Church of St Anne

On our final day in Israel, nearly everyone chose to return to the Jerusalem Old City. At first many of use toured together visiting stations we missed along the Via Delarosa. St. Anne’s Church is the first Station of the Cross and is the only intact Crusader Church in the country. Saladin preserved this church to use as an Islamic school. It is there that we saw the ruins of what was the Pools of Bethesda. Continue reading Israel Log 12 March 2011 →

Again, wanting to ensure we “got our money’s worth” Dr. Williams ran us ragged through Jerusalem and a few outlying areas. I would like to say parenthetically, that although most of these sites are the mostly likely places that these events occurred, and experiences there can be, and we moving, it struck me how we have covered over all these places that would be fitting memorial, a pillar of stones as was done in the Old Testament, with all the trappings of Christendom. I would have preferred to climb a dusty rocky hill to the place where Christ was crucified like Balian did in Kingdom of Heaven, than climb a narrow staircase in an Orthodox church filled with shiny icons, only to see a two-foot by four-foot piece of the hill under a glass case. In some cases, I would have rather stood on the rock than those marble floors, but perhaps that is my Protestant background showing through.

The Garden of Gethsemane Continue reading Israel Log 11 March 2011 →

al-Aqsa Mosque

The crescendo hit early today, and the rain stayed with us all day. We began with a visit to the Temple Mount. Although the mosque on the mount is impressive, as a Christian I found the visit underwhelming and intrusive. I may understand better why the Jews have such a problem with regard to this mount. That is where their temple has been since Solomon, and it has been sacred space for them since Abraham, yet there is not a trace of anything Jewish atop the mount. Continue reading Israel Log 10 March 2011 →

Today we visited some of the most consistently interesting places, all interesting for different reasons.

Entrance to the Church of the Annunciation Continue reading Israel Log 9 March 2011 →

Today is the day I dealt with my issues about real and pseudo biblical sites. Up until now we had been visiting archeological sites, but today we began to visit sites “where tradition says” something happened. During the trip, I asked Dr. Williams, “How much stock do we put in tradition when evaluating a site?” Dr. Williams did not even pretend that some of these traditional sites were the actual place where a biblical event took place. Instead he reminded us that part of being a Christian is faith, not faith that an event happened at a certain place, but that the event happened. Where we remember the event is not as important. Furthermore, when an actual site is found it often becomes a shrine that overshadows the event.

Paul being baptized by Shawn Continue reading Israel Log 8 March 2011 →

We spent last night in the new city of Arad. My body is still on California time, so I slept no more than two hours at a time during the night, and by 3 a.m. I was done sleeping. A good breakfast was provided by the hotel, and so I was able to take on the day.

Elizabeth and Paul at the Masada entrance Continue reading Israel Log 7 March 2011 →

Dr. Williams wants to make sure we “get our money’s worth, beginning on our first real day of touring. We spend quality time at each site, and fit as many sites on our daily schedule as possible. I think the idea is to wear everyone out during the day so that they can sleep at night, but I am still suffering jet lag. Many people in our group are willing to pay the premium rate of at least $3 for small bottle of Coke to obtain the caffeine they need for the day. I am not a caffeine drinker, but headaches due to a lack of sleep is making me go through my pain medication faster than I thought I might. Today we visited the following sites.

Paul at Beth Shemesh