Mother's Day in Jerusalem

Before I talk about today, let me give one more follow-up from yesterday. We took a group picture from the top of The Mount of Olives. You can see it from Ferrell Jenkins' blog, or you can go directly to it here.

Today is Mother's Day! I was pleased when I got up this morning and Barry presented me with a homemade Mother's Day card given to him by our kids. Samuel had even clipped a dollar into it and told me to spend it on something that I wanted. (More on that later.)

This morning started with a worship service in the hotel. It was very nice. Mr. Jenkins spoke about Jesus being "The Magnificent Builder". It was touching to think that we were thinking about the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ and all of those events happened about 2000 years ago in a spot less than a mile from where we were. Incidentally, the room that we had the service in is a bomb shelter within the hotel. The Israelis have taken the philosophy of "Fool me one, shame on you…fool me twice, shame on me" with regards to their enemies. Our hotel in Jerusalem is filled with bomb shelter rooms.

After service, we drove back to the old city. At this point, we had to say goodbye to our driver, Fawzie, who had to leave to drive another group later in the day. We hated to see him go. He dropped us off at the old city and we were able to enter the Temple Mount area. You have to go through special security to enter that area. The Temple Mount area is run by the Muslims and infidels (non-muslims) can only enter through a certain gate and only during certain times. We were able to walk completely around the Dome of the Rock (the large gold-topped dome that the Muslims have built). Herod's temple must have been beautiful sitting in that area. We thoroughly enjoyed the time up there.

From there, we walked around the Jewish Quarter of the city. The Jewish Quarter was much more cleaner and nicer than the Christian or (especially) the Muslim Quarters. We had lunch at a little hole-in-the-wall pizza place. We had a cheese pizza and it was fantastic! We ended the meal with a chocolate on the inside/chocolate on the outside Magnum Bar. What a meal! Pure calories, but we needed it with all of the walking that we are doing. (By the way, this is what I spent my dollar on! I really wanted the pizza!)

We toured some more around the Old City including the infamous Western Wall and then headed outside the city walls to see some of the excavation works that is going on out there. They have uncovered the steps which approach the south side of the Temple Mount. These are the same steps that Jesus and the Apostles would have used while visiting the city.

We got back on to the bus (with our new bus driver) and visited a local museum called The Shrine of the Book. This museum houses some of the actual Dead Sea Scrolls. It was very exciting to see. They are much larger than I thought that they would be. However, the most interesting thing about this museum is what is on the outside. There is a huge model (about 50ft by 100ft) of the city of Jerusalem during the first century. The detail is amazing. I can't wait to use some of the pictures that I took in my Bible Classes.

Tomorrow morning we board the bus for another day of sightseeing. These stops will take us in the area of the plains between Jerusalem and the Mediterranean Sea. We will end up with dinner in Jaffa and then to Tel Aviv to catch our 11:30PM flight to Atlanta. We will arrive in Atlanta on Tuesday morning around 6:00AM (Eastern Time). From there, we have a four hour drive to Athens, Alabama. It is be a very long day…or couple of days…or whatever. I'll try to post something before we board the plane, but if I don't, I'll do so as soon as I get back home. It's been a great trip, but Barry and I are both ready to see the kids.

(Bonus Picture! One more picture of my shoes walking up the same steps that Jesus walked up when he would come to Jerusalem!)