my bad...

I'm so sorry I have been so awful about posting for the past few days! We have been so so busy and the internet crashes like every 10 minutes..We are at a different hotel now, so I'll try to get all caught up tonight!

day 4

            My feet are not very happy with me today…We did a normal two day tour, in one day! We walked essentially through all of the Old City of Jerusalem.  We started out on the top of the Mount of Olives where Jesus started his journey through Jerusalem to his crucifixion. There is a beautiful view of Jerusalem from the top of the Mount of Olives even though the Dome of the Rock is directly across the valley.

            As we made our way down the Mount of Olives, we got to the Garden of Gethsemane. I love gardens, so once again I was lovin every minute of it! The story behind the Garden of Gethsemane is in Matthew 26:36-46! Right next to the garden is the Church of All Nations. There are 12 (I think..?) different nations represented on the ceiling of the church. The United States dome is the first one on the right side! This is the site where Jesus prayed so hard he sweat blood!

            The Pools of Bethesda is another really cool place in Jerusalem. This is there sick/disabled people would hang out because the spirit would stir up the water and the first person in the water after it has been stirred would be healed. This is where Jesus healed a man who had been going to the pools for over 30 years and never got healed. He was paralyzed so he could never get into the water because he didn’t have anyone to help him. Jesus saw this man’s desire to be healed and he healed him right then and there!

            The Western Wall was next on the list. Since it is Saturday and we went before sunset, lots of things were closed because people aren’t allowed to work on the Sabbath. This is the Holiest site for people of Jewish faith because they believe that the presence of God is in the wall. When they are finished praying, Jewish people walk a certain number of steps backwards because they do not want to turn their backs on God. We went up to the wall and some people put prayers in the wall, prayed, and then we left. It was super crowded so it was a pretty quick trip! We couldn’t even take pictures at the wall because that is considered work!

            Next, we went to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. This church is believed to be one of the possible sights where Jesus was crucified. The church is divided between 3 major religions (Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Armenian). The Greek Orthodox parts of the church are the most obvious because it is decked out in gold and jewels! There are several mosaics on the walls that would have taken forever to complete and they were all done by hand! They were truly unbelievable.

            One of our last stops was on the other side of the Mount of Olives at Caiaphas’ house. This is where Jesus was taken before he was put before his crucifixion. He had to stay the night here because it was the Sabbath and there was no working allowed which meant no judging was going on that day. Jesus was lowered down into a pit/cave that only had one opening at the top so it was impossible for anyone to get out. Psalm 88!

            Last stop: the Garden tomb! The Garden Tomb is another place that people think Jesus could have been crucified and buried. The mount that is believed to be the crucifixion site is all rock and there is the face of a skull in the rocks. It’s called Golgatha which means ‘skull.’ The garden was full of gorgeous flowers and foliage so once again, I got a bunch of pictures!

            Today was great and filled with lots and lots of walking but we covered the whole city in one day! Pretty impressive, huh? Tomorrow is going to be a long, hot day because we are basically going to be in the dessert all day..good night!

Love yall!

day 3

            The Mt. of Beatitudes is my all time favorite place in Israel. Today is already a good day because that’s where we started out tour. I know I’m a little bias, but I think its one of the most beautiful places in all of Israel. It is this big octagonal shaped church with beautiful flowers overlooking the Sea of Galilee. I have a weird obsession of taking pictures of flowers and nature, so of course I took full advantage of that and I now have tons of pictures from the Mt. of Beatitudes! (Sparknotes story of the importance of this mount – This is where Jesus walked after the feeding of the 5000 and preached the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew 5-7:29) Coach Dye was challenged to memorize the Sermon on the Mount by someone who went last year, and being a typical male, he took on that challenge. I am so impressed that someone could memorize 2 and a half chapters of the bible and get it almost word for word perfect. He gave us the sermon outside the church where Jesus would have been. It was so awesome! Needless to say, round two at the Mt. of Beatitudes was a huge blessing and I loved every minute of it.

            Tabgha is the site at the base of the Mt. of Beatitudes where Jesus fed the 5000. Now there is a church built there and it is called the Church of Multiplication (get it? Jesus multiplied the fishes and loaves..bad joke?) All over Israel, there are place mats, plates, key chains, and so on that have the word Tabgha and a picture of 4 loaves and 2 fishes on it. A little fun fact about that pictures is that one of the loaves of bread is missing from the picture..any guesses as to where it is? Well, it is said that the missing fifth loaf of bread is in the hands of Jesus as he is holding it up to God and blessing it before he multiplied it. I thought that was very interesting! The story of the feeding of the 5,000 is found in Matthew 14:13-21!

            Next, we went to Peter’s Primacy on the Sea of Galilee. This is the place where Jesus told the fishermen to cast their nets on the other side of the boat and they would surely catch some fish. It is also where Jesus asked Peter 3 times if he loved him and every time the answer was yes. Jesus knew that Peter was going to deny him 3 times but he also knew that Peter loved him with his whole heart. Another fun fact! When they cast the fishing nets to the other side of the boat, they caught 153 fish. There were 153 different kinds of fish in the Sea of Galilee and there were 153 nations they would preach and teach the Word to. How cool!

            We also went to Capernaum where there was an old synagogue and Peter’s mother-in-law’s house! This is the site where Jesus heals the paralytic (Mark 2:1-12). We saw lots of cats there...joy.

            Tonight was THE BEST. As some of you know, Barrett (the boyfriend) is also in Israel right now. He goes to West Point and is here with some other guys from West Point, Navy, and Air Force traveling to all the different military bases and some Holy sites. We planned to meet up one day/night but we didn’t think our schedules would cooperate because we were in different parts of the country at different times. But we worked it out! His last night in Jerusalem was my first night in Bethlehem and the cities are like less than 10 miles apart! Our awesome tour guide Rami worked out all the plans with me and dropped me and Grandpa off at Barrett’s hotel to spend some time with him. I cannot even describe how great it was so see him, especially on the other side of the world! We had dinner together and spent some time with his friends and it was just so great! I am so thankful and so blessed that everything worked out for us to see each other!

Today was such an awesome day. All the sites around the Sea of Galilee are my favorites because they are just beautiful all the time. I got to see some of my favorite Holy sites and my wonderful boyfriend, doesn’t get much better than that! Well it’s past my bedtime and we have a very busy day ahead of us tomorrow! Good night!

Love yall!

*side note: long story short, my camera got wet on the hike of day 1 and is broken..so I’m taking pictures on my phone and I cant upload them til I get home. But I will definitely add some pictures later!