Whew! another busy day. I am starting to feel better, thanks for everyone who prayed for me. Today was the first day that I have felt healthy for a while. I think that part of it was that last night was the best nights sleep I had since (I think) Christmas. I still have a stuffy nose and a cough, but I feel a lot better. This will be another short one, I have a test tomorrow that I have been studying for and I need to get to bed.
Today we started up at the mount of olives. We tried to get into Bethany (which is right off the mount) but it was blocked off by a wall and the checkpoint was closed. Next we went up to the mount of Olives, to Beth Page, where Jesus got on a donkey and began his triumpah entry into the city. (there was a guy there selling, "Jesus taxi rides" rides on a donkey). From there we went went to where Jesus came over the mount of olives and looked at Jerusalem and began to weep for the city.
(This was Jesus view of Jerusalem, Luke 19:41-44. And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, "Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes...)
From there we went down to the Garden of Gethsemene, We can't really know it its the exact spot, but its in the same general place as the Garden of Gesthemene would have been (By the way Gethsemene means olivepress.)
(me in front of the Garden of Gethsemene. I had a better picture of the garden, but it didn't have me in it and I figured that mom would appreciate to see a picture of me every now and again.)
After the Mount of Olives we went to Bethlehem. Bethlehem is another one of those Area A cities. It is in the West Bank, and Jews aren't allowed to go there. There is a big checkpoint that you need to get through to get in, but tour buses and Americans don't have too much trouble. Bethlehem is no longer a little town like the song, it is a pretty big city. It is an Arab city, it used to have a lot of Arab Christians in it, but it is becoming more and more Muslim. There is a church there called the church of the Nativity that sits over what they say is the cave that Jesus was born in. They actually have a little star in the floor of the cave where they say Mary gave birth to Jesus. I don't think that Jesus was born in a cave or a stable, I think there is a pretty good argument to make for Jesus being born in a house (people shared houses with animals back then), but it was kind of cool to see it. What wasn't cool was the super long line, it took us about an hour to go the fifty feet that we needed to go to get to the cave in the church. It did get kind of fun at the end though, when a bunch or Russians who were behind us tried to push pass us in line and we blocked them off.
(The church of the Nativity in Bethlehem)
After a quick lunch in Bethlehem we ran down to this place called Solomon's pools, which have nothing to do with Solomon, but Herod the great built them to hold water for Jerusalem. There were three gigantic pools and they had aquaducts that fed them. We actually took some time hiking around in the Judean hillside there looking for the aquaduct. It was a beautiful countryside, tons of rocks, but really pretty. They may have even been hills that David had shepherded his sheep on when he was a boy. After we found the aquaduct (I found it) we hiked it back to the main pool then set out for Herodium.
(My roomate Rob sitting on a rock near the aquaduct.)
Herodium was a giant fortress/palace that Herod built as a victory palace once he became king. It was also a place that he could hold out against an army if there was a revolt or Marc Anthony decided that he wanted to give Judea to Cleopatra.
It was an incredibly clear and beautiful day today. From the Herodium we could not only see the mount of Olives in Jerusalem like it right next door, we could see the dead sea, the mountains of Jordan, and even the capital of Jordan, Amman. Apparently visability is almost never that good, so we were lucky today.
(East of the Herodium, the Judean Wilderness, the Dead Sea, and the mountains of Jordan.)
Tomorrow is our last day in Jerusalem before we head down south. After our test and church we get a free day around Jerusalem which will be nice. As always, thanks for reading.
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