Day 3

Early to rise this a.m. Had to have breakfast done and be on the bus by 7:30 a.m. so we could meet our tour guide and be at the Jerusalem Archeological Park by 8 a.m. All were there except one couple who didn’t get a wake up call and were still asleep! We went on without them but our host, waited for them to get ready. They took a taxi to meet us there...and made it there before we did!

We entered the city today at the Dung Gate. There is a huge excavation of an area where the southern part of the ancient Jewish temple once was. Our guide, Brian, is an American who has lived in Jerusalem for the past 12 years. He is an archeologist who is also a Biblical scholar and is working on his doctorate. He was very interesting as he led us around the area and pointed out different parts of the old temple grounds and the surrounding areas of Jerusalem and related them to Scripture. One of the highlights was sitting on the Southern steps of the ancient temple, the teaching steps of the Pharisees and looking out over the area of the old city of David, with Mount Zion to the right and the Mount of Olives to the left and realizing that Jesus walked these same steps. We only had two hours there and that was not nearly enough.

When we were finished with our tour our host checked with the guards and police to see if we would be able to go up onto the Temple Mount. This piece of ground is the most fought over piece of property in the world. It is the site where the ancient Jewish temple, originally built by King Solomon, once stood. The temple was completely destroyed by the Romans in 70 A.D. and never rebuilt. The site has been fought over for many years and is now controlled by the Muslims. On the site are a Muslim mosque and the Dome of the Rock, both considered to be very holy to them. On this site they believe Mohammed ascended into heaven. We, as Christians, believe the site to be of importance because it was where the Jewish temple was built. Since the area was also known as Mount Moriah it is the area where is thought that Abraham took his son, Isaac, to be sacrificed. We were very lucky to be able to enter this area.

After leaving the Temple Mount we walked through some of the old city to the Western Wall or Wailing Wall. Men and women are separated by a partition so the men in our group went one way and the women another. The women’s side is smaller and much more crowded but I, Susan, was able to make my way through the crowd and touch the wall. Many, many women were reading Scripture and praying next to the wall. Little pieces of paper were stuck in every crevice of the wall. On these pieces of paper are written prayers.

After leaving the wall we made our way through the old city to the Via Dolorosa and walked along part of it. We went to the Church of Flaggation where it is said that the soldiers beat and mocked Jesus.

I wish I had worn a pedometer today. I’m sure we must have walked 50 miles this morning! Probably more like 5 or 6 but it’s up and down hill with most of it steps of some sort. It was extremely hot today…so much so that three of our group had heat exhaustion and had to rest and rehydrate during the afternoon.

After walking through the old city we came out on the north side at Herod’s Gate where we were met by our bus and driver and taken to the Jerusalem Church of the Nazarene for lunch. After lunch we set up at the church for a small children’s festival as an outreach into the neighborhood for the church. We had about 80-90 mothers and children attend. They seemed to enjoy the games, balloon hats and animals, and especially the face painting. After about an hour of activities we invited them into the church building where they were shown the children’s version of the Jesus Film. A great day!