ISRAEL PILGRIMAGE -TH- 25 November 2010
Our time in Israel sure has passed fast. It seems just yesterday we were leaving New Orleans for Israel and now that was a week and 1 day ago. The weather has been very nice the entire trip. A couple of days it was warm but for the most part it has been fine each day. We have also had very clear skies and atmosphere. We’ve been able to see without the sand or whatever in the air making things that are a few kilometers away to appear fuzzy. Crystal clear so my pictures in the desert and elsewhere should look great.
We left the Lutheran Guesthouse at 8am and met Gilla at the Zion Gate. Our first stop was the David’s Tomb and then upstairs to the Upper Room. The building is a Crusader building but tradition has it that this is the location of the Last Supper so it is a special place for us to have a devotional and sing. Stan did an exceptional job again as he led our devotional. It was special.
St. Peter in Gallicantu where Peter denied the Lord Jesus was our next stop. Mel shared in the courtyard about his life and faith and tied it in with the struggle and heartache Peter experienced when he denied Jesus. We took pictures of the Roman Stepped Way and sang hymns in the church. A few minutes in the Gift Shop and away we went up to the Mount of Olives Overlook. We had a fantastic view of the entire Old City of Jerusalem. If you stood still and thought hard you could almost envision how it would have looked at the time of Christ. We traveled from the Mount of Olives to Mount Scopus and had lunch at the Hebrew University Aroma Coffee Bar. It was very good!
Haas Promenade located on the Hill of Evil Council, the traditional site where Judas met with the Pharisees to finalize his betrayal of Jesus, was our next stop. Ironic that the British would have their headquarters here during their period of the mandate and later the UN would put it headquarters here. The view of the City of David and the Temple Mount are spectacular. We left the Haas Promenade and traveled down to the Pool of Siloam then back up to the foot of the Mount of Olives to the Garden of Gethsemane. Dr. Dukes led our devotional here. We left the Mount of Olives and went up to the Herod Gate (the Flower Gate) and walked down to Saint Anne’s Church and the Bethesda Pool. Don Richard led our devotional.
We were all tired. We came back to the Jaffa Gate. Some went to Aroma Coffee while others went to the Jewish Quarter to shop and some went back to the Lutheran Guesthouse.
Avner, our driver, picked us up at the Jaffa Gate bus stop at 5:30pm for our evening meal at the American Colony Hotel. The meal was very good. Dr. Dukes finished our Bible study –Encounters with Jesus in the Gospel of John.
