Hey all,
We made it home safely as my other entry from my iPhone pointed out (it was so great to actually have service and to use my iphone again - I was going through withdrawl!!!). I thought i would re-cap our final day's activities and then have some closing thoughts:
Wednesday the weather was better than the previous rainy day but was still very cold. We all bundled up and headed to our first site, which was the "Garden Tomb". This is the location where they think Jesus was buried. The garden was a very short distance from our Hotel, but once we went inside it really felt like another location all-together. It was very peaceful and was a really beautiful spot with little pathways through the flowers and trees. We were greeted by a very vibrant and cheerful British fellow who told us that they really aren't sure if this was Jesus' tomb or not and to be careful of a common trap to worship the site rather than God Himself. As the man also said, it quite honestly doesn't matter where Jesus was buried since He was only there for 2 days anyway! And the real important fact is that He rose again. Amen to that! :)
Before entering the tomb itself, we congregated in a little sitting area around the garden and took communion together as group. It was a special time and a really great beginning to the day, and ending to our trip.
After the tomb, we headed to the House of Ciaphas, which is also known as the "St. Peter Gallicantu Church". This is where Jesus' trials started, and also where Peter denied Jesus three times. The top of the church has a rooster on it, which represents the well-known story that the rooster crowed three times when Peter denied Jesus. If i recall correctly, we did a bunch of walking down some stairs and read some scripture but I don't think I was able to write anything in my journal about it!
We had lunch at Ramat Rachael, which is where Rachel was burried. There is also a hill overlooking Bethlehem where "O Little Town of Bethlehem" was written by Phillip Brooks in 1867.
Our final two stops where in the city of En Kerem & one of the possible roads to the city of Emmaus. We visited the church called "St. John Baharim" in En Kerem which is where Jon the Baptist was born. En Kerem was a nice little town and the church was peaceful. Some of us also walked across the street and wound back behind some houses and up more streets to one of the possible roads that lead to the town of Emmaus. There are 3 or 4 possible spots of Emmaus, and nobody really knows where the town is anymore. One of the spots is a war memorial, another spot is in the disputed territory (not safe), so this third spot was the only one we could visit. The location itself was practically in somebodies backyard behind a gate and had the grass worn out where car tires had rode - but it was special. We had a reading about the story where the travellers eyes were opened after the breaking of bread while they were walking to Emmaus. It was very special for those of us who attended the awesome retreat called "The Walk to Emmaus". (Blatant plug: check out http://www.upperroom.org/emmaus/whatis/ for more info on Emmaus!!! Let me know if you're interested in attending!!)
We then headed back to our hotel, had dinner and then headed to the airport for our long trip home. The airport security was SLOW and we were a little stressed about making it on time, and unfortunately one of our friends had complications in her ticketing and didn't make it (got some emails that she was scheduled to come back today - so hopefully all is well). We made it to the gate as they were boarding and were able to make it ok. The flight itself went pretty fast for Amy and I since we were pretty exhausted and slept most of the time. We made it back in town just about when I wrote the previous entry at about 5:45am. Finally got home in Marietta (drove through lotsa rain and traffic) at about 9:45am, took a nap until lunchtime - and relaxed the rest of the day.
What a great trip. As I wrote in my journal this morning, I can't even really begin to summarize the trip at all other than "wow!" For me, it really awoke the thirst to study more of the history and the behind-the-scenes stuff to the Bible and Jesus' time to better fill in the pieces to the stories I already know. Already I've been really hungry to re-read scripture and when I find a place mentioned I want to stop and research where it was, who built it, and what the story behind it is. And when I read scripture that mentions places we actually visited, I can picture it in my mind as I read and it really brings the story more to life in a way that I never imagined. It just adds another dimension to it all.
Poor Amy is sick now with the annoying sinus junk that most of us got one day or another during the trip - but at least she has it now that we're safely at home where she can rest. I'm still sniffly but getting much better. I went to bed at 8pm last night and woke up about 5am and have been at a nice pace today with good energy.
I hope to post a link to all of our pictures when I can get them uploaded and hopefully create a spot where the other members of the trip can upload their photo's too, so stay tuned for that. Further, i'd like to keep contributing to this Blog every now and then with some scripture or thoughts about some aspect of Israel that is revealed. For as we learned in our devotional on the 1st or 2nd day of the trip - what's really important is what we do with this trip now that we're home rather than during it. The thought of how this pilgrimage will shape who we will become now that we've experienced Israel is one that we need to remember and hold on to. It wasn't just a vacation!!!
We met some great new friends, visited some amazing sites, ate some strange food, heard different languages, bought a bunch of stuff, sung songs, read scripture, and experienced God in new ways. It was a trip that I will never forget and already look forward to when I can go back and learn even more about how awesome God is and create even more memories of Galillee.
Thanks for reading!
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