Friday! We gave our house and the van a pretty good cleaning and pretty much got everything packed and ready to go. Our session for today was from 3 to 6 so we had some time to go to the Old City once again. We headed back to the Garden Tomb area for some of us to do some last minute shopping. I purchased 30 Jerusalem bags, 30 communion cups made out of olive wood and 3 nativity sets. Again I was the designated bargainer.
After our shopping, we went to a little café called Moti’s to eat. I had half of a Halumi Sandwich and half of a Mozzarella sandwich (see below for more details). We went outside in the courtyard and found a nice spot to take a picture and it was time to thread our way out of the passages, narrow streets and tunnels to the Zion Gate and back to our van. Someone in our group asked if Jerusalem felt a bit like it was home. I thought that the area around the Wall definitely did feel like a kindred place, to which they replied, this would be the site of the New Jerusalem – and that is our home!
Worship was packed full today. When we arrived at the prayer room, the scene to the southeast was beautiful. The sun lit up hills that were way past the security wall. It was a private time just for us, as the room was closed to the general public. It was just us and the Lord. We all gave it what we had as it was our last worship watch, this time. This session was the best one that we had while in Israel.
We had an awesome time of worship We started by singing of the Majesty of the Lord. Megan was leading on the piano and got up to go to the bathroom. She got to a certain spot in the room and stopped because she heard a song about the blood of Jesus. Leah saw a portal from heaven at that spot. I think I saw it too. To me it looked like a funnel of swirling clouds. It reminded me of a tornado. Megan went to the bathroom, came back and knelt in that spot. Then Jesus took her up to Heaven where she saw what looked like New Jerusalem. All I can say about that is WOW! I was able to feel the electricity of the portal. I felt where it started and stopped. What an experience.
While Megan was in the portal, the rest of us had a sweet time where we experienced the playful side of the Lord. There was a time of chord progressions and I kept hearing Na Na Na Na Na Na. I went to the microphone and sang it. That started a time of playing with the Lord. Leah was singing BFF (best friends forever). Tim was singing, "I've got a secret, Do you want to hear it?" Then we sang the Lord the secrets that He told us, i.e, we are His favorite. Leah got a picture of a note form 8th grade. The Lord asked her: Will you go with me? There was a box to check yes or no. The Lord whispered to her, "I checked yes!"
It was such a sweet time. I never experienced that side of the Lord before. I pray each of you will experience at some point the playful side of the Lord.
To add to our already incredible afternoon, Leah kept hearing the word Moriah. She didn't know what it meant so I looked it up in the Strong's and found out that it meant the temple mount (Mt. Zion). We started singing Moriah. I read Psalms 125. We were doing major warfare for the country of Israel.
Then Dan started playing a warfare beat on the drums. As soon as the piano stopped playing and it was just the drums, I fell to my knees and started weeping. Then the Lord showed me a picture of an army climbing up the mountain of Jerusalem. I wasn't sure what to do with that picture and then later on that night, Leah shared with me a picture that she had. It was the rest of the picture that I got. She saw a lion at the top of the mountain. There was an army standing perfectly still waiting for the lion to command the army. She saw this picture at the end of the drum segment when everyone was just being still.
Also throughout that whole time Shawntel couldn't stand because of the heavy presence of the Lord. At one point she just started screaming like she was giving birth.
I felt angelic presences in the room. I felt it all around the room, It felt like swirling clouds of electricity. Even to this day, I can feel angelic stuff going on. My prayer now is that I would begin to see what I feel.
After the set and we all got our bearings back, we heading to a Shabbot dinner. They had a beautiful view from their porch of the Old City. We met such interesting people at the dinner. Nissi, Nimrod, Mary, Greg, Connie…were some I remember most. Both Nissi and Nimrod told us a little bit about their families and their history coming to Israel. Mary was a dress maker and could bake a mean cake! The dinner started with a prayer and a cup of wine that was passed around. Then there was challah bread…it was soooo good. It was a bit like a chunk of soft pretzel and you even dipped it in salt. The dinner itself was a self-serve Mexican taco salad. It was great to meet folks and hear their stories throughout the dinner. We got ourselves together then and headed back to the house. We finished our packing up and went to sleep for the last night in Jerusalem.
Walking to do some last minute shopping. Yes, I am the dork wearing the American Idol backpack.
The Zion Gate. Notice how small the entrance is! As soon as you go into the entrance, there is a 90* right turn. Lots of cars had scraped bumpers.
Inside the Zion Gate.
The Zion Gate again.
Approaching Zion Gate.
Moti's
Karen (our kindred-spirit housemate) and Mike enjoying their food.
Halumi Sandwich. I know it looks really disgusting but it was amazing. It had fried Halumi cheese, pesto sauce, lettuce, cream cheese and cucumbers. I took picture of it so that my DSH could make one for me. A few weeks after we got back, I tried to find Halumi cheese. The only place I could find it was a Wegman's. It was $10.99 for a 4 oz package. (I was hoping that the 10.99 was in sheckels, but it wasn't.) Needless to say, I am still waiting to taste this sandwich again.
Mozzarella sandwich. Really good, but not as good as the Halumi. I again took a picture so my DSH could make me one.
The menu, so I would remember what was in each sandwich.
Group shot outside of Moti's.
The following are pics of the worship room during our session.
The deck was so small we could only fit our grill on it (and some miscillaneous toys).
The deck was so small we could only fit our grill on it (and some miscillaneous toys).
Outline of where the trampoline will be placed.
Bad, just bad.
This area is what started the whole process.
A very nice picture of my rock pile. Those are just some of the rocks that I picked out of my yard. I didn't know what to do with them so before thinking about getting the yard landscaped, I would load them up in boxes and buckets and the kids would throw them in the creek. I used it as a science lesson, which rocks make the biggest splash? But that fun ended when DW Shearer took away my rocks.
