April 12, 2009: Easter

We had a great full day today. We began by going up to the Temple Mount. This is under Muslim Control. We can only go up there before prayer times, which is tricky because they pray 5 times a day. We got there by 8 a.m. and there were only a few of us. Today we picked up Kent and Gayle Brown, who are both working at the BYU Jerusalem Center. Kent is an authority on Near Eastern Studies and Antiquities. It was nice to have him along as a scholar and with his perspective as a member of our Church. We had to go through security before we could enter the mount. Kendall was told that she could not take her scriptures up to the mount. YOu think that they would be looking for guns or something, but their biggest concern is religious threats. Our guide had to hold her scriptures and I was told to not take mine out of my bag.

On the Temple Mount, all of the original from King Herod's and King David's time has been destroyed, after the first century A. D. The Dome of The Rock sits there now- a beautiful octagon structure out of blue tiles. Non-Muslims can no longer go inside. But you can get an idea of the size of the Temple Mount where Christ would have walked and kicked out money changers and those selling and making profits off those that had come to pay almost like a tithe and make sacrifices. In this area Christ had walked and likely on some of the stones that might still remain. As we walked up the ramp to the Dome, we could look down on the Western/Wailing wall. Here Jews worship- it is their most sacred synagogue- which is outside and consists of the Western Wall of Herod's Temple, the second temple period, which is above King David's/Solomon's temple that was built 600 BC. Here they pray that the temple will be rebuilt and for when Israel was a Jewish state run peacefully by King David, who helped unify the Jewish Tribes and claimed Jerusalem as thier capital. During Passover there were hundreds of people in their most holy robes praying at the site. The girls and I all thought the perspective was perfect, we could watch from above, see everything, without interfering in their worship.

We made our way over to the Garden of Gethsemane walking through the Old City and through streets that were filled with shops from fruit and chickens to nicknacks everywhere. There were many people out and the city was full due to Easter and Passover and for the Orthodox Christians, Palm Sunday.

The Garden was beautiful and peaceful. Surprisingly there were not a lot of people when we were there. It was nice to have Kent explain about the suffering that took here, the significance of this place. He mentioned that he thought it was appropriate that The Church of All Nations, that is in the Garden, depicts Christ in red robes. We believe that he bled from every pore as he suffered for our sins and the pains in this life, which would have caused his robes to turn red. Kent discussed something that I felt was something important also, that Christ here suffered, he asked if this cup could be removed, he was predestined to come to earth for this purpose but at the end, he had a choice, he felt it as a man would suffer, but he choose to take the cup, to feel all the pains as terrible as they felt to his earthly body who had not felt the heavy pains of sin. He chose to continue. Which was another testament to his suffering, the feeling of what it is like to endure the pains, to endure them alone and Kent felt that Christ could have had the choice to take his life, in the sense of saying enough and returning to his Father, but he chose to stay, he even felt what the worst possible choice could be to want to take ones life which might have seemed easier than enduring the most terrible suffering, but he didn't use that option of just returning to our HF when he could have had that option, he chose to suffer for us. For that I am grateful.

We entered the Church of All Nations. It had a great spirit about it. You cannot talk inside the church. It is rather dark, except for candles and beautifully lit murals depicting Christ being turned over by Judas, and his suffering. The outside of the church had beautiful and simple silver doors that depicted an olive tree. It created a feeling of what it could have felt for Christ alone in the dark olive garden. Kent pointed out as we went over to the private olive garden where we could ponder, that he learned that when olives are crushed and then pressed that the olive oil is red at first and that it turns the white limestone red and discolors it, until the rains rinse it clean. He noted the symbolism of the white turning red and through the cleaning that it can then turn white again and that through much pressure and pressing, similar to the pressure and pain Christ must have felt, his white robes would have turned red. We red in the scriptures there from Mark about Christ and this time in Gethsemane and it was amazing really to be right there in about the same place, where we would have been as he made that sacrifice for us.

We made our way through markets again and went to the Church of The Holy Sepluchre, where Catholics believe that Christ was crucified and laid on a sheet of stone and wrapped in linen and taken to Joseph of Arimethea. It is hard to feel much there, since it is so packed and filled with people and the entire area from where people feel that Golgotha was to the place he was laid, since it is covered in lanterns, silver and gold, arches and so many different churches present from the Roman Catholic, to the Greek Orthodox, to the Ethiopians and many others. It is very interesting and people are kissing the floor and rocks and the whole area is covered in a series of churches, it is fascinating. We witnessed the Greek Orthodox Palm Sunday procession, which the Easter Catholics believe it to be Palm Sunday. They walked around several times with candles, palm leaves and incense and all the leaders circling their most holy leader, with fabulous robes and hats and nuns making some arab sounding shrilling and wanting to touch the leaders. It was great to witness and be right there for,

We barely made it out of the crowds before Kendall almost got sick on the incense burning, and walked through several arches and gates till we reached the Upper Room. It is here that we believe that Christ held his last supper. It is not in the exact room, since it was built much later, but it was in the same space. Here Christ taught his apostles about the sacrament during this Passover meal. He washed their feat and taught them about the great commandment of loving one another. It was interesting to note that the conversation and teachings that took place at the Last Supper elevated after Judas had left and it was Christ's last time to really teach his apostles about what he hoped they would do, him knowing it was very near the end of his life on earth and time was short. From here he went to the Garden which must have been about 45 minutes away.

We people watched and ate outside as we enjoyed falaffels, although not too sure Syd was enjoying hers! They were busy checking out the handsome army guys taht all had very cool sunglasses on and rifles. I had to take a picture after lunch- that might be their new facebook!

We wrapped things up with Hezekiah's Tunnel- the tunnel that was built almost 2700 years ago by Hezekiah to protect the city's water supply incase they were attacked, which happened and they used this tunnel to get water from the pools outside of the city. The tunnel is almost a mile long. It is amazing that it is there and wasn't discovered until about 100 years ago. YOu walk through a very claustrophobic narrow and shallow tunnel with water up to your thighs in parts and end up near the Pools of Siloam, where Christ put mud on the blind man's eyes and then told him to go and wash and eyes clean at the Pools, this is where the tunnel ended. We had a couple of rowdy teenage girls in front that were singing and being so slow. Syd was slighly annoyed, but then Kendall gave a yell, MOVE, please!!! The girls turned around and started talking back a little and I was like, GREAT we are going to have a chick fight here in the tunnel!!!! Told the girls to cool it so we didn't get caught in the tunnel with a couple of now slightly hostile teens. Very funny and will have to post one of Kendall's expressions!!

We came back to the hotel tired from the day's adventures but also with lots of great memories. We slept by the pool for a couple hours at the hotel before heading around to the outdoor markets for some shopping a great dinner at Katy's- delicious French restaurant. Looking forward to tomorrow at Israel Museum and Yad Vashem, the Holocaust museum

Friday, April 10, 2009

We arrived in the evening to the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, after an easy flight with no problems. Once we checked in, we realized they had not brought in my backpack. We had a humorous start to our trip with our guide Yossi, who now the girls call Yoshi, since he took off with my backpack in the car and without giving us his phone number. He was a bit of an overbearing man, slightly condescending and assuring us that he was looking after everything, although apparently not our bags. Trying to contact him was a little tricky since the agency did not have record of us or did not know our guide, who some thought was Norm!!! SO, Norm/Yossi we finally contacted and we were left not sure about our guide who, as he said was, "here for our every need and protection" since he chose not to return with my bag and was nearly impossible to find. But, the girls had a good laugh while I was trying to figure out if we had been scammed or not! Thankfully not, since he showed up on Saturday morning with my backpack. But, Yossi is no longer in the "circle of trust." We thankfully have a new guide on Sunday. With that behind us, we set off to dinner last night in the dining room, where most guests were Jewish and enjoying their Shabbat dinner. The food was light and delicious. We had a good 10 hours of sleep.

April 11,2009

I am just sick about it, I just wrote a whole entry about our day today and it was erased. I will have to rewrite when I get back from St. Anne's tonight, where we are going to a special Easter Service there with Kent Brown. We had a great and meaningful day.

We went to the Jerusalem Center. Beautiful and the best views of all Jerusalem. Church was watching last week's Conference so we wandered the grounds and enjoyed the garden with the olive presses and took note of the map that had all the significant sites on it, gave us a good lay of the land. We rejoined our guides, Nader- the Christian guide and Yoshi (only one more day.) We headed to Paster Noter, where there are many tablets inlaid with the Lord's Prayer in different languages. The Lord's Prayer was believed to be given to the 12 here in this area or he at least prayed with them here. Many also believe this is where he ascended into heaven after spending 40 days as the resurected Christ with his apostles and disciples.

We went past Gethsemanae, since we will see that tomorrow and made our way to Caiphas's House. This was the first place that Christ came after suffering for our sins in Gethsemane and being turned over by Judas to those that bound him and took him here. Caiphas's house was much more moving than I expected. It is almost surely the place where Christ was lowered into a small, dark cell- high security cell where Christ would have been held. He then was taken to Antonio's Fortress where the Roman Judge would have have to approve his execution. Pontious Pilot was the judge then and he washed his hands of Christ, but to please the Jews he gave them Christ to execute, but not until they mocked and beat him and released him to be taken and hung from the cross. We then walked a few stations of the Cross, which Christ would have walked, but on a layer below the street level we were on, since these roads would have been built later. It is still the same path and route that he would have made his way to be hung.

We went to St Anne's church, before the garden, since it was right around the corner. Tonight we returned there. Next to the church that they believe was where Mary, the mother of Christ, was born. Catholics believe that Anne was pure enough to bear the pure Mary. The old Crusader church is in perfect condition with incredible acoustics. Tonight we went there to be a part of an Easter Celebration. The monks there sang beautifully and the sound was unbeleivable and was quite a beautiful ceremony as we held lit candles and heard them speak sections of the Bible in French. There is a small grotto, cave where they beleive was the home of Mary and her mother Anne. Mary they beleive was layed to rest close to there on the mount of Olives, which is near by.

Next to St. Anne's is the Pools of Bethesda. There are no longer Pools, but this is where Christ healed the man who was 38 years old and had waited for many years to be healed here. You had to be the first one to touch the water when the gods stirred it. Christ told the man to rise and walk and talk his matt. It is significant, our guide thought, that CHrist healed this man and it was recorded. The guide thought because this man had showed great patience in waiting and that he didn't tell him to touch the water, since it was supposed to be moved by pagan gods, but he healed him without the water, proving that he was the one with the powers to heal.

The Garden Tomb was very nice and a perfect setting to contemplate what happened here, the miracle of Easter, of the Resurrection. This was discovered not too long ago. The tomb has a large opening for a large rock- which it states that it needed a big stone. There is a trough that the stone could have rolled over the entracnce. The mount of the skull. Golgotha is right next to it, which they said the Joseph of Arimethea took Christ to his tomb. This proves to be aa garden, since it has one of the largest cisterns and the water would have been for irrigation. We went inside the tomb, carved from stoned. There is a weeping room with the grave site in the chamber to the right. It is amazing. We sat together and read Matthew. It was nice and had a pleasant feeling about it.

We came home and the girls took a nap for a bit before we returned and met Kent brown and his wife Gayle for the ceremony at St. Annes'. Following we said goodbye to Yossi!! And then we walked from the hotel to dinner at a great restaurant called Calvary. Great day.