Israel: Day 5, January 9, 2008

Wednesday began at 5AM (10 PM your time). Wednesday was a huge day for us. We started our first watch a 6am. Some of our team was having trouble sleeping with the time change and was not feeling well. We went for the first worship set missing a couple folks. We were worried about them as the cold in the house and the lack of sleep was not a good combination. During our first watch, there was much prayer and intercession for President Bush’s time in Jerusalem. This was to be a day of negotiations in the political arena. It was a God ordained time for us to be there at the first watch of the day. We got the chance to set the atmosphere for the negotiations that were taking place. I really felt like this was one of the reasons that we were supposed to be in Jerusalem. A person from Alaska led prayers interspersed between the expressions of worship towards the Lord from the team. During this early morning worship time, we watched as the sun rose on Jerusalem. Before the sun was up, I saw the towers on Mount Zion glow from the light. After the rain of the previous day, the sun was a very welcome sight! After our worship watch, we came back to the house, tried to find the warmest places and some of us took naps or read a bit to recharge for the 12 noon watch we were scheduled for.

The afternoon’s session started with Freedom Reigns. There was a focus on freedom for the nations. We sang for the release of people. Isaiah 61 was our focus scripture for the worship time. As we sang about the year of Jubilee (The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord) there seem to be freedom and a release in the spirit realm – the people coming to Mount Zion were from all nations and peoples. Seat Mate 2 had a vision where there were a dazzling array of dress and cultures all coming to Mount Zion to worship Jesus.

President Bush was much on our hearts during Wednesday. We asked the Lord to guide him, especially during the meetings, and protect him.

After our watch, we immediately met up with a friend of Tim’s from last year, Gingi (Hadar), who agreed to guide us around to some of the sights of Jerusalem. Gingi really grew on all of us and we really appreciated getting to know him. Since he grew up in Jerusalem’s area, he is really knowledgeable about so much there plus he was known by the many people who greeted him during our time with him. Even in areas where we were a bit uncomfortable, we were welcome once they knew we were with him. Gingi was also a very gentle, friendly person and lover of Jesus. We had a very full afternoon as Gingi took us to an amazing array of sights, tastes, vistas, and shared details of both ancient and recent history along with some stories and explanations of the local Mid-East cultures. We started at Gordon’s Garden Tomb and then viewed Gordon’s Golgotha, now a site of a bus depot. We had our first ‘negotiating’ experience as we met a vendor selling olive wood carvings (camels, nativity scenes and figures) on our way out of the Garden Tomb site.

We had lunch at the Shualeh Restaurant, on Salah Eddin St, Jerusalem. This was just a couple blocks outside the north eastern walls of the Old City. To get there, we walked past the Damascus gate. The old Damascus gate, that Jesus and Paul would have known, is down about 20 foot below the newer gate built in the 1600’s. Gingi showed us the difference in the size of the stone blocks. They were much larger at the bottom. Those are the original stones. Paul would’ve come out from Jerusalem through the Damascus gate on his way to his Damascus Road experience. The restaurant was in a very Muslim section, although there was a great mix of cultures there. One of the buildings at the corner was built by the Kaiser, before WWI. There was a girl’s school, completely hemmed in by walls, along this street. To reach the restaurant, we walked a couple blocks up through crowded streets, keeping the girls to the inside as much as possible. At the restaurant, they had slabs of beef being cooked on a vertical pole and they sliced it and grilled it with other vegetables before putting the mixture into pita breads. The beef was so tender. They brought out Pepsi’s and things to dip the pitas in. They also brought out pickles that looked homemade and were spicy and sweet – very good. A couple doors down, we stopped for baklava and something else that I can’t pronounce or spell – but it was incredibly good (I would like some right now please!). They had goat cheese baked in honey, sugar and spices, with a sweet sauce poured over the top. That was the best thing! On the way back to the van, we saw a diagonal layer of rock that the walls were built on. This was the area of Solomon’s quarries. Gingi said this tunnel went all the way to Jericho, at one time.

A short van drive, we went to an overlook on top of the Mount of Olives. It was an incredible vista to see. All of Jerusalem was below us and the mountains and valleys that surrounded Jerusalem were plain to see. Gingi told us about the Hill of Evil Counsel. This is where the British Mandate Government buildings were and now it is the UN compound. Originally, Solomon’s wives who were not Jewish and their priests – they were from many countries, were placed in a compound and so it became known since the times of Solomon as the Hill of Evil Counsel. He also explained all the clusters of houses in the area south of the Old City were built upon the ruins of the City of David. We also viewed Absolom’s Cave and overlooked the huge cemetery on the Mount of Olives. We drove on and Gingi had us turn down a small, zigzagging, narrow road with walls and doorways on each side. Part way down, we stopped and were given entrance into Gethsemane by a robed priest.

The garden of Gethsemane was an amazing place, with huge trunked olive trees with stone lined paths through them. The Church of the Nations is to the side of the old olive trees – supposedly the trees were there at the time of Jesus. Upon leaving Gethsemane, Gingi showed us the view of the Golden Gate from where the van was parked. Jewish tradition has the Messiah coming down on the Mount of Olives and entering Jerusalem through the Golden Gate. In the 1500-1600’s, the Muslims sealed the gate shut with stone so the Messiah couldn’t come into Jerusalem. They also put a Muslim cemetery right outside the gate and walls to prevent entry by the Messiah.

Next, we drove around the south-east and south walls, through an area where they are excavating ruins from David’s original city. We were right up against the walls of Temple Mount (Mount Moriah – the threshing floor that David purchased to build the Lord’s Temple on) - in the area where Solomon’s stables were located long ago. The David Baroni song, Mount Moriah was running through my head). The Kidron Valley we crossed contains the original water source for the City of David and so Jerusalem.

On our way to see the Upper Room and the door to the Spirit room, we walked by the tomb of King David and through narrow and sometimes dimly lit corridors. After seeing the large Upper Room, Gingi took us up to the roof to show us where the Jews came to pray, before the 1967 War where they retook Jerusalem from Jordanian Arab hands. Before 1967, when he was just a boy, this was the closest Jewish people could get to their Temple Mount, their most sacred place.

We dropped Gingi off on our way home and then stopped at the grocery store (see Day 2). The store was at the far end of an enclosed parking lot that had enough room to park and for one lane. If you couldn’t turn out of the parking spot, you had to back out. Again, there was a security guard at the door in body armor to check bags. We spent a considerable time in the grocery store looking at all the parcels. There were few packages that we could read what the contents were. Some cereal for instance, you just had to guess what was inside. I found some coffee for DSH and some chocolate for the kids. We all had a nice adventure in a foreign grocery store! Quite an ending for such a big day!

Sunrise View from Succatt Hallel. God's timing!

Sunrise View from Succatt Hallel. God's timing!

Sunrise View from Succatt Hallel. God's timing!

This is the parking lot that we tried to get into. the attendants wouldn't let us in until they saw Gingi was with us.

Walking towards the Garden Tomb. Do you recognize anyone in the picture?

Gingi. He was such a sweet guy! He always had a smile on his face!

Garden Tomb sign.

Walking towards the garden tomb entrance. This is where we encountered our first vendor negotiations. BTW, I was considered the team negotiator.

Entance to the Garden Tomb tour.

Part of the tour.

Crucifixion sign

This place is called Gordons' Calvary. It is where people would get stoned. The people getting stoned would be thrown off of the top of the cliff. If they didn't die by the fall alone, there were people placed among the small caves in the cliff. Their job was to throw boulders to finish the job.

The parking lot is where the crucifixion was to have happened. In the words of the tour guide, "Can't say that it was, can't say that it wasn't." The Arabs own this lot and whenever they see a tour group, they start the buses and blow their horns so the tour group can't hear the tour guide.

Self explanitory.

The entrance to the tomb.

The tomb where Jesus was buried.

The tomb and entrance. Notice the blocks on the right side of the door? Those aren't original. There was an earthquake and part of the wall fell down so it was rebuilt.

Wine press. Doesn't that look like fun?

Lunch. I could eat another one of those!

On the way to lunch.

Dessert. Goat cheese with a melted honey & sugar mixture and then sprinkled with pistachios. It was so good. We also had baklava. It is one of the most popular desserts in Jerusalem.
Damascus gate. Upper, used today.

Upper and lower. We saw lots of rats at the lower one, tried to get a picture, but I was too far away.

Upper.

Lower, the one Jesus walked through while carrying his cross. This is the gate that Paul walked through when he had the Damascus road experience.

Another view.

Can you imagine building this without the help of heavy machinery? Notice the size of those blocks. They must weigh thousands of pounds. Also, can you imagine carving the curves into those stones? It just blows my mind.

Close up of the stones.

As the sign says, Soloman's Quarries.

This tunnel at one time went from Jerusalem to Jericho and was used as and escape route.

The wall.

Another view.

View from the Mt of Olives.

Jewish graveyard on the Mt of Olives. Notice the caskets are made of stone and are above the ground. We were told that they are all facing the same direction with their feet pointing towards Jerusalem so that when Jesus comes back, all they have to do is stand up and fly away (no turning of their bodies needed).

Another view from the Mt of Olives.

And again.

And again.

And again.

And again.

And again.

And again.

A tower at the Mt of Olives.

Ok Folks, Please bear with the next couple of pictures. It was dark while we were here and also my camera was running out of batteries. Sorry they aren't better!

Garden of Gethsemane.

Stone paths running around the olive trees.

A stone carving. Notice Jesus draped over a rock while praying?

Olive tree.

Again. They were HUGE.

Again.

At Gethsemane looking toward the Golden Gate.

Ruins of City of David SW City Wall Corner. Very hard to see in the picture, but amazing in real life.

Supposedly King David's Tomb.

Upper Room.

Door to the Spirit Room where the actual last supper took place. It is only open a few times each year, so we couldn't get in to see it.

It was beautiful.

More.

The chocolate hippos I brought home for the kids.

That's all for today. Stay tuned...More to come!

Israel: Day 4, January 8, 2008

Tuesday began with us sleeping in again. Then breakfast and group devotions. Our first watch was 12-2PM. Seat mate 1 led this one. I spent some time soaking (not sleeping this time) and bible reading. I also spent some time worshiping through prophetic songs. We felt drawn to sing and prophecy over the old Jerusalem city and Mount Zion. Also during this watch, seat mate 2 got out his cedar flute and began playing. We felt a call to pray for Native Americans. The overall theme of this set was a deep longing for the presence of the Lord for all people. A lot of what we sang came from Song of Solomon.

After this set was over we again ate sandwiches in the little break room section of the worship room. I had turkey and cheese.

The next set was 3-5PM. During this set, we sung using our prayer languages. I believe we gravitated towards our natural spiritual tongue as we went deeper into worship, the prophetic, and prayer intercession. The scriptures the Lord has us concentrate on were from Ezekiel 33, 34, 35.

Tuesday night was our night to eat out on the town. We got directions for a place called The Focaccia Bar. We parked by a construction site where they were rebuilding a large hotel. There was a huge crane lifting large funnel shaped containers right over the parked van and our heads, and delivering it many floors up. We filled up the parking meter with shekels and walked to the restaurant with the construction going on overhead! At the entrance of the restaurant, our bags were searched and the security guard had a hand held metal detector. He was dressed in what looked like a snowmobiling suit – that was really body armor. The restaurant was situated on the porch of a house, with the house serving as the kitchen/prep area and a coffee bar. The tables were situated among live trees and tall propane space heaters. Boy, did the heat feel so good!

We ordered pizza sized focaccia bread as appetizers. One looked brushed in olive oil and had some olives, dried tomato, and another kind of dipping sauce. The second bread came with goat cheese and sweet red peppers. That was really good. We each got something a little different for dinner – pastas, lasagnas, and fish. I ordered sweet potato ravioli. L ordered potato gnochi. We both couldn't decide what we wanted so we ordered them to share. The sweet potato ravioli was definitely different. It was made with sweet potato dough and was filled with cheese. It was in a creamy tomato sauce (it seemed like they mixed alfredo and tomato sauces together). The gnochi was an experience I will never forget. I am used to the gnochi that we have here, in the states. I was in for a big surprise. I put one in my mouth started chewing and almost threw up. No lie. It was a texture thing for me. They weren't pastay and chewy like they are here. They were little balls of mashed potatoes that dissolved in our mouth. One bite was enough for me.

After the gnochi experience, I was ready for dessert. We ordered 4 and split them all. I had some sort of coconut and chocolate mousse thing dipped in chocolate. It made up for the gnochi.

After we got back to the house, I called home through Skype. It was great hearing my DSH and the kids. M had a web cam for the computer we were using and the kids thought it was really funny seeing me in my pj's. They thought it was even funnier when I asked them if they were ready for bed. They told me definitely not because it was only 2PM. The time change was really hard to get used to for me.

All too soon it was time for bed. We were getting up at 5 AM (10PM states time) for our first watch on Wednesday.

The toilet in our house. Notice the 2 flushing buttons? Hmmm, Why have 2. Doesn't one do the job? Any guesses?

Menu from the fococcia bar. (Prices in shekels, not US dollars. To get the amount divide by 4)

One of the fococcias we ordered.

My dessert (that made up for the gnochi).

The toilet in the restaurant. Another version of the 2 flusher buttons. Yes, I did indeed have a toilet fetish.

The sink in the bathroom. It was a solid peice of stone where the sinks were chiseled out of the stone.

Me at the fococcia bar. Yes I do have a tiki torch growing out of my head. Now do you believe me that it was cold? I wish I would have had my scarf!

Stay tuned...More to come!

Israel: Day 3, January 7, 2008

I really am still here. Just a little busy. Back to Jerusalem...

This post is just a wee bit long. Be prepared. Grab some tea and enjoy.

On Monday, some of us slept in a bit. I was not one of those, I am usually an early riser. That and the fact that the sun rose on our side on the house and our room had no curtains. We all took our time getting ready, then had breakfast and group devotions.

Our first worship set was from 2 to 3pm. Before this set, we went into downtown Jerusalem to find a falafel to eat in the same area we exchanged our money, the day before. We parked in the bottom level of a below street parking garage and walked through a market-like street that had shops and restaurants. After walking for what seemed like forever, we stopped at a street-side place and got our falafel's and Shwarma's. Falafel's: pita filled with hummus, falafel (deep fried chick pea balls), cucumber and tomato salad, lettuce, cabbage, onions, pickles and french fries. I wasn't going to get the fries on mine but I was really intrigued. It was actually good. I lived for the pickles. I am a pickle kind of girl. Shwarma's: same as a falafel but with chicken instead. They had a 3 foot high stack of chicken breasts on a pole cooking and they shaved off some and grilled it a bit with other (some unidentifiable) ingredients.

Traffic: to borrow the phrase, OH MY WORD! People park where ever they want. On the street, on the sidewalk. The streets were narrow with LOTS of cars and trucks and tour buses. At traffic lights, it goes green, yellow, red like here except that before it turns green, it turns yellow again. As soon as it turns yellow (before green) people lay on their horns. People over there use horns for everything. Talk about an impatient society. I have such a greater respect for our van driver, D. He was able to get us places in one piece. And he was able to park in spots where I wouldn't even have tried. There were lots of times driving that I would just be praying for our safety.

When we got to the worship room, we saw a herd of sheep and their shepherd on the side of Mount Zion, facing us. In our 2-3 PM set, we prayed to Jesus to bring His peace to the nations – and starting from His throne, running down the mountain, flowing over the walls. Seat mate 2 asked for us to be the leaves of healing for the nations, bringing both healing and peace through the worship.

After that watch, we headed back to our house to rest and eat dinner. S and I made Lasagna, salad, and rolls. The men did the cleaning up and dishes.

Our second watch started at 8 PM. This was the corporate worship/teaching time for all of the staff to come together. We worshiped a bit in the beginning, then Tom taught on new wineskins and shared a little about what the Lord has been doing in our worship team in the US – specifically with stepping into new places in worship and singing heaven's songs and heavenly sounds. Then, at the end, L felt the Lord leading us to pray for their physical senses to be opened in greater dimensions; Tom had her lead them in prayer, and we asked for the Lord to open up our eyes, ears, etc... There was great hunger.

Then we did a “fire tunnel” as seat mate 1 sang and played over us at the piano, and had them come through as we prayed over each one. I was really skeptical about this. I hardly ever have gone through a tunnel. Usually I was on stage doing worship. I always wondered if people just said the same thing over and over or if they really did get so many different words. Well, I was soon to find out... The Lord was so faithful to give prophetic words over and over again for each one that came through. I was the first one in line and was standing across from seat mate 2. As soon as the person would enter the tunnel, I would immediately have a word fro them. It happened again and again. Over and over. And, to top it off, (I think God was showing me something) Tom and L were praying at the other end of the line. When the people would get to them, they would have pretty much the same exact word that I gave to that person. Now I have my answer. No need for skepticism anymore!

Our team flowed in the prophetic beautifully and the Lord's sweet presence was overwhelming. Bottom line is, they were touched, refreshed, strengthened, and a greater freedom came as the Lord touched them. Our watch was coming to an end, and a Korean team was supposed to take the next watch, but we were still flowing strongly ministering prophetically, so they all got in line and we had a powerful time ministering to the Korean team (through an interpreter). Beautiful people and an intense hunger for more of the Lord – it is like they suck it out of you they're so hungry. While we ministered to the Korean team, D, Seat mate 2, and M jumped on drums, acoustic, and bass and we “took off” in this fun, jammin' music - this dance party started and this freedom came and everyone there started dancing, and jumping, and twirling, and unique, funny dances that us Americans have never seen before (ask me to show you some of them! You'll get a kick out of it!) – so many expressions of worship and joy of the Lord. We laughed and laughed and laughed as we all joined them in having fun with Jesus dancing and playing. Our time went over so much that we didn't stop until 11:30 (we were supposed to end our watch at 10).

It was really hard to leave the worship room. I wanted to stay and worship but my bed was calling me. We got back to the room and found out that the owners had gotten portable oil heaters for us. So we all plugged them in and next thing we knew we blew a fuse. Dark inside. Dark outside. No lights. WHERE IS THE FUSEBOX? DOES ANYONE KNOW WHERE THE FUSEBOX IS? Nope, not in that closet. Not behind the fridge. Not in the storage room. Not even in the bathroom! One of the interns who was living at the house knew where to find it. We had to leave the apartment, go to another part of the house, open the door using a butter knife because we had no key, and then try to figure out which fuses were blown. We got it all situated and then went back to our apartment. Now we only plugged a couple of the heaters in. I was glad for sleep that night. I slept like a rock. Morning came too soon for my tastes.

See the sheep? The little white dots in the center far back in the pix. Really it is the sheep.

This is how you spell spaghetti in Hebrew. Just in case you ever need to go to an Israeli grocery store. I took this pix as we were walking to the street market.

Street market 1.

Street market 2.

Street market 3.

Would you look ate that? They even have McDonald's in Jerusalem. After eating the falafel, I had absolutely NO desire to go there.

A fig tree outside of the worship room.

The street in front of the worship room. Sometimes we parked on the sidewalk. Sometimes we parked in a very small parking lot.

Balcony at the worship room.

Panoramic view from the worship room.

This pix is from our worship time that occurred after the prayer tunnel. What a great night.


Here are some pix that seat mate 2 and M took while on a walk before our 8 PM set:

I gather you're not supposed to climb the poles in Israel.

A beautiful pix of the sunset and another glimpse of what all of the houses in Israel look like.

One word...TRAFFIC!