Jerusalem- The Garden Tomb

Thursday, March 20, 2008
This morning we crossed back over the border to Israel. Abner and Ghader were both waiting for us at the bus station when we got back! We then drove from the border straight to Jerusalem. As we began our ascent into the mountains surrounding Jerusalem we started singing. We sang "Jesus Keep Me Near the Cross" and "As the Deer" and finally as we were about to make the final stretch into the city we sang "As the Mountains Surround Jerusalem." The feeling I got as we sang those songs while coming into the city was definitely God giving me a little taste of what else he had in store for me. The first thing we did was visit the Garden Tomb. This is the non-traditional site of the place where Jesus was buried. The traditional site is on the Via Dolorosa. While there we there sat as a group and read the different accounts of Jesus' burial and were able to sing and pray together. What really made this place awesome for me was the different people that were around us. While we were singing our songs in English, there was a group that was singing in French, and there was another group singing in their native Nigerian language. It hit me right then and there that it didn't matter if we were at the actual place where He was buried. It only mattered that He was buried and that He rose again and that the tomb, wherever it may be, is empty.

Friday, March 22, 2008
This morning we started our day by visiting the Whol Rose Garden. This garden houses over 127 different types of roses and is surrounded by all of the different Parliament buildings. Because of it's central location people come here a lot to protest. When we were in the garden there was a group of people who had been protesting and camping out in the garden for over a year. They were parents who were unfit to take care of their children so the government took them away. The parents have taken this and decided that the government has taken their children to be used for military services and are now protesting to get them back. After this we went to the Israel Museum. It is the museum that has all of the original copies of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Outside of the museum there is a model of what the old city of Jerusalem would have looked like with the temple. After this we went to Kerem which is where John the Baptist is believed to have lived.