Yom Kippur

Saturday night to Sunday night was our big festival of Yom Kippur. No one does anything on this day, but fast and pray. Cars are nowhere to be seen, so people are in full control of all the streets, quite a site to see. Leviticus 16 and 21 tell us about how God commanded for this day to be the day set up of atonement for the people. This was not a permanent atonement like we now have in Christ, because it was to be done year after year; but still to those who are blind, they continually try to keep it today. We joined in the feast and came along side the country in prayer. Honestly right away on Saturday night the Lord did a work. He has been continually shining His love and showing it to those around. He has been doing great things, especially on the Day of Atonement. It was honestly one of the times you specifically look to good and give Him all praise. PLEASE…PRAY for us as the Lord puts on your hearts. Unity is key, and letting His love be our complete motivation and complete source of trust is a big necessity. 2 Cor. 2:11, we are not ignorant of the devil’s demises nor our own flesh. Keep us in your prayers as we know we need it in these harder days that are coming. Lord bless you guys.

Benyihuda

Friday night was the big night before the Jewish day of Yom Kippur. The streets were packed with people from all over the world, gathering in Jerusalem for the big feast. So we took up the guitars, percussions, and hearts of praise to the street. Honestly, because of my nervousness, this was my first time, but it went really good. God shined His love through worship in song. He is amazing and is continuing to do good things. Thank you again for the prayers.

Tour Guide Bryan

Friday, Bryan took us on a special treat on the Villa Del La Rosa. Villa Del La Rosa is where the Catholic Church believes Jesus walked through on the road from Gethsemane to Golgotha. It was interesting, being in some of the spots that had sufficient credit to be true, and studying up on others to see why they would be false. Over all though, it was a good time being taught and challenged by Bryan. Bryan was suppose to be our dorm steward and Bible College teacher this semester, and even with the college closed, it's cool to see how God has continued to still have him be both those things to us now. Currently I am staying with him, and the S.E.N.D. team, in the old girls dormitory. God has been raining down blessings on us, in His faithfulness and glorious previously un-known plans. It's always cool how God will sometimes show us the who or what, but through time unveils the other details little by little in our lives. He is so good, all the time; in the things He reveals, and in those yet to be.

Leonard Cohen

Thursday night, after the soup kitchen, we headed out again for our third concert outreach. First before leaving we had to kill some time by swimming at the Tel-Aviv beach, but then headed out for the Leonard Cohen concert. God has been so good to us, allowing His word to go out. Pray for the good soil.

Round 2...Hezekiah's Tunnels

After the temple mount we sueezed in one last tour before Pastor John's departure. We went to visit Hezekiah's tunnels, this was Nick and I second visit, but it was so much better. This time we actually went with a tour guide, wow it was so amazing having even the little things explained to us. It was really sweet to see the place come more and more alive. It was a good time to end with Pastor John. The Study Tour of Israel class went great. Pastor John was such a blessing to hang out with, and learn from. It was definitely sweet to finally meet our construction man missionary confrence preaching brother. It was such a God thing to hang out with him and his student Tyler. Hopefully as the Lord desires, I'll see them next semester.

Temple Mount

Wednseday, we were able to head up early and go to one of the most wanted see sights we had around. We were able to go and see the Temple Mount. This is where the original temple stood, and where now the pagan Dome of the Rock stands today. Now they don't stand on the exact same location, but it still is on the same mount. Now some people do say that the Dome of the Rock does stand on the same rock of where Isaac was offered (the place made the holy of hollies), but seeing the facts it really wasn't. One of the most probable locations of the holy of holies true spot would most likely be at a nearby dome next to the Dome of the Rock, the dome of the spirits. It was a blessing, we actually went and did a little prayer at the dome, not for any significance of facts, but just because it was cool thinking of it being the old exact holy of holies. It was a fun time hanging out with the special force police officers, and hanging out with each other in Him. One thing too, look closely at the bottom right picture with Nick, and see if you can see something interesting in the marble slab of the Islamic Dome of the Rock.

Holy Sepulchre

Tuesday after the tunnels, we were able to visit the Holy Sepulcher church here in Jerusalem. The Holy Sepulcher church is the place of belief where Jesus was crucified and buried for the Greek, Coptic, Armenian, and Roman Orthodox. The interesting thing about the church, besides some of the iffies about it being the true location of Jesus' place of death and resurrection (study it up), is the person who holds the keys to the church. The four different groups of orthodox disagree so much and fight amongst each other so much about the church; they had to find something to help keep the peace. So they gave the keys of the church to an Islam man, to help keep it all more under order. It hasn't solved the problem completely, but has helped. It's His Truth that brings peace, too bad that it's us as men who mess it up so much, and bring strife amongst ourselves. Thank God for His Truth Jesus Christ always being there to correct us, and bring us into His peace that surpasses all understanding.

Western Wall, Rabbinical Tunnels

Tuesday we got to go visit one of the "must sees", we've consistently been told to visit in Jerusalem, the Western Wall Rabbinical Tunnels. It's a free exhibit, but reservations are neccessary. Pastor John was able to fill us in with two extra spots for Nick and I. It was so cool to be able to go and see all the sweet things. The tunnel leads you down and along the actual original Western Wall Temple Mount Stones. They're amazingly huge. King Herod the great...the Herod of Jesus' birth time, did a political move in his reign to get favor and remodeled the temple for the Jews. He put huge long, super heavy stones, on the walls he built, and even flattened out the area of the temple mount to make it level. Even to this day, we don;t know how Herod, moved the huge massive stones, it can be hardly done with today's technology, and is a mystery of how he did it then. Cool part is to just realize, what a wonderful gift and creation of our brains God has done. He lets up do these huge "unexplainable" things, but even in all that. They're all still nothing compared to the wonderful things God has done. Nothing we do can even compare, man how great is out God who can blow anything away that we can possibly do, even at full brain capacity power.

The Davidson Museum

Monday, we continued in the blessings with Pastor John, and went to visit the Davidson Museum. Nick and I have been wanting to go there for a while now, and Lord made it possible for us to go. It was a good time just being able to hang out, and be able to share in knowledge of His Truth. Tyler demonstrates, in the bottom left picture, a good pose on the original rocks of the temple. Of where Jesus prophecied saying, Mt 24:2 And Jesus said to them, "Do you not see all these things? Assuredly, I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down." The other cool part was being able to see the original southern temple steps as well. These were the steps that lead from the original Jerusalem city to the temple. It was the most common entrance in, and no doubt Jesus would of gone up that way too. God continues to bless us in knowledge, just pray that He will use us as vessels continuing to teach it for His glory.

Mount of Olives

To end our Sunday off, we headed back to Jerusalem, and made a quick last tour Sunday stop at the Mount of Olives. Since we still had the rental car, we thought it would be a lot better to drive up the mount while we could, instead of the doing the intense hike. This was my first visit to the Mount of Olives, and the garden of Gethsemene on the foot hill (we stopped there too, since it was right there). It's really cool to realize that one day, Lord will take His step down on the mount and split it in half. It's amazing to see that the Kidron Valley, which seperates the Mount of Olives and Jerusalem, leads all the way down to the Dead Sea. It's always cool to see where He has been, but even more exciting to see where He will be Zachariah 14:1-15. We finished our Sunday with another one of my firsts, and went to my first visit to McDonald's. Since it was Rosh Ha Shanna(the feast of trumpets), it was the only thing open, but still good none the less. It's been so amzing seeing the Lord work, and set up His divine appointments. Please continue to keep all of us here in prayer for Boldness and Wisdom.

Qumran

The Dead Sea is famous for a lot of things. Number one, it's potent mineral content, it being the lowest place on earth, and also is famous for having the Dead Sea scrolls found by it. After seeing getting a literal taste of its mineral content and seeing the below sea level signs, we went to see its third famous object, the scrolls. They were found by a group of bestowing kids messing around, threw a rock into a cave, heard pottery crack, found some scrolls, and then took it into town to sell for money. They were sold but not on the fact that they were ancient pieces of scripture, but on the fact that they would make good burning supplies. An archeologist happened to be in Bethlehem at that time, stumbled upon the scrolls, realizes their importance, finds the boy, searches the other caves, and the Dead Sea Scrolls are revealed.

The Dead Sea

Well what do you do after going on a beautiful 3-4 hour hike? Go for swim and enjoy a skin soothing mud bath. Alright honestly, the Dead Sea is really cool, you float and it's all really good for your skin, but it's not the funnest thing in the world. The water does not taste like Salt, it's really bitter. It burns anything open you have on your body, I didn't even realize how many cuts I had. Then when the water goes in your eyes...OUCh, it really burns. At the end of the day though, even after all of the uncomfortables, my skin was smooth. But I have to admit, it was a good time.

En Gedi

Well guys, I'm sorry for the delay, but I'm going to continue and keep updating as much as I can. After waking up to a beautiful morning at Masada, we headed over for a 4 hour hike in En Geddi(the spring of the wild goat). If you guys remember En Gedi, this is where David was forced to hide from King Saul's persuit. 1 Samuel 24 tells us as well, that this was the area, in a cave, where King David spared Saul's life while Saul was tenfing to his needs. Funny story to have in our heads during the hike, but speaks a lot of being a man after God's own heart. Being a man...or woman...of honor and of good character, all for the God's glory. It was a beautiful hike, folling the stream all the way to it's source spring 2 hours up the trail. We were able to see Grand Canyon look a like scenes, swim in the "hidden" waterfalls, and join with His creation in praising His name. Halleluya to the Lord Most High.

Masada

After our short stop to Arad, we continued on towards the big goal of the day, Masada. Now for those of you who don't know, Masada is not a biblical site, but is one of the must sees in Israel. It is a rock fortified getaway, that King Herod built for Himself in His reign. In Jerusalem it gets cold in the winter, so King Herod needed a place to go for warmth. It is located by the lowest point on earth, the Dead Sea. It has plenty of room for him, his servants, tons of water, more then enough food, his messenger birds, and his own boiling hot water steam sauna. It was so good, that the biggest Jew rebelion happened on that mount. The Jews took hold of it and sat in safety, while the Romans sat outside in different camps filled with fury waiting to get in(better said up). The fortifications of Masada were amazing. There was only one zig-zag trail leading up to the only entrance; with the food and water reservoirs completely safe from the enemy. The Jews stayed there in luxury for a couple of years, while the Romans forced other Jews to build a seige ramp on the backside out of earth. The story ends with a mass suicide, and the Romans finally breaking up in, and finding no one alive. It was definitely a hard city to get into. The Lord blessed me though, with a very quick healing with my foot. He really is good. By the time our Masada hike came around, the pain was almost completely gone, and I was able to walk all the way up. We went the backside, which was a little easier, but a big blessing with His healing none the less. It was a wonderful spening on the rock fort, and even staying the night at the nearby campe ground. God is good, no matter how great men create, one night sky blows men's glory works away.

Arad

After the swim in the sea, we headed down to Ber Sheva. There we met up with some other brothers and sisters, and enjoyed together a roshana dinner. I don't know if that's the correct spelling, but it's a Jewsish New Year's day. It also starts off the feast of trumpets, which is just a build up of ten days, preparing everyone for the big day of Yon-Kippur. So after a blessed evening, again we continued on our trip and went journeyed on to Tel Arad. It's a Cannanite city that is still partially standing today. There was real no bible significance of it, besides it being around in the old days, but it is always cool to just sit and imagine the things that could of happened.