What a whirlwind of a week and a half! I’ve never walked so much in my life! Every night we went to bed Mike and I both were whining about our aching feet! But we wouldn’t have changed a thing. Early on the 18th we drove to an Arab part of the city to go to the City of David museum. Just a side note, but it is noteworthy the difference you see in the parts of Jerusalem. For the most part - the Jewish areas are very clean and well kept…however when you get into an Arab area…it was the opposite. There were piles of trash everywhere and graffiti. It seems the Jewish people feel Israel is their homeland…they have a pride in ownership. It doesn’t not seem that the Arabs do. I believe the Arabs (what Jacob called them) were Muslims for the most part. They also seemed to be in a lower income class.
Anyway, back to the City of David. We watched a short 3-D movie that really helped put things in historical context. It started from when David conquered the city from the Jebusites. It showed an aerial view of the city back then…it was very interesting! The manual slave labor to build these ancient cities and walls was remarkable! Some of the stones were almost as big as a car. There is only the Gihon Spring that supplied water to Jerusalem in biblical times. King David build a huge cistern to hold water inside the city walls and dug tunnels to connect the spring to the cistern. Amazingly he had one group start from the spring side and a group start from the cistern side and they met in the middle! They have only recently discovered these tunnels that ran underground (in the 1970’s.) We got to go down to the tunnels…one direction is about a 45 minute hike in the tunnel with water flowing through it and NO LIGHTS. Most of us hiked the “dry” route! Mike, Jake, Tyler, Phil, Diane, & Richard did the water route. Pretty amazing trip for them. We walked around and met them were it came out on the other end.
Anyway, back to the City of David. We watched a short 3-D movie that really helped put things in historical context. It started from when David conquered the city from the Jebusites. It showed an aerial view of the city back then…it was very interesting! The manual slave labor to build these ancient cities and walls was remarkable! Some of the stones were almost as big as a car. There is only the Gihon Spring that supplied water to Jerusalem in biblical times. King David build a huge cistern to hold water inside the city walls and dug tunnels to connect the spring to the cistern. Amazingly he had one group start from the spring side and a group start from the cistern side and they met in the middle! They have only recently discovered these tunnels that ran underground (in the 1970’s.) We got to go down to the tunnels…one direction is about a 45 minute hike in the tunnel with water flowing through it and NO LIGHTS. Most of us hiked the “dry” route! Mike, Jake, Tyler, Phil, Diane, & Richard did the water route. Pretty amazing trip for them. We walked around and met them were it came out on the other end.
We had a moving afternoon as we finished up our trip going to the Garden Tomb. This is the traditional Christian site that is believed to be the crucifixion and burial site of Christ. The guide gave us a very strong logical, biblical argument that this is probably the correct site. It is located inside a gorgeous garden property that lends itself to prayer and reflection. We took turns going into the tomb and potentially was looking at the exact spot Jesus lay. But the tomb is empty! Our group had communion together in the garden. Pastor Phil spoke a few words and gave us the opportunity to share with each other also. It was a perfect way to end our trip together.
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