day 7

Dear caroline, jenny, and evan,

Our last day in Israel..let's just say I shed a tear or two. This trip has, by far been the best trip I have ever been on and I didn't want it to end. Well to be honest, I kind of wanted this day to end because once again, the weather was awful. Cold, windy, and rainy..

Stop number 1 was the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock. It's kind of hard to miss because of the big gold dome..slightly obnoxious but pretty at the same time. It makes a nice addition to the background of all our pictures overlooking the Temple Mount! Muslims believe that this is the site of Muhammad's night journey to heaven. This is also where the Jews believe the 3rd Temple will be built.

Dome with the fam..oh look, its raining!

While at the Temple Mount, we did something that could have gotten us in BIG trouble. Of course the leader of this little adventure was..my mother! Who knew she was such a rebel! We wandered around and went to the back side of the Eastern Gate aka where Jesus will return to earth! Where the spring will burst and wash out all the graves outside the gate. While we were taking pictures of it a lovely middle eastern man was watching us very closely..and when I say lovely, I mean he was super creepy and he did not like us!

my beautiful roommate Eve in front of the backside of the Eastern Gate

Funny/nasty story. Today for lunch we went to this little restaurant that seemed a little sketch since we had to go down an alley to find it..Apparently people had eaten there before and it was cheap, so we gave it a try. We should have walked out when we could..I had packed my lunch that day and was going to eat later on the bus, so I didn't get food but I got coffee. MISTAKE. Scott, Don, Russ, and I got coffee at our table and we had a little surprise in our coffee..

yummy..bugs!

Yes my friends, we had bugs in our coffee..I was fortunate enough to not have the whole bug in mine, just some legs and pieces of wings. Russ and Don both found whole bug in their coffee. I wanted to cry because it was so funny and so nasty all at the same time. Oh and after Russ fished the bug out of his cup, he drank the rest of his coffee. GROSS

Russ LOVES bugs in his coffee!

After an eventful lunch, we arrived at the Western Wall or better known as the Wailing Wall. This is the holiest place for Jewish people because it't the remnant of their last temple that was destroyed in 70 AD. There are separate sides for men and women to go and pray. I wrote some prayers down on a piece of paper on the bus and stuck them in the wall!

me and Eve at the wall

i couldn't pass up taking an artsy pic

After we put our prayers in the wall and met back up with the guys, we went underground to the tunnels under the Western Wall. In the tunnel, there were several rooms, halls, water tunnel, a pool, and a Second Temple road. These tunnels were super small and if you are claustrophobic, I would NOT recommend you go down there!

as you can see, we were pretty far underground

To finish up our last day, we went to the Garden Tomb. The weather had cleared up just a little bit which made this a little more enjoyable! It made perfect sense to end our trip at the Garden Tomb because this was where Jesus was buried and rose on the third day! The tomb was in a beautiful garden and I got lots of cute flower pics. 

chillin outside the tomb with the fam...nbd

heard thattt!

After taking our pictures inside the tomb, we went to this little chapel in the garden for a final service. He had a little music, a good talk, and then took communion!

Jeff prechin the Word

Sadly, this is the end of my wonderful trip to the Holy Land. I would go back in a heartbeat. I highly recommend anyone and everyone to jump at the chance if they ever get the chance to go. It is so life changing. One of the guys on the guys on the trip put it perfectly, "it turns the Bible from black and white, to color." I have never heard a truer statement in my life. Now every time I'm reading the Bible and it mentions a place that I have been, I can picture it and the Bible really comes to life. Jesus is da bomb. the end

love yall!

Sarah