Our first breakfast in Jerusalem! I guess we wanted to eat in the dining room with the famous Olive Tree because we mistakenly ate with the EO tour there (they had green badges, too). When we only saw four other people we recognized, we knew we were supposed to be elsewhere! Oh, well. It turned out to be our only opportunity to eat in that famed spot. Gary especially enjoyed the various cheeses at this hotel.
We went to look over Jerusalem on the Mount of Olives first. It was a beautiful start to the day, the city bright with the morning sun. There, we had a panoramic view of the city: the Dome of the Rock, Kidron Valley, the Dung Gate, David's Village, etc. Perry taped two shows with us there, the best yet! One message was on Jerusalem, starting with the fact that this was the center of the Garden of Eden & continuing through other important Biblical events to the fact that this is where Jesus will return. Awesome info! The second program was on dealing with trouble and divine reversal. He based the message on Job and his tithe and offering, etc. When Job found the source of his trouble, he was blessed with twice what he lost. We left the Mount of Olives and its incredible sites and sounds for the day. (We would return there several more times.) By the way, the side of the Mount of Olives is a vast cemetery. The Jews all want to be buried there. The wealthier they are, the higher the spot on the Mount. They are buried with their faces to the east & their feet on the east so that when the Messiah "comes," they can just rise up on their feet out of the grave. The other side of the valley, the Kidron Valley, is covered with Muslim graves.
Next was a wild trip through the city. Our driver was amazing. He did a U turn on a two-lane street with a tour bus! These streets wind around and climb up and down. Nothing is flat except perhaps a modern highway that goes in and out of the city. We arrived in Bethlehem, which is controlled by the Palestinians. Our tour guide had to get off and be replaced there. This is the birthplace of Jesus and David. It is only 10 miles south and feels like a part of Jerusalem. However, there is an armed wall around the region. The new guide took us to a shepherd's field, which had a beautiful chapel celebrating the angels' announcement of Jesus' birth to the shepherds in this place. The artwork in this chapel particularly blessed me. Three murals depicted the whole experience. However, I noticed a young boy was included as one of the shepherds in each scene. His reactions to the angels and then to the Christ child were totally different than the adults. Children's hearts are so precious.
Then we went to the excavations of the 3rd, 4th, & 5th cent. Byzantines, which included the ruins of a church. We descended cut out steps into a cave which opened up into many rooms. It had a "skylight," a kitchen, and several other rock rooms. There was no earth or soil in the cave.
We spent some time shopping at a store run by Christians. We had saved our shopping for this spot. But, it was very expensive. Two ladies bought some cool necklaces made of silver & gems for $2100 apiece. The store also had many hand-carved olive wood nativities, from small to massive sizes. Most of these were beautiful creations. This was where we found t-shirts for the girls and other small souvenirs.
We had lunch at the City Center restaurant, built overtop a parking garage. The man who runs all of the TBN fundraisers was there with our group, along with the Christian man who owns the gift shop where we shopped in Bethlehem, Perry Sone, & crew. We ate family style around the tables here and were served by Palestinians. Outside the eating area were vendors selling things. As I looked around, a man selling a type of flat bread cooked over a curved stone called me over. He had winked at me! Ha! Later, after browsing around, he brought me a bag with many freshly cooked "tortillas"--all wrapped. He signed to his heart and to me. Awwww. (I really think they want Americans to go back and tell others that the Palestinians aren't really so bad, not what we hear in the news.) Then two men, who turned out to be Christian Palestinians (God bless them) sold us 2 leather bags, but we didn't have any cash. After much discussion about credit cards (they didn't take them), we found there was an ATM downstairs, which turned out to be all in Arabic! After trying, I called an Arabic-speaking man over who"helped" me get "55" dinar. Ha! After 5 tries, I got cash & ran back up the escalator to the men. By now, our group was out of the area. Our salesmen told us we had $250 worth of dinars. Feeling a bit helpless about probably getting cheated, one man asked if we were Christians. Then he showed me his Christian tattoo on his wrist, concealed under his garments. It turned out they were both Christians and promised they wouldn't cheat us. On their own, they went around to all the vendors & got American money to exchange all the dinars for us. We ended up with all dinars in American cash, which we desperately needed and couldn't have gotten any other way. The guy had me keep the dinars, while he had Gary hold the counted out exchange. When I had all the American money, he had me pay him. They made sure we were set for the rest of the trip. God used these Palestinian Christians to bless us in this land that one week ago just agreed to a cease fire. That extra cash was what we needed to bless our guides with tips.
As we left the Bethlehem area, I bought 3 nativities carved from olive wood from a man standing at the gate. I knew right away how I would use these at Christmas with our special family time.
Next, we went to the Israeli Museum of Jerusalem. Transferred to this spot is a layout of the entire city of Jerusalem in the early days to scale, all made from Israeli limestone. The whole city must be built from this and must maintain the same, consistent color. Then we went inside and saw remnants of the Aleppo Codex and saw pictures of where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found, along with some nails, tools, pottery, fabric, etc. Nathan, one of the young 20 somethings on our bus, left the group right away and got around to many other buildings in the museum where he saw some really great stuff we missed!
This completed an interesting day in Jerusalem.
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