Final Israel Post

Ok, today we saw so much & it was probably some of the best things I have seen all trip. We started the day by going to the Garden of Gethsemane. Wow! It was unreal. Dr. Sibley gave a devotion that was so great; then his wife prayed as well as Donnie Smith & Tom Madden (who's my favorite).

The trees there are dated back to the time of Jesus. They say they're the grandkids of the trees bc even if you chop it down it still grows back. Crazy huh? After Sibley gave his devotion we had an individual prayer time. It was such a sweet time with the Lord.

I honestly didn’t know what to pray, what words to form. Knowing that I was sitting in the same Garden that Jesus prayed & prayed in until he His sweat became blood…words didn’t seem enough & almost irreverent. He prayed for the strength to endure a pain beyond my imagination & He chose it, for me. It was probably one of the best prayer times I have ever had, and I barely said 10 words.

After that we went to Caiaphas house is the place where Peter denied Christ. Also, in the basement is where they believe Jesus was taken & kept before the scourging & crucifixion. It's what they thought was a water cistern but after closer examination they saw that it couldn't have been bc it didn't have the plaster over the walls.

Plus there is a hole in the very top where they can see marks from ropes that shows where something rather heavy had been let down & brought up. Another really cool thing about the room was that they said when the Jews were growing up they would have been made to memorize the Psalms. So in this room they have a podium set up with Psalms 88 typed out so people can read it.

John Sweet, one of the guys on the tour with us, read it. It was such a special time. After he got finished reading we were all in tears & no one could speak. We all sat there imagining our Savior in this pit all alone knowing what was coming.

The really great thing is all the places we went visited today; we were the only ones in each one. Jane (our tour guide) said was almost impossible that that ever happens. I think the Lord showed us favor 

Ok, our next stop was back in the Old City. Here we went to a place that the Jewish ppl seem to think David is buried but it's not true bc of a bunch of archeological reasons that I can't remember, but still they have a tomb like thing set up for him. After that we went to the Upper Room. It was really amazing. Sam Abbott did a devotional in their & it was another special time.

Next on our stop was walking the Via Dolorosa. The original steps are of course way below what we walked on, but it was special to be able to walk the way that Jesus did on his way to Calvary. I think the most special time of the Via Dolorosa was when we stopped at a place named the Sisters of Notre Dame Basilica. In the basement of this place is where they found the place where Jesus' scourging took place.

It shows in the basement a drawing of the game that the soldiers played to see what they would do to Him & then an actual part of the real Via Dolorosa. We had a quiet time & then someone started singing that song, "He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquity..." Oh my goodness. I can’t even type that without tearing up. It was absolutely amazing. We all sat down there singing different songs & feeling an amazing presence of the Lord.

Oddly enough that was one of the most precious times that I thought we had. It was so obvious that the Lord was around us & thinking of what had happened in that spot just made it more emotional.

Ok, our last stop was the Garden Tomb. We went in & Frank (our guide in the Garden Tomb) gave us information about Skull Hill & then we went to the tomb of Jesus.

I haven't been able to fully recognize what I felt when I walked into His tomb. I went in alone afterwards & just stood there. There is a sign on the door that they made that said, "He is not here. He is Risen." Wow! I wanted to shout right there in the tomb!!! I stood there & all I could say was 'Thank You' & then cried my eyes out. I mean, who wouldn't?! Yeesh!

After our group went through the tomb we had devotion & communion. Wow! After it was over I sat there & couldn't wrap my mind around everything that I had seen this week. I need to sit & have a moment to just let it soak in.

That's all that's happened so far during my time & that is AN ENORMOUS amount to take in. I am changed, that I do know. Forever.