Day 6
Today was probably the most fun that i have had on this trip so far! We got to ride donkeys today at Kfar Kedem. When we first got there we got to met the owner of the farm and he talked to us about his culture. He told us how he prefers to live life in Israel in the countryside. He had outfits for us to wear that were almost like robes and head covers. Once we were all dressed up he then taught us how to make pita bread. When we were finished with our snack we got to pick out our donkeys to ride! I was the first person to choose my donkey. I went straight to the one with the grey saddle. I cried when I met my donkey because it was so cute. (I was being a little extra that day, but I was so happy. It was a dream of mine to ride a donkey!)
One of the guys in my group, Chris, was trying to get on his donkey and fell off into poop. It was so funny. Once everyone was on we got into partners. My partner to lead me was Mason. It was really cool riding the donkey because I could have imagined Jesus riding into town on a donkey or Joseph and Mary riding to Bethlehem. The ride was going smooth and i was talking to one of my friends about how Chris fell off his donkey. We were making jokes about him and how it's almost impossible to fall off a donkey. Then, when I was going down a hill i felt my saddle start to slip down to the donkey's neck, and i could feel me falling off my donkey! I fell off in slow motion and landed right on my lower back. It hurt so bad, but I was laughing so hard. Then I heard another thump in front of me and another girl had fallen off her donkey too!
The owner of the farm said that we broke the record for people falling off a donkey. It was so hilarious. I ended up buying a shirt that said “Do it on a donkey”.
After Kfar Kedem we went to Nazareth. This is the city where Mary and Joseph lived and where Jesus grew up as a kid. We first stopped for lunch in a little shop for Doner, which is chopped chicken with lettuce and tomatoes in pita bread. It was very tasty!
Then we walked to the church of annunciation. This church is built around Mary’s house. This is also the place where the angel of God would have come to Mary and told her that she was going to have baby Jesus. The church was a nice church but my favorite part was seeing the artwork around the outside of the church. Each piece was given to the church by different counties. It was interesting to me to see the different styles of artwork by each country.
Next we went to a synagogue that is talked about in Luke chapter 4. When Jesus is preaching in his hometown then people get angry with him so they try to find him but he couldn't be found. This synagogue was a little frustrating because it wasn't the original. The original synagogue was probably seven or ten feet below where we were standing. I hate to feel this way, but it sometimes seems that the people here could just build a church and say that below the church something from the bible happened there. I don't want to have doubt, but at some places I just don't feel a connection. I am
struggling with this a lot recently. I feel like some of the things that we have seen might be fake and not real. I know it's true that Jesus was really in this country, but it's hard for me to understand how people know for a fact that Jesus did certain miracles at certain places.
After the synagogue we went back to the Leonardo Hotel and had a meeting with my group. There we got to met a retired Ambassador for Israel. It was interesting to hear all of the things that he had seen and been through. He talked a lot about the relationship between Israel and the United States of America. Its interesting to me to hear what people from other places in the world think of the USA. One thing that was odd that he had mentioned was that most counties in the world do not consider Jerusalem to be the capital of Israel, but they think it is Tel Aviv. Most Ambassadors live in Tel Aviv and not Jerusalem.
Day 7
Today was a very awesome day. We got to go to the Temple Mount, which is where the first and second temple were built and are probably still under where we were walking. This is where the holy of hollies is. It's considered to be the most holy place on earth. We had to get there very early because there would have been a long line to go through security. We had to all dress modest to be able to get in. We also weren't aloud to have any crosses showing since it is owned pretty much owned by Muslims.
After seeing the Dome of the Rock, we went to the church where the Catholics believe that Jesus died on the cross and was buried. It was interesting to see all the people going through and touching where they think Jesus actually stood. Amos, our guide, told us that there are two different theories about where Jesus was put on the cross. The bible talks about a place called skull hill. At this location they think it is where Adam is buried. In the bible it says that Jesus’s blood ran down the mountain into the skull. They believe it went down to Adam’s skill.
After seeing the Dome of the Rock, we went to the church where the Catholics believe that Jesus died on the cross and was buried. It was interesting to see all the people going through and touching where they think Jesus actually stood. Amos, our guide, told us that there are two different theories about where Jesus was put on the cross. The bible talks about a place called skull hill. At this location they think it is where Adam is buried. In the bible it says that Jesus’s blood ran down the mountain into the skull. They believe it went down to Adam’s skill.
After visiting the church we got to walk the Via Dolorosa. This was very confusing to me. Amos, the guide, told us that where we were walking is not the original floor where Jesus walked, and i understood that. Along the way though, there were places engraved in the wall that were known to be where Jesus fell and touched the building. This to me doesn't make any since. If Jesus actually walked 7 feet below where I am standing how could he have touched the wall that is beside me. One thing that did move me was a group of tourist, like myself, was carrying a cross along Via Dolorosa and singing an old hymn. I found that to be very respectful. I wish that we could have done that.
As we were walking back to the bus we got to walk through the Jewish quarter of Jerusalem. It was so cool to see all of the shops and people interacting with each other. It's exactly what I have imagined a market to be like. All the spices and different smells bothered some of my friends, but I enjoyed it.
Next we went to the Garden of Gethsemane. So many things happened here at this place. One of the things that kept playing in my mind is when Jesus cried here. We got to spend about an hour just sitting, praying to God. I started to cry and the one thing i kept thinking was that I was crying at the same place that Jesus had cried. Also I was reminded of the part in the bible where Jesus takes his disciples to the garden and Jesus is praying and all the disciples are still sleeping. I was looking at my friend, Bri, who was sitting under a tree with her eyes closed and I could imagine eleven other people sitting around her sleeping and Jesus seeing them still sleeping. I was so glad we got to spend a lot of time here. This was a place that needing the extra time, or else there wouldn't have been much meaning and it wouldn't have stuck with us.
Tonight we were talking as a group about how the garden really changed us and how God spoke to us while we were there. Some people were complaining still about how they wished they had more time to stay at the garden, but i feel like we had plenty of time.
Day 8
Today we had the honor of going to a Holocaust museum. This is always one of my favorite things. I am a huge Germany lover, so i love when we get to talk about anything that happened in Germany weather if it was good, or bad things that happened there. The architecture of the building was very fit for a Holocaust museum. It was in the shape of a triangle. A few things stuck out to me at the museum.
The first thing was all the Jewish books that were supposed to be burned but had been saved. Another thing that really stood out to me was a huge platform with burnt shoes in it. These were shoes that women, children, and men would have worn when they went in to be killed. The third thing that stood out was of course the room with all of the pictures of people who died, and all of binders with peoples names of the people who died. It was very moving to be reminded of the history that had happened.
One thing that still keeps playing in my mind is the memorial they had for the children.Before you interned the memorial they had pillars that represented children with their heads cut off. Then we went inside a very dark room with multiple mirrors. There were a few candles on the ground. With the mirrors reflecting the candles, it looked
like there were thousands of candles in a huge room. Each candle represents all the children that had been killed. They also had a never ending recording that said all of the documented names of the kids who died that was playing as we gazed into all of the mirrors. This is something that has changed me.
I have been to many Holocaust museums and memorials and even concentration camps in Germany and Poland, but being in Israel at a
Holocaust museum was different.
Amos, told us about how his family was killed during this time and how it affected him. He told the story of the Holocaust through a different view point that I have never heard of before. He didn't focus on the killing, but more about how the Nazis were dehumanizing the Jews just because they were Jews. He explained how this should inspire us to stand up for things that are going on in our world today and to not let something like this happen again. Being there from a different perspective I feel, made us inspired to want to change the world.
One thing that has bothered me, but that is true is when Amos said, “Hitler didn’t win the war, but he sure did win.” At first I didn't understand what he meant, but then it finally clicked. No Hitler did not win the war politically, but he accomplished his goal of killing thousands of Jews. Sometimes it's not about winning a war, we should have stopped him before he accomplished his goal.
Next a few of us went to the city of David and walked in an underground water system. Over half of the group stayed back because they get claustrophobic. Only seven people, including myself went to the tunnels. It was really refreshing to be able to walk into the water of the tunnels. I feel like the seven of us that went got closer because we kept getting stuck in the tunnels. There was a group of school girls in front of us that kept stopping so it delayed us and made the trip twice as long.
As we were making our way back up to where we came from we saw the pond where Jesus healed the blind man. In the pond, all of the school girls that were in front of us were swimming, dancing in the water and all chanting in their language. We didn't understand what was going on until Amos said that all high schoolers get a paid trip to come and learn about the history of their land, and that these must have been christian school girls that have been told that the water heals you when you get in. That is why they were rejoicing.
We continued our way out until we got to stairs. Amos told us that the stares we were about to climb are the same stairs that lead up to the Temple Mount, the holy of hollies, the stairs where Jesus would have for sure walked up to when he went to the temple mount. The stairs were very steep for me. By the time we made it up to where the rest of the group was i was afraid I was going to pass out. After they let me rest, we all got to go to the Lions Gate at the Temple Mount and sit on the stairs where Jesus for sure walked on. It was really cool to be able to know for sure this was where Jesus was and that it wasn't covered up by some church that they built on top of the holy site.
Thanks for reading part 3 of my trip! Stay tuned for the last part, number 4, and a video of the trip!
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