a day in the Holy City (with pictures)

good afternoon, friends. well its not afternoon in the US yet, but perhaps by the time you read this it will be.

cohen and i opted to sleep in this morning rather than go with the filming crew...for one, we've not been getting much sleep since the time change has really thrown our baby for a loop. secondly, we have to leave the area when they are filming anyway since cohen is so...um...LOUD.

anyway...i couldn't fall asleep so i stayed up watching rob bell's new dvd "everything is spiritual" which i highly recommend to all of you. just when the dvd was finishing, cohen woke up. which, of course, figures. he rolled over, pulled himself to his knees, and holding on to me, started to bounce. my immediate thoughts were: he's really missing his jumpy seat. and he is really awake. i enjoyed it for awhile, but after a couple of hours, i was ready to take him into the common area and leave him there so i could get some sleep! (just kidding- well, kinda) but when i rolled over this morning and realized we'd slept until 10:30am, everything felt alright.

yesterday was nothing short of amazing. we had the day to just see the area. since it was the only chance we'd have to see Jerusalem, we decided to get a cab and go. that proved to be no easy task, since we had to get a driver from outside of palestine to cross the border and come and get us. none of the arab drivers are allowed to leave. then when we did have a israeli driver, we had to go through the check point- also no easy task. but it was all worth it.

i cannot tell you how the very short drive from palestine to israel feels like you are being transported from one world to a completely different one. in comparison to where we'd been staying, israel was a place fit for kings! all of the buildings looked new and modern and white washed. everything is made of these gorgeous stones and trees and all around and even flowers (something we'd not seen yet). many of the people were dressed stylishly and there were traffic lights.


a little taste of what the city looks like

what the homes look like in Israel


our driver took us to the gates of the old city and dropped us off. the first thing that struck me was that the shopping mall just outside of this ancient part of the city was not unlike a shopping mall in europe or the US. when we saw signs for the billabong store, i think we all had to check ourselves!

we ate just inside this old city gates at a little stand. cars zoomed by on the cobbled streets and people en mass pushed through. we watched the orthodox jews walking around with their black garb and hats and long, curly sideburns. shawn desperately wanted to get a photo, but apparently that's offensive to them, so he held back. we walked down the old streets now so full of shopping, with brightly colored scarves hanging high, tossed by the breeze. it was a gorgeous sunny day. perfect for a little walking in a place like the old city. its the kind of place you could spend weeks discovering. i wished we had more time.


shawn talking with ariella on a typical street in the old city

a view of the shopping down one alley

to say there's a lot to see here, would be the understatement of a lifetime. EVERYTHING is ancient and EVERYTHING is spiritually and historically significant here. every inch of this beautiful land has a story... ariella, an israeli/american girl who is here with us, was playing tour guide for the day. and although she's lived in the Holy Land for 10 years now and essentially grown up here, she said there;s still so much she hasn't seen.

which gives you an idea of how much we were trying to cram into our one little afternoon.

with so many amazing sites to choose from, we decided to see the place they think Christ was crucified and buried (the garden tomb), arial view of the city from a mountain, garden of gethsmene and accompanying church, and the wailing wall.

the garden tomb was an amazing place...the most 'lush' vegetation we'd seen.. as you wind through the garden, you come to place with a view of the side of mountain that bears what appears to be a skull in the side of it. i don't mean an actual skull, mind you. i mean that they way the rock was shaped looked like a skull. it is widely believed to be the site of golgotha (which in hebrew is "skull"). it was a weird moment...later we all said we felt like its a spot that should be quiet and candle lit or something. instead, there's a bus station just below and crowds of people mulling around. all i could hear was the tour guide 15 feet away, explaining the whole scene...it sort of stole the moment. i think later, i'll have to sneak back in my mind and experience it alone...with candles and silence. the garden from which the view of golgotha was seen also holds the tomb where Jesus is believed to have been buried. this time, the tour guide with his tour-guide-voice (you know what i am talking about!) came in handy as he explained why its believed to be Jesus' tomb. for one, the tomb was manmade and the specific area where the body was laid was dug out and obviously not meant for the body it held. the Bible says a rich man named Joseph of Arimathea gave up his tomb for Jesus, so that would make sense. also, the tomb was obviously meant for a rich person...based on a nearby wine press and the impressive gardens. that paired with the closeness of golgotha, a place known for crucifixtion, and now you know the reasoning for this being labeled Jesus' tomb. even though there were lots of tours and people nearby, we got to enter the tomb alone and have a moment. it felt very surreal.


golgotha

you can kind of see the skull here- the two big holes are eye sockets, can you see it now?

the garden of the tomb

the outside of the tomb, ariella and jeff (works for ethnographic media) entering in

the tomb

an inscription in the tomb

sign outside of the tomb, in the garden

the garden of gethsemene was beautiful...full of olive trees. the church built on the site (churches are built on nearly ever 'site' or believed site) was exquisite! i cannot begin to tell you have huge it was or how ornate. we enjoyed seeing it, but had to work hard to get our imaginations to consider Jesus praying there, among the olive branches. I know these places have to be tourist spots, but I wish somehow it all could've been preserved. still, that's not realistic, i suppose...and huge elaborate church or not, it was mind blowing to think we were standing in any proximity to places where Jesus had stood.


the garden of gethsemene.. this pic is deceiving because you can't actually walk around in it

the church from a distance, with garden in foreground

side view of church, garden is to left

church is HUGE! (this is my attempt at an artistic photo-ha!)

told you it was HUGE. cohen made friends with the monks! (wish i had a pic of that)

a view of the entry doors from inside the church..the light was gorgeous

view from the church steps... the wall of Jerusalem and the very top of the gold dome


the wailing wall was a site many people were at...to get close and actually touch the wall, the women had to go in on one side and the men on another. the wailing wall is believed to be the oldest part of Jerusalem and an original wall of the rebuilt temple. it is a site of mourning what has been lost...jews are actually waiting for the temple to physically be rebuilt since they don't believe Jesus was the temple resurrected after 3 days. an older jewish man was singing loudly near the wall and ariella said he was praying for the temple to be rebuilt.


jewish flag, wailing wall is wall to the right
you can see the stones at the bottom are larger and older, a different style of building..if you look close you can see the people who are closer to the wall through the fence...


shawn and i know we have to come back here...to have more than 5 or 6 hours to soak it all up... and maybe when cohen is a bit older... carrying all 21lbs of him in a front pack all day was some serious work. and by the end of it, he;d just plain had it!


happy cohen in the morning

distressed cohen at dinner time

you know, when we first drove in from the airport, i remember almost asleep in the taxi i thought 'i could live here'. which is weird, because i never think that. not even of places in america. and even weirder, since all i had seen were a few things in the dark, passing by quickly in the taxi cab window. but it is a weird sensation, to feel connected to a place you've never been before...but i do feel attached to this land. i think despite everything going on and all of the unrest, you can feel its Holiness. you can feel the emotion of the people and the love of the land God gave to them. it literally feels spiritually significant. now, don't go fretting -(esp. mom, if you are reading this)- we aren't moving here. but i know that if God asked me to, i could. that's all i am saying.

the culture is special...its not scary at all either. people are warm and friendly on both sides. i wouldn't want to be a jew in palestine, of course, but everyone is kind to foreigners. so if you've ever thought of coming and then decided against it because of what you've seen on the news, i encourage you to rethink a trip here. you won't be disappointed.

ariella's father was a missionary kid here and grew up in israel. he went to college, got married, had children, and then felt pulled back. i asked her what her american-born mom felt about living here...she said simply "she loves it". ariella is going to college in the US if she can stand to leave her homeland for that long, but she is definitely coming back. and i don't blame her. she tells us there is so much work for the Kingdom to be done here...so many believers in need of help that she knows her life has meaning here..she knows what is her part to play... its in her blood.

i have a feeling it wouldn't take long to get into mine either.

God bless. more later.

** and better pics later...i will post some shawn's when he uploads and edits them..his are gorgeous! his art...i take pics for memories**