is asserted by the orthodox denominations).

While Arie holds to the Church of the Holy Selpuchre’s location, I liked what our tour guide, Ashley (from Australia!), said: it isn’t as much about the place as it is the Person. Man, is that the theme for me during my time in Israel!

Honestly, Ashley was probably my favorite part of visiting the Garden Tomb. He was engaging, sincere, and seemed to love both the country of Israel and its Messiah, Jesus Christ.

I forgot to mention yesterday that after our day of exploring and learning, we come back together to study with Arie, focusing on the parables. He’s shared some great tidbits thus far and I’ve really enjoyed learning from him and alongside others!