What an honor to ring the new year in Israel.
We spent 6 days in Israel/Palestine. We stayed all together as a squad in Bethlehem, in a little hostel /bed and breakfast just up the hill from the main nativity scene and the church which was built on top of where Jesus was born.
Coming into Israel was somewhat chaotic, we had heard it would have been a strict border crossing and I also got this random outbreak of hives that I had for 3-4 days and so was pretty tired from a lack of sleep and also the drowsiness that was a side effect from the allergy medicine. We were crossing in on a Friday, and our border crossing area was only open a half day on Friday so we were a little pressed for time and a little unsure how it would go. We (the teams that were in Jordan) got up bright and early and got our rides to the crossing, waited, filled some forms out, and made it to the other side with plenty of time to spare.
Then we arrived to Bethlehem! Wow! The birthplace of Jesus. It felt like Jordan and Morocco and not super magical. I couldn’t believe we were actually where Jesus was born. That I would set foot where he was. But on the other hand it was a bustling city and full of cars and people.
What really opened my eyes was how real the conflict between the Palestinians and the Israelis was. I didn’t interact with any Israelis and only heard from the Palestinian perspective, which is very different from some American perspectives.
When we were in Jordan, I spent time with this couple from Bethlehem that had spent the last few years in Jordan serving the Syrian refugees in house visits, speech therapy class, and women ministry. They were back in Bethlehem for the holidays and we went to visit them one night. We got treated to some good Brazilian coffee (from our mutual Brazilian friend we had all met in Jordan) as well as tasty snacks and salad and bread that tasted different than what we ate in Jordan. Basically the same ingredients and just west of us, but different method of preparation and flavor. Yum. We also heard about how the Palestinian area had been taken over by the Israelis and how unjust it was. Land that used to belong to people were taken over and never returned. The settlements had gotten bigger and bigger and had changed the city of Bethlehem.
Actually we were just a short bus ride from Jerusalem but we would have to go through checkpoints to enter Jerusalem and armed men/women would come aboard and ask for ID and sometimes Palestinians would get stopped and questioned, which is a frustrating experience for them because it is their home country and it is inconvenient for them to freely move around in their country.
A few of us visited Jerusalem the second day we were in Israel and attended church that Sunday (New Year’s eve) and took communion and walked to the Wailing wall. Men and women were separated and in the women’s section where we were, women were sobbing, crying, wailing and praying and pressed against the wall. Some of them kneeling, some of them hitting the wall, some kissing it.
It was really sad. They are praying for a Messiah that has already come and are mourning for a destroyed temple that has already been resurrected. We put a prayer inside a crack in the wall that these people would know Jesus.
We walked through the shops and tried (unsuccessfully) to blow ram(?)’s horns. We walked around the pools of Bethsheda and listened to a touring group sing in the church there and listened the beautiful acoustics.
We celebrated the new year on the rooftop of our hostel in Bethlehem with a bottle of wine, lots and lots of warm blankets and good company.
The next day we went with a tour guide and the whole squad back to Jerusalem and it was raining and cold and a different experience than our first day. Freezing at the Mount of Olives, overlooking the city. Beautiful. We could see the Eastern gate (sealed until Jesus comes back) and also the cemetery the Muslims built. (Because dead people are considered unclean this was built to block Him coming back through that gate). We saw the garden of Gesthame, with their giant olive trees. It was surprisingly peaceful there.
Less people wailing at the wall, due to weather. The Jews we saw wearing the black clothing and black hats were hurrying to and fro in the weather with their hats wrapped in plastic bags to protect against the rain. We saw places of interest. We saw the garden tomb where Jesus was buried and we saw another site where he was buried. We saw the tomb of King David. We saw the room where the Last Supper was and another location where it was. Basically there is some disagreement about where holy sites are.
What struck me was how religious it all felt. I felt more touched the first day with just a few people than when we went from place to place with the whole group. Even there, the places we visited were full of people who would kneel down, touch or kiss whatever sacred place we were at and it felt like Spain, where the churches had a lot of history and reverence but also a lot of weight, which I’m not sure how I feel about that.
We went back that night quite tired and shivery and the next day a small group of us went to Jericho. We saw some sights, Herod’s palace, Elisha’s springs and that night visited our friends at their house.
The next day, we went to the sea of Galilee where Jesus was from, where he met a lot of his disciples and it was so peaceful. We all bundled up to the max because of how cold Jerusalem was but the weather was fantastic and it was gorgeous. We went with the tour group again and had a wooden boat ride over the peaceful sea of Galilee. It was hard to imagine a giant storm and Jesus walking on the waves with how serene it all was.
We saw Cana, Jesus’s first miracle, water to wine and tried a sip of that area’s famous sweet wine. Too sweet for my liking! We saw Nazareth and more sights and it was cool but I didn’t get this crazy feeling like wow Jesus/God is here. I think it’s because Jesus has already risen and is alive and in heaven and the Holy spirit lives in us and we can talk to God because the veil is broken and the temple is destroyed but that’s okay, because we are a living holy temple and that’s why it didn’t feel different.
Our last full day was spent with our new team (Jubilee) and then a winery tour in Bethlehem and packing and preparation for Georgia. It was harder to leave Israel than to enter and we were collectively questioned longer than when we entered.
I was sad we didn’t spend longer in Israel so we could meet people there and build relationships versus just there for about a week but it’s a very expensive country and it was enough time to take in all the sights. I was hoping something life changing would happen – after all Israel’s country code is 972 and I thought Israel might be part of my prophetic word of knowledge about my “972” area code (see blog God really answers prayers for details), but I was so honored to have been there.
