I Walked where Jesus Walked!

The eight of us started our trek on an Orthodox Jew bus to Jerusalem from Arad. It was about two hours and we made it to the city, and started our tour at The Coffee Bean. I was so excited to have an American coffee. The first site we went to was the Holy Sepluchere. We had to walk through the Armenian quarter to get there. They say its the site where Jesus was crucified, Mary held him, where the earthquake happened and where His tomb is. It is a very ornate church with people flooding it to just get a look at everything and touch the stones in remembrance.

We left there and walked through the open markets in the Muslim quarter. The sounds, smells and things being sold were hard to walk hurriedly by. I can’t imagine living so close to all of this history. The streets are full of character and I pretty much fell in love.

We headed into the Christian quarter and then to the Wailing Wall, which was so surreal to be there. The women were on one side of the fence in a smaller section of the wall, rocking and saying their prayers. There were young and old women worshipping and praying to God. I wrote my prayer and placed it in the wall among the thousands of others. As the people praying at the wall walk away, they walk backwards so they won’t turn their backs on the presence of God. After we left the Wall, we went through the Jewish quarter and headed to the Garden Tomb.

We saw Golgotha, where most people think he was crucified. It’s now a parking lot. I think it was definitely the spot where he was crucified and not The Church of the Holy Sepluchere we went to first. Then we headed to the Garden Tomb where Jesus rose from the grave.
 
I couldn’t believe I was actually in the tomb where Jesus was. We sang and took pictures in the tomb and then took communion in the garden. We read scripture and sang songs to Jesus, then headed to the Mount of Olives. That is the place where Jesus would take his disciples and pray and we could see the Eastern wall from there. That wall blocks the entrance to the city and in order to get back in the city, you have to walk completely around the city instead of through the Eastern gate. We climbed up to the Garden of Gethsetheme and saw the oldest tree in the Garden.

Its definitely at least 2000 years old, yikes. I thought, this used to be one of Jesus’ hangout, and I was there. The Church of All Nations is located right by the Garden and we were able to go there for service. It’s called that because Jesus commissioned his followers to go make disciples of all nations, and that church represents that.

My absolute favorite part of the day besides the Garden Tomb was the Stations of the Cross. Each stations represented a different place where Jesus stopped on his way to be crucified. I don’t think it will really hit me that I was there until I read the parts of the Bible that describe those places and events in history. It may not even hit me then, but I know for sure that this is one of my favorite months on the race so far. I fell in love with Israel the moment I got here and love it more and more. The people we’ve met here, the sites we’ve seen and the experiences in this country have been so memorable. Jerusalem is definitely one of my favorite cities I’ve ever been to for so many reasons. The history and beauty of it, the people, food and rare opportunities to grow and learn. !